39. Ferrari is faster than us

                                    

                                          
I'd consider my first weeks as a formula one racer to be completed pretty well, the first day of testing I observed my teammate a lot and made some calculations with my engineers to get the best out of the car for my performance. I think it helped, since this bitch right here put in the most laps in total, out of everyone. I felt cool, but how could it be different when your teammate is the iceman?
                          
Kimi and I didn't speak much except for the necessary things, which suited me perfectly. No time for bullshit and that structure was good enough for me to focus. Kimi saw it more as a hobby and didn't take it half as serious as I did, but hey- he performed decently! I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the end result and where we estimated ourselves to end up in the constructors championship. We had an amazing engine provided by Ferrari and on the long straights, we actually competed with the top teams. Our car lacked a little bit of pace at the rest of the circuit, but all calculated, we possibly could go for a p6 (or maybe p5) in the constructors championship!
                          
However, I wouldn't be surprised if some teams sandbagged their cars. Mercedes suspiciously enough hung onto third place on average and I never expected Ferrari to top the charts with so many seconds ahead of RedBull. I had to admit their pace surprised me as well, but I genuinely didn't want them to be fast. I wanted to beat Verstappen before he managed to be world champion, I wanted to rub it in his face, even if he had so many years of experience in comparison to me. For some reason, I had no clue why I didn't like him. Something about him just pissed me off. 
                          
Which resulted in a 'great' press conference. Every time the guy talked it just annoyed me. Luckily I was seated on the far left side with Nico Hülkenberg and George dividing us, stupidly enough, Charles sat on the other side and kept handing me notes saying very stupid things that couldn't be repeated out loud.   I definitely caught the eye of some media when my face turned red in the middle of a sentence just because of those stupid notes. I blamed it on the fact that I was nervous for the first race in Australia, which would take another few weeks. 
                          
"Question for Max," Someone started. "Do you feel intimidated by another Dutch driver on the grid?" My eyes widened, that's me, I really wanted to ignore this question, because it made me uncomfortable. He'd totally take a dump on my ego and then I just sat there, forcing a smile while I wasn't allowed to say anything.
                          
"No, I'm not," he answered. "Their car is far off our pace and no matter what Daisy thinks she can do, she won't outperform her car." Excuse me? "I'm not intimidated by anyone, so she doesn't have to take it personally, I'm just being realistic here. I watched her performance, but driving the most laps off all of us isn't really that impressive. Her performance in the lower ranks didn't stand out either, I'm not intimidated by average drivers that shouldn't be here in the first place."
                          
I leaned a little bit back, exchanging some looks with Charles who seemed a little uncomfortable with his closest rival throwing shade. George's head suddenly blocked my view as he tried to form conversation. I shook my head and let out a soft chuckle. I don't know why he wanted to talk to me now, pretending we hadn't had lunch together and talked about all the mess that happened in the time we hadn't seen each other. 
                          
"And like I said- she doesn't need to take it personal," Max turned his head to me. "Though I highly doubt if she doesn't care about what I have to say." I raised my brows and shook my head slightly. Poor thing, did he really think he was so much better? "I want to see actual performance first, testing doesn't say anything."
                          
"Then how can you say their car is off the pace?" Charles defended. "I'd like to say I'm intimidated," I chuckled, there was no need for him to get defensive. "I'm pleasantly surprised actually, I had no clue what to expect, but I'm pretty sure she was faster than your teammate Max."