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abbatoirablaze · 3 days

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Racing Stripes, Season 2, Chapter 1

Word Count: 1.8k

Warnings: none

“You should really consider working for me, Samantha…”

“Dad, we’ve gone over this-“

“I’m willing to overlook it,” he offered gently as he reached out and took her hands, “but you and Lewis had something. You didn’t have to go breaking up with him beca-“

“Because what?” she scoffed, cutting him off, “because he proposed? Dad, I’m only twenty. I don’t need to be planning a wedding. And anyways, we both know that Lewis didn’t love me. Not really. He just wanted to get on your good side.”

“Lewis doesn’t need to do anything to get on my good side, Samantha. He’s an amazing driver. And you broke his heart and ran to work for Christian and Redbull.”

“I’m not having this argument with you again…” she sighed, “I don’t want to relive this again and again because you don’t want me working for your best friend.”

“Do you know how upset it makes me and your stepmother that you’re working for Redbull?”

“Hey, don’t you dare include me in this,” her stepmother proclaimed as she walked around the island and wrapped an arm around Sam, “I encouraged her to do it.”

Toto braced himself against the island, “you what?”

“Mom told me that I should follow my gut,” she said firmly, “she said that she knew Lewis didn’t love me and that I was smart to say no, but that if I wanted to forge my own path in the industry I had to get out from under your shadow. She’s the one that talked to Redbull for me!”

Toto gasped and looked at his wife, “Suz….”

“Don’t get mad at me,” she laughed, shaking her head at her husband, “you know that I’m right.”

Toto frowned and sighed. Backing up, he crossed his arms over his chest and looked between his wife and his daughter, “I miss working with my little girl…”

“Dad…”

“I get that I get to see you in the paddocks every week, and that I get to see you during principal’s meetings, but it’s not the same,” he frowned, “I miss us going over strategies and talking about how to stay at the top of the pack. We barely held on to one and two.”

“Dad, you guys still dominated the season,” Sam scoffed as she shook her head, “Max came in third, yes, but he was 167 points behind Lewis, and 9 points behind Valtteri. That-“

“Nine points behind second place,” he reminded her as he wagged his finger, “nine. That’s nothing. That’s a toss up. See, if we had you instead of my assistant than I would-“

“I’m staying with Redbull dad…and that’s it!” she said quickly, cutting him off once more, “and if you can’t get over that fact, then maybe you don’t get it…but that’s okay.”

“How about we make a bet!” he offered, “if my drivers come in first, then you come back home to Mercedes. If yours come in first, then you stay at Redbull.”

“Dad I’m not-“

“I’ll even lay off about Lewis,” he offered, “I’ll stop encouraging him to come by the house and have dinner with us…and I’ll even-“

“You’ll stop pushing Lewis at me?”

“He misses you. Did you know that every time he won he chose Sebastian’s wife for him, because he didn’t want the money. He’s a grea-“

“He misses being your golden boy,” she scoffed, “he doesn’t miss being with me. Yes, I’ll admit, what he did for Vetel was nice, but that’s got nothing to do with me.”

“Do we have a deal or no?”

“So you’re saying you’ll stop pushing Lewis on me if Redbull wins? And you will stop bugging me to come back to Mercedes?”

“But if Mercedes wins you come back and give him another shot!”

“Dad, you can’t go adding things on.”

“Well if he leaves you alone if you win, I think you should give him another shot if my team wins.”

“You know what, fine,” she growled, crossing her arms over her chest, “if Redbull wins, I stay there, and you get Lewis to lay off, but if Mercedes wins the 2021 season, I’ll come back to Mercedes and give Lewis another shot!”

“Sam…Toto-“

“No, it’s fine mom,” Sam growled as she cut her step-mother off, “dad doesn’t know just what Redbull has up their sleeve. But I do. You’re going down next season.”

“So what’s the game plan.”

Christian smiled as he walked into his office, Sam already waiting for him by his desk with his daily coffee.

“Well good morning to you, Samantha,” he chuckled as he walked around to his desk, and she sat down in one of the chairs, iPad ready to go over the notes and take any additional ones, “you’re in nice and early.”

“Season’s just around the corner, and we’ve got no time to waste!”

“Susie told me about your bet with your father,” he smirked, sipping down the coffee, “really plan on leaving me if we lose?”

“I don’t plan on losing,” she smirked, “now, let’s get down to business. I’ve gathered preliminary data from the engineers and mechanics, as well as discussed opening strategies based around that data with the strategists, and compiled SIM times for the upcoming tracks with both Perez and Verstappens’ teams so the strategists have a jumping off point. We’re well-ahead of how we did last year. I think we have a real shot with winning the constructor’s championship and having a Redbull champion this year.”

“You’re really taking this seriously, aren’t you!”

“Dad also might have added in another part of the bet.”

“OH?”

“If Mercedes wins, I’ll give Lewis another shot.”

He chuckled, leaning back in his chair, “Samantha Wolff…what have you gotten yourself into?”

“I can’t let Redbull lose this year!” she admitted, “I’m not going to let us lose, Christian.”

“I think I may be able to get a little extra fire under our drivers…do me a favor and call up Verstappen and Perez…we’re going to have them come in and do some more SIM trainings, as well as test out the cars…the cars are ready, are they not?”

“Yes sir…they’re going to be shipped out at the end of the week. The engineers are doing final walkthroughs as we speak.”

“Great…call in Perez. I’ll get ahold of Max.”

Max looked back to the door. She had led him into Christian’s office but then excused herself, as Checo had gotten into the offices.

“She’s back?”

“Calm down, Max…Samantha hasn’t left…not yet at least.”

“What do you mean?”

“Sit down,” he offered, gesturing to the chair, “we have a lot to talk about.”

“You called me in from Monaco to talk?”

“Well you’re going to be doing some more training, and pre-testing the car, but yes,” he shrugged, “I wanted to talk to you about Samantha.”

“Christian, I-“

“She’s been offered a position at Mercedes next year…a conditional one, but a position nonetheless.”

“What?”

“she doesn’t want to take it!” he said firmly, “but as it turns out, Toto made a bet with her…”

“What kind of bet?”

“Samantha bet that Redbull would come out on top this year, and that one of our drivers would win the championship,” he smirked, “Toto thinks Mercedes will come out on top again.”

“So we just beat Mercedes…” Max shrugged.

“If we win, she stays with us, but if Mercedes wins, she goes and takes a job under her father.”

“So we just beat Mercedes,” Max repeated, chuckling at how obvious the statement was, “we’ll beat them. Last year we came close to second…but from what my team was saying, looking at the car’s specs, we should have a lead on them this year. We’ll ge-“

“That’s not all, Max!” Christian warned.

Max froze, “What do you mean?”

“Well, there are some other things you don’t know about her,” he admitted, “first of which, is why she came to Redbull in the first place.”

“What do you mean, Christian?”

“When she turned eighteen, her and Lewis started seeing each other,” he frowned, “if I’m being honest, she started seeing him before she was eighteen, but Toto looked the other way…when she came to us at the end of 2019, it was because Lewis proposed to her after he won the race in Abu Dhabi. She rejected him and they broke up.”

“Oh…”

“She had also told her father that if Redbull won, she wanted Toto to tell Lewis to leave her alone,” he informed the driver, “I guess he’s been quite persistent with her…”

Max felt his fingers clenching together, “Toto has been encouraging Lewis to keep pursuing her?”

“Toto really likes Lewis,” he shrugged, “he’s their best driver, and he is just trying to keep him happy.”

“By throwing his daughter at him?” Max questioned. He sneered, thinking about it, “that’s disgusting. That-“

“She did however, tell her father that if Mercedes wins, not only would she go back to Mercedes, but she would also give him another chance,” he said, cutting the young driver off, “she told her father that she would start seeing Lewis again!”

“That-that’s not fair. Tha-“

“I’m telling you this because I know of your little crush,” he said quickly, cutting him off once more, “I am here, specifically talking to just you, and not Checo, because I want you to know what’s at stake. If you want Samantha Wolff to stay at Redbull, I want you to know that you, or Checo, has to win the season.”

“Wh-why are you telling me this now?” he asked, “you were deadest on me knowing that I wouldn’t have a chance with her and that I should giv-“

“Max…I don’t want to lose Samantha to Toto and Mercedes,” he answered, “I don’t care if Toto likes you or not. I don’t care about your little crush. But I want you to give her every reason to stay that you can.”

“What are you saying?”

“Not only do I want you to win the season, Max…but I want you to actively go for Samantha,” he proclaimed, “I want her to fall for you, so that even if we don’t come in first, she’ll feel guilty about leaving.”

“What?” he scoffed, “you want to use me? To make her fall for me so that she’s ‘loyal’ to Redbull? How do you even know that will work? I mean, if she was dating Lewis-“

“Max…I know that you can do this,” he replied, “I’ve seen how she looks at you. When you were on the podium at the end of the season, and you came down to talk to everyone? I saw you pull her into your arms. I saw the look the two of you shared. I’m just asking you to act on your feelings!”

“Christian-“

“Do you want Samantha to stay at Redbull or no, Max?”

“Well yeah, but I-“

“Then make her fall in love with you,” he ordered, “I’m moving her from being my personal assistant to simply coordinating my schedule. Max, I’m going to be moving her to your team, so that she’s your personal handler. By doing that, corporate won’t be able to take her back to HQ for projects, because she’ll need to focus on you…and by doing that, she’ll also be around all the time.”

“Chris-“

“I’m counting on you, Max. Don’t let the team down.”

Chapter 2

#racing stripes #season 2 #2021 season #max verstappen #redbull #sergio perez #christian horner #toto wolff #susie wolff #mercedes

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