Snow on the Beach- Formula 1

1

January 2015

"Alessia!"

Yelled my assistant, Anna, from the living room of my family's home in North Carolina. At the time I was busy last minute packing my suitcase for my flight back to Monaco. 

"Anna I'm literally almost finished, hold your horses!"I yelled back down.Even though it was my second year, I was still nervous, it was second-time jitters, as I called it. This year again I would've had to go racing alongside a person I very much disliked. Daniel Riccardo.

Even though we joined the team together last year, Daniel had always had that aura around him like he was better than anyone else to me. Which I very much did not enjoy as most of the races we were neck and neck together, colliding maybe twice that year, which the team was not happy about. But this year it was all going to be different, I thought. I just knew it.

"Alessia I swear to god!" 

"Jesus I'm sorry An!" I responded dramatically as I finally clunked down the stairs, suitcase in hand. Anna had been one of my closest friends on the paddock throughout my climb up to F1, it was only fitting that I would be keeping her for this season. She was practically my other half after my mother and I moved to the UK. But at that moment, I was on her last nerves.

"Jesus Christ we are going to be late for Red Bull's showcase at this rate" Anna told me as we slid into the car on our way to the CLT airport.

"Honestly I rather not go at all" I confessed.

"I think that this could be a great year for you to make that jump to a real contender Alessia, and get a new contract signed and done with asap." She assured.

"If I don't I might go mad by Monaco"

°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。

After the long flight over the pond that I luckily slept all throughout, we got off the plane in England the next day. Outside of the plane were a few persistent reporters who I had vaguely recalled from the past season. Asking me about the most recent scathing article about me and the "other" racer, the other racer being Lewis Hamilton. Mercedes's shining star had been the biggest pain in my ass since OK! dug and found photos of me and him when we were kids.

Before my fathers death when I was nine, he already had been trying to get me into racing much to my mothers dismay. But I loved it. And after his death, my mother realized I could get into racing much easier in my dad's home country of the United Kingdom. Which in racing is where I met my now former best friend, Lewis Hamilton, who was about two years older than me. We just clicked. We stayed close even while he was making his way up through the levels while my age kept me behind. Then when I was beginning to move up he suddenly didn't want me in his sport anymore. Telling me that I "wasn't ready" or that I wouldn't be able to "handle the pressure of a formula one racer."

°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。

"Lewis what the hell are you getting at? I'm a fine driver myself thank you very much."

"The guys up there are different Ales, they'll eat you alive up there."

"Are you saying I'm not good enough? "

"...."

"I can't believe you! I'd raced alongside you practically ever race when we were younger!"

"That was then, this is now. You'll hardly last a season, I know your skills the best."

"You are so full of shit, I can't even begin to believe you."

"Believe me now. Trust me Alessia I'm doing this for your own safety, I don't want to get hurt."

"I don't want your protection."

"Fine have it your way, but don't come weeping to me when you can't make next seasons roster."

"I don't want to speak to you ever again, genuinely. Don't talk to me or my mother, I don't want to be at all associated with you."

°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。

The next day, we were on schedule to revealing this year's car for the team. So that meant that I had to actually look the part, and that I wasn't working my ass off just to stay on the team for another year after this. And after I got ready in the morning, I made my way over to the hq of red-bull, where I had come for my first season just a year before to join alongside my also new teammate, Daniel Riccardo. 

Now see me and Daniel hadn't been the best of friends at the start of last years season but not enemies in any way. He was still stuck in Torro Rosso while I was moved up to Red Bull two years prior And thats when the battles between us begun. Sometimes it was during a race directly or passive aggressively during something like a team meeting. It pissed off Christian, I knew that. So this year, I vowed to be a bit more open to my teammate.

As I walked down the hallway to where we were both supposed to exit, I repeated my plan in my head until Daniel came into view.

"Good morning Daniel"