Collide

Prologue

Nothing fuels someone more than hatred, more than the pure need to out do them in everything, to be better, to be recognised for something you worked for.

For Lando and Olivia—it's the hatred between them that fuels their success. The hatred that is palpable to everyone, including the media—no matter how much Zak tries to cover it up and pretend everything okay—what it's not.

He won't let the media see, he won't let the truth of how deep this hatred stems. He can't let it affect his reputation—and he won't let his daughter stand in the way of his dream of a perfect career. A career without controversy—controversy that Lando and Oliva have the ability to cause.

However, despite Zak's constant work To cover up the internal hatred between his daughter and his golden boy—the media sees through the cracks. They see the subtle glares, the snarky comments, they see it all.

Plastering the media with headlines like, "trouble in paradise for McLaren CEO, Zak Brown. His daughter won't even get along with his star." — "How far will Zak Brown go to hide this supposed  feud?"

Their rivalry has become so bad to the point their Pr teams battle, trying to make everything civil, forcing them to do interviews together for Olivia's new career in sports media. They both hate it. Their skin crawls the moment they are near each other, but she won't let him get in the way of everything she's built to prove to her father she's good enough.

Landos never understood where the hate started, what bomb went off to cause it. He just remembers meeting Olivia for the first time at a karting event when he was 14, she 12. And even then, she was cold.

But for her, that's the day everything changed. She was no longer her father's focus—Lando was.

He was the light, the golden boy who couldn't do anything wrong, the future for Zak's dream.

Olivia became a shadow to lando and that only fuelled her anger. So she worked. She excelled in school, did after school clubs, modelled for agencies, became ambassadors for brands, went to university in sports media—did everthing she could to get her father's attention.

But nothing.

His focus was on Lando.

Now at the start of the 2024 season, she starts her new career as a formula one interviewer. She's started her own series, wanting to do fun games and activities with the drivers while she talks to them, asking them questions about themselves and their careers.

The series is her baby, something she's worked so hard to achieve and now she finally has it, she won't let anyone ruin it.

Not even Lando.

To begin with, she refused to do interviews with lando, not even wanting to be in the same room as him as that alone puts everything she's worked for in jeopardy. But her media team said she has too, her father says she has to in order to keep away the rumours of their hate for each other.

Olivia knows she has to move on, she has to be civil with lando and let this resentment she has built leave—she has to be mature. But every time her father speaks about lando, every comment, every announcement. It just makes her hate him even more.

She'll never live up to lando—and the only thing that matters to her father is Lando.

Now at the Bahrain Grand Prix, the first race of the season that's already got loads of controversy due to the news of Lewis Hamilton leaving his beloved Mercedes for Ferrari—the move of the century.