Chapter Text
Andretti out of the race?
Rumours of a new Formula one team are circulating around the paddock and if true it isn’t good news for Andretti.
Rumour has it that French billionaire Apolline Delacour has taken an interest in putting her hat into the fiery ring of the pinnacle of motorsport. The reason for this rumoured interest is due to the billionaire's Daughter, Fleur Delacour, who is currently competing in Formula 2. Does not have a confirmed 2025 seat in Formula 1.
Fleur Delacour is amongst the championship fight in Formula 2, fighting the likes of Gabriel Bortoleto, Isack Hadjar, Zane Maloney, and the other woman competing in Formula 2 Hermione Granger.
Rumor is the other Formula 1 teams do not want another team joining in due to the reduced payout that is going to happen if a new team were to join. The latest team to join the grid is the British F1 team Konnersport Butler Global, two years ago.
Fans on the other hand are excited at the prospect of not only more competition on the grid, but also for more female drivers if Apolline Delacour’s team joins the grid.
The FIA have set a 12 team limit on Formula 1, if the billionaire’s rumoured proposal is approved there won’t be any space for Andretti.
By: Ronald Bilius Weasely, Sky Sports F1.
—
The roars of the engine in Barcelona, Catalunya, were loud and deafening. To the new watchers they’re wondering just how loud the F1 cars would be, for experienced watchers it’s the equivalent of a puppy barking.
Hermione was in her car after completing her warm up lap, her tyres all warmed up, Friday's qualifying saw Hermione Granger dunk three tenths on Fleur Delacour who qualified second place. After qualifying ahead of her championship rivals, Hermione was grinning and smiling at the cocky silver haired driver in the paddock. However, Hermione kept her ego in check, qualifying is important but only the race result matters.
Fleur parked beside Hermione in second place, she always hated being behind, no matter if it was behind boys or girls. If she’s behind anyone she’ll make it so she always gets past them on track.
The red lights started as all the Formula 2 cars are parked on the grid, the engines roaring at their peak as the drivers waited for the lights to go out. Hermione was breathing heavily in anticipation, Fleur ready to release the clutch as soon as the lights went out.
It’s lights out and away we go!
—
Hermione marched into the garage in a fit of rage and smashed her helmet on a nearby table repeatedly. The start was horrendous, she locked up into turn one, TURN ONE! The first bloody turn, did she not warm her tires up right or did she brake slightly late? Doesn’t matter because five laps in she was in a sandwich with Verschoor and Villagomez who left her no room whatsoever taking out all three drivers in an instant. She’d have been summoned to meet the stewards later in the day to discuss the incident but right now she was forced to watch her Championship rival, Fleur Delacour, win the race. Hermione might have dunked three tenths on Fleur but she dunked thirty five points on her this weekend having won the sprint race too.
She watched on the tv in the team garage as Fleur celebrated her win, spraying champagne and smiling smugly at the camera before winking and smirking. That’s it, Hermione can’t watch anymore and she left the garage still in her race suit.
—
She knocked on the door of the stewards office and went inside. She shrugged at the sight of the worst steward in FIA history, in Hermione’s opinion.
“Mister. Riddle,” Hermione sat down on the uncomfortable plastic chair near the office table, there were TVs behind Tom Marvolo Riddle that played the onboard videos of her crash on repeat. Hermione couldn’t be bothered to learn of Tom’s racing history but he did hear that he lost a chunk of his nose in a race and it couldn’t be sewed back, though she didn’t know what happened to his lips.
“Miss. Granger,” Tom greeted. “Misters. Villagomez and Verschoor have given their arguments and views of the incident, what do you have?” He leaned back in his leather chair waiting for her argument.
Hermione breathed in and prayed inwardly that Tom would actually listen to her this time. “They sandwiched me on the track and left me no room, I couldn’t even back out if I wanted to,”
Tom has a finger on his chin seemingly in thought before pressing a button and the replay of her onboard played. “You were going a hundred and fifty kilometres per hour through turn one whilst being sandwiched,”
“Your point? I was going slightly faster than normal through a medium speed corner, it’s racing,” Hermione argued.
“Yes well,” Tom paused the video milliseconds before the crash happened. “You could’ve backed out here,” He pointed to the smallest of spaces left.
“You must be joking! I crashed milliseconds after that!” Hermione was on her feet now, speaking above her usual voice.
“Milliseconds or not, a driver should be able to react in a timely manner,” Tom said calmly which infuriated Hermione. “You have caused a collision between not one but two cars and your argument is therefore invalid and you will be receiving a twenty place grid penalty for Spielberg,”
There is no way that this man is serious right now. “TWENTY?! F1 drivers only get ten for causing a collision!”
“This is not Formula 1, miss. Granger! And since I am in charge for this race you will serve the twenty place grid penalty or I will have you disqualified from the championship!” Tom shouted.
The argument was getting heated now. “On what charge? You can’t disqualify me from the championship for causing a collision!” Hermione was ready to argue and debate the steward.
“Consider this grid penalty a warning Miss. Granger, I have connections in high places to get what I want and if I ever want you disqualified I can do so in a snap of a finger,” Tom snapped his fingers mockingly. “Are we clear?”
Hermione knows when she is in the face of defeat and nodded.
“Dismissed,”
—
Hermione walked out of the office, the next thing she needed to do was media stuff. But before all that she needed a smoke break first to temper out her rage at the millennial steward who she is now quite sure is just plain sexist.
As she took her smoke break in a nearby cafe, she scrolled through social media, the news about her taking a twenty place grid penalty going viral, with many claiming that it wasn’t justified. This ought to stir some controversy.
Hermione looked up when familiar silver hair sat down from her, the woman was smiling smugly. “Fleur,” Hermione’s tone was disdain and uninterested. “What do you want?”
“Zust came to check on you, zat was a scary crash,” Fleur’s french accent was thick but it seemed she was sincere in what she was saying.
“Yeah well as you can see, I’m still in one piece,” Hermione said sarcastically to her rival.
“Oui, I can zee that,” Fleur looked her up and down. “Zit was unfair for you to start the back of the grid next race, but lucky me, today I extend my lead over you and I’m going to extend it again next race,”
Hermione rolled her eyes when Fleur’s inevitable taunting came. “You may be leading the championship right now but Charles had a forty six point lead over Max after Australia two years ago,”
“You are not Max Verstappen and neither are you Charles Leclerc,” Fleur reminded her. “I will win ze championship Hermione and I will race in F1 soon,”
Hermione rolled her eyes. “Racing for your mother’s team, speaking of how’s that going?”
Fleur huffed. “Zis going well, zank you fer asking,”
Hermione smiled when Fleur left, playing mind games with Fleur is Hermione’s favourite pastime activity. It’s no secret from the start of the F2 season that Fleur saw Hermione as a threat, their rivalry is intense and they would often throw shade at others during post-race interviews. F1 may be dealing with a silly season but F2 is dealing with the first ever women's rivalry.
Hermione put out her cigarette and walked over to the place where the post-race interviews were being conducted and as she approached them they were all calling for her, one man caught her eye though.
“Ronald, I hope you have some interesting questions to ask,” Hermione said to the freckled redhead reporter. Ron has been her trusted journalist to give her the ins and out on the latest before the paddock knew about it.
“What do you think of the FIA for giving you a twenty grid place penalty?” Ron asked loudly so that he could be heard over the other reporters before handing the mic to Hermione.
“I’ll tell you what I think Ronald, it’s idiotic of the FIA to give me twice more the grid penalty that F1 drivers receive,” Hermione answered, making her frustrations known.
Ron brought his mic to his mouth. “Can you tell us who you think was at fault?” Ron gave Hermione the mic.
“Personally, it was a racing incident, no one should’ve been penalised for it. But somebody is at fault for the penalty I have, but it’s not Verschoor or Villagomez,”
Ron brought his mic back to his mouth again. “Who then?”
Hermione grabbed the mic. “Steward Tom Marvolo Riddle, that bitch is a sexist misogynist! He has it out for me and I demand he be fired!”
Ron’s eyes widened at the blunt statement as Hermione handed the mic back to him, he then putted the mic away and lowered his voice. “One last question Hermione, did you know that Liberty Media has rejected the first request of the Delacour brand to join the grid and along with that, rumours of Williams making a move for you, care to comment?”
Hermione’s eyes widen in surprise. “That’s the first I’ve heard about it,” Hermione knows that this is Ron’s subtle way of passing vital information to her.
“You always heard it from me first,” Ron winked playfully. “By the way, Have you spoken with Harry?” Both started to walk away from the post-race interviews.
“No, why?” Hermione walked in sync with Ron. Harry had suffered a karting incident when he was a young boy, the incident left a lightning scar in the middle of his forehead but that scar is nothing to the mental scar he experienced, he still loved racing and want to still work in the industry and is currently at Hogwarts university doing a double major in Communications and engineering.
“He was calling me, the bloke was worried sick that you’d died,” Ron snickered. “I tried to calm him down and remind him how safe racing is now but he’s still worried,”
“That’s weird, he didn’t text me nor call me,” Hermione wondered.
“That’s cause he probably thinks you’re dead,” Ron laughed.
Hermione shoved his shoulder. “That’s not funny,” Despite that though she still laughed along with her best friend. “How’s Ginny by the way? Is she leaving Red Bull too?”
Ron nodded. “She is, she’s on the hunt for a job now though and it’s looking like maybe she’ll join Ferrari, Mclaren, or maybe Aston martin, god knows those teams need a quality strategist like her, but she did say she wants to be head of race strategy and currently no one is willing to give it to her,”
“I take it you’re helping with the hunt then?” Hermione asked.
“I am a rather influential journalist,” Ron snickered.
“Don’t flatter yourself Ronald,” Hermione said sarcastically, enjoying their shared banter.
—
Hermione was drying herself off after taking a warm shower, she doesn’t have to go anywhere tonight but she did have to get ready for the F1 race tomorrow, she may not be driving in it but she has been given instructions to partake in the Ferrari garage to watch and learn how an F1 garage is like during race day.
She opened her social media and scrolled through twitter, currently she is in top ten viral in Europe due to her comments about steward Tom. Many of the tweets about her were from misogynistic men telling her to go back to the kitchen and make them a sandwich, Hermione didn’t bother to argue with them they were beneath her, but they weren’t beneath her fans who cooked every argument against the misogynists. She then went on to Pinterest, she loved the Hunger games so she has a board for that and she also loved Percy Jackson.
She scrolled until she came across a tumblr screenshot of pictures of old lesbian couples which warmed Hermione’s heart. Dating as a Formula 2 driver is hard, especially if you’re a disastrous lesbian like Hermione. She has flirted with women in the paddock, sometimes even hooked up with her fans who she still remains in contact with.
But not tonight, not after that disastrous race. She scrolled again when out of blue, Harry called.
“Oh shit I forgot!” Hermione quickly answered the call. “Hello?”
Hermione heard chewing sounds from the other end, Is he seriously eating right now? “Glad to know you’re alive Hermione,”
Hermione sighed. “Blimey I’m sorry Harry I forgot to call you, Ron told me to but my brain forgot,”
The chewing stopped. “It’s quite alright Hermione, I wasn’t like worried sick to my stomach or anything no, I’m not even stress eating right now,”
Hermione chuckled. “Don’t worry Harry I’m fine, the doctors did a check up during the evening, and they told me I’m fine, I don’t got so much as a bruise from the crash, if anything the worst thing to come out of the crash was that grid penalty,”
Harry snorted and there were chewing sounds again. “Right, your words for him are too kind by the way,”
Hermione rolled her eyes. “And what words would you describe you-know-who as?” Hermione chuckled.
Harry chuckled. “Well for starters uhm…pig and waste of space and resources…nazi?”
Hermione laughed. “Okay I see your point, he is a waste of space and resources but he is the steward unfortunately, whatever he says, goes,”
“Yeah,” Harry grimaced. “It’s a shame my parents lost the lawsuit all those years ago, I would’ve probably been racing if not for his stupid decision to green flag monsoon rain in a karting race,”
Hermione softened.
“Anyways,” Harry started to chew his food again. “I’ve gotta hit the hay soon, got an engineering project I need to do early in the morning,”
“Ooh, interesting, mind telling me what it is?” Hermione asked.
“It’s a group project, I’m working with Seamus, Draco, and Pansy, it’s basically we build ourselves a small Formula open wheel car, Dean’s driving forgot to mention him,” Harry explained.
“Dean’s driving? Doesn’t he have like no experience?” Hermione asked.
“Sis, when I said I will not sit in a race car ever again I meant it,” Harry answered.
“Come on, you were eleven when you said that, I mean don’t you miss it? The thrill and the adrenaline?”
“I’ve got F1 twenty four for that thank you very much,”
Hermione rolled her eyes. “Alright alright,”
They stayed in a comfortable silence for a few minutes over the phone as Harry finished up his stress eating. “You know, you should really come visit me sometime,”
Hermione pondered on it. “Or you come visit me and bring your friends with you? I can get you F1 tickets for silverstone,”
“Silverstone is still weeks away, I’d rather you visit me when you have the time and give me and my friends those tickets,” Harry counter offered.
“I’ll see my schedule first and I’ll try to make time, I’ll tell you if I can,” Hermione accepted.
“Okay then, is there anything else you want to talk about?” Harry asked again.
“Not really I’m quite sleepy actually, but let me tell you something before you hear it from Ron,”
“Go on…”
“Liberty media rejected Delacour’s proposal to join the grid, so it looks like Fleur won’t be in F1 soon,” Hermione informed.
“And what about you?” Harry asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Will you drive in F1 next season?” Harry asked again.
Hermione sat in silence for a few minutes.
“Hello?” Harry asked through the phone.
“I’m still here bro, and I do want to drive in F1 next season but the chances are low,” Hermione didn’t want to get Harry’s hopes up with the Williams rumour.
“Well I mean it’s F1 silly season, I wouldn’t be surprised if you and Fleur are on the grid next season,” Harry assured her.
“Thank you for the vote of confidence, if I drive in F1 next season I’ll make you my race engineer,” Hermione offered.
“Deal,” Harry accepted the offer, thinking Hermione was joking. “Well, I’m off, bye sis.”
Before Hermione could respond however, Harry had hung up. She got off the bed and brushed her teeth and opened the hotel TV to watch Ron and Bill Weasley talking on Sky sports F1 with Jenson Button and Damon Hill about the F1 quali session. Ron was sporting a plain white shirt with black trousers and a brown blazer on, while Bill is the very definition of bisexual fashion, with his earrings and leather jacket and a H&M F1 shirt with baggy trousers. While Jenson and Damon were modest, only sporting plain white shirts and blue trousers.
“Speaking of Williams, Ron what do you make of the rumour of Hermione Jean Granger potentially joining them?” Bill asked.
Hermione’s back straightened up at the mention of the rumour.
“Well, Hermione is always open to F1 but the matter of important interest doesn’t lie in the Formula 2 driver, it lies on the team, we’ve seen Williams now making disastrous driver transfers with the signing of Nicholas Latifi and Logan Sargent who at the moment, in my opinion, is not really showing his worth in Formula 1,” Ron explained.
“What do you think the chances are that Hermione gets a seat in F1 next season?” Bill asked.
“Jenson, Damon, how much of a chance do YOU think that Hermione has?” Ron re-directed the question to the champions of F1.
“Well see, that's the thing,” Damon spoke. “It’s never about the skills that you have or the youth championships that you have, it has always been about how much money you have, why do you think that drivers like Nikita Mazepin and Nicholas Latifi were able to join the grid? Money.”
Jenson nodded. “Let me just say that skill wise, Hermione is a very fast driver, she’s smart during race days but where she’s lacking is patience,”
Bill laughed. “Just like Callie last season then eh?”
Jenson acknowledged the comparison “Just like callie,” The TV behind them changed to onboard montages of Hermione’s overtaking. “Remember in Bahrain and Australia? She overtook two drivers in one go by absolutely sending it down the inside, at first glance you may think that that’s amazing, but there’s a reason why the F1 drivers don’t always send it down the inside every time, they risk either locking up the tyres or crashing into one another, just like today, had Hermione backed out of that position she would’ve probably gotten points today, so does she have what it takes to be in F1? I believe she does, and I’m very confident that there is a team on the grid that is willing to overlook money for that skill,”
“That is quite an interesting one Jenson, Damon?” Bill asked for his answer.
“I wouldn’t get your hopes up sadly, chances are no backmarker teams probably would look over the money,” Damon answered.
“Not very confident then eh?” Bill asked.
Damon shrugged his shoulders.
“Ron?” Bill asked again.
“Mate I’m just the journalist,” Everyone laughed before reverting back to the topic of the F1 quali session.
Hearing Damon doubt her chances of getting in F1 did dampen her confidence a bit but then hearing Jenson’s constructive criticism and confidence in her was all that was needed for Hermione to really aim for a seat in the pinnacle of motorsport.