THREE - Daniel Ricciardo

Chapter 36 - Team Decisions

DANIEL
The day had come where I needed to face Zak. He was far from impressed with my behaviour. Not facing media was a massive fine for the company, one I knew I'd have to cough up for later down the line.

I had no excuses to throw at the company though. They wouldn't care why I needed to leave, they cared about the image I was putting out there to the world. They cared about who was performing best and who was making the team look outstanding, and I wasn't doing either of those at the moment.

My head was a mess; scrambled and fried. I adored my job as a driver, I had worked my way up through the ranks over my lifetime, slowly but surely making my way to the top. Nothing could beat the feeling of winning a race. Nothing would ever beat the feeling of seeing cheering fans and providing everyone with pure joy that is the shoey.

A lot of people thought that leaving Red Bull was a mistake. Even thought I didn't achieve as much success with Renault, I still achieved a couple podiums with them, overall placing 5th. Evidently, I thought this had proved all my haters wrong and that my move to McLaren would be equally as successful. However, I was wrong.

The move was certainly a challenging one. I thought I'd be able to outshine Lando, being completely honest with myself, due to his age and lack of experience. He is an excellent driver and that took me by surprise more than anything. Zak adores Lando, providing me with enough evidence that I was in the same situation as I was when I left Red Bull; I was simply the second driver, not the favourite.

Although I had bought this team their first pole position in years, my efforts still were not good enough. The car, for me, was not good enough and my abilities and skills, were just not good enough.

I walked into the paddock and headed to the McLaren base, passing the likes of Mercedes and Alpine. I greeted some staff members whom I recognised on the way, brushing off the weird looks of those who knew about my sudden disappearance last weekend.

I opened the doors to McLaren and made my way upstairs towards the main office of the building. Opening the door, Lando sat there with Zak and Andreas. Giving a brief smile, I took a seat next to Lando and removed my cap, placing it onto the table next to me.

"Let's address the elephant in the room before we begin," Zak's loud tones rang through the room, bellowing as it vibrated against the walls, "Daniel, why did you leave Baku so early?"

"Personal reasons." I told him straight, indicating that I didn't want to delve any deeper into my personal matters or expose Amy in any way.

"God dammit Daniel." Zak's hand struck down on the table in frustration. Lando's eyes widened at the display of arrogance. "You can't just expect me to be okay with that sort of explanation. You have cost this company a tonne of money due to your lack of appearance. Do you understand that?"

"Of course I understand. But I stand by what I said. I left Baku because of personal reasons." I reiterated my point to my boss and the other men in the room, folding my arms across my chest.

"Fine, Daniel. You win." Zak stood up out of his seat and walked over to the window, folding his arms behind his back and exhaling for all to hear. "I may as well tell you now before you find out later."

"Find what out?" Lando asked before I could get there. I looked over at my teammate who shrugged in confusion.

"We are going in a different direction next season." Zak turned around to face me.

"Different direction?" I raised my eyebrow and leaned into the table, my hands fumbling on my thighs.

"Zak?" Lando spoke, breaking the silence between us.