Legacy Project

18

She hated Thursdays. At least now she did. Baku Media Day had become Pip's unofficial birthday. Everyone had brought her more presents, fans were giving her presents, even Mattia Binoto had given her a gift. Piper was wearing a knitted cream loungewear set with the jacket Alex had given her. She had a cap pulled low over her face, purposefully avoiding attention. She fiddled with the necklace Charles gave her, scrolling through her phone and seeing dozens of fan posts about her birthday. She slipped through the entrance to the Williams hospitality, ducking a few fans on her way. She met Alex in the hallway, and he had a grimace on his face.

"Kiwi, I can only apologise-"

He didn't get a chance to finish his sentence before Piper's garage team started shoving her forward, into the dining area where Jost was holding a cake. Piper glared at everyone, accepting she was in for a long weekend.

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P5, P5 was all she could get out of the weekend. She knew exactly what the F1 pundits would be saying. She opened her phone to confirm her theories.

F1s newest hotshot is turning out to be more party girl than racing driver.  

Following a boozy birthday bash, Piper McLaren lets another podium slip away.

Swapping overtakes for canoodling, McLaren snuggles up to fellow drivers instead of working on racing strategy.

Piper McLaren is meeting all the expectations of naysayers everywhere, and destroying the dreams of young girls in the process.

Piper groaned "for fucks sake". It was actually insane how unfair these people were to her. No mention of the fact she was competing for a podium week after week, when her teammate was barely competing for points. No mention of the fact she got P2 in Monaco last weekend. No mention of the fact that she was the first full time female F1 driver. When will they give her a break. Anything she does, it will never be good enough for the eyes watching her. Always eyes on her, but never kind ones. She felt so alone in her isolation. She couldn't talk to the other drivers because they weren't racing against expectations or stereotypes. They didn't carry the hopes of an entire new generation of drivers. If she couldn't be the greatest, what example would she set for younger girls. If she only had the image of a party girl who is in F1 purely by the prestige of her last name, she'd never get peace. 

Piper threw her phone down on her hotel room bed, no longer able to scroll through the headlines. She lowered herself onto the couch, burying her face in the pillow, and let out a scream. She was so tired. She lay there, face down in the pillow for three minutes before there was a knock at the door.

"Kiwi?" Alex whispered quitely from the other side of the door.

"Go away" Piper groaned, not moving. The door opened anyway and Alex walked in before sitting next to her.

"You okay?"

"Yup, peachy"

"Are you telling me or the pillow?"

"Alex, why are you here?"

"I heard you scream, figured you might want a friend"

Piper rolled over to look at him.

"Whats wrong, P5 is amazing in our brick of a car"

"amazing for you, not good enough for me"

Alex pulled his head back like he'd been slapped. "What is that supposed to mean, you're better than me?"

Piper sat up reeling, "No, god no! Fuck Alex I just-" she spluttered before bursting into tears. "I'm not better than anyone, even if I was, I would never be enough. There are so many expectations on me and in 99% of peoples eyes I'm starting with negative points already on my card. When you get P10 it's amazing, because our car is shit and you've driven so well, which is all true, but if I get P10, I'm a spoiled nepo baby who parties too much and is just the token woman of F1 who doesn't deserve her seat." She sucked in a breath. "Nothing I ever do will be good enough, look at the news headlines Alex, I got P5, but all they can talk about is how my lucks run out and I'm letting everyone down. All I want to do is to race because I'm good at it and I love it, and yet I've become this political chess piece, letting shitty old men condemn women in the sport because I got a P5. Yet when Mick ends in P18, he's not slandered, he's not washed up, or only in F1 because of his name, he's just had a tough race. It's bullshit."