Please pretty please can we get a (general) timeline layout of Danielle’s career/personal life? I love this au but I need to go back and price it all together: she is engaged to Jules and driving for Ferrari? When does Max come into her life (if he still does)? and how does her career wrap up (if you have that plotted out)? I am begging for crumbs 🙏🏻
Of course! I've mentioned before that most of the differences occur post-Renault. It's important to understand the narrative function of HFFL. I said this in previous posts:
What's most important, at the core of Happy Fantasy Ferrari Land, is that this is the version of herself Danielle imagines where she gets everything she wants, and that she is constantly comparing herself to.
I’m sure there’s no deeper meaning to imagining your boyfriend defending your seat and your worth to your team and having them listen. Or your boyfriend choosing you over the sport and leaving when you leave. That doesn’t mean anything.
But what's actually most important is that, in this world, Ferrari is a competent team capable of winning anything.
All jokes aside, this is Danielle's personal fantasy land where nothing goes wrong for her, but we—as the audience—are observing from a meta standpoint what she chooses to lever against the canon timeline. Join me below the cut.
For example, Monaco 2016 becomes Schrödinger's Formula 1 victory—she both wins and does not win Monaco in 2016. That's a significant event for her. In a perfect world, they don't fuck up her pit stop. But also in a perfect world, she moves to a team (Ferrari) who values her and wants her to succeed, and that's the ultimate Fuck You to a team who stopped caring about her. What does she currently value more? Sometimes she wins and sometimes she doesn't.
We can also look at going to Renault—why wouldn't Red Bull simply have not prioritized Max over her and she could have stayed? Won a WDC with Red Bull instead? Moving to Renault is also formative, she becomes her own person there. So she leaves Red Bull.
The other functional purpose of HFFL is that I—as the author—get to play in my sandbox with a reality that gets to keep someone who had so much waiting for him in life, and I miss him. This is why there's an element of reality that grounds this world as a stand-alone AU. I see it as to Danielle, these people exist. Therefore, they are real and that means they are bound to certain limits.
With the lore in mind, let's finally look at our timeline:
2007: Danielle meets Jules at the Formula Medicine training camp in Viareggio, Italy as teenagers. She's the only girl there. You can imagine what this is like for her. Fortunately, this beautiful boy who everyone idolizes is very nice to her and keeps inviting her to do things with him. They also see each other again in Barcelona with Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 when Danielle is entered as a guest driver. She's ineligible for championship points, but she does leave with a new boyfriend which is cool too.
2011: They're both F1 test drivers (Danielle soon to be called up to HRT) and think they're being so sneaky secret about dating each other, but there are no secrets in F1. Everyone can see them. This is also the year the Danielle meets Max at the Zandvoort karting event and he decides she is the most beautiful woman to walk the earth. Danielle recognizes him as Charles' mortal enemy. She tells him over Skype later 'I don't know what the big deal is, you're a big baby. He looks like a little guppy.' Worth noting: 13 year old Charles thinks he's hot shit because he's got a direct line to a real F1 driver, and she doesn't get mad when him and Arthur call her Tata.
2014: The accident in Japan is NOT fatal. (Another Schrodinger's Formula 1 event—sometimes the FIA cancels the race, sometimes it's just a less severe collision.)
2016: Kimi leaves early because Ferrari is champing at the bit for their original Academy driver and also I personally felt bad leaving him at Marussia or in a 2015 Ferrari reserve role any longer. I may have broken up my beloved Simi, but please consider how Weird (affectionate) Seb would be about Jules. Max is also Danielle's teammate now and he is very weird about her. You don't have to consider this one, you already know. He is a professional third wheel. 'Are we socializing him?' Jules asks Danielle.
2018: Danielle wins Monaco and Jules' proposal plans for summer break are thrown out. He has to do it now. See the full Engagement Lore here. Max is looking at her ring thinking 'okay but there's still a chance. I can object at the wedding.'
2019-2020: Danielle drives for Renault. French fiancé, French team. The French love her. Originally, their wedding was planned for 2020. I have bad news for them. Danielle leaves Renault and, despite being "weird and offputting," signs a contract with Scuderia Ferrari to replace Sebastian Vettel. The French are devastated. Jules wins the WDC. The French are elated. Forza Ferrari. More information here.
2021: A great year to be Tifosi. The wedding is back on. Italians everywhere rejoice. Zak Brown is furious, teammates can't be married. Danielle says "then your teammates are cowards, Zak." The Ferrari PR department recognizes just how much they can do with the Sports Narrative To End All Sports Narratives and makes them special race suits that they never wear for anything other than a photoshoot outside Enzo Ferrari's house in the middle of the Fiorano circuit with Mr. and Mrs. printed on the back instead of their names. Brocedes could never. Danielle wins the WDC, and most importantly, she takes it from Max Verstappen, the kid who stole her team out from under her. Forza Ferrari. FEA. Worth noting: Max is happy for her. Even with Well Done Baku 2.0. They are just as good friends in this world as they are in ours. He was in her wedding party. He loves her.
2022-2024: In typical Ferrari fashion, they immediately forget they are a championship winning team. LiCo. We enter the Max Verstappen Dominance era. Jules does get his French GP victory in 2022. Forza Ferrari. Vive la France. Danielle is the only non-Red Bull winner of 2023, a la 2014, in SINGAPORE. (My condolences to Mr Sainz. You can understand why I needed to do this.) Winter break of 2023/2024, they have the 'Should We Retire and Have Children' talk and decide the answer is yes. 2024 will be the last year in Formula 1 for both of them. Sports Narrative to end all Sports Narratives. Danielle wins in Australia in 2024. Advance Australia F- -orza Ferrari. A proper send off in Abu Dhabi.
2025: Danielle is an overachiever and announces that they're having a baby right before the season starts. This is her world, we're all just living in it. Charles and Lewis to Ferrari. I think Charles has been chilling with RBR as Max's teammate this whole time, it's the funniest option for me. Also the concept that Ferrari keeps stealing Red Bull drivers? Hilarious. Baby Lorenzo is born on 5 September, over Monza weekend. The most Ferrari baby ever. Zak Brown is furious. Christian Horner is jobless. Danielle has a family. Forza Ferrari.
2027: Lorenzo gets a little sister, Clementine. They call her Clem. Lando texts Danielle 'Clementine, orange fruit, papaya, orange fruit. Close enough. McLaren baby.' She blocks his number for 24 hours.
A STAR IN THE FACE OF THE SKY
max/daniel | girl!daniel au | rated m | ongoing
Always the media’s darling, endless articles are published in the wake of her departure. She doesn’t need to read them. She knows they all draw the same conclusion:
The future of women in Formula 1 does not include Danielle Ricciardo.
It’s a universal constant that man will be a Little Freak, and this verse is no exception. A boyfriend will not stop a feral, teenage Max Verstappen from imprinting on his hot, older teammate. The race weekend dinner table formation when they go out looks like Jules on Danielle’s right, Max on her left, Sebastian Vettel across from them. Sometimes Jean-Eric is there also and he sits next to Seb, but he doesn’t usually say anything.
After Hungary 2017, Max asks Danielle how she manages not to take on-track conflicts off-track (and vice-versa). She looked… less than pleased when he stood at her door and held out a beer (stupid!) that she probably threw right into the trash, but it was better than throwing it back at his head and never speaking to him again. Danielle says to Max, “I want you to imagine getting crashed out by another driver, telling him to go fuck himself, and then coming home and he’s in your house. Worse, he sleeps in your bed at night, he’s seen you naked, and he’s met your parents.”
Max, of course, knows that she is dating someone on the grid. It is not a secret and also they are always doing things together. But Max is just kind of sitting there processing, for the first time, the implications of what it means for Danielle to be in a committed relationship as an adult like
another girl!daniel soft launch, using the flawed logic that perhaps if i post it for people to see, i will be more inclined to finish it in time for the deadline
There’s one wheel on her luggage (not one of the expensive Piquadro sponsor bags that her and Yuki were given this year) that’s completely fucked and it makes the loudest fuck-off noise when she drags it around. Danielle’s never bothered fixing or getting a new bag because even if it’s older, there’s nothing else wrong with it. It’s still a perfectly functional piece of luggage. There’s no sense in replacing it with something newer, better, not broken. It still works.
The tightness in her chest is working its way up her throat. Her eyes are burning. They’re probably just dry from the flight.
Everyone is looking at her and her fucked up squeaking luggage.
Danielle can tell her mum is desperate to reach out for a hug, but something is stopping her. Her parents watched the race on television. They saw it all then and they’re probably seeing it all again right now, like the inescapable looping replays after a crash.
Her mum settles for gently squeezing the hand that Danielle isn’t white-knuckling her luggage handle with. Her dad presses a kiss to Danielle’s cheek before he takes her rolling bag from her.
Halfway out to the car park, Danielle realizes how quiet it is. It’s not just because she’s finally back in the real world, away from crowds, or that no one has dared to speak a word yet. There’s a notable lack of fucked up wheel noise from her luggage. Looking over, she sees her dad has picked it up by the handle on its side, carrying it all the way.
reading this was like getting gut punched over and over and over again I cant lie i feel a little ill, especially after all the stuff coming out about the red bull working space and Horner himself and just McLarens/Zak Browns rancid vibes in general. i need more, love your stuff btw <3
Zak pulls her aside after another embarrassing quali elimination. The adrenaline spike she feels when he puts a hand on her sweat soaked lower back isn’t as noticeable after she’s just climbed out of the car.
“Take it on the chin, Dan,” he says. “All good?”
The hair on the back of Danielle’s neck would stand up if it wasn’t matted down and damp.
“Uh,” she says, staring at him like she’s fucking stupid. He probably already thinks she’s fucking stupid by now, so it’s not like she’s got a reputation to uphold. “Yeah.”
“If you need to talk to somebody, schedule it in.” Zak removes his hand from the back of her race suit and wipes it off on his trousers. It leaves a mark. Gross. “The sooner the better. You know McLaren values the mental health of our drivers. Some other teams could stand to learn from us.” And then he nudges her, like she’s supposed to laugh. Like she’s in on the joke instead of the punchline.
Danielle doesn’t laugh. Her mouth is gummy with spit.
“I’m fine,” she says, taking a pull off her water bottle. It’s a little too much too fast and she chokes slightly, eyes watering as she coughs. “It’s… yeah, it’s fine. No worries. I can deal. Sorry.”
Zak looks at her with what is probably supposed to be concern but a little too much of his displeasure with her results bleeds through for it to feel genuine.
“Just want to make sure. Cover our bases and all that, you know.” He reaches out and gives the water bottle she’s holding a shake, seems satisfied with the sloshing noise it makes. “They’re filming for Unboxed today. Just don’t want you getting upset, Dan. It’s a bad look. You understand.”
She does understand. There’s enough embarrassment from her out on track already, no need to bring it back here to be archived on the team’s YouTube channel. She needs to keep it all under her stupid cutesy pastel helmet where nobody can see it.
Danielle’s sweaty race suit is starting to chill now that she’s out of the car, brushing uncomfortably against her skin which is flushing just this side of too hot. Her heart thumps a little too hard in her chest. She wonders if Zak can hear it. Her voice shakes when she speaks, and she knows he can definitely hear that.
“Sorry. Yeah, nah, uh…” Fuck, she’s being such a baby about this. Zak’s not even mad at her. At least, he doesn’t seem mad. Just disappointed. It’s his job to be disappointed, just like it’s Danielle’s job now to disappoint people. “Nah, don’t worry. I’m not going to cry. Not out here, in front of all you guys. I’d do that in the back, hey.”
She tries to laugh this time, make a joke, keep it light. It kind of sounds like she’s dying instead. She wouldn’t do that either. Not out here, in front of everybody.
Zak gives her a pity chuckle. Pats her on the back twice. “Good deal, kid. We’ll get ‘em next time.”
She runs into Lando en route to her driver room. He’s blurry for some reason and when she blinks to clear her vision, something hot rolls down her cheeks. Dickfuck.
There’s not a camera trained on her though, so at least she’s fulfilled one promise today.
“Maybe splash some water on your face?” Lando suggests without meeting her eyes. “Like, if all of you is wet, then... maybe they won’t know?”
They’ll definitely still know she was crying, but Danielle unscrews the cap on her water and upends the whole thing over her head anyway, right in the middle of the hallway.
Lando shrieks and jumps back out of the splash zone, laughing. “You’re fucking crazy, mate. Aw, the cameras would’ve loved that.”
“Yeah,” Danielle says, water soaking the front of her fireproofs like a pathetic podium pantomime. “They sure would have.”
Did Danielle ever break the Aussies on the Albert Park podium curse?
In 2024 when she wins! She's really good at coming in P4, though.
Fun (?) Fact: I fear being married to an Australian makes you Australian By Association in the eyes of the curse. So even if you've gotten a podium there before, you won't anymore. Crazy work.
Gentleman. A short view back to the past.
The year is 2023. Danielle corners Oscar early on Thursday when they all arrive in Melbourne and is like "Oscar, do you know what the fuel flow rate limit on an F1 car is? It's one hundred kilograms per hour. Ask me how I found out."
Oscar, who has only done two F1 races in his life at this point and can never ever let Danielle know about the Barbie dolls he has of her, looks over her shoulder at Jules, who definitely knows about the Barbie dolls Oscar has of his wife, and who is shaking his head and mouthing 'do not ask.'
And then during the race, they make contact with each other in a corner and drop down the time sheet, and the camera man can’t run fast enough to get Mark Webber standing there in the McLaren garage begging for death.
So the timeline deviates after Renault—instead of going to McLaren, Danielle gets an offer from Ferrari when Seb leaves. Nepotism accusations? Maybe so, but this is Formula 1. Everybody’s doing nepotism these days. What’s important is that her life is a cycle of taking Seb Vettel’s place and then throttling him #2021WDC
There would absolutely be an Homage Weekend though, similar to what we saw in Monza this year, but worse because it’s like, 2001 that they’re homaging. That’s great for us though, because Danielle would show up in low rise jeans and a studded belt with her throwback Ferrari baby tee. Ferrari, of course, is like “great, the Weird and Offputting one is doing weird and offputting things again” and then she would post a bunch of pictures on instagram stories of Michael serving cunt (and then a bunch of photos of Jenson being normal just because and Jenson comments kissy faces and tags Jules)
Everyone else is asking where the Marlboro logo is
fully understand some people may not be interested in this! everything is below the cut!
I know I said this is the Happy Fantasy timeline that canon!Danielle likes to think about and I promise it is! Most of the content warning is in reference to Danielle's anxieties about what might happen.
They've talked about it in the abstract, but winter break before the start of the 2024 season is when Danielle first seriously entertains having a baby. She's already 34. The OBGYN will consider her "geriatric" at 35. Michelle had sent her links to maternal age statistics for both Australia and France, but it doesn't really make her feel any better. It just reminds her how different she is from other women, how a life of racing has affected her body. It makes her nervous.
She brings it up at home one night, how she's achieved her dream in F1 and it's okay if she stops now. She's done what she wanted to do, and it might actually be nice to retire, take a step back, be a mum. She jokes about being the hottest WAG, and teeny Ferrari baby clothes, and how small they'd have to make the font in the graphic that would pop-up when the broadcast cut to her in the garage in order to fit everything in. Jules says instead of making the font smaller, they should just make the graphic laughably bigger. And then they have a serious conversation about retirement and fairness and starting a family, and decide that they're both done, not just Danielle.
And then as they approach the end of the season, Danielle wants to be excited but mostly, she secretly worried that it won't work. She'll retire from the sport and it'll have been all for nothing because she won't be able to get pregnant and it'll be her fault for neglecting her physical wellbeing just to feed her own ego. She can't take a World Championship trophy to the karting track or teach it to read or dress it in baby-sized rosso corsa. She needs to breathe. It'll happen when it happens. Everything will be okay.
Because this is Happy Fantasy verse, everything is okay. Imagine driving your last race in Formula 1 on 8 December and then finding out you're pregnant at the beginning of January. Quick turnaround time, you've never done anything slow in your life.
Baby is due 02 Sept, 2025 and born 05 Sept. That's Monza weekend! The most Ferrari baby ever :)
Also I don't want to give too much away so all I'll say is keep an eye out for babyfic 👀
