Cold as Ice → Max Verstappen

XXX| Lights Out

"In an Alpha Tauri?" Martin questioned in amusement.

"If you do not want to win in any car, there is no point to racing," Anneli replied. "Excuse me."

Anneli made her way to where all the driver's were lining up for the national anthem due to start in a few moments times. She ended up between Max and Mick, ironically, so she didn't mind too much. The national anthem only lasted a few minutes anyway before she would be back to getting ready to hop in the car.

"How are you feeling?" Max questioned as they walked back to track.

"Ready for pain," Anneli replied. "Everyone tells me everything will hurt for the first couple of races."

"Yeah it will but you'll be good," Max shrugged. "Do you think you will get into the points?"

"If I start tenth, I am expecting it as long as no dickheads get in my way," Anneli smirked, fluttering her eyelashes at him.

This took Max back by surprise slightly as Daniel laughed from behind him. Anneli gave Daniel a quick glance as he said "Good luck icecube!" and continued to head to her car on the paddock.

"She's gonna be the death of you mate," Daniel joked to Max, patting his shoulder. "How are you going to keep that one underwraps?"

"She is going to make it very difficult like she finds it fun," Max replied quietly. "They'll find out eventually but it would be nice if she got a chance to do well first so it's overlooked."

"She's going to get backlash either way, you know that right?" Daniel added. "The only thing that will help her is her last name."

Daniel gave Max a reassuring smile before heading to his garage, leaving the Red Bull driver hoping this didn't go up in flames for the sake of his girlfriend.

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"𝙄𝙏'𝙎 𝙇𝙄𝙂𝙃𝙏𝙎 𝙊𝙐𝙏 𝘼𝙉𝘿 𝘼𝙒𝘼𝙔 𝙒𝙀 𝙂𝙊"

Anneli's reactions were quick as she got off her line faster than Perez did beside her. In a way, she found it kind of funny as a lot of people seemed to think that Helmet Marko wanted to replace Perez and Anneli was the lineup if she did better in an Alpha Tauri than Perez did.

Anneli wasn't sure if she wanted to drive as a second driver at Red Bull...then again, she was certain she could give her boyfriend more of a challenge than any of the others did.

"Alonso is within 1 second—"

"Yes, I can see Alonso, Gino," Anneli replied sternly. "I'm keeping in DRS."

Anneli wasn't a violent shouter in the car because she didn't see the point in it, she was just stern. She needed her race engineer to understand that she would ask if she needed him.

By the end of the first two laps, both Alpines had been taken out by Zhou. Anneli almost laughed since it put her into P8 from P10 in an Alpha Tauri.

The car didn't have as much pace as it could have, but Anneli knew its previous drivers were missing out. With good defending, clear air and DRS, the car had all of the potential.  No where as fast as the McLarens or Red Bulls but enough.

"Fernando, you are really getting in my way here," Anneli mumbled to herself.

"𝙍ä𝙞𝙠𝙠ö𝙣𝙚𝙣 𝙝𝙖𝙨 𝘿𝙍𝙎! 𝘼𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩'𝙨 𝙍ä𝙞𝙠𝙠ö𝙣𝙚𝙣 𝙥𝙖𝙨𝙩 𝘼𝙡𝙤𝙣𝙨𝙤!"