the man- f1

five

cinco

the man

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round 1/ bahrain grand prix weekend/ press day

testing had gone well. lots to improve, but well nonetheless. she had the opportunity to learn more about the car and the track and the practices would give her time to master that. her goal for the weekend wasn't to win. not even a podium. her goal was to score points.

media day was going to be exhausting. that much she knew. she was currently sat between max verstappen and charles leclerc, or how she liked to call them, idiots. she had a microphone in hand and was currently zoned out. it wasn't until she felt a nudge that she noticed they wanted to ask her a question. straightening her seating position she neared her mic to her face.

"yes?" she said looking towards the cameras trying to find the interviewer.

"here!" she heard and saw a hand raise in the air, making her nod in their direction.

"f1 is new to you as a rookie, but we have seen your performance in f2 and even f3 and your results there were nothing but impressive, filled with podiums and wins." began the interviewer.

"thanks." she muttered shyly.

"can we expect that kind of results this weekend?" asked the man while looking at his notebook.

"definitely not." she said making everyone chuckle including the drivers next to her. "i mean, i'll try my best to bring points for the team. you can be sure of that. but f1 is, as we all know, the highest category in motorsport, and that's for a reason. it's hard. and i'm still adapting to the car, the tracks, the speed, and the forces. i'll aim high, but i am aware that i cannot expect to win races during my first season, especially during my first races. points are the goal, hopefully, a good amount. and if i play my cards right, i can reach the top three."

tali had to be realistic. it wasn't going to be an easy path, quite the opposite really, and it was important for her to be conscious and aware of this fact.

"thank you." said the interviewer.

as she was going to place the microphone back on her lap, another hand raised, a woman stood up and clumsily reached for her notebook.

"hi." she said taking a deep breath.

"hi." tali answered with a small smile.

"so, as a woman, people have done one of two things. raise the bar, expecting to see you fail, or set it low so they can say they knew how things would go, in the scenario of expecting you to fail." the lady began not looking to offend her.

"being young and as successful as you are nowadays, a wave of hatred has reached your platforms lately. how do you deal with this behavior?" she finished.

"well, for once, my platforms have always had tons of hate, even as an f4 driver, the slurs and insults should have been enough to make me want to drop out of racing. as i have escalated, more people have felt the need to express their discomfort with having a girl dominating the sport they claim is only for men, but to be honest, you reach a point where you simply stop caring. i race because i like racing. not because someone told me to. the season has barely started and i know what the world's reaction will be regarding my results." tali began.