INTERLUDE: DAKOTAS POLAROID ALBUM

Australia 2018: Dakota outside of the FIA motorhome at her first GP with Toro Rosso

Monaco 2018: Dakota McManus and Daniel Ricciardo following Daniel's race victory.

It was the first victory that she would celebrate with a team over her F1 career.

England 2018: Pierre Gasly and Dakota go karting in Bristol ahead of Silverstone.

Dakota won by a very slim margin.

Canada 2018: Dakota, Lance Stroll, Esteban Ocon, Charles Leclerc and Virginia McManus at a dive bar in Montreal following the Montreal Grand Prix.

Austin, Texas 2018: Nico Hulkenberg, Carlos Sainz Jr and Dakota get stranded at McDonalds with Cyril Abiteboul after Cyril's Renault blew a tyre and the rental didn't have a spare. 

New Zealand 2018 (summer break!): Pierre, Dakota and Brendan Hartley play twister.

Pierre won, but Brendan still insists he cheated.

Bahrain 2018: Dakota tries on her custom boiler suit now that she has been offered a pit crew position

MIAMI, FLORIDA

Dakota hadn't even realized that she was crying as she sat in her corner of the hospitality suite, mug of hot chocolate in hand.

The race had not gone Alpha's way, with Pierre crashing into Lando and Yuki finishing outside of the top ten. Pierre was refusing to take the blame for the crash, and a splitting migraine had seen Dakota leave the track before the race was even over, closing herself away in a dark room to sleep the pain off.

After she woke up, when she went looking in her bag for the meds, as podium celebrations raged on for Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, she found herself heading down memory lane, trying to remember what she was doing this for.

The purpose that would somehow make her make sense of what was happening, why her life seemed to be falling apart at the seams.

How it took her this long to realize that she needed to cut the head off the snake before it poisoned her bloodstream, so to speak. With that being that she needed to destroy all ties with Helmut Marko.

She remembered the pages of journal entries she scrawled out when she felt like she couldn't talk to anybody, the things she told Lance because she thought he was the only one who would understand what it meant to be young in this damn world, the things that made him go 'what the fuck' when she explained how Helmut Marko told her she couldn't drive, that she was barely qualified to be in the Toro Rosso garage.

All the times she had proved him wrong.

Top ten free practice finishes, fastest pit stops.

She was so much more than Red Bull Racing, and she did it all for herself.

"Love bug?" A soft voice called from just in front of her. "Are you okay."

She looked up, matching eyes with Yuki as she wiped at her tears. "I'm fine. The headache's gone down, I think sleep did me some good. But you know how it is when I get stressed, and P storming about the place wasn't exactly making things better. Come here, I want to show you something."

Mac shuffled over, making room for Yuki on the couch as she placed the photo album between them.

The driver flicked through a few pages before turning to Dakota. "This was your first season."

Dakota nodded, pointing to a selfie of her on Toro Rosso's private plane. Pierre's head was just visible in the background, Danny Ric trying to get into the frame.

"That was my first plane ride with the team, just after I got my internship. We flew non-stop from Sydney to Saudi and I still don't think I've ever been more jet lagged in my life." She turned a few pages. "This was summer break in New Zealand, my granddad rented a villa right on the beach. He was like a father to Hartley and P. He always referred to him as 'his boys'. Now you know where I get it from. One of the other young techs took this picture, he ended up quitting and working for a local team on the Indian circuit, but we had been playing drunk twister all night. Pierre even managed to get granddad to join in."

They both laughed, and Yuki felt a weight lift off his shoulders at seeing Dakota smile again, some of his external worry evaporating as he realized that Dakota was going to be okay.

"Look at us. We were so happy, Yuki. Before Red Bull broke us. I keep this album with me every race weekend, it reminds me where I come from, what I'm doing this for."

"You're going to get through this, Dakota. Pierre and I talked to Toto today." Yuki hesitated "Well, mostly Pierre. He set up a meeting for Barcelona. There is nowhere to go but up." He kissed her softly. "I'm proud of you, and I know you can get that Merc job without needing to call in favors. You could be a race engineer one day, maybe even a team principal. When we get to Spain, I want to do something just the two of us. So you can relax for a little bit. Maybe it will help you find yourself again."

Dakota smiled, resting her head on Yuki's shoulder, the cold hot chocolate sitting on an end table. "I hope you're right. Sometimes I don't remember who I am outside of this sport. Once I find myself again, I know I'll know what to do. There's just one more step I need to get through."

She didn't say it out loud, but her conversation with Marcus Ericsson, former teammate of Charles Leclerc and future Indy 500 winner, had reminded her of how important friendship is, how important your loved ones are.

And that's why she needed to talk to Daniil Kvyat, the one person who would understand. Someone else who had also been through the worst parts of Red Bull Racing.

Someone who would help her burn the organization to the ground.