The South-African antelope Stuart Maloti is a living legend in the sport. He comes from a modest background from a family with not that many means, but a strong commitment to make their child's dream come true. His father used to be the mechanic for his own kart during his youth career in karting. His family had almost sold everything, until a scout from McLaren had seen him drive, and saw a lot of potential in this prodigy. From that point, he was sponsored through his racing career, and quickly found his way in the single-seater cars, where he stood up against more seasoned drivers and managed to rise above. Rumours where going around the racing world. Racing had been dominated by humans and predator anthros in the past, and if Stuart would make it into F1, he would be the first prey anthro to do so. But, against all odds, Stuart won the GP2 championship, and McLaren offered a contract to drive for them the next F1 season.

What Stuart didn't know at the time is that his team mate was going to be the reigning world champion, Alonso Fernandez, who switched teams over the winter break. When the driver line-up was announced, people expected Fernandez to dominate in the races, but Stuart turned out to be a bigger contender than expected. The two went head to head in the championship and he nearly clinched it. But one mistake where he crashed the car when the title was up for grabs and one mechanical failure later, he missed his first championship by one point. Not to his team mate Fernandez, but to the Ferrari driver who had been chasing them all season. It was a bitter pill to swallow, but the next year he would come back wiser and more experienced. And with a bit of luck on his side, he managed to grab his first title.

Four years (and as many championships won) later, the world was in shock when he announced his move to arch rival Ferrari, the one team who he lost his first championship against. Over the years, he had grown frustrated with his current teams increasing mistakes that in the past two years almost cost him the title. Ferrari on the other hand was coming out of a slump and was looking very promising to be the fastest car after the regulation change the upcoming season. However, this was not the only thing that pulled him into the team: he would also be the mentor of another exciting rookie driver, Imola Mantovani, who is secretly a Dullahan (but he's in on the secret). The Italian protégé is the first woman in the sport for quite a while, and looks to have a very promising future career ahead of her. She's been looking up to Stuart, and is thrilled to drive together with him in the same team.

As confident as he is behind the wheel, out of the car that confidence seems to fade away. He doesn't like all the media obligations, as they often tend to trigger his prey instincts. He's fled a press conference once or twice in blind fear. What makes things worse is that this may also trigger a transformation into his feral form, which he desperately tries to keep a secret. He often finds his feral form really calming, as long as he's not forced into it by a flight response. Outside his family, only close friends (including Imola) know about this secret...

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Drew this back in June and kept for the occasion to post it. I've been an F1 fan for a few years, and this weekend I'll attend the my first race this weekend in Zandvoort and I'm hyped! 😄 I imagine that in this story universe has its own grid of F1 drivers, which allows a bit more freedom with storytelling...

Imola is owned by  sabrina-taur

Drawn in InkScape.

Well, let's show how Imola really wanted to pose for this picture...