Drive to Survive

Chapter Nine

Chapter Nine

Dylan essentially drank her way through the next three races. Ferrari placed on the podium in both Saudi Arabia and Melbourne which brought with it massive team celebrations and lots of well-timed distractions for her.

It had been a month since she'd started travelling with Red Bull, which meant a month of more sharp digs, rude glares, and long periods of silence from Max Verstappen. Each day it knocked her down a little further; she couldn't understand what his issue with her was.

When she thought back to all her expectations at the start of the year, she could laugh. Far from being friends with him, Dylan had started to dread whenever he entered the room.

Nobody else seemed to share the same problem as him. She got on fantastically with everyone in the garage; Andy sang her praises for the exposure Red Bull was getting on TikTok with her editing capabilities, and Brad was basically glued to her side whenever Max was busy. He'd become a sort of father figure - in absence of her own father who had never really cracked the tenderness aspect of fatherhood - and she really cherished the long conversations they'd have while Max was in Free Practice sessions or on the simulator.

So Dylan knew this wasn't a team-wide problem with her. It was something very specifically to do with Max and until she could figure out the issue to resolve, she was stuck dealing with his crappy treatment all day long.

What was even worse was that she couldn't shake the niggling feeling of attraction. Something about him was entrancing and she spent all her remaining effort trying to stamp those feelings to the deepest part of her brain. It was absolutely draining for her to deal with everything and then whack a perfect smile on and pour out energy she didn't have to hang out with the other drivers.

Hunter had been one of the only people she could confide in about Max's behaviour but even he wasn't privy to her innermost feelings. When he wasn't around, she found herself spending more and more time in the Mercedes garage. Spending too much time in Ferrari or McLaren would raise questions from Carlos, so Mercedes was the safe space and luckily, Carmen was often there to keep her company. Dylan would tuck herself up on a chair in a quiet corner, Roscoe by her feet, and work on editing and planning footage. Then she'd take a deep breath and walk back down to the Red Bull garage, ready to have her spirit crushed for another few hours.

She did her best to keep up with all the fun activities Carlos and her other friends invited her along to. She'd been to dinner with Lewis, sight-seeing with Lando, go-kart racing with Charles and Carlos, and she was at every single party or cocktail night. As she spent more time with various drivers across the grid, her social media continued to grow, but she kept quiet on her links to Carlos. There was a time she'd have to share that relation but she was hoping to hold off for as long as possible. She wasn't quite ready to be told she didn't deserve everything she'd worked for.

For weeks, Dylan partied the night away with her new-found friends. She drank shot after shot and twirled around on the dance floor for hours with the girls in the city's best clubs. In Melbourne, she'd even managed to talk Lewis into a quick dance and her worries were nicely numbed as she focused on the drink in her hand and the people in front of her.

Lewis had been worried about her. Countless times he'd tried to talk with her more in depth about how she was feeling but she'd been quick to brush it off. She happily spoke with him about a million other personal things and they'd spent hours sharing stories from their childhoods but she always drew the line when he brought up Max. It was mainly because she didn't know what to say. Max hurt her feelings every single day and she honestly didn't know what to make of it.