Reviewing priorities - Sebastian Vettel

39. Clashing in Brazil

The American GP hadn't given Ferrari a great result, with Seb DNFing due to a suspension failure and Charles finishing p4 almost at a minute distance from the person in p1; Ferrari hoped to get revenge in Brazil, the second to last race of the year. They also knew they had the drive to survive people around the garage, so everyone seemed to be a bit more on edge.

'maybe this is how I make it to Hollywood' Domenico joked, as a Netflix camera man walked past him. It was the first day of practice and the Ferrari crew seemed to be in a good mood. Valeria was trying to hide from the cameras as much as she could, mostly by shielding herself behind her laptop screen in the back of the garage replying to emails and pinging them to the right people. She had spent some time on the Ferrari socials, where people had been quite vocal about Seb's latest DNF. She knew how bad he felt about it and she had tried to give him positive thoughts for this weekend.

'Maybe this is how they see you do absolutely nothing in the garage and they fire you' Giorgio teased him.

'Hey, if they haven't fired Romana they're not going to fire me'

Valeria didn't reply, she just lifted her right middle finger as she kept typing with her left.

Domenico laughed, going over to her to give her a kiss on the cheek. 'you know I'd miss you if they did fire you'

'shame I can't say the same about you'she joked.

At the end of the day, Valeria and Seb walked out of the paddock together.

'what's up with you, Seb?' the Italian asked him, once they got back to their room.

'nothing' he shrugged 'why do you ask?'

'because I can see it. Tell me. Do I need to remind you we made a promise to each other?'

'this season just needs to end. Now. I have had enough of it.' he finally sighed. Seb just looked aged and unhappy.

'we only have two races left, you can do it' she tried to pick him up, a small smile on her lips.

'seriously, the only good thing about 2019 is you. I'm done with all of them. I'm done with Charles, with Mattia, the strategists, the engineers. I'm done'

'Seb, I know this year was bloody awful but let's try and look at the positive. The car... is not great but you managed to get it up to the podium more than it deserved. The team are being... selfish pricks but you know it's not all coming from Mattia. It's the pressure from above. The mechanics still love you, Riccardo would still build a statue of you outside Maranello if he could and I... well, I am marrying you so I think that speaks for itself. Charles looks up to you. I know he does, even with all the stuff the Italian media is putting in his head. There's a different side of Charles people don't see.' Valeria hugged him. 'And if 2020 is even worse, either we get a new team or we retire and live our happy life by ourselves.. with dogs, cats and babies' she joked.

'babiES?'Plural?' Seb asked, smiling.

'well , don't you want kids?' she asked. They never actually spoke about it, but Seb was already such a dad that Valeria was sure he wanted to be one.

'I do. Do you?' he asked, unsure about what she was going to say. She was good around children and she seemed to love spending time around his nephews and Kimi's kids, but she never said anything about wanting to be a mum.

'I never thought I did... until I met you. I don't have a motherly instinct. I don't think I have it in me' she confessed. 'you know, the world is such an awful place, I never thought I'd want to raise a tiny human in the world I knew before I met you. Now, I'd feel almost... guilty... not giving a human the opportunity to be raised by the best man I know' she blurted out.