Chapter Text
AUTOSPORT MAG
Ha Sooyoung: Obviously Jinsol is a strong competitor. It’s tough to hear that she won’t be on the grid next year, but that’s the reality of this sport. You drive yourself into these situations and you drive yourself out. I hope she’s able to come back to the grid stronger and that this is only a blip in the radar.
“Do you hear what she’s saying this is ridiculous, ‘That’s the reality of this sport. You drive yourself into these situations and drive yourself out.’ Why would she even say that,” Jinsol says flopping onto her lounge chair, phone open to Sooyoung’s after race interview.
“Well it’s not the nicest way to say it,” Yerim says flipping through her magazine at a dizzying pace.
“But can you cut her some slack, you know how reporters like to twist words,” she continues as she carefully dog ears a page.
“And this was right after she got that penalty dropping her 3rd to 6th. I’d be pretty grumpy too,” Jungeun adds from her spot on the floor, where she’s furiously typing away on her laptop. Jinsol rolls her eyes and drops her phone onto the chair.
As much as it pains her to admit it, the two have a point. She can’t really blame Sooyoung for the journalists hounding her over Jinsol’s rather abrupt announcement over not having a seat on the grid next year. Ok whatever, so she put a short minute long video out at midnight before the Austin GP. Who can blame a girl? She wanted people to see that this wasn’t something she wanted, that this was all McLaren’s idea. She then retired after a lap one collision and promptly left the paddock without a word.
Obviously Jinsol is a strong competitor. At least she still has that. So why is she losing her seat? She’s worked hard, she wasn’t just handed a spot and she’s done well. She finished 4th in the driver standings last year, granted this year, that hasn’t been the case but still.
She looks over at Jungeun who has paused her typing and was now gazing thoughtfully at the pool in front of them.
“You know, if anyone were to know about this whole thing,” Jungeun says waving her hands in the air, and god Jinsol knows exactly where she’s going with this.
“It would be Sooyoung,” she mused, looking over at Jinsol. Jinsol quickly averts her eyes, and looks to Yerim who’s fingers hover her magazine observing the tension between the two. Yerim doesn’t say anything just keeps her eyes bouncing back and forther between the two.
“Yeah well, too bad she’s still hung up on shit from four years ago,” Jinsol says crossing her arms. She closes her eyes, and breathes in the air.
She’s in Cancun, she has a seven days until the next free practice. She has nine days until her 4th to last grand prix. But who’s counting anyway?
Jinsol has been in a tough spot lately. She’s stuck in a tractor of a car, that her golden girl of a teammate can drive into podiums. Meanwhile Jinsol’s barely broken the points this year, unable to drive the car that everyone knew was designed for her teammate. Safe to say she’s not the happiest she’s ever been.
So when she gets knocked out in Q1 of Mexico, that doesn’t help. She’s mad, angrier than she’s been in a while, and there’s only one person to blame.
Sooyoung’s whole life has been defined by numbers. She’s 166 centimeters, she’s 27 years old, she was 6 points short of becoming the F2 world champion, and three tenths of a second from taking pole in Mexico City. So she’s feeling a little frustrated and can only do so many breathing exercises before she wants to put her foot in a wall.
So when she pulls into the garage, and hops out of her car walking towards the pit wall the last thing she expects to see is a bright orange racesuit barreling towards her. And all because she wanted to save Jiwoo the walk over to the garage.
“What the fuck is wrong with you,” the suit says, giving her a light shove. It’s Jinsol. Sooyoung doesn’t quite know whether to feel relief that it’s not some crazed fan who made it into the pitwall, or confusion since the McLaren garage is on the other end of the pitlane. Jinsol is angry about something. She’s always angry these days, and has been a real witch since Austin.
“The fuck is wrong with me? The fuck is wrong with you shoving me in the fucking pit,” Sooyoung says shoving back. She knows she shouldn’t, it’s qualifying, there’s cameras, and Kahei would kill her if she got into any trouble. But Sooyoung hasn’t made it this far by getting shoved around. No, she’s fought tooth and nail to make it here, she’s not going to be pushed around by another driver.
She can see Hyejoo come out from the garage helmet in hands, with Chaewon not too far behind. God she really didn’t need to hear from anyone else about how bad this was going to look.
“You fucking pushed me off the track, you fucking cost me the race,” Jinsol says, getting closer to Sooyoung.
“I was under the impression that today was qualifying,” Sooyoung says not moving, fists clenching by her sides.
“Oh fuck off, it was Q1 you didn’t need to be racing that hard obviously you’d make it to Q3,” Jinsol says, and wow their interaction seems to have drawn quite a crowd, Jungeun and Hyunjin have made their way over, flanking Jinsol.
Sooyoung has never been one to miss an opportunity, that’s how she made it this far, being in the right place at the right time. She has also never been somone afraid to get her hands dirty.
“Well with that mindset I can see how you lost your seat,” she says and god does it feel good to say it. Four years she’s had that phrase bouncing around her head. And now she’s gotten even. She can see the way Jinsol’s eyes widen and quickly narrow, her words thrown back at her. She also quickly sees Jinsol lunging at her, and is more than ready for this.
Sooyoung raises her own arms but feels a sharp tug on her waist. She looks back to see Chaewon with her fist bunched around part of her race suit, and Hyejoo at her side. Sooyoung takes a second, closing her eyes counting to ten before she reopens them. Jinsol is in a fierce whispered conversation with Jungeun and Hyunjin is looking between the two of them brow furrowed.
She steps back towards the Redbull garage, feeling the anger in her rear its head. All she can hear is the blood rushing towards her head, as she tosses her gloves into the cockpit and begins her walk to her driver room. So much for those breathing exercises. Maybe it’s time for some light yoga before the team meeting.
Sooyoung can’t be getting caught up in things like this anymore. She’s not a rookie, she’s still got a shot of closing the gap between her and Heejin in the standings. She has a career and cannot throw it away for someone who doesn’t care about her.
She takes a deep breath and starts her cool down routine. She’s not going to let a ghost ruin her race.
“What is wrong with you,” Jungeun hisses as Hyunjin keeps Jinsol locked in place as Sooyoung walks off. She still does the glove thing. Hyunjin notes as Sooyoung disappears into the paddock. Hyunjin turns to look at Jinsol who can only glare in Sooyoung’s direction.
“Is this about the Austin interview?” Jungeun asks and Hyunjin can see Jinsol’s eyes flit to her own before dropping to the ground. Hyunjin could tell Jungeun the truth. How Jinsol said that to Sooyoung when she got dropped by Aston Martin. She could tell her how the two cried so hard their tears became insults and whatever thin bridge that held them together snapped in half. How Hyunjin was there in the other room, supposed to be passed out but could only lay there wide eyed as the two screamed at each other. How Sooyoung left that night without a contract and a broken heart. Instead she only looks to one of her oldest friends and sees the dark circles under her eyes.
“We should get to our briefings,” Hyunjin says glancing at her watch. Heejin should be done with the engineers any minute now, and she knows Yeojin has some strategy she wants to go over one last time. Hyunjin knows all their strategies by heart and has since she joined the team, but it won’t hurt to hear it one more time.
Jinsol mutters something that Hyunjin doesn’t bother trying to hear and all but runs off to the McLaren garage, shoulders slouched. Hyejoo and Chaewon have retreated to the Redbull pit wall, pretending that they didn’t see a thing. Jungeun just sighs, running a hand through her hair.
“I’m getting too old for this,” she mutters as the two walk back towards their respective garages. Hyunjin hums in response, already dismissing this whole thing from her mind, she needs to focus if she wants to do well.
“Kim is 6 seconds behind you on fresh softs. Watch your corners and look out for DRS,” Chaewon murmurs into her mic, watching Hyejoo’s car data filter onto the screen.
“Yeah, yeah, what position are we in?” Hyejoo’s voice crackles into her ears. Chaewon wants to roll her eyes, it can be infuriating to work with Hyejoo sometimes.
“Currently sitting in P3. Again that is P3 with 10 laps to go. Sooyoung is 10 seconds ahead of you,” Chaewon says, glancing over at the video feed to her right where she can see Heejin with a healthy lead over Sooyoung. God Heejin is going to be insufferable tonight.
“Am I to defend?”
“Yes orders are to defend, save the attack for Brazil,” Chaewon says looking at the tire temperature meters.
Hyejoo doesn’t respond, but Chaewon wasn’t expecting her to. Hyejoo knows she couldn’t catch Sooyoung anyway today, Sooyoung’s been driving like a maniac, and team orders are team orders.
Kahei leans over to look at the meters on Chaewon’s screen frowning slightly.
“We need to work on the weight distribution more, she doesn’t generate the downforce like Sooyoung,” Kahei says and Chaewon nods, adding onto the note she already had written down.
“I know, we didn’t have enough time to play with it before qualifying otherwise we would have at least started,” Chaewon says glancing over the main feed again. Hyunjin is gaining ever so slightly on the straights but Chaewon knows that Hyejoo will make it back up in the corners.
“Watch your tires. Should be good through the rest of the race, don’t over do it,” Chaewon warns, watching Hyejoo’s tire degradation levels. It almost happens too quick for Chaewon to even notice.
One second Sooyoung’s gaining on Heejin, the next she’s spinning towards the gravel. Chaewon can only watch her stomach sinking as Sooyoung slows in the gravel trap.
“Yellow flag. Yellow flag. Watch your delta,” Chaewons says cringing as Sooyoung punches her steering wheel. Those tiktok bitches are gonna love that.
“Is she ok?” Hyejoo’s voice comes in over the radio.
“Yeah, locked up her front tires. Head in the game Hyejoo,” Chaewons says eyes jumping back between Hyejoo’s car and the feed of Sooyoung’s car which is now safely in one of the exit ramps.
Chaewon can tell she’s mad in how robotically Sooyoung jumps out of the car trying to control her anger. At least she’s not kicking the car. Hyejoo almost broke her foot doing that.
She can hear Kahei over the team radio, telling everyone that there’s still a driver in this race. We can still close the gap in the constructor’s championship. But all she can do is watch how Sooyoung sits safely out of the way with her head in her hands, shoulders shaking ever so slightly.
“How are tires looking?” Hyejoo asks and Chaewon springs into motion, she can’t be thinking about Sooyoung right now, who is now rather morosely making her way slowly back to the pitwall visor still down.
“Tires look good, safety car has been lifted. Five laps to go,” Chaewon says watching as Hyunjin tries her best to overtake Hyejoo. She looks over at Jiwoo on the other side of the pitwall who is having a hushed conversation with Kahei, purposefully on a channel that only Kahei can hear.
Chaewon isn’t worried about Hyunjin catching Hyejoo, Hyejoo’s defending is one of her best skills and she’d be damned if she got passed in the last few laps. Still, when the checkered flag flies she breathes a sigh of relief.
“Nice work Hyejoo. That’s P2. Solid points for the team, we’ll have a team meeting after the podium celebration,” Chaewon’s voice comes in over the radio, as Hyejoo begins her cooldown lap, waving to the fans.
“Hyejoo nice work today. We keep pushing those are solid points for the constructor’s,” Kahei’s voice comes in over the radio.
“Great work everyone. We worked hard today. Thanks to everyone for their work. We’ll get that Redbull 1, 2 next time,” Hyejoo says over the radio, as she pulls to the second place spot.
As she hops out of her car she can see Heejin and Hyunjin having a tense conversation while they wait for the after race interviews to get started.
Hyejoo pulls on a Redbull cap as she watches Hyunjin stare blankly at the camera as the reporter, who Hyejoo actually likes, ask an apparently lengthy question. Some things never change.
She makes her way to the Redbull crew pressed up against the barrier, giving a quick hug to Chaewon and turns to Kahei who’s plastered a smile too big to be real on her face.
“You’re looking happy,” Hyejoo murmurs as she clasps her in a quick handshake to hug. Kahei looks to her with a slight eye twitch.
“We’ll talk as a team later, there’s been a development. Go celebrate your win,” Kahei says leaning closer to Hyejoo so she wouldn’t be overheard. Hyejoo nods, turning back towards the reporter who is now beckoning Hyejoo over, as Heejin walks into the cooldown room.
“Hyejoo, it’s been a pretty solid weekend for you. P3 in qualifying and now P2 today. How do you feel about your performance on the track today?” the reporter asks and Hyejoo smiles slipping into her media persona.
“It felt good. Car was feeling good and had a pretty strong handle in the corners which I was a little nervous about. A smooth nice drive,” Hyejoo says, as the reporter nods along.
“We’ll keep this short since the race ran a little bit long, but how are you feeling heading towards the last few races? Do you think Redbull can close the gap to Mercedes in the constructor’s, and how are you feeling about your place in the driver’s standings?” the reporter asks, and Hyejoo smiles.
“We’re feeling pretty damn good. Today wasn’t the whole team result that we wanted but we’ll keep pushing. It’s not over yet,” she says looking to the camera. The reporter smiles and gives her a quick dismissal, beginning her closing remarks.
Hyejoo hurries to the cooldown room, where Heejin and Hyunjin are sitting in silence as the cameraman grows noticeably more awkward as the silence continues.
She clears her throat, as she pulls the second place hat onto her head, running the towel over her face.
“The racing line on turn 14 was weird yeah?” she says, glancing between the two as she sits down in the second place chair.
The two hum in agreement, and Hyunjin turns completely to Hyejoo.
“You were hella oversteering at that turn, lost a lot of ground” she says.
“Still couldn’t catch me though, could you?” Hyejoo teases as Hyunjin breaks into a small grin.
“With the racing line where it was, you kind of had to oversteer? No?” Heejin adds on, glancing over to the camera and back to the two of them quickly.
Hyejoo nods along as they sit quietly for a minute, waiting for the champagne to be set up. When the race directors signal to the camera operator to leave the room, the two Mercedes drivers immediately dropped their smiles.
Damn, what is going on with everyone today? Hyejoo sighs to herself, and Heejin looks to her with a furrow between her brow.
But before Heejin can say anything, the race directors signal to the drivers that it’s time. Hyejoo can hear the roar of the crowd outside as they begin to file out. The eyes of hundreds of people on her and Hyejoo has never felt more alive.
She’ll do anything to stay on this podium. Anything at all.