The Undercut | Max Verstappen

Chapter 9

"What about you?" I asked, eyes on her as I waited for an answer that didn't come for a second.

"What?" she asked in disbelief, blinking a few times as she was surely shocked by me asking her a question and altering the nature of the conversation.

I wasn't bothered by it, though. I knew they could always cut the bits of the interview that weren't useful, after all that's what documentaries were, a montage of declarations. And I'd be lying if I said I wasn't curious about who the girl that lived in my house really was, realizing I still knew next to nothing about her besides her profession and nationality.

"Yeah, how do you deal with the pressures of your job. I'm sure it can't always be easy. Not all the people you interview are as lovely and easygoing as I am." I asked, smile fresh on my face as I asked, making her scoff in the process.

"I'm not the one getting interviewed." she rolled her eyes. "We'll cut this out." she told herself. We were alone in the room as we recorded this, so she was clearly making about a million mental notes to correct my odd behavior in post production. I felt her getting more serious as she readied herself to dig deeper. "Has there been any added pressure with everything that's been said about you in the press?"

"Pressure to perform?" I asked, mulling over the words in my head as she nodded to encourage my response. "Not really. I have too much to think about when I'm going into a race weekend to care about what's being said out there. I try to just focus on the things I have to do in order to do a good job and maximize the package that we have, and then I come back home and just live a normal life."

"Is it really possible to live a normal life with this amount of exposure?" I think the question surprised even her, it didn't seem like it was planned, but we had already settled into a flow where she could ask almost whatever and know that I'd do my best to try to answer.

I shrug. "I try to. I don't really go out much, which isn't all that normal I suppose. But the people I surround myself with treat me like just Max. That's the most important thing to me." I explain. "I'm not saying I don't care about the fans. It's great to know there's people following my career who enjoy what I do, and genuinely want me to succeed. I appreciate that."

"What would you say is the downside to it, then?" she asks, and I can tell by the way she's looking at me with caution that there's something else she's debating on whether to ask or not. I wish she would. The longer this is going on, the more insight I get on the kind of journalist she is, the kind of professional she's trying to become. It will definitely be useful if she's going to be the one cleaning my image for a while. Or trying to.

"When my words are twisted, or people see a 10 second clip, make up a story and then everyone just goes along with it." I say with honesty.

"Like the situation with Kevin Magnussen?" I feel my airways closing for half a second. I'll give it to her, she caught me off guard with that one. My eyes were now stuck somewhere under the camera, unable to really look at anything. Truth is, yes, I apologized and everything's fine between me and him, but I still feel somewhat ashamed. So I nod.

"I obviously wish I had handled it differently but at the time adrenaline was running high, and his move was dangerous for all of us. I think people underestimate what it's like to be so high on adrenaline, literally risking your life, and then things like that happen. Of course, I have since apologized, everything's fine, but I don't think there's much of a point in continuing to talk about it since obviously people will believe what they want anyway."

It was disheartening, for sure. But as usual I wasn't going to allow it to take up too much space in my brain. And I think Micah sensed that I desperately needed change of topic. However, if this was going to work, I might as well take full advantage of the platform. There were other things I wanted to say, settle once and for all.