Since Day One - Max Verstappen X Male Reader

Chapter 14

The past few races have been far from perfect in fact to put it in layman's terms they have been pretty fucking dreadful. My position at the top of the standings has plummeted to a disappointing P3 and Sauber now sits 5th in the constructors. The main reason being a new technical directive that has meant a lot of teams have had to redesign our rear wings, and unfortunately for Sauber we haven't been doing well. Zhou and I have not been able to get to grips with the new balance and handling of the car. Max however now leads the standings as Max has the ability to take any car and win in it, I can't lie I envy Max for being top of the standings but I would rather it be him than any other driver.

On the plus side for me VCARB have been growing and gaining performance with the new directive so hopefully it's a positive sign for when I join next year.

Max and I have tried to lay low with our relationship and avoid any unwanted attention from the media, our teams and other drivers, and I must say we've done a pretty good job at doing so. Our only major hiccup was when Daniel almost gave us away in an interview with Ziggo Sports.

Heading into Brazil I'm determined to have a good weekend and not be knocked out in Q1 like I have been for the past three consecutive races.

It's raining and there's not a single dry patch around the track. My first run on the wets is an utter shit show somehow my car manages to understeer and oversteer all within one corner and no matter what type of setting changes I make to the brake bias, torque nothing seems to make a difference.

"And Y/N we are 3 tenths short of the predicted cutoff time for Q2, thoughts on putting on a set of Inters"

"Mate, put whatever tyres you want on the car because even if you attached another engine to the car we ain't making it out of Q1."

Peeling into the pit lane I take a glance at the data and see where I am losing time and it's no shocker I'm losing time all over the track. I feel like just stepping out the car now and giving it all up.

But, I don't and head back out on a set of inters, on my first flying lap I push the car to its absolute limits. But as I exit the final turn I get a massive snap of oversteer and fly into the barrier, luckily I'm not injured and from what I can gather the car isn't that damaged.

"You alright Y/N?" My engineer asks.

"Yep all good" I managed to say whilst unbuckling my seatbelt and pulling myself out of the car to head to the medical car.

Despite the medical centre being in walking distance they still drive me down the pit lane to be checked over by the medical delegate and it's no surprise that I'm absolutely fine.

The smell of burning rubber and exhaust fumes hits me as I leave the medical centre and do the walk of shame down the pit lane and head back into the garage where every other team member pats me on the shoulder and reassures me that I did nothing wrong but the fact I'm P17 doesn't make me feel any better.

I quickly dry off and get changed out of my race suit and head up to the engineering office to have the regular meeting and debrief from quali, obviously in my case there's no much to talk about. I went out. Crashed. The end.

I see Ollie as I'm leaving as he's been here with haas this weekend getting some experince before he jumps into the car full time next year.

"How are you?" he asks.

"Tired, close to calling it quits with Sauber" I answer.

He doesn't say much, he's quite an awkward person, we both are when one of us is feeling down we never quite know what to say so the walk to the car lot is spent in an awkward yet comforting silence.