Drive to Survive

Chapter Fifty

Chapter Fifty

For Max, the Silverstone race would not be one to remember in the history books. He'd pulled himself up from P11 to P4 but he couldn't get past the Mercedes of Russell and Hamilton and Checo's amazing qualifying performance meant he had a smooth win, especially without his teammate in his mirrors.

The team went out for dinner to celebrate the Red Bull win and Max politely sat through it all, although he couldn't quite wipe the thunderous look of frustration off his face. It had been hard enough for him to get out of the circuit; the crowds had swarmed Hamilton and Russell to celebrate the British podiums and all Max could think about was how that should have been him. 

Why hadn't he driven harder?

Why hadn't he managed to overtake out of that corner?

Why hadn't he qualified better?

Dylan had been granted a couple extra days at home with her parents - made much more enjoyable by the fact that she could now have a civil conversation with her father - as the Red Bull drivers and engineers reconvened at their site in Milton Keynes. When she eventually saw Max on the plane on Wednesday, she was brimming with optimism about his next few races and the down beaten driver tried his hardest to believe her. 

Unfortunately, fate was not on his side.

Austria brought a mechanical DNF and France was a pitiful P5.  

He was still leading the Championship but barely; one more bad race and Charles would take the lead from him. The pressure hanging over his head from his bosses and from himself was immense and he wasn't the only one feeling the strain.

Dylan was pulling out every trick in the book to keep Max's spirits up but it was a losing battle. The only thing that seemed to soothe his soul was spending hours training with Brad or clocking endless laps in the simulator. She'd barely seen him over the last couple of weeks and she had to admit she was missing him. 

On the rare nights he came to her hotel room, he was just as perfect as always. But those nights were getting fewer and fairer between than she would've liked and she worried for his mental health. It didn't take much for him to get lost in that cycle of self-destruction and she did her best to constantly reassure and support him.

Regardless of everything, as she sat and watched the qualifying laps in Hungary, she maintained her faith that Max would turn it around. Twice now he'd been knocked out in Q2 but he was confidently recording fast laps at the Hungaroring and his place in the final session looked assured. 

"How you holding up, Brad?" Dylan asked as the trainer flopped into the seat next to her, "Can I get you some more coffee?"

"I think I've had more than the legal limit today, darling, but thank you." He replied, wearily wiping at the bags under his eyes. 

Max had been relentless in wanting to improve his training and that had meant lots of loud disagreements and late nights with Brad. Dylan knew that they each held an unbelievable amount of respect for the other, and that Brad was just as dedicated as Max in achieving the ultimate racing success, but it was still hard to see the toll it was taking on both of them. 

"He's doing well. It's going to pay off."

He let out what sounded like a laugh and a groan at the same time, "It bloody better, I'm seeing that stupid simulator in my sleep these days."

Dylan chuckled and they continued to watch the qualifying laps until the end of Q2 was finally called and they could breathe a sigh of relief that Max was at least into the final session. It almost didn't matter where he ended up now; getting over the Q2 curse was a win in itself.