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.
"i will win races and people will call it luck. i will win championships and people will call me a cheater. there's no pleasing people and at this point i don't care anymore. i'll win and i'll rub it in their faces later."she continued.
"i'm in this couch, wearing a mercedes shirt and with a microphone in my hand because i raced with passion, not because i listened to what people had to say." tali finished proudly. knowing that statement would define her reputation, at least this year.
"thank you. you're a real inspiration for little girls out there." said the lady before seating down.
she put the mic down and zoned out again as max spoke or rather maxsplained as she could tell by the movement of his hand she could see in her peripheral vision.
"you did great." she heard a whisper from next to her, turning and seeing charles smiling proudly, reaching for her arm and squeezing it before letting go, making her smile softly.
coming out of the press room she saw who she recognized as her pr, or as she like to call them, gossip police.
approaching the guy whose name was william, will for short, she immediately apologized for how she reacted regarding her second question of the conference.
"it's fine. the team expected this kind of question and you handled it beautifully. you were polite, but honest. fierce but not rude. my only job here is to make sure your words don't get twisted. you know what you're talking about. and you won't tolerate shit from no one. a positive aspect and probably the only one of the constant misogyny you have to face is that you know how to handle it." will said, placing a hand on her shoulder.
"alright. but i sometimes have no filter. i still need a little media training." the girl said, relieved she hadn't pissed her pr off.
"don't worry. you'll learn with time." he said, squeezing her shoulder before letting go and walking with her to the motorhome, where she was going to analyze data of previous tests as well as cuddle with roscoe as she listened to toto.
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"that was a great speech." said elias as he sat down next to her on a couch near the garage. handing her a bottle of water as he opened his.
"you saw the conference?" tali asked frowning slightly.
"yeah, wanted to see if they were going to dare ask a crap question regarding your seat." he said before noticing how it sounded. not wanting her to know he cared about her that way, damage control making him say "plus, i had nothing better to do. my dad's jokes are not funny, but after the sixth one in a row it begins to feel like torture." making the driver laugh loudly at the seriousness in his voice.
"oh yeah, definitely hell." she said going along with his comment, making him smile. not teeth smile but smile still. "thanks though. it took guts to say what i thought knowing there could have been consequences."she said without humor in her voice.
"you're talented tali. you really are. if anyone deserves this seat. it's definitely you. and before you even think about it. no, i'm not bullshitting you." he said before the girl could throw herself down.
"thanks elias. really thanks. you have believed in me even when i haven't." she said, smiling softly.
"of course" he said, squeezing her hand once before letting go. "it's time for the meeting. you have data to analyze and thanks to my dad, so do i."
"you like engineering, that's right." tali said as she stood up. "i don't know why you would willingly stare at numbers and stuff but you do you." she joked as they entered the room the meeting would be held in, going straight to the seat next to roscoe, waving at lewis who already had his headphones on. failing to notice toto wolff, who knew his son better than anyone, look at elias with a smile that made the younger wolff roll his eyes while muttering a low "not a word" to his dad.
nini speaks !
sorry, i really am the problem, (so is school) but i procrastinate a lot. new chapter, further into the weekend i'll try and post. i feel so stupid because the idea was to write each race weekend as they passed (see where that's at race 1 isn't done and irl it's almost qatar) i'll try to update i swear but i can't promise shit.
not edited
lmk what you think!
don't forget to vote and comment!
love, nini