beef_daph-v-niki_fic

Daphne Bieshaar is the greatest woman to ever race in Formula One. That’s not hyperbole — that’s an empirically proven, statistically backed fact. As of 2029, she already has three World Drivers Championships, and is on her way to her fourth as we publish this video. Alongside her now-fiancee Vikka-Marin Simonsson and longtime friend Yachiru Koga, the three have pushed the boundaries of the sport like never before, sharing six of the seven world titles won by female drivers in the past ten years.

Nikita Mazepin, on the other hand, is the son of Dmitry Mazepin, now-sanctioned former owner of Uralkali, who sponsored the shambolically slow Haas F1 cars Nikita is driving…when he could drive it, and even then he’s often the last to arrive after every race. If he even arrives in one piece. He's also a brash, brutish man with a history of sexual assault, including much-publicized cases against Koga and Simonsson.

Daphne hates him for that, and won't let Nikita hear the end of it -- or her greatness considering they come from the same crop of F3 racers. But it's actually the on-track incidents between him and Bieshaar -- plus two nut shots and a helmet hit -- that will turn this beef from a slow-roasting dish into a roaring, bloody, geopolitical fire.

This isn't beef, it's a whole ranch -- and that ranch is a warzone.

See, Nikita and Daphne have known each other since 2016, when Bieshaar first burst onto the scene as a breakout superstar driving for the Merlion Racing team out of Singapore, who at the time competed in Japan's Super GT and Super Formula as well as the Asia Le Mans Series. The Filipina-Dutch driver shocked the world of motorsport by winning both the Super Formula and Asia Le Mans LMP2 titles in her rookie season on the same year she won the Formula 3 European Championship and the Macau Grand Prix. The latter two also featured Mazepin languishing in the standings: 20th with just 10 points in F3 and smacked out of Macau in a first-lap pileup.

But that didn't stop beef from starting to cook between the two -- Daphne's lone DNF, at her home race in Zandvoort -- was caused by Nikita rear-ending her in the pit garage, injuring her and three pit crewmen. She wasted no time putting Mazepin on blast.

After a week, Bieshaar recovered and ripped Mazepin's recklessness in the Dutch-language interview she gave Dde Telegraaf. And she wasn't alone: Lance Stroll and George Russell, for example, had their own choice words for the Russian driver. For that crash, Mazepin was docked two points from his superlicense and was fined €50,000 for his role in the crash. Safe to say that Mazepin felt slighted, but apologized profusely to Bieshaar and even visited the medical facility where the others were admitted.

That was supposed to be it. And then Dmitriy's dad made it personal.