Just Teammates || Lando Norris

12

Vinnie was in the middle of a press conference with some of the other drivers and she was bored out of her mind, she'd even taken to picking her nails to pass the time. Vinnie was barley asked any questions and when she was, there were incredibly stupid ones.

It seemed to her that all the other drivers tended to get questions that where actually about Formula One and racing. While Vinnie just didn't really get any questions about racing 90% of the time. The only question Vinnie had been asked this entire press conference was what she hated most about having to travel a lot more now. Vinnie had answered that it was being away from her Porsche, explaining how she had an attachment to it since it was her first car and she'd fixed it up herself.

Vinnie didn't hate the question, she understood that fans wanted to know a little bit about drivers' personal lives, but she just thought that it was a little weird that she hadn't been asked any questions about racing when every other driver on the sofa had been asked multiple times about it. It ticked her off a bit but Vinnie hated speaking in these things so part of her was grateful.

It felt like forever until Vinnie was finally given the all clear to leave. Vinnie left not knowing why she'd even been there, since she'd literally only been asked one question. She just wished they'd stop selecting her for press conferences. Vinnie didn't like them and Josh didn't like having to drag her to them. Lando only had to do them now and again, even though he was way more likeable than her. Vinnie actually found it insane how well received he was by the public, she found his way of acting to be annoying but they seemed to adore it.

He was a lot more busy than her though. McLaren always had him doing lots of work for their sponsors on media days, prompting their products etc. It took up a lot of his time. Vinnie had to do a little bit of it too, but not as much since she wasn't as marketable as him. Lando was kind of like his own brand and really had a way of making people buy things, or so Vinnie had been told by Josh when she questioned why he was always made to do ads and stuff. He'd even been in a Lego commercial, which Vinnie had to admit she was a little jealous about.

"You can go and quickly grab lunch, but then the media team want you." Josh told her and he walked beside her and back out into the paddock. "Want me for what?" Vinnie asked, already knowing that it'll be something stupid. "I believe they want you to film a few tiktoks and Instagram reels." Josh told her, making Vinnie let out a groan. "You know most people do that without getting paid, right?" Josh asked, shaking his head at her.

"The last Instagram reel they had me film was at the MTC and it was a Where's Waldo type of thing, they had me hide behind cars and stuff. Does that sound fun?" Vinnie asked him with raised brows. "Point taken." Josh was quick to say, making Vinnie chuckle.

When Vinnie got back to McLaren's hospitality, Vinnie didn't waste any time and went straight to have her lunch. Sadly, Lando appeared to be on his lunch break too. "Call any of the other driver's profanities this time?" Lando asked as soon as she walked into the room and Vinnie was quick to roll her eyes at the sound of his graining voice.

"Just you." Vinnie said with an obviously fake smile as she took a seat at a different table from him. "I see you're back to your moody ways." Lando remarked, widening his eyes at her snappiness.

"Maybe don't leave your towel on the bathroom floor if you want me to be nice to you." Vinnie suggested as she stabbed her salad with her fork, which Lando took as a passive aggressive message to began picking up after himself. "Jeez, okay." Lando said, wiping a bit of his own lunch from the corner of his mouth with a napkin.

"Well, you could have injured me." Vinnie told him, taking a sip from her water bottle. "Oh, hardly." Lando scoffed, rolling his eyes. "Lando, I slipped on it and if I hadn't been able to catch myself on the sink..." Vinnie trialed off, but Lando only rolled his eyes again.