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Chapter one

So here I was, lights flashing all around me lighting up the dark of the dimly lit limo I was sat in trying to control my breathing.
The sound of hundreds of voices echoing around the blacked out car as I sat nervously shaking waiting for my new team to call my name. 

To announce to the world that I Isabella Smith would be the first women driver in decades in the sport, that I would be the first woman driver ever to race alongside all the world class drivers that currently were on the grid.
That I would be racing alongside the nineteen men that brought awe and wonder to the world and I would be doing it all in the crimson beast that was Ferrari.

I knew some people expected it to happen. Since my karting days I knew where I was heading and I never shyed away from telling anyone that would listen that I would be in F1 one day. I knew some hated it, hated the fact a woman had come up to infultrate their sport. I knew that some didn't think I could do it, that I couldn't compete at the top level of motor sports but I knew they were wrong.
I'd won my championships in the other leagues, I'd won the f3 and f2 titles in my rookie years and I'd done it all with them laughing in my face.

 I'd done all my tests in the ferrari in italy over the summer break and only last week I'd signed my contract to race next season and for 3 more years after alongside the championship leader of this years grid, Charles leclerc.

The flashing getting brighter and the sound louder snapped me from my thoughts as the door was cracked open by the driver that had brought myself and my new team mate here just over 40minutes ago,  just in time to hear my name echoing on the microphone outside with my new bosses voice

"ladies and gentleman, I give you Isabella Smith, ferrari's next driver for the upcoming season"

Taking a deep breath I gathered all the composure I could muster to face the crowds of press that had gathered around the now fully open car door  making the security push them back so I could step out of the luxury car with a massive smile plastered across my face waving as I made my way towards my now teammate Charles and the rest of the team. 

Deep breaths left my chest as I battled through the herds of men and the odd woman to get to the podium area in this small courtyard outside the Ferarri headquatrers. The only thing keeping my legs moving was knowing that this was my dream, this is what I was born to do.

Questions left the mouths of so many, all over lapping each other making it just one big loud mass of shouting and noise ringing in my ears. 

I knew it was going be bedlam when I'd signed that contract and knew I would be announced as the new driver to grid for the new season in a few months but this was beyond anything I could have imagined. I'd had my fair share of press conferances through out my career but nothing compared to this. This was formula one, the pinacle of motor sports and the biggest boys club known to me in the world.

I was used to the trolls, the bad press, the journalists but this was so much bigger than I ever thought it could be.

My name being carried on the air constantly, ' Isabella, Izzy, Miss Smith' all following one after another as I made my way to the table and pulled the chair out next to Charles sitting down next to the beautiful man looking up at me smiling. His brown hair flopped slightly over his tanned face and his deep brown eyes held my gaze for slightly longer than I should have let them. For years I'd known him, we'd raced together in the karts as kids and I'm not ashamed to say as a young girl I had the biggest crush on the young boy that was now sat next to me as my teammate.

 Snapping out of my daze and concentrating at the job at hand and not my handsome team mate I took the microphone in hand and cleared my throat giving off a sense of confidence that I made sure to carry myself with in public at all times. I knew I needed to show them all I meant business and that I was here to race, not to be the spectacle they were making me into.