#Top 16 Best Sports Cars

[sofs16]

let you break my heart again — 4

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♫ i miss you i’m sorry - gracie abrams

charles_leclerc

liked by landonorris, lorenzotl, pierregasly, and 21,833 others

charles_leclerc Really happy to be part of the Ferrari Drivers Academy and be development driver for Scuderia Ferrari :) For you, (your initial).

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march 1, 2016

charles_leclerc

liked by arthur_leclerc, lorenzotl, and 12,392 others charles_leclerc 🏆🏆YESSSSSSSSS!!!!!!! GP3 CHAMPION !!!! A huge thanks to all ARTGP !!!!! WE DID IT !!! ❤️❤️ This one is for you Julio

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november 26, 2016

yn.yln.16 has gone public!

yn.yln.16

liked by kylie_yln, and 4,839 others

yn.yln.16 holy moly so proud of you big sister 🥹

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kylie_yln 🥹❤️

january 5, 2017

charles_leclerc

liked by 13,484 others

charles_leclerc Dreams come true 💫

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january 15, 2017

yn.yln.16

liked by pascale_leclerc, and 7,292 others

yn.yln.16 REAL VOGUE GIRL!!!

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kylie_yln best vogue intern 🤩

february 8, 2017

yn.yln.16

liked by bellahadid, lorenzotl, and 12,942 others

yn.yln.16 made a best friend at work ❤️‍🩹

p.s new article is up in my blog 🫧

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bellahadid youre something special 🦋

user92 what do you write about? :)

⤷ yn.yln.16 sports and fashion 😚🤍

february 20, 2017

yn.yln.16

liked by 17,393 others

yn.yln.16 tonight’s football game article is up!!! view all 158 comments

march 4, 2017

charles_leclerc

liked by zhouguanyu24, and 18,295 others

charles_leclerc Prema today ! Working to get back on the top step as soon as possible 🙂🏆

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april 26, 2017

yn.yln.16 posted a story!

caption: “me and the boys when we aren’t writing a 10 page essay ”

viewed by pascale_leclerc, bawsixteen, and 521,102 others

replies:

kylie_yln anyone cute? 😚

⤷ yn.yln.16 looollll no 😖

pascale_leclerc Stay safe, chérie ❤️

⤷ yn.yln.16 ouiii maman!!! see you soon:)

gigihadid

monaco gp

liked by charles_leclerc, and 8,368,560 others

gigihadid Go HAM lewishamilton!

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Maman 💇‍♀️

Charles, before you find out from anyone else, I am having lunch with Yn today.

Charles🤦‍♂️

What? Where?

How long will she be there?

Is she with you now? Maman?

yln.updated

liked by yn.yln.16, and 7,292 others

yln.updated yn out having lunch with her childhood neighbors! via. chefsmonaco: “Met yn.yln.16 this afternoon! Kindest soul who had lunch at our restaurant!” view all 1,684 others

yn.yln.16 chefsmonaco Loved the food, will surely come back! 🤍🥹

may 28, 2017

kylie_yln just posted a story!

caption: “little sis & me work time 🤪 yn.yln.16”

viewed by charles_leclerc, and 32,910,842 others

yn.yln.16

liked by kylie_yln, bellahadid, bawsixteen and 1,017,605 others

yn.yln.16 so so thankful to have written my first vogue article about my beautiful sister !!!! kylie.yln 🥹🤍

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user82 notice how her first article is ab her sister.. talentless nepo babbyyy lol

⤷ yn.yln.16 yeah but hey, atleast im writing in vogue and not crying abt it in someone’s post 🤷🏻‍♀️

⤷ user1 GAGGEDDDD LOLL I LOVE HER ALR

lorenzotl So proud of both of you! ⤷ yn.yln.16 ❤️

may 11, 2017

charles_leclerc

liked by kylie_yln, pierregasly, and 21,292 others

charles_leclerc POLEEE POSITIONNN 🏎️ 2 poles out of 2 Qualifyings. Thanks again prema_team for the great car. But tomorrow is the day that counts ! 👊🏻

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kkkwupdates what is kylie doin in his likes 😭

⤷ user27 theyre friends

may 12, 2017

BBC NEWS • SHORT STORIES

MEET YN YLN May 29, 2017

Yn Yln has been making her mark in the industry.

From detailed writing on fashion pieces to analyzing the newest models of F1 cars, Yn Yln is racing through the internet.

Yln told the BBC it was her bursting of emotions that first got her to write.

Her love of fashion was what started her journey. She put up her first blog up in 2010 titled “Layering”. Yln showcased several ways to style for the winter which skyrocketed her blog.

She then wrote about the racing sport. Yln mentioned a friend of hers raced and that is where her writing started to flourish.

“He just got me really interested in the sport that I couldn’t go a week without writing whether Hamilton got a win or modifications had been made to the sport.”

The writer got her first issue in Vogue out this May 11th. The issue was about her sister, Kylie Yln, and her entrepreneurship.

But while she has achieved much beyond her years, Yln has much more ahead of her. She continues to help the writing industry advance and flourish.

MORE

F1 2018: Charles Leclerc confirmed at Sauber

Kylie Yln launches new collection

yn.yln.16

liked by bellahadid, lewishamilton, voguemagazine, kylie.yln, pascale_leclerc, lorenzotl, bawsixteen, and 3,594,192 others

yn.yln.16 you're looking at the new f1 correspondent and presenter 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 tears 😭😭😭😭😭 screaming

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lewishamilton Welcome to the club!🖤

⤷ yn.yln.16 Thank you so much🥹🥹🏎️

kylie.yln Proudest of you

[liked by yn.yln.16]

lorenzotl ❤️❤️❤️

pascale_leclerc 😍❤️

user1 what will you do? ⤷ yn.yln.16 writer some articles and present with sky tv 🍓

november 28, 2017

charles_leclerc

liked by kylie_yln, and 1,812,292 others

charles_leclerc I remember watching Formula 1 being younger and dreaming of one day being part of it. I can't believe this day has arrived and that I will be racing with Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team for the 2018 Formula 1 World Championship. I am hugely thankful to all the people who have been involved in my path to Formula 1.

A special thought to my father that did absolutly everthing for me to get there and to Jules that also helped me massively, I wish you two were here to see that but l'm sure you will follow me from up there.

A special thank you to the Ferrari Drivers Academy/Scuderia Ferrari, my sponsors/partners, Nicolas Todt/All Road Management, my family, all the people close to me during all these years & obviously Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team for giving me this opportunity.

Also, a special thank you to (your initial). This is also for you and I’m proud of you.🤍

Still a long way to go to my second dream..! So back to work and see vou in Melbourne 🏎️

december 3, 2017

Charles Leclerc explains reasons behind #16 F1 number choice

december 13, 2017

Since he was young, Leclerc has been dreamt of his future in being an F1 driver, as well as his future number.

The 20 year old driver explains it has always been the number he was going to pick.

“There is too much emotional connection for me to not pick this number. I hold this number deep in my heart and the person who helped me achieve everything, is mainly the reason. I hope to do the number well and give it justice.”

He has yet to specify who he is talking about but fans would guess a close friend. READ MORE…

16spriv

liked by kyliexoxo, bells888 and 47 others

16spriv

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bells888 the no caption is so real

⤷16spriv STOPPP ITS MY NUMBER. NOW I HAVE TO CHANGE MYUSERNAME. goodbye yn.yln.16.

kyliexoxo deeeep breaths sister

⤷ 16spriv 🧘‍♀️

yn.yln

liked by bellahadid, lorenzotl, and 4,217,282 others

yn.yln bffr. time to work

view all 1,282,955 comments

user2 why is she famous again?

⤷ yn.yln am i even famous

⤷user2 😂

⤷ user3 she’s a talented writer and her sister is $$$

ylnsbabe the 16 in her user is gone????

⤷ f1wags holymoly

february 13, 2018

MARCH 25, 2018

it was nerve shaking for both yn and charles to come into the paddock knowing the other would be there but they both walked in with confidence.

with charles in his rookie season, many interviewers were trying to get his input on it. he searched the faces for that one (y/h/c) but proceeded to answer questions while walking.

as he started to leave the group, he had the urge to turn around. and when he did, he was met with those (y/e/c) and nostalgia.

the interviewers started to disperse, getting in his line of vision for a moment before they were focues on her.

this was his second shot and he was not going to waste it.

TAGLIST @1655clean @uuzhanggggggg @cmleitora @annie115 @valntynebaby @mrosales16 @d3kstar @stopeatread @chimchimjiminie16 @viennakarma @peqch-pie @scaramou @daniellarogers

NOTE sorry it took so long to upload:( hope everyone has a good year!! this took me a while and a lot of things aren’t accurate, such as the job description, but its fictional!!

[shorelinessightlines]

Jupiter is often referred to as the star that failed. Max thinks about that, sometimes, when they're racing and he's just passed Daniel on track. He can look in his rearview mirrors and see the little three on the AlphaTauri—Daniel, in a shitty car he outperforms every weekend, and Max, already set for the podium.

When Max is particularly bored, he rewatches old races from 2014, ‘16, ‘18 and thinks about it, unbidden—how if Lewis and Max simply didn't exist, it might’ve been Daniel on the top step at the very end of the season. Daniel fighting for titles and wins, not letting anyone keep the 1st place cap on their head long enough to mess up their hair. If he'd just been a little quicker, a little more ruthless; if he'd stuck around long enough for the Honda engine, the RB19. If Daniel had just been a fraction of a second better.

Then Max feels bad for ever thinking such a thing. Not because it isn’t true, but because it sounds like something his dad would say.

Jos used to buy Max magazines full of interviews by Senna, Prost, Mansell. He said they were full of stars. He laughed at Max when they got home after Zandvoort in 2011, back when Max was still in karting and Daniel was just starting out in F1, and Max had said: "I want to be just like him."

That Christmas Jos bought Max a poster of Nigel Piquet and said, "This is the type of man you should be looking up to." Max hung it up on his ceiling that night and stared at it. He had thought, privately, that if Piquet was a star then he must have been one of those small stars, the ones that you can’t really see from Earth without a telescope. Daniel was closer, brighter. Sun-like.

He tore down the poster the next morning.

Jos was right, of course, to steer Max towards more successful heroes. Jos would never point to Daniel's article in GQ Sports and tell Max he's looking at a star. Daniel smiles at him, though, on the paddock and off, and it feels like sunshine.

He tells Daniel as much during the summer break, in Daniel's Monaco apartment, tipsy off some expensive wine Max can't even pronounce the name of.

"Jupiter is a very stupid planet," Max is ranting, unreasonably pissed about it. "You know, it has ninety-five moons? The fuck does it need ninety-five moons for? Stupid." He chugs another sip of wine, straight from the bottle. Daniel does the same.

"Jupiter?" Daniel muses after he swallows, less inebriated than Max but still drunk enough to have begun sitting on the couch upside down. The top of his skull almost touches the floor. "Mate, don't diss Jupiter like that. Space gets lonely, maybe."

Max snorts. "It is a planet, Daniel, it does not get lonely. It should just have one moon, or no moons. It is not very loyal."

"It is a planet, Maximus, it cannot be loyal," Daniel says back to him, snarky, in a high-pitched voice and a bad Dutch accent.

"Is that supposed to be me?" He shoves at him, accidentally causing Daniel's head to bang against the floor. Whatever. He deserves it. "Name one good thing about Jupiter."

Daniel shrugs as best as he can. "Biggest planet in our solar system or whatever the fuck. Why are we talking about Jupiter again?"

"Because it is awful, and my dad is not correct." Daniel laughs, at that.

"What? Does your dad, like, love Jupiter or something?"

Max points, accusatory. "See, that is exactly the point! He does not love Jupiter! In fact, he is awful about Jupiter!"

Max can almost see the gears in Daniel's head grind together slowly. "Then why are you dissing Jupiter?"

Max groans. His thoughts make less and less sense the more he goes on. "I am not, of course, dissing Jupiter. I am simply pointing out the fact that Jupiter is not a star and you, obviously, are a star." He's getting lost in his own, brilliant analogy.

Daniel says, "Oh yeah, Maxy?" He has his stupid smile on, the one that Max knows means he thinks Max is crazy but will indulge him anyway. "Well it's very nice that you think so."

"Of course I think so," Max scoffs, perfectly serious. He hates that he can't really look Daniel in the eye, sitting right-side-up. He opts to sit like Daniel, head towards the floor and legs slung over the back of the couch, so he can stare directly at him. "I am being serious."

"Well, I'm serious about that Jupiter shit. Best planet ever. Number one Jupiter defender, right here," Daniel slurs, pointing at himself and flashing his brilliant, sun-warm smile.

Max can't help but smile too.

"You are very stupid," he says, and it sounds like something else. "I am trying to tell you that I think you—you." He flushes, cutting himself off and looking away from Daniel, up towards the ceiling.

"Ah, whatever Maxy. You just can't accept Jupiter's superiority."

Max tries one last time, to make him understand. "Jupiter is called the star that failed," he says, trying to prove something.

Daniel is looking at him, he can feel it. His stare burns a hole in the side of Max's head. "I'm okay with that," he says, suddenly very very soft. "Jupiter's the biggest planet in the solar system. He's got a whole ninety-five moons."

"But he is not a star," Max scowls.

Daniel smiles again, smaller. Kinder. "He gets to orbit a star. He gets to be the biggest planet, and orbit a fucking star, the best star in the universe. That's a pretty sweet deal if you ask me."

Max shakes his head and says, "You are unbelievable." He reaches over to grab Daniel's stupid face and kiss him, and promptly falls off the couch.

[dear-ao3]

the 2024 formula 1 silly season and drama master post, part 2 (part 1 here)

Hello and welcome to ah fucking fuck auto caps fuck fuck fuck how do i turn off auto caps AHA there we go okay. take 2

hello and welcome to the great and very insane formula 1 2024 season drama post, part 2. if you are new here or are just looking for part one (which contains the previous 16 (?) races, the off season, pre season testing and everything else, that can be found HERE. (a word to the wise: open it in a browser, not the app, and preferably on a computer to avoid crashing. its fucking long). 

what the hell is formula 1? car go fast. fastest cars in the world zoom around tracks at top speeds of over 300kph, piloted by the top 20 drivers in the world. it might not sound dramatic, but oh man. you will Not be disappointed. this post focuses on the drama, the insanity, the sheer what the hell how is this a serious sport. no legitimately. we've just about seen it all this year. grindr, dogs, watersports, ice cream brands, its all here.

the point of this post? to educate, to catalog the insane drama, and to just have a good time. people like to gatekeep this sport, there is also a lot happening. i try to make it easy to understand. again, probably best to start at the beginning of the post because it does a pretty good job of explaining things, which i began way back in january, and can be found HERE (again, shes long, be careful)

and, as usual, if you do not want to see this post EVER AGAIN, block the tag #saph explains silly season 2024

and a second caution, i assume this post will be getting long as well. including this one we have minimum 9 updates left!

anyway, those of you who have been following along the whole time, welcome back! i know we got a little delayed. and i know we’re on a new post, so lets just briefly take a second for me to explain what the fuck happened. first i had an anatomy test, second i work 2 jobs with fuck ass hours, third tumblr decided to stop letting me look at any of my drafts, fourth tumblr support ghosted me about the drafts issue and the post was half saving half not so i just decided fuck it, were going with post 2, electric boogaloo, and fifth, i decided to start typing this instead in a google docs so. many changes. if you're new here i am usually more on top of this.

but here we are. were back on street circuits. we’re in baku, azerbaijan, for the start of the last third of the season. 8 races remain, world championship titles are still within grasp of multiple people. the drama is dramaing. and today is september 22, 2024 and lets fucking go. 

first and foremost, on account of the fact that this post is late (again, see above), were going to have to do a bit of a speed run. if you're new here, i promise that this is not representative of my normal dedication to the update post. and for those asking, yeah, ill probably compile it somewhere better than a tumblr post after its all said and done, but we don't have time for that now. 

what we do have time for is the Off Week (and like some of the media stuff). and it was filled with silliness: 

george russell decided to wear what can only be described as slightly ugly yellow short shorts with his taylor swift shirt that he got at the eras tour. this was baffling for several reasons, the main reason being that i don't think the internet knew that he was capable of wearing a graphic t shirt

fernando alonso got his aston martin valkyrie finally. in case you are unfamiliar, a valkyrie i think is the worlds fastest street legal car. he posted tweets about this that made it seem like he wanted to fuck the car. hilariously, the car broke down an hour later.

we also had the very thrilling conclusion to grill the grid. oscar won and he somehow managed to look more pleased about his grill the grid win than his first race victory. 

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nico rosberg went to the green awards and he wore a fantastically insane teal blue suit. yes i know hes not a current driver. but you all like hearing about him so ask and you shall receive. unfornunately i cant find a picture of it though

and also not a current driver is mick schumacher, but my roommate asked me to include that he was seen on his girlfriends instagram being bad at golf. like. exceptionally bad at golf. like he hit a tree 20 feet in front of him.

also playing golf was lando norris. except he managed to look like try bolton from high school musical 2.

he also talked about the world driver championship with his friend max fewtrell while they were playing golf. unfortunately i lost this link in the sea of technical difficulties, but the gist of it was that he was saying that there is still hope for him to beat max in the championship (hes about 60 points behind right now). lando doesnt usually talk about the championship because he doesnt want news outlets to paint him as “desperate” so this was interesting

charles leclerc had an insane off week. first he rear ended someone in monaco. then he spoke at a yacht conference. he was not scheduled to speak at said yacht conference, he was there doing something else and they were like hey you're cool people know you, heres a microphone. he alsp ended up on a weather channel while promoting a karting event he was doing for the jules bianchi foundation (his god father, the one who died during the f1 race in japan 2014). he also changed his instagram pop and re centered it because some random tiktoker told him it matched his aesthetic better.

oscar piastri posted a photo of himself sitting in the cockpit of a plane and then promptly deleted it. because he posted it on 9/11. for anyone who doesnt know what that is, that was when some terrorists hijacked commercial planes and few them into the world trade centers in nyc and the pentagon in washington dc

max verstappen also posted a plane pic with himself and lando norris, but he did not delete it.

we also had the return of daniel ricciardo’s jpg instagram account, which is kinda like a finsta for photos that hes taken. i think lando started this a few years ago. 

heading into the race week we certainly got a weird ass batch of pr. including but not limited to:

lewis hamilton was back on top and slaying in the fit game. as was yuki. 

lewis hamilton also exposed george russell as listening to katy perry pre race. katy perry and taylor swift (this was after he claimed that he liked listening to old school rap music.) though, lewis then started singing wrecking ball???? confusing vibes all around

george was not off the hook yet tho because some intern definitely make him say skidibidi toilet or whatever the thing is idk, i might be gen z but im not insufferable, okay? actually george in baku was just all kinds of unhinged

george and alex also got up to something, what it is no one knows but it is clearly something

max pulled up to the paddock de aged about 10 years. picture one is of him in baku in 2015 (i believe he was 17) and picture 2 is this year. no i am not kidding. 

and franco walked into the paddock telling everyone about argentinian mate (which is a drink, not a friend)

and max shoved a microphone out of the way so everyone could gossip

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then of course, we had some slightly more relevant drama

haas announced that ollie would be replacing kevin at baku. in case you forgot, kevin magnussen received a total of 12 penalty points over the season so far, which means he gets one race ban. how did he get the points? well he was mostly wreaking havoc on everyone else so that his teammate, nico hulkenberg, could drag his car into the points. lets all remember the time in saudi arabia where he managed to get 20 seconds of penalties by basically driving like a mad man just to make sure that nico could keep his position after he pit stopped. anyway, nico was kind of pissed about the race ban situation and said “maybe the guidelines for F1 penalties need to be reviewed as the stewards ‘want to get involved’ no matter the contact.”

in any case though, k mags was out. and ollie was in. we’ve seen ollie before. notably he subbed in for carlos sainz at the saudi arabia gp when carlos had appendicitis. he managed to get points as well. since then, he has been announced as a haas driver for 2025 and is now subbing in for k mags (haas, later in the week called him a super sub. clearly no gen z person read that over.) he can do this because ferrari has a haas engine so they share reserve drivers.

adrian newey finally got employed. i know! i can hardly believe it either! but he did! and youll never guess where! 

ferrari? no that would be too obvious. 

mercedes? nah

williams? no too much of a shit show

aston martin? ding ding ding! just the right amount of shit show! 

that is right. newey is going to aston for 2025. 

apparently he was offered a “good package” according to himself, which i assume means pay and also the fact that lawrence stroll made him a shareholder? stakeholder? whatever its called. in the team itself. basically he has a lot of power. 

he said that he always wanted to work with fernando and lewis. and he couldn't do both. and aston had a better package than ferrari. 

fernando looked positively evil during all the announcement pictures. and called the team "definitely the team of the future" and for those of you who don't know, fernando is positively evil. hes just been stuck in a shit box and we havent seen very much of him, but man does he know how to evilly slut it up. so that will be fun to see.

by contrast, people said that lance was not excited enough. and well. lance 1. has resting bitch face and 2. never really looks excited about anything. also he lives in a world where take your child to work day somehow became his job. (his dad owns the team).

lewis hamilton was asked what he thought about adrian not going to ferrari, and here's what he had to say:

"i feel like, while I have mentioned before that it would be an honor to work with adrian, i have been privileged to work with two championship winning teams that didnt have adrian."

mclaren announced pato o ward would do FP1 in mexico. who is pato o ward? hes one of mclaren’s indycar drivers and one of the f1 reserve drivers. he is incredibly charming and definitely runs his own social media as seen here:

mclaren Also claim they figured out who their number 2 driver is and they claim its oscar. i say they claim because the statements were a lot more complex than that. essentially, according to andrea stella, the priority is to the team first, then lando and then oscar. so they didn't outright say that oscar is the number 2 driver and i am willing to bet real money that this is because mr mark webber, oscars manager, has something in oscars contract that prevents him from being a number 2 driver. this is of course because mark webber was one of the most infamous number 2 drivers in f1 history to none other than menace war criminal sebastian vettel, who in their time as teammates, managed to win 4 back to back world champions. or, top to bottom if you're mrs darbus from high school musical. 

lando was asked about this and he said that yes, the team does support him. though he would not expect oscar to give up a win for him and that it is more complex behind the scenes. i suppose we will see if there are any papaya rules coming out this weekend….

and oscar said "i think the main point is its not purely just going to be me pulling over for lando every single race, because thats how none of us, including lando, wont want to go racing, if we feel that someone has done a much better job on a weekend, whichever way it is, we want that person to be rewarded."

max verstappen commented on the mclaren situation as well. which was funny mostly because red bull has one of the most defined number 1 and number 2 drivers of any team. he said "you look at it form oscar's perspective, he is closer to lando than lando to me. they have to deal with that."

and allow me to put on a tin foil hat as we are about to talk about the future of the red bull seat. because all i have to offer here is a baseball hat and a red bull can. 

a long time ago we talked about the red bull cans. the ones that red bull makes to promote f1. at the end of last season red bull put max and checo on the red bull can. this season at the start it was just max on the red bull can. well. now checo has reappeared on the cans too. and i will tell you what i think this means. it means that checo is not getting swapped this season, which was a possibility for awhile. 

but! there is more! 

daniel ricciardo made an instagram post this week. and it was very interesting. but most interestingly he was wearing a red bull hat.

which he does occasionally, no big deal really. he did race for the for several years, he technically does currently. BUT then he showed up TO THE PADDOCK wearing the red bull hat.

which is Big Interesting. usually you show up in a statement outfit or wearing the team kit. and daniel is not a red bull racing driver. he is a visa cashapp racing bulls driver. they might be owned by red bull but they are Not the same team. so why the red bull hat. in the paddock. well, the rumor is that hes taking checos seat for 2025. and the rumor is that this will be announced before mexico. so checo can have a proper send off. 

and with that. the baku lore. 

theres a lot that has happened at baku. as i said its a street circuit. and i think its the fastest street circuit. but over the years theres been some notable events. 

such as the great kimi raikkonen radio for gloves and steering wheel:

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they gave mini kimi this week gloves and steering wheel in honor of that

the max and daniel crash in 2018 when they were running p1 and p2 respectfully

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and of course. how could we forget. charles’s infamous “i am stupid” radio.

speaking of charles, he crashed again in fp1. not quite in the same spot, but nearly. he took a picture with the marshalls. 

then in fp2 he rage quit, basically saying that the car sucks. 

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but he was back and better than ever in practice three because he managed to top the time charts. welcome back fuck ass ferrari.

some other teams definitely experienced the lows but not really the highs of baku during practice. like lance stroll who came on the radio to say “this is not a car” (good thing they have adrian newey now, right? 

franco colapinto also cut his ear before practice on the neck strengthener stretcher thing that they all use and the team wanted to give him stitches but he was like no no no i need to be in the car in about 5 minutes im not doing that. so he jammed on his helmet and jumped in the car. he also crashed and when he went to the medical center he took off his helmet and there was blood everywhere and they were like no no no you cannot race! and he was like no! this is not from the crash! and then explained it and they let him do qualifying. 

also im pretty sure? ollie bearman crashed? in practice? but frankly i don't have time to google it so whos to say. 

but alas. qualifying. 

i know i know this is kind of a shitty update. i promise ill go all out in singapore. i PROMISE. 

so as i said. its a street circuit. high speed. 90 degree corners. and also windy as hell. we also had the dynamic duo of karun and harry in the commentary box. 

max led the first practice, george led the second and i think charles led the third. or some order like that. 

slipstream here is almost essential (slipstream: going behind another car to reduce the wind drag so you can go faster) 

charles has the last three pole positions (first in qualifying) here in baku, but he has never won. by comparison, red bull have never had pole here but they have won. 

and franco has never been to baku before. 

i think that's all the exposition that we need here. 

q1 started with max complaining about his car. “the car is jumping around like crazy on the rear axle” he said. despite this he was sitting in p3. 

the mid field battle though….the mid field battle was heating the hell up. mostly because none other than franco colapinto, who if you will remember, has never been to baku before, had split the two ferraris. he was in third for the moment, .109 seconds behind carlos sainz and .159 seconds ahead of charles leclerc. we still had a lot of qualifying left to go, so this was probably not going to stay, but it was still insane. he was pushing insanely hard, nearly kissing the walls. clearly he had learned from his crash in practice. 

the two mclarens waited until the very end of q1 to do their final flying push lap, and oscar made it through, but tragedy struck for lando. 

lando was in the middle of his last flying lap, time was ticking down, and there was a Very Brief yellow flag on the track. now, according to rules, you cannot complete your flying lap if there is a yellow flag. so lando pitted and was stuck down in 17th and out of qualifying. this would be the first time that he was out in q1 since vegas last year (which if i remember correctly was also not his fault) 

now though, of course nothing is ever that cut and dry. people thought that there had been a mis showing of a flag. yellow flag means that a car is stopped on track, white flag means that a car is going slowly on the track. and people thought that there had been a yellow flag shown when it was actually supposed to be a white flag (if there had been a white flag then lando would have been able to keep doing his flying lap) lando himself said that he had no idea what people were talking about because there is a light on the steering wheel that lights up when flags are called and he had a big yellow light. so it was clearly a yellow flag. 

if you're concerned about lando being able to pull it out of the bag, id like to point you in the direction of the mexican gp last year where lando qualified 17th and finished 5th. on a track that was hard to overtake on. he can be absolutely insane when he wants to be. worry not gentle reader. 

in any case. also out in q1 was daniel ricciardo, valtteri bottas, zhou guanyu and esteban ocon.

and notably, williams, who was on fucking fire this weekend as we already saw, finished q1 with alex albon in second (ahead of oscar) and franco colapinto in 8th. pierre gasly had somehow managed to also get into 4th. and nico hulkenberg was in 7th with ollie bearman in 13th. i told you the mid field battle was heating the hell up. 

q2. everyone zoomed straight out of the gate. they didn't want to get lando norris’d. but, speaking of that, if lando managed to get no points in the race and charles managed to win, charles would overtake lando in the drivers championship. mark webber himself told this to charles, who was absolutely baffled. 

in any case, charles was kinda suffering right now and that was because he was not getting slipstream from carlos to make his lap faster. meanwhile, carlos seemed to be actively trying to give charles the slipstream because he came on radio to say “he keeps missing the tow” 

and amazingly, franco colapinto was 4 tenths AHEAD of alex albon. alex albon who had not been unqualified by his teammate once since the start of 2023. ex red bull driver alex albon. that alex albon. 

max topped the times in q2, followed immediately by charles. insanely, fernando alonso managed to drag the aston martin to fifth. and franco was right behind him in 6th. by comparison alex albon was in 10th. 

and from q2 we lost ollie bearman, yuki tsunoda (who has never qualified lower than 8th in baku), pierre gasly, nico hulkenberg and lance stroll. so yes, ollie bearman managed to outqualify nico hulkenberg. this is ollies second ever f1 race. 

steaming on forward to q3. 

we had, for review, in q3 the following: 

both ferraris, both red bulls, both mercedes, both WILLIAMS (has not happened since vegas 2023), plus fernando alonso and oscar piastri. 

right out the gate it was wild. 

“red bull! theyve re found their mojo! or have they!” karun said. red bull were in 5th and 6th and not entirely sucking for the moment. 

everyone did one flyer and then came out at the end for a second flyer. 

here were the standings: 

charles, carlos, oscar, george, checo, max, lewis, alex, franco, fernando

and everyone was making it to the line and all was going smooth until-

wait a second what is that

could it be! alex albon! with the air box fan still on his car! surely not!!!

oh but it was! and harry and karun were like oh wow so unfortunate for williams tisk tisk

meanwhile ted jumped on the radio to Loudly announce to everyone that this was insane and if i have time here i will put the rant he ranted cause it was Fantastic.

and what do you know i have time

so we had 3 minutes left qualifying and everyone was pulling out of the pits for their last flyer when oscar hopped on the radio to say

"the williams still has the air box fan in"

"oh what an error! disaster for williams!" karun and harry said. they speculated if the marshalls could get it or if the session needed to be red flagged. but alex threw the fan off the car.

and then they asked "ted have you ever seen that before?" and ted did not hold back:

"ITS A MASSIVE YELLOW FAN HOW COULD YOU MISS IT???!!! HOW COULD THE MECHANICS MISS IT???? I CANT BELIVE THEY WOULD MAKE SUCH A MISTAKE DOWN AT WILLIAMS! SUCH AN EXPERIENCED BUNCH OF GUYS AND GIRLS! WHAT IS GOING ON AT WILLIAMS OPERATIONALLY? HOW COULD YOU SEND A CAR OUT LIKE THAT?"

alex, obviously, got fined for an unsafe release 5k euros. he also had to throw the fan off to the side and got slightly covered in dry ice. he did not get to the a second flying lap. 

franco did tho!

and here were out qualifying results: 

p1: charles p2: oscar p3: carlos p4: checo p5: george p6: max p7: lewis p8: fernando p9: franco p10: alex  p11: ollie p12: yuki p13: pierre p14: nico p15: lance p16: daniel  p17: lando p18: valtteri p19: zhou p20: esteban 

oh ho ho but we werent done yet. because pierre gasly got disqualified from qualifying. for failing fuel flow regulations. and lewis was going to have to start from the pit lane for changing his power unit. 

everyone, and by everyone i mean oscar max and checo, pretty much said that charles was going to get pole no matter what, they knew this coming in and the best they were trying for was second

onto the race. 

notably, this is considered a checo track. this was one of the three races that max did not win last year. because checo won it. its a track that he does well on, evidenced by the fact that he qualified above max in qualifying. so people were expecting big things from him.

and so, we head into lap 1.

charles managed to hang onto the lead. checo passed carlos straight out of the gate for third and max managed to pass george to take fifth. lando had managed to get ahead of nico and up into 13th. notably, franco held onto 8th and ollie was able to hold onto tenth. 

someone who was not doing well was lance stroll, who came on the radio saying that he had a puncture. this was from contact with yuki. lance had to pit for fresh tires and was pretty immediately thrown to the back of the grid. 

by lap 2 lando had managed to get past daniel and was in 12th, he was trying to get past yuki next, which he managed by lap 3. yuki also lost a  spot to nico. 

also slaying in the mclaren was oscar, who took fastest lap. then charles took fastest lap.

and lewis hamilton, who had started from the pit lane, was up to 16th. already. somehow. though he was displeased with the tires, sayig that “this tire is pretty bad” over the radio. 

yuki meanwhile was clearly having a problem because he had started going very very slowly. thought the pit wall said that he had no problems. this would later turn out to be false but we will indulge them for the time being. 

franco was STILL ahead of alex albon on lap 6. STILL. 

lando on lap 8 managed to push his way into points positions, overtaking ollie bearman for 10th. though this was where things were about to slow down for him because in front of him were alex, franco and fernando, who were all very close together and would be hard to get past. 

george was back in bad luck hell as a plastic bag entered his airbox. will he ever catch a break. 

on lap 11 nico hulkenberg finally caught up with ollie bearman and passed him for 11th. 

and max’s car was not working. to potentially no one’s surprise. “i have zero bite in the car” he said. and this was probably true because checo was a whole 6.5 seconds ahead of him. insane gap. 

several pit stops later that i will not detail out because we simply do not have the time, alex albon ended up in 4th and lando ended up in fifth. and oscar was about to get undercut by checo. 

“mojo seems to be back for checo perez” harry said, correctly. 

mojo was back for him indeed. and now he was right behind lando. 

and if you will recall, according to mclaren themselves, priority at mclaren is the team first, then oscar, then lando. but oscar was ahead of lando. so what did mclaren do? 

they asked lando do hold up perez, but not compromise his own race. 

remever a long time ago when i said mclaren wouldn't have any internal drama this season? man how i was wrong.

lando managed to hold up perez for around a lap or two before he got past. this was crucial because this was during when oscar was in the pits. 

thanks to lando and the power of the papaya rules teamwork, oscar ended up coming out in 4th, only .706s ahead of checo. 

mclaren are working together everyone! mclaren are working together!

meanwhile, turns out that yuki did indeed have problems because he retired on lap 17 with a hole in his sidepod from the contact with lance on lap 1. this was now two races in a row where he had had to retire for reasons out of his control. 

several more people pitted. and eventually charles was back out in front, oscar was in p2. until he wasn't. no, he didn't dnf. he overtook charles! he was in p1! he popped out of nowhere! nowhere being 2 car lengths back and just flooring it to spring around charles like a little silly slinky! karun called it a “good, fair and robust defense,” which sounds like its descibing notes in wine. but this was not wine. this was the baku gp. and we were only half done. 

ollie bearman was defending against lewis hamilton, holding on tightly to 14th place. 

charles was still behind oscar and he could not get past, despite the fact that he was still very much in spitting distance. “they are pushing like crazy or they have more grip than us” he said. 

carlos got past both lando and alex albon and was up into 4th

this brought max up behind lando. max was on 11 lap old tires and lando was on 24 lap old tires. but lando still defended like hell and managed to hold onto sixth. max was 0.632 seconds behind lando on lap 25 when he said that “my brakes are not working.” this was hardly a surprise. max has hated the car since china.

also experiencing technical difficulties was sir lewis hamilton. he was stuck down in 14th and was first told to do “everything you can do to get the surface temp down” of the tires. he said “im trying” then several laps later on lap 29 he came on the radio to say “are you seeing how i have to drive this thing?” “yes,” bono, his engineer said. “quite effective though.” 

max was still half a second behind lando. mclaren faked a pit stop call over the radio to get max to pit. he did not. 

but, george russell did manage to pass him. which was “not good for max’s world champion aspirations.”

this was also when ted very bafflingly said that “if i had a sofa in the pit lane i would be jumping up and down on it” im not sure what that was in response to. 

meanwhile, ollie was still holding off sir lewis hamilton. and charles was trying to get oscar to pit again by lying over the radio. it was not working. 

lando did a pit stop finally and came out a whole 15 second behind max. he was hoping to catch max by the end of the race. but it might be tight. lets go last lap lando. 

“lando, imagine andrea on your shoulder saying ‘zero wheel spin’ in every exit,” lando’s race engineer said. if you're confused, everyone else was too. 

10 laps to go and here were the order of affairs:

oscar

+.449s charles +1.865s checo +2.989s carlos +16.530s george  +1.909s max +11.535s lando +9.715s fernando +2.589s alex +2.451s nico +4.667s franco +1.590s lewis +1.261s ollie +1.791s pierre +9.205s daniel +23.919s esteban  +.789s lance +3.862s valtteri +3.631s guanyu 

lando was determined. he took fastest lap on lap 43 and was 8.8s behind max

at this point, the leaders were starting to lap the cars in the back. “the back markers are starting to come up,” checo’s engineer said to him. “its going to get messy.”

“hold onto your hats and if you don't have one go get one and hold onto it” harry said. harry would turn out to be correct. 

we had the top 3 all running very close to eachother, that was oscar, charles and checo and “welcome to the party carlos sainz!” who was now 1.2 seconds behind checo in the four way battle for the lead.

definitely not leading was lance stroll, who retired on lap 47 with a brake problem. 

oscar managed to pull ahead of charles by 1.5 seconds, finally knocking him out of DRS range. so now it was a three way battle for second. and charles had “no rear tires. no rear tires at all.” 

and, just like i said he would, lando managed to pass max on lap 49. he was closing the gap slowly in the championship. 

“verstappen’s day goes from bad to worse,” harry said. because lando still had fastest lap, so he would score 3 more points than max. which is important if lando wants to beat max in the championship (though i think hes still like 60 points behind)

meanwhile! franco managed to pass nico hulkenberg for 10th! he was in the points!!!! at his second race!!! 

but this was short lived because there was a crash! a big smackeroo! between carlos and checo!! checo was mad, carlos didn't know what happened. 

what happened was that carlos was trying to pass checo but checo did not move over. it was deemed an equal fault accident. both of them were utterly confused at what happened and apparently spent 20 minutes in the medical center being utterly lost and aparently saying that sometimes this sport sucks. and! contrary to what several people said! checo did not bang on carlos’s helmet after the crash. 

the crash actually caused chef's dad to have a heart attack. he is stable now.

and well. this clip of george from the post qualifying interviews definitely didnt age well:

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but! since we were a matter of a few laps from the end, this meant that the rest of the race was finished under a virtual safety car. 

which meant 

OSCAR PIASTRI WINS THE AZERBAIJAN GP

and george inherited p3! 

and on his own merit too! no safety cars, no team orders, no weird shit! 

“yes!” he whispered over the radio. 

he almost fell getting out of the car, then gave us all the “one moment” hand gesture before properly celebrating. 

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he also got driver of the day! 

(this was marginally better than george russell, who said over the radio “i cant get any rubber (to pick up on his tires) all im getting is leaves”)

gunther steiner also hosted the post race interviews. which was interesting. 

george said that the most difficult part of the race was “driving full gas into a wall of carbon fiber on the penultimate lap…the vsc should have come out sooner” 

charles bashed ferrari because they didn't do any high fuel runs in practice. 

oscar was entirely pleased. “i managed to overtake and hold onto it for the next 35 laps..one of the better races of my career.” and honestly, oscar winning a race straight after mclaren basically announcing that he was their number 2 driver is nothing short of hilarious.

and! mclaren was now leading the constructors championship by 20 points! for the first time in ten years!!!!

the top three had a moment outside of the car that was filled with baffled: 

and oscar's engineer tom got to stand on the podium with him. he usually takes a selfie with oscar after each race he podiums at, but he was too excited to so george took this picture for them

(george also aparently demomished oscar in a game of uno on the plane, immediately humbling him)

george also shielded himself from the champagne on the podium

the cooldown room reacted to the crash in a very straight forward manner:

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and very quickly cause its midnight and the singapore gp starts in 8 hours, the post race, speed ran: 

-mark webber told off laura winter for thinking that oscar didn't have good tire management

-alex albon was “super happy, that's a lot of points for us” (williams finished in 7th and 8th). he cut his own interview short when ollie bearman arrived, saying “I can go, im happy to go” and then waving comically. 

-williams was so pleased with this result they blasted everyone with champagne. and they overtook alpine in the constructors championship! this was also their best race finish all season

-(and a quick note, if youre going to really blame logan for being that shit of a driver here, please remember that the car he was driving was several rounds of upgrades behind alex's pretty much the entire time he was driving it)

-ollie became the first driver to ever score points in his first two races for two different constructors because the double dnf pushed him up to 10th place. he said that there was not much difference between the haas and the ferrari, the ferrari was just red

-franco continued to charm everyone and flirt with the reporters. 

-they interviewed george and lewis and the camera had to be adjusted for george's height. it was comical and resulted in my favorite edit so far of the season (sound on)

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-lando looked pleased and happy for once. he said about holding off checo that “i didn't hold him up i just had to cool my tires a little.” he was delighted to be leading the constructors for the first time in ten years and he defended alex albon saying “i struggled to get past alex for a while, which is common, alex doesnt make mistakes.” he also ratted on max for going to fast during the VSC and said “i didn't complain, facts were stated.” and to sum it all up he said that “im executing things well, i’m very quick…i’m not going to be the happiest guy, but i am never the happiest guy….car is performing well everywhere…some red cars behind us seem to be our biggest competitors right now” 

-by comparison george insulted all of pirelli. the tire people. “pretty infuriating that it (the pace) changes this so much….its black magic, people who make the tires don't understand the tires…..for 20 laps we had a car not worthy of points and for 20 laps we had a car fighting for victory and the only difference is the tires.” 

-lewis was notably upset after the race and walked through the paddock with his helmet on, not wanting to talk to anyone. but he did talk to franco and ollie and congratulate them on a job well done defending against him and racing against him. franco even fangirled over this on his instagram. 

-charles was clearly upset with ferrari. he was so upset he posted a thirst trap.

-and oscar. oscar was very happy this afternoon. and his mom was there! she doesnt usually come cause it scares her, but nicole was there today! 

-mclaren celebrated with a hell of a lot of champagne. both oscar’s wina and lando’s insane recovery, and the fact that they were leading the championship. red bull have been dethroned, at least for now. 

-there was so much champagne that lando took off his socks to spray it. all seems well at mclaren. 

-at least one thing is for sure, oscar had a better time here this weekend than last year when he got food poisoning and only ate four pieces of toast

and with that. we head into singapore. quite literally as it is starting in a few hours. again, i apologixe about this post. its a little sad, but the next one will be better. pinkly promise. 

see you all soon!!!

[livin4woso]

Breaking the media

Chapter 3- arrival

You had just arrived in spain when the news that you were leaving arsenal was spread the club hadn't said where you were moving to due to some timing issues and you hadn't done any Barcelona media yet. You looked through the comments as the fans speculated your next club and many wishing you well and hoping you would have stayed longer at the club. While all the messages were nice you knew it was the right call to move so as you stood in airport looking for what will be your ride to the training centre you see a sign with your name on it. After some great force of lugging your two suitcases along the airport by yourself you reached the drivers with a half smile "good morning miss y/l/n" he said reaching his hand out "morning nice to meet you" you said taking his hand a firmly shaking it. Just as you were about to grab your suitcases and begin dragging them back along to the car he took them out of your hands "let me take these from you" he said "oh its no bother really i can bring them myself" you protested but he was insistent.

The car journey wasn't as long as you had expected it to be as you sat scrolling through your phone almost laughing at the ridiculous rumors you could see through your phone even sky sports had started to make rumors. You had arrived at the training ground where a member off staff had met you and brought you to the hair and makeup chair "hola, buen dia miss y/l/n" said the women smiling at you "call me y/n please its more.. normal" you responded as she began her work adding a light coat of foundation and redoing your hair entirely. After 10 minutes you were ready and handed a Barcelona training kit and told this is what you would be taking your photos in I mean it made sense but you would have preferred to be in normal clothes.

You were whisked through the unfamiliar corridors passing room after room each one looking completely different from the other till you reached the media room which was set up with cameras lighting and the contract. Jona was waiting in a chair when you arrived and he immediately stood up "hola y/n so happy you decided to join us you are going to do wonderful things" he said kindly to you. As the next couple hours went by you spent most time taking photos and doing interviews when you were told it was tomorrow when you would meet the team and have a tour of the facility before joining training.

Once you were done you were brought to an apartment that had been furnished and paid from Barcelona as you clearly weren't old enough to pay for it yourself. It was nice,small yes, but it wasn't cramped. You had put away all your clothes when you saw that it had been officially posted you were now a culer and all the media from that day had been posted and as you expected it.You had done it 'y/n y/l/n has transferred to Barcelona for an undisclosed fee' was printed all over social media for a moment it felt like everyone in the world was talking about you.

You woke up the next morning and the apartment was conveniently a 10 minute walk to the training ground because you couldn't drive so walking was the next best thing. The spanish sun was hot on your skin you hadn't been out of england for a long time minus for England camps which weren't very frequent or very long. You had arrived at the training ground 5 minutes early but that didn't matter. You were again greeted by jona the two of you making small talk as you walked towards the pitch, now the anxiety had kicked in you were 16 and going to meet your idols all at once, what if you nade a fool of yourself in front of the team or they dont like you and just to top of the list you knew not one word of Spanish minus hola. The training ground was nice it was decked out with perfectly cut grass and box nets you looked over to see the team training away not even noticing your presence as they were so focused in a drill that until jona called them over they were in there own world. "CHICAS, YOUR NEW TEAMMATE HAS ARRIVED" he shouted across the pitch when each of the girls looked over to you and began to walk towards you, each meter they passed you could feel your heartbeat move quicker. Now you were young but you weren't challenged size wise at 16 you were 5,8 making you quite the impressive feat and one that was taller than quite a few girls on the team. From a mile away anyone could tell you were a defender tall, broad shoulders, hair tied neatly in two plaits, it was obvious.

It was the captain alexia who had been selected to talk to you first " hola, ive heard good things about you y/n" she said kindly almost in a parental tone, a tone which some sould have found to be insulting yet it brought you a sense of comfort. Each of the girls took there time chatting to you, some getting more confused by your accent and led you to having to say things much slower so the others can understand what you were saying. When last it came to kiera and lucy the fellow English on the team "well well if isn't y/n" lucy said almost grimacing "what lucy, you're not happy to see me" you said back "of course" she said wrapping her arm around you as keira did the same you had known the English girls had been told you were coming by leah but you didnt know that they had been told to keep your eyes on you but so was mapi and alexia however from jona. It was lucy who had taken you on the tour around the place "nice innit, and the weathers lush as" she said "yeah definitely, its a change from arsenal but god is it like a different world from sunderland" you said although you had lived in North london for 3 years your north east accent hadn't changed at all you were still a northern girl at heart and one that surprisingly faired well under the sun.

"Well then i bet we better head off back home" lucy said taking you back to the exit "yeah definitely especially before it gets too dark" you said as you began to walk off to your apartment "where are you going? Aren't your foster parents picking you up" she questioned as from what she has assumed you were living with a family "ermm home im walking back to my apartment its only 10 minutes" you said as you began to speed up a little away from lucy. "An apartment you're 16 you can't live alone" lucy remarked but by then you were gone you, she threw her hands in the air and sighed as she knew she needed to have a talk with barca management because you couldn't live alone but you had ran home to make sure lucy couldn't see where you went as you didn't want to make a scene or deal with lucy scolding you.

As you opened your front door you locked it back up and crashed into bed the jet lag from the plane had crashed into you but you knew you needed to shower and make dinner but you had no food what so ever, how you wished someone could make you some home cooked food. So like a sensible person you ordered in food and showered while waiting and just as you had changed into your pjs the food had arrived. It was just a simple pizza but god was it tasty. You ate every last crumb and put the box on your counter to put it in the recycling you climbed into your bed and let tiredness slip over you.

[chaoticace2005]

You guys asked for it…

Why Lilith might have left Lucifer:

1. She lost interest. Simple at that. 10,000 years of the same routine…

2. She found out where Eve was and ran to her long lost love.

3. A deal was made with Alastor and she had to flee for her nefarious plans.

4a. Lucifer was bad in bed.

4b. He wouldn’t let her take off his hat while having sex.

5. Lucifer was good in bed and she was getting addicted, so for her own sake she left.

6. She had to get milk.

7. She took a look at hell after all her years of working, saw how fucked up humans are and said “nah.”

8. Donald Trump became president so she fled the country but forgot to take her family with her.

9. She could no longer deal with Lucifer’s ~autistic swag~

10. She got a coupon for an expense-paid trip to the Bahamas.

11. Lucifer wasn’t doing the DAMN DISHES.

12. Lucifer kept asking her to “quack” in bed.

13. There weren’t any good marriage counselors in hell. So she read drama books to fix her marriage and thought this was the best solution.

14. Lucifer got a sleep apnea machine and she couldn’t handle it anymore.

15. She bonked her head and completely forgot who she was. That’s why she scowls when Lute says “Lilith” at the end- because she has no idea who “Lilith” is.

16. Seven years ago Alastor killed Lilith. To cover his tracks he put on a wig and visibly left the cast as “her.”

17. SOMEBODY wasn’t putting the damn seat down. Do you think they have to deal with this in Heaven?

18. There was a silent uprising and assassination plot. She dealt with it all while Charlie and Lucifer remained oblivious, but is now being hunted.

19. Faked her death. Lucifer is somehow unaware that his wife even “died.”

20. Niffty blackmailed her into leaving.

21. They ran out of blond dye at the Hellmart and she couldn’t handle being the only one in the family without blond hair.

22. She felt the need to leave her family, build a luxurious pirate ship, hire random pirates, and sail the seas until she had a homoerotic relationship with a competing pirate and retired.

23. She too borrowed 50 grand from loan sharks, stole a car, and crashed it into a loan shark’s girlfriend (but that bitch had it coming!)

24. She went down in an airplane.

25. Fried getting suntanned.

26. Fell in a cement mixer full of quicksand.

27. Her feather allergy kept getting worse and she had to leave for her health.

28. Lucifer kept saying he was “magic in bed” and then would do magic tricks despite being a LITERAL ANGEL.

29. Susan.

30. Committed tax fraud and had to flee the country.

31. She was going to get bottom surgery after Lucifer’s top surgery and is still recovering. (Hell doctors SUCK okay??)

32. Lucifer wouldn’t admit that water is wet.

33. Lucifer was putting ketchup on his pancakes.

34. Lucifer wasn’t vibing with her BFF-girlboss-malewife-bestie Alastor. She couldn’t deal with the ~drama~

35. He wouldn’t stop talking about his Fantasy Sports team.

36. Needed to find some artistic inspiration because the whole “I’m in hell” thing is SO overdone.

37. Not a fan of the circus or clowns.

38. Mental health break. She’ll come back when she’s ready. Sometimes it takes a while.

39. She was KIDNAPPED.

40. Lilith is dead. That’s not Lilith. That’s a shadow version of Lilith made by Alastor who works for her killer (Eve?) That’s why she wears sunglasses. So we can’t see her eyes and the empty void behind them.

[vinvantae]

Unmasked

15/16

<<< previous part

Word count : 5.2k

Warning: poorly translated French (English translation at the end)

A/N : I feel terrible about how long it’s taken me to write this, the inspiration just hasn’t been with me for a little while. I hope you enjoy it regardless ❤️

**********************************************

SC - With the weight of the world seemingly off her shoulders, y/n absolutely flew around the track today. It feels like for the first time in a while, we’re seeing Thirty in her element once again.

Even with two rampaging Bulls chasing her down, it’s the Prancing Horse who takes the chequered flag. Y/N Y/L/N wins the Spanish Grand Prix!

MB - Despite all of the noise this weekend, it’s races like this one that define y/n as one of the best drivers of this generation. From the flawless start, to defending from the tremendous speed of the two Redbulls when it mattered most - that was a wonderful race to watch.

SC - I’m sure Ferrari were hoping for a 1-2 finish today, but after Charles' engine issues forced him to retire, I think they’ll be happy to get the most possible points with y/n’s fastest lap too. Look at that celebration, if there’s one thing about Thirty, every win is just as exciting as the last.

The feeling you got when you won never was any less triumphant, no matter how many you had tucked under your belt. But after how long the weekend had felt, this one felt particularly special. You climbed atop your car and pumped your fists above your head - practically giddy with glee as the crowd cheered for you, the underlying boos barely phasing you. They just didn’t matter - their opinions didn’t matter.

Your eyes zeroed in on a small group of girls who were in the grandstands, dressed head to toe in red - waving a banner for you above their head. Their celebrations seemed louder than anyone else's so you made sure to wave, putting the biggest smile on their faces before you hopped over to the car.

You laughed as the team swept you up in a tight hug when you ran over to the barrier, patting you on the helmet - the noise vibrated through you, making your heart soar. If there was a group of people you knew you could rely on, it was your team; even after your reveal, they were never any less supportive of you, always there for you no matter what the result was and treating you as they always had. It was one of the reasons why none of the contracts you offered tempted you, Ferrari are your family, you belong in red.

After swapping your helmet for your team cap, both Redbull drivers approached - Max giving you an overly enthusiastic bro hug, slapping your back so hard it almost hurt but you couldn’t help but laugh. “Amazing job, y/n. Almost got you.”

“Well, thankfully you and the smooth operator were too busy having a family squabble for that.” You teased, pulling back to let Carlos hug you as well, the Spaniard’s strong arms looped around your middle. “Now, if you boys don’t mind me - I have a winner’s interview to do.”

“Good job, y/n. Really happy for you.” Carlos made sure to get his praises in before you head across parc ferme. “See you soon.”

“Congratulations, y/n, what a result!” Naomi looked almost as excited as you as you approached for your post race interview. “How are you feeling right now?”

Your face was already hurting from how much you were smiling, you placed a hand on top of your cap and laughed. “I’m over the moon, this win felt so good.”

“After all you’ve had to deal with since your reveal, this is definitely wonderful to see.” She praised. “You raced spectacularly, anything you’d like to say to the people out there who still doubt you?”

“Honestly? After everything the guys, Max, Pierre, Esteban and Charles especially, put on the line for me, none of it really matters anymore. I have confidence in my skills and talent in this sport and knowing that my rivals believe in me too means everything… I won’t pretend that reading cruel things online will magically stop hurting, but I know what I’m capable of. I’m a world champion for a reason and there’s nothing anyone can say that will take that away from me.”

“Is this the start of your triumphant return, are we going to see you up on the top step now you’ve got your confidence back?”

“I’m ready for whatever the rest of the season throws at me. The championship is still all to play for right now, so I’m going to put my best foot forward and focus on racing.”

“Thank you so much, y/n. Congratulations. Your race winner, everybody!”

You waved at the crowd as you stepped inside to head to the cool-down room, your heart racing. Max and Carlos both greeted you with large smiles as you stepped into the room, the Spaniard playfully swatting at the brim of your cap to knock it from your head - swapping it for the 1st place Pirelli cap. “Much better, hermosa.”

“Thank you, however…” You knelt down to pick up your Ferrari hat, dusting it off before placing it on the table, a teasing lilt to your voice as you spoke. “Don’t disrespect! You can be proud of me for winning without being rude about my team, Carlos. I won’t ever let you forget you were almost one of us.”

“Idiot.” Max mumbled playfully, a strong arm draping across your shoulder - his eyes crinkled up as he smiled. “Congrats again on the win, y/n. You raced like a proper champ.”

“It felt good. Like of course winning is always good but this one felt different. Perhaps it was the timing of it, but there’s something about winning while feeling confident in myself again that makes me hungry for more.” You smiled softly. “To be honest, it felt more like the two of you were pushing me along than racing me… I’d thank you for taking it easy on me but there’s no way that that’s true.”

“You know I’d never do that. It was all you.” The Dutchman scoffed. “How dare you remember how good you are at racing, how am I supposed to beat you now.”

The way you grinned at him, gave Max flashbacks to your karting days together - your genuine joy when you beat him or all of the other boys in races. He could picture the small girl with her hair all messy from her helmet, sticking her tongue out at him when he whined to his Dad that a girl beat him. It’s not fair, she pushed me! When in reality you were just talented from day one. The way anyone could ever doubt you were Thirty bewildered him because you were you. Driven. Passionate.

It was why he never had any issue sharing the podium with you - your wins felt truly earned. Sure every driver had a win or two that they got under unusual circumstances but when the two of you were on those steps together, he could see how much you enjoyed it, no matter which number win it was and finally being able to see your smile made it all the better.

As you lifted your trophy above your head, you scanned the crowd for Charles - who, despite his DNF, was now standing in the front row, smiling up at you with pride. He threw you a cheesy wink as he clapped, not letting his own race ruin this for you. Despite not being your first win of the season, it was your first time on the top step so you relished every second of it - drowning both Redbull drivers in champagne before chugging some of the sparkling liquid. Max made sure he poured his drink down the back of your race suit, something he insisted he missed out having to share with your body double after the last win when you scolded him for it.

You felt on top of the world, all of your criticisms temporarily forgotten when that evening, all you could hear was the clinking of glasses against your own - the girls’ lips all sparkled with champagne as they toasted your victory. As much as you loved the guys, being celebrated by other women made your win all the more special. Lily looped an arm around your middle and pulled you close as Carmen snapped a photo - their laughter twinkling through the air. They gushed on how amazingly you raced, teasing you as your cheeks flushed.

All of this however, didn’t stop Charles watching you from across the bar - your red race suit traded for a gorgeous dress of the same colour, your eyes sparkling under the lights. The confidence you were radiating was intoxicating; he wanted to blame it on the beer he was drinking but there was nothing more he wanted than to have his hands all over you. He couldn’t keep his eyes off of you, everything about you was magnetic. He wanted to steal you from the girls, but he knew you needed this. Even when Max slapped him on the shoulder, he struggled to tear his eyes away.

“She’s not going to vanish if you stop looking at her, mate.” The dutchman teased, Charles finally turned away from you. “Let her celebrate, she knows where you are when she’s ready.”

“Something about her is just…different. Lighter.”

Max smiled softly, secretly fond of how Charles was with you. “She just won a race!”

“No, no. It’s more than that.” The other driver insisted. “But I just can’t put my finger on it… and if you’ll excuse me, I can’t just watch from a distance. She’s too beautiful.”

“Gross.”

He shoved Max lightly on the arm before crossing the bar to get to you, weaving between the flashes of red of those who were still in their team kit. Charles watched Lily give you a look before you cast your eyes over your shoulder - your face cracking into a grin. Your teammate felt grateful you were as pleased to see him as he was you. “Charles.”

“Mon amour.” He hummed, draping an arm around your waist - pressing a chaste kiss to your temple. “Sorry, I couldn’t stay away from you any longer. Having fun?”

“So much. I’m glad you’re here actually, we were just talking about you.” You lent into his touch.

“Oh yeah?”

Lily’s brow raised playfully. “You’ve got a big battle coming, il Predestinato. Now that our girl’s back, you ready to step it up?”

“I don’t think she ever left.” You looked at him as he spoke, his green eyes already fixed on you. “Just needed a little reminder of who she is.”

You smiled softly at him before leaning in to kiss him - his hand coming up to rest on your jaw. “I’ll never forget again thanks to you, and who knows, there’s still 16 races to go… anything could happen.”

“Joint world champions.” He teased, “That ever happened before?”

“Don’t think so.” Your laughter was soft, Charles had practically forgotten the presence of the girls watching you both with a fondness in their eyes. “But if anyone could do it, it would be us.”

“Cheers to that and cheers to you, y/n. I love you.”

You clinked your glass against his. “I love you too.”

***

Yourusername added to their instagram story

***

After your race win in Imola and poor strategy in Monaco from your team - ruining Charles’ chance at a win at his home grandprix, it didn’t take long for you to catch up to your teammate in the points and by the time the chequered flag was waved in Azerbaijan, you were the championship leader and it felt good. You could tell the strategy calls were starting to affect your boyfriend but whenever you brought it up, he told you it was all fine and that he was nothing but happy for you and selfishly, you believed him. You wanted him to feel as excited as you did, and it was the first time in a long time you were feeling good about your career.

Instead, you focused on racing with the same confidence you always knew you had before your reveal and with the people around you always making sure you had a smile on your face - the last few straggling cynics barely made a noise over the roaring crowds every time you lifted a trophy above your head.

Part of you thought maybe you had just become more attentive now you were free to be yourself, but every race that passed seemed to have more and more female fans eager to greet you at the barricades, ecstatic that you were leading the championship even if there was only 7 points in it.

“You’ve got this in the bag, y/n!” They always told you Canadian’s were nice, and it was shown with the way your new poor assistant’s arms were piled high with gifts as fans chatted away with you. You were never allowed to talk to them before as Thirty, so meeting them really was a delight. “Those boys don’t stand a chance.”

“Hmm, I don’t know. Charles is pretty good.” You smiled softly. “But, I’ll tell you what… I’m gonna do my absolute best for you.”

“You’re already the champion in my eyes, regardless of how the season ends.”

“Oh stop, you’re gonna make me cry.” You laughed softly, giving the girl a one armed hug. “I have to go now, thank you all though - for the support, the gifts. I’ll try and win for you today, promise.”

You helped to take some of the gifts from your assistant before heading towards the motorhome, saying hi to the other drivers as you passed by - after the protest, they had much more an effort to include you in idle chit-chat or debates they were having with another driver. Whether it was Esteban trying to get you to convince Mick and Lance that his long standing feud with Max was definitely over or Kevin showing you photos of his kid, it was nice. It was truly all you had ever wanted from your reveal - not just to be a driver, but to feel like one too.

Charles tucked you under his arm before the driver parade started, bickering with Pierre in French about god knows what but the glint in their eyes and the cheeky smile on Charles’ face assured you it was all in good fun. You simply rested your head against your boyfriend, eyes closed as you enjoyed the surprisingly warm weather as you waited for the flatbed to start moving.

“Mon amour, are you falling asleep standing upright?” He teased, squeezing you into his side.

“Mhmm, you’re so comfy, Charles.” You hummed softly, standing up straighter as the engine began to rumble - wanting to wave to the crowds instead of being caught dozing. “Besides, I’ve got to be well rested before I win the race later.”

“Leading the championship and suddenly your ego is massive.” Pierre teased, kicking you lightly in the shin - making you whine and glare at him. “I’m kidding. You deserve to be cocky, you have been very impressive recently.”

You raised a brow. “I’ve got my eyes on you, Gasly.”

“Uh oh, Pierre, you’ve made an enemy of Thirty. You better there’s no chance of the two of you tangling during the race.”

You practically snorted out a laugh. “Oh Charles, he won’t need to worry… unless, maybe I end up lapping him.”

“Oh it is on.”

It was your turn to bicker with Pierre, your boyfriend slipping away to talk to some of the others as the flatbed pulled back in to drop you all off at the pits. You felt in such high spirits when you got in the car that there was just nothing that could stop you - you were sure of it. You were going to get your 3rd title and Ferrari their first WCC since 2018. it felt like you owed them at least that much after keeping you on.

And oh, did you love this track. With its tight barriers hugging the track and long straights, the high speed was risky but made the race all the more exciting. That paired with the two Redbull’s sniffing at your car’s rear end and your teammate starting at the back of the grid, it was bound to be an exciting race.

Max put up a hell of a fight, chasing you down and barely giving you even a second to breathe - he nearly caught you on more than one occasion, but not pitting during the late safety car was his fatal mistake - his pebbled tires were no match for your shiny new softs. And before long you were lifting your second consecutive first place trophy above your head, Max and Lewis alongside you.

You felt untouchable, blowing a kiss in the direction of a small crowd of Redbull fans who had booed you louder than the rest as you’d been handed your trophy before giving their golden boy a good hosing down with your champagne, the two men who you shared the podium with upended the bottles over your head in a bubbling waterfall- a giddy smile on both of your faces as you celebrated.

“Hey congrats.” Lewis grinned, patting you on the shoulder as the three of you stood on the podium for the photo together. “Winning looks better on you every time.”

“Thanks Lewis, means a lot. Especially from you.”

The three of you stepped off the podium for your post race interviews, and you just couldn’t shake the electricity running through you. Not a single interview passed without them commenting on just how different you seemed - how over the course of the past few races, the personality they had loved beneath the helmet seemed to have finally come to the surface. “It’s so nice to see how much you’re enjoying racing again, y/n.”

“Yeah, it’s been really really good.” You smiled, your hands resting against the cool metal barricade in front of you. “Sure, I still see and hear some nasty stuff but it… it just doesn’t feel the same, it doesn’t hurt as bad knowing that I have nothing to prove to them. They’ll never like me, and that’s okay. I have plenty of supporters and friends who love me and back me up no matter what.”

“Well, it’s good to have you back. Hope you enjoy your weekend off, see you at Silverstone.”

You thanked the press before heading back to the Ferrari motorhome, letting out a yelp as you were practically tackled by your boyfriend as he swept you up in his arms. “There’s my race winner.”

“Oh who cares about my race win when you made it up from 19th to 5th!” You laughed, wrapping your arms around him - the warmth from his body made you feel at ease. “That’s far more impressive. You very much deserved the driver of the day, I’m glad your hard work was recognised.”

“Well...” He carefully placed you on the floor, placing his hands on your hips. “How about we take our weekend off to celebrate your phenomenal race and my win, hmm?”

You wrapped your arms around his neck, running your fingers through the hair at the nape of his neck before leaning in to kiss him. He smiled against your lips and pulled you closer, deepening the kiss like you weren’t surrounded by the hustle and bustle of your team packing up now the weekend was over. Neither of you cared, you simply couldn’t get enough of each other.

When you pulled back, you couldn’t help but notice the cheeky glint in his eyes. You let your hand move to rest on his jaw, brushing your thumb across the stubble. “That sounds like an offer I simply can’t refuse.”

***

***

The skies were blue when you touched down in Silverstone, another favourite - a classic; the Tifosi showing wasn’t as big as it used to be but there were enough flashes of red amongst the crowds for you to feel their support. But, much to the disappointment of the Mercedes and Mclaren fans filling the grandstands, you and your team were currently on track to win the whole thing. You’d spent more time than you cared to admit trying to figure out what the earliest race you could win the championship at despite your slow start to the season.

But with Charles, Max and Carlos all having an equally impressive score sheet, you honestly had no idea which way it was going to go - you could only hope it would be in your favour. You’d worked so hard to fight for not only the championship, but the respect you deserved that you knew that you couldn’t stop now. Everything was to play for and you couldn’t back down now.

SC - Welcome one, welcome all to the Formula 1 Lenovo British Grand Prix here at Silverstone, the sun is shining down on all of us Martin and it looks set to be a good race. With the Ferraris and Redbulls occupying the two front rows, it will be a challenge for anyone else to claim victory. Our Championship leader shares the front row with Max Verstappen, who is gaining with each race on her and her teammate Charles Leclerc.

MB - It definitely is one to watch, the battle between the Prancing Horses and Bulls has been thrilling so far this season. I can’t wait to see how this all plays out and with Y/N having claimed podiums in her last six races, I wouldn’t be surprised to see her back on that top step.

SC - I’d put money on it if I was a betting man. Her performance leading up to this point has been something special. But with Max picking up the pace, I think he’s definitely her biggest competitor right now.

MB - Now Crofty, I wouldn’t write young Leclerc off so quickly, he is second place right now.

SC - Well, I’ll guess we’ll just have to wait and see as the grid lines up for the start of the race. The British Grand Prix is about to start, engines are revving… and its lights out, and away we go!

You felt breathless as you pulled into parc ferme, what a race. Despite your win, you couldn’t help but think about Gyanyu, George and Alex - the crash at the start was scary and you were lucky to have not been a part of it with a third of the grid getting tangled up. As much as you loved to win, it was always a bittersweet feeling when others were potentially hurt.

As you climbed out of the car, you made an effort to try and catch as many of the other drivers you knew had been part of the incident as you could as they made their way through parc ferme. You immediately wrapped your arms around Seb as he climbed out of the car, your former teammate giving you a gentle chuckle in response - promising that he was okay. So you glanced around the crowd for your childhood friend, Pierre smirking as he saw you approach. “Aw, coming to check on me?”

“Don’t make me regret it, Gasly.” You chuckled, pulling him into a hug. “But if you’ll excuse me, I did just win. Catch you later.”

You tried to catch Charles before he ducked away but you were ushered towards Lewis and Carlos for the podium interviews. With your fresher tires brought on by Esteban’s safety car, he wasn’t able to hold you off… or Lewis… or Carlos. So he was understandably frustrated. But you were still happy and wanted to celebrate with the team and you were sure once he’d had his moment of annoyance, he’d be happy for you too.

It was hard to have that same attitude when the roles were reversed the following week in Austria, and it was you who barely missed out on the podium and it all came to a head in your driver’s room. “I think we need to talk.”

“Oh?” Charles gently took off his first place cap and placed it on the coffee table. “Everything okay?”

You took a deep breath. “I don’t know why we haven’t had this conversation before but I feel like we need to talk about what happened this week and last week… when one of us wins and the other doesn’t. I think we need to find the balance of being able to understand how the other one feels versus celebrating the winner.”

“Yeah, yeah I get that. Well…” He approached you slowly, placing his hands on your hips - giving a gentle squeeze. “The winner can be sympathetic and the other can be supportive, but if one of us has a particularly bad race when the other wins then we just check in on how they feel first before jumping for joy at the win.”

“We’re both in with a chance of winning this whole thing, we have to promise not to let that get in the way of what we have.” You looped your arms around his neck, scratching lightly at the nape of his neck. “I'm really happy with you and I don’t want me beating you to ruin that.”

“Oh, you’re gonna beat me are you?” Charles chuckled. “Well, best of luck, mon amour. You’re gonna need it.”

***

***

Leading up the summer break, things stayed on the up for you but not so much for Charles the agreement between the two of you more in force than ever. Hungary was the last race before you could enjoy a relaxing few weeks away from the paddock but with Charles’ DNF in France the weekend before he’d lost 2nd in the WDC to Max, the Dutchman now 5 points ahead thanks to his victory and it was clearly bothering him. You were soaring ahead and he was starting to be left behind - you 33 points ahead.

Charles spent as much time as he could with fans, making sure not one was missed - chatting away, taking photos and bringing as many smiles to their faces as he could. He would always be the tifosi’s golden boy; despite you leading, he would always have a special place in their hearts and you couldn’t blame them. There was something charming and gentle about him, he was impossible to dislike. The way he avidly listened to every word fans said to him, the look on his face full of genuine interest. He was so kind and you knew someday he was going to live up to the massive expectations they had all put on his shoulders - you wanted to win the championship, but someday it was going to be his turn and you knew that he would have their support every step of the way.

As you finally stepped away from the crowds, you linked your fingers with his and gave his hand a gentle squeeze - noticing his deflated stature as you walked towards the motorhome. Neither have you qualified on pole and his hopes of winning were being diminished by the minute. “You looked like you were having a good time with the fans, what’s the matter? Talk to me…”

“I hate to say it, amour, but now that you’re off ahead in the distance - I’m gonna have to play the role of second driver.” He grumbled softly. “I really want you to do well, y/n, I do, but I want it to be fair.”

A soft sigh left your lips and you turned him to face you, his green eyes locked on yours. “I won’t let it be unfair. I’m gonna talk to my engineers and let them know how I feel about it.. When I beat you, it’s all gonna be on my own merit.”

The corner of his mouth tugged into a smile, shaking his head a little. Your heart skipped a beat at his laughter, his strong arms looping around your middle. “And when I beat you, it’ll be because I deserve it too.”

“Exactly. We’re equals.” You lent up to press a kiss to his lips, your arms wrapping around his neck. “Last race until the summer break, we just have to get through this and then you and I can escape to your yacht and make the most of the privacy.”

“You are beyond tempting.” He purred, pulling you in closer. “If we weren’t surrounded by all these prying eyes, I’d have you exactly where I want you.”

A giggle escaped you, you raised a playful brow at him. “Well, then what are we waiting for? Your driver’s room has a lock on the door, doesn’t it?”

Your teammate groaned, his nose nudging against yours before he kissed you with even more intensity than before - not caring about the cameras or poor staff members walking past you both to get into the building. The butterflies erupted in your stomach as he smiled against your lips, not wasting a second more before he tugged you into the building towards his driver room. He pressed your back against the door as he closed it, his pupils blown with lust as they scanned your figure. “As pretty as you look in red…”

“I’d look better in nothing?” You teased, slipping your hands under his polo - he shivered as your cold hands ran across his skin. “C’mon, Charles. You can do better than that.”

“You’re impossible.” He shook his head, dropping his voice to a whisper as his lips brushed across your skin. “Tu es délicieux(1)…je t’aime de tout mon coeur(2).”

You couldn’t help the moan that escaped you. “God, you speaking French really does something to me.. Don’t stop.”

He tugged you away from the door as he pulled your polo over your head, lips only breaking from your skin to mutter filth in french. You were weak at the knees as he pulled back to look at you - his lips shiny with your gloss. You reached up to brush your thumb across his bottom lip before tugging on his chin gently to bring him back into a kiss as he began to work on the button of your jeans.

“Did you lock the door?” You managed to get out, feeling breathless but your boyfriend seemed relentless, grunting in response as he dropped to his knees to pull your jeans over your hips, tugging you lightly so you thumped down on the couch with a soft oof. “Charles, the door.”

“You’re killing me.” He whined, running his hands up the insides of your thighs - pushing them apart. “Je ne peux pas supporter d'être loin de toi ne serait-ce qu’un instant(3), amour.”

You draped a leg over his shoulder. “If anyone walks in, I’ll run you off the track later.”

His lips curved into a devilish smirk. “Deal.”

****

charles_leclerc posted to his instagram stories

***

Next part >>>

(1) you’re delicious

(2) I love you with all my heart

(3) I can't stand being away from you for even a moment

I hope you enjoyed ❤️ thank you for all your continued support regardless of my terrible posting schedule

Want to be notified when I post? Join our discord, head over to #reaction-roles and click the sunflower 🌻

[penaltyboxboxbox]

Good sir, can you explain to me how the actual fuck the nascar point system works? I tried to understand it and I simple cannot.

SO it definitely seems intimidating but its not that bad i promise and its way easier to understand when watching it than like trying to type it out.

Regular season is easy- there are stages in the race, like a mini race within the big race. They make the teams have to strategize throughout the race, instead of just for the ending result. For a stage, they give points to the top ten cars, 1st gets 10pt, 10th gets 1pt, etc. At the end of the ENTIRE race, the winner there gets 40 points. 2nd gets 35, and then it drops by 1 point all the way down the field.

Playoffs is where things I think get confusing for everyone and trust me they are like. CONTROVERSIAL AMONGST NASCAR FANS SO... not on me to say if its a good system or not im merely here to explain what we have as best i can

There are 16 spots in playoffs, and if you win a regular season race, you automatically earn a spot in playoffs. If there are less or more than 16 individual winners in the regular season, then the regular season points will determine who gets those spots.

When playoffs start- regular points basically wipe clean for those drivers. Nascar has PLAYOFF POINTS that are earned during the regular season but don't matter until it comes to playoffs. You get 1 playoff point for a stage win, and 5 playoff points for a race win, think of it like a bonus points they get to tack on to the end of their playoff results.

Playoffs themselves are made up of elimination races. Win/Good points that race, you advance to the next one. The 4 lowest playoff drivers in the points that race are eliminated. Repeat until the final race of the season, to the final four drivers. The driver that finishes with the best position in that race wins the championship. I try to think of it like other sports playoffs, where it doesnt matter how much you won in the the regular season, you gotta win this round/this game to advance. imo, framing it like that usually helps it make a bit more sense.

[fcb-mv33]

Erik van Haren, De Telegraaf, Netherlands: “Max’s qualities as a driver are beyond dispute. Just look at his consistent performance curve and the way he always challenges himself, every weekend. What I also like about him as a reporter is that as a person he is broadly the same as the 16-year-old boy I interviewed for the first time in early 2014. He is not afraid to give his opinion and really stands for something. Especially in these times, with all the reactions on social media, I really appreciate that.”

Mervi Kallio, Viaplay, Finland: “The dominance of Max Verstappen this season has been amazing. He has had the best car of the grid but he has also operated in such a great level. He is mentally so strong and the self confidence that he reflects shows that nothing can stop him. Verstappen could be a Finn – less talking, more driving. He is truly a legend already.”

Nate Saunders, ESPN, US: “Max Verstappen has been so remarkable this year. One of his standout traits is how unbothered he seems by his own greatness – at points this year it’s been as if he hasn’t really understood what all the fuss is about. Verstappen has grown into such a well-rounded driver – aggressive when he needs to be, patient at others, which hasn’t always been the case. A driver so confident in his abilities, matched with Red Bull’s car, and you have the unstoppable force we’ve seen all year.”

Ben Hunt, The Sun, UK: “There are so many highlights to pick from this season for Max but for me, the performances that have largely gone unnoticed have been in qualifying. There is a trend in the media of labelling any pole lap ‘a mega' – but his final attempt in Monaco really was. He was on the limit in the final sector around the Swimming Pool and Rascasse, hitting the barriers on two occasions, and just managed to pip Fernando Alonso. It was brilliant, edge-of-the-seat stuff.”

Mariana Becker, Rede Bandeirantes, Brazil: “When Max adopted the middle path to his emotions as a more mature road to follow in life, he made my life difficult. In his interviews, triumph is not golden, defeat is not death. Through my Brazilian eyes, it was hard to detect any sense of extra pride about his recovery from 15th to 2nd position in the grid in Miami, his unbelievable pole in Monaco, his 10 consecutive victories… For him, there is no need to overstate the obvious. But in this case, ‘Max’ is no overstatement.”

Julien Billiotte, Autohebdo, France: “Max is a genius and has been among the all-time greats in my book for a long time. Besides the obvious, I like his off-track persona, especially the way he is not afraid to speak his mind all the while remaining a fairly approachable, down-to-earth guy. Of course, Verstappen is no longer the grid’s ‘enfant terrible’. He has grown more statesman-like but you can’t help but feel an aura of contained aggressiveness around him. The newly-crowned triple world champion always makes you think twice before asking what could be a silly question. His sharp mind and quick wit won’t miss a beat and you will soon find yourself a bit rattled. Like all the top athletes, Max forces you to raise your game.”

Frankie Mao, Formula Vision, China: “I remember the first interview with him on a quiet Wednesday afternoon ahead of the 2015 Chinese GP. I was genuinely impressed by how he was so pure as a racing driver when describing the Shanghai International Circuit which he was visiting for the first time. Eight years on, despite having slightly short of 50 wins in his pocket, he remains arguably the most unfiltered driver on the grid – in his world where only racing and the ultimate victory matters. Thanks to his achievement on the track, he’s becoming that kind of role model that the new generation would look upon around the world.”

Sandra Baumgartner, Sky Sports Germany, Germany: “In addition to his exceptional talent, speed and ambition, Max now has composure, calmness and the ability to take a back seat. He still has a hot temper, but he has it under better control than in previous years. He is very popular in Germany. Of course, as a Dutchman he is our neighbour, but the Germans appreciate above all his honest and down-to-earth manner. Especially in German, his answers in interviews sometimes sound harsh, but that is simply his captivating honesty, he doesn’t embellish anything, he is simply straightforward. That’s the only thing he hasn’t changed, and I think he should stay that way.”

Jonas Hüttel, Ekstra Bladet, Denmark: “My favourite thing about Max is how straightforward he is. As just recently in Qatar when he was explaining how he didn’t want to be voted sportsman of the year in The Netherlands because such awards didn’t make sense to him. Dutch and Danes are similar that way. We are very direct. You can only admire his driving this year. It’s practically impossible to make as few or no mistakes as he has done. He will never be the most popular driver in Denmark but Max has one thing going for him. The mechanic who straps him in before each session is Ole Schack, a Danish Red Bull legend who has been with the race team since day one. We do like to see him do well.”

Steve Jones, Channel 4, UK: “Max has looked at the 2023 season with the same focus The Terminator had for Sarah Connor – utterly relentless. It’s been equal parts astonishing and terrifying seeing him lay waste to the competition. Out of the car he’s a lovely chap. In it – he’s a monster. I love it!”

Luke Smith, The Athletic, US: “What’s struck me about Max this year is just how relaxed he has been. He’s seemed more at ease than ever. I’ve enjoyed press conferences with him discussing ‘The Max Verstappen Podcast’ (and his dislike of podcasts), or Lando Norris breaking his trophy in Hungary. Even on the bad days, like in Jeddah or Singapore, he’s been calm and still a joy to chat with, still staying generous with his time. I’ve learned as much about Max the person as I have Max the racer this year. In both cases, what you see is very much what you get.”

Edd Straw, The Race, UK: “Max does extraordinary things behind the wheel of a racing car, which harnessed to his exacting relentlessness when it comes to refining it technically makes him a formidable driver. But he somehow manages to keep what can be an overwhelmingly complex sport amazingly simple, which comes over off-track with the matter-of-fact way he talks about his craft. That ability to sift what matters from the noise is at the heart of his brilliance and surely makes him one of the most single-minded and laser-focused racing drivers there has ever been.”

Roberto Chinchero, Sky Sports Italia, Italy: “Max is a pure racing talent. He has never been one of many, and never will be. This season has bored many people, especially those who expected what they had seen in the first part of 2022, but it was the same for the best F1 drivers. Opposing supporters might not love him, but at the same time they secretly dream to see him one day to drive for their favourite team.”

Phil Horton, Autoweek/New York Times, US: “From pre-season testing it was clear Max was going to win the title, but few expected it to be wrapped up so early, and with such dominant statistics in terms of victories and laps led. He has always had the raw speed, but now he has vast experience, allied with the assurance that he has long since achieved everything he wanted in Formula 1 – and more. Yet, as Red Bull boss Christian Horner outlined, he retains a voracious appetite not just to succeed but to dominate. That complete grip on Formula 1 hasn’t been entertaining, and sadly up front it has been a rather mundane season, but that’s on Verstappen’s opponents.”

Luis Vasconcelos, Formula Press/Sport TV, Portugal: “When a very gifted driver, with tremendous working ethics, gets his hands on the best car in the field and doesn’t have a team mate that can challenge him, you get what Max is doing now – complete domination of a season. With that success, we’re getting a more relaxed Max when he’s out of his car. His will to win, though, hasn’t changed, his performance in Suzuka being proof of that, as he was keen to prove Red Bull’s doubters wrong. But when things don’t go his way, we still get some flashbacks of a much younger Max – emotional, volatile and brash. He’s just 25 after all, so maturity will come with time.”

Julianne Cerasoli, UOL, Brazil: “It felt uncharacteristic to see a calm Max in Baku after being outperformed by Checo all weekend. He was happy, having understood how to get more out of the RB19. It was the first time I saw Max OK with losing. After that came 10 consecutive wins! In Qatar, he celebrated entering the triple world champion club by reminding us he can finally ‘speak in equal terms’ with his father-in-law Nelson Piquet next time he goes to Brazil. Fair.”

Albert Fabrega, DAZN, Spain: “Max has been always considered a huge talent in Spain and it is no surprise to see him winning his third world title. He has progressed a lot since his early years in F1 when he was Carlos Sainz’s team mate in Toro Rosso and he has deserved this crown more than anyone else. I can’t see any weak points in him. A lot of determination, talent, concentration and a perfect understanding of the tyres and car are a big part of his success. But like many of us, I would love to see him racing and competing elbow to elbow with the big names of the sport. He is a racer and I’m sure he is also looking forward to moments like these again.”

Michael Lamonato, Fox Sports Australia, Australia: “In a straightforward season, Verstappen has faced only one antagonist: speculation that rule changes ended his victory streak in Singapore – and, by extension, the implication his dominance was somehow unearned. But in his media call in Japan that week there was no anger or frustration; he was all calmness cool determination. Then he obliterated everyone on the track. It was a clear insight to title-era Verstappen. He doesn’t need adoration but does demand respect. And it’s respect he certainly deserves.”

Tobi Gruner, Auto Motor und Sport, Germany: “I still remember my first Interview with Max in Mexico 2015. He was a Toro Rosso rookie, still a bit shy. Short answers only. Let’s say it wasn’t the most exciting interview ever. Eight years and three titles later his answers are still short, but he’s much more confident and outspoken. Efficiency is paramount on and off the track. A pure racer. German fans appreciate his effort to talk German in the TV pen and that he prevented Lewis Hamilton from breaking Michael Schumacher’s championships record in 2021. But now he’s chasing it himself.”

Sandor Meszaros, Formula.hu, Hungary: “Max’s 2023 dominance is a historic achievement. What makes it particularly special for me is the fact that he is doing it in a natural way while after all these successes, he is still the down-to-earth guy who is always available for his fans. He has a huge fanbase in Hungary and is inspiring many youngsters for karting. Funny, that even though our Hungarian is one of the nicest and most colourful languages of the world, after all his victories this year, we are nearly out of praising words! Bravo, Max!”

Reporters on Max this season🩵

[yuzukult]

crush 02 | jww & oc/reader

title: crush 02 / part of the attacca series pairing: jeon wonwoo x reader/oc (ft. seokmin) rating: 16+ (mentions of sex, but no act of sex) genre: angst, fluff, eventual smut, racecar driver!au, mechanic!au wc: 5.2k summary: all he knows are fast rides, drag-strips, and speed ovals until he meets you, someone that’s got his heart racing instead of his car. warnings: explicit language, smoking, suggestive content (but nothing follows through), mentions of sex a/n: yes i know im better at updating this than ybny but what of it

You could almost feel the piercing glare that lasers in the direction of Wonwoo from Seokmin.

They exchange glances, both adjusting the shield attached to their helmets in unison. Hopping in, they both start their routine the same: pulling their seatbelt over themselves, clicking it into the plug connector—the front clip, rear clip, and middle section for security.

While Wonwoo’s car has a matte black body with a white circle decal of his designated number five, Seokmin sports a flashy lime green with a three spray painted on the side. Their vehicles are slimmer than the ones on the streets; there’s barely room for another passenger, the roll cage taking up majority of the inside, nose of the car tapered and pointed for the best aerodynamic features, and the suspension is low to allow less air to allow them to stick to the ground.

Or so, that’s what Seokmin says.

You don’t really understand the mumbo jumbo about racing.

But what you do understand is that everything happens quickly. 

Their engines start with a roar, a soft rumble following, with smoke puffing out of their exhaust pipe like a bull kicking their feet against the dirt with a bellow and gruff, except in lieu, it’s on an asphalt road with drivers. The crowd goes wild, waving their banners and flags, displaying visuals of their favorite racers and teams on their attire, tearing up the merchandise stands and tossing their money in the sellers’ way. You never really understood the temptation to overly purchase on celebrity goods, but with the smile that stretches across the audiences’ faces, it’s hard to argue why not to.

The cars begin to leave their pits, one by one, and into their grid positions. You recalled a time where a guy who competed against Seokmin had been running late—apparently from stumbling out of a hook-up’s apartment the night before, realizing she lived across town which was a hike to get here. That’s when you guiltily learn about how when cars don’t leave their pit on time, the drivers have to start from there… after the field completed their first lap.

The personnel finally shuffle off the tracks when they complete their final touches, and that’s when you spot Seokmin in the midst of the chaos. He does a slight wave, and it brings warmth into your chest until you realize the girl in a neon yellow crop top that stands beside you who waves back. 

What’s the human traffic cone doing here?

You want to be mad, you truly do, but there’s always a part of you that remains soft for Lee Seokmin. The way he drops the shield of his helmet, attaching his steering wheel into its slot, and doing that shoulder raise of his that becomes habitual, everything about him makes you feel vulnerable.

But your thoughts and feelings are immediately interrupted at the sight of Jeon Wonwoo waving to you instead.

He’s… infectious, you’re slowly beginning to learn. When he smiles, it’s enough for the people in proximity to imitate. His eyes curve into half moon crescents, shining brightly just as they do in the night sky, and when you don’t immediately return the greeting, he chuckles in amusement instead of annoyance. He treats his team like they’re his friends, pointing at them prior to getting into his car earlier, teasingly saying, “No modding, right? It’s a stock car, gotta be built just for this. It ain’t supposed to be like those machines you’re ridin’ on late night cruises with a babe in the passenger seat,” as the boys laugh in unison before shoving him away. 

You slowly wave back.

Wonwoo only grins wider before popping down the cover of his helmet.

You notice the lineup—as the cars begin their positions one by one, you realize Wonwoo’s vehicle is placed last and Seokmin is located in the top five. With a nudge, you gesture with your chin to the cars on the speedway with your tongue poking your cheek. “Chan. Why’s Wonwoo last?”

“He didn’t race in the tournament two weeks ago,” he says, crossing his arms over his chest. “Wonwoo only qualified because one of the sponsors for the cup saw him race in the streets that same week. But because of the rules, that means he can’t be placed anywhere near the top.”

Nodding slowly, you open the lid of your thermos. The steam fills the air, brushing against your nose, and you tap your pointer finger against the stainless steel. Impressive, you think, because you’ve heard of the stories of how difficult it was for Seokmin to get his way here. The constant begging, the bugging, and the praying—he had to find people that had even an ounce of belief in him to invest in him so he could get to where he wanted to be.

But Wonwoo didn’t jump those same hurdles as Seokmin.

Seokmin knows the deal. He memorizes the track like the back of his hand; where the tight turns are, when the perfect and exact moment to drift, and how to move just close enough to his opponents to intimidate them. He’s known to be able to determine the required timing for every motion, down to the second of when he’s supposed to have his foot pushing down the accelerator. 

Seokmin was a professional.

His favorite thing about driving a stock car is the only thing he loves about driving stock cars. The way the gearshift falls into the palm of his hand is swift—there’s no hesitation and the evident comfort is there. It’s his strongest suit, behind the wheel of a vehicle with a manual 4-speed transmission, switching gears when he knows right when the perfect millisecond would be. 

It’s not the same as riding on the highway, wind blowing through his hair with the smell of the ocean salty air infiltrating his senses, and it’s not the same as weaving through the traffic of a busy city. He gets to push his limits here, see how far he can go, and the rush he gets is one that can’t be replicated. 

The car is heavy duty—engines 3.5x faster than regulation cars. He can accelerate the car from 0 to 60 in the matter of seconds; the sound of the soft zoom from the engine revving, the stiffening of his body, and tightened grip on the leather steering wheel has become a feeling Seokmin has grown addicted to.

It gives him a blast from the past. Speed had always been a priority; recalling how his onyx grease stained hands were from all the constant modifications on cars in a garage. He could hear an older male, around his early thirties, yelling in his ear about how fast he needs to go, and that it was Seokmin’s job to make it happen.

Now? He’s the one demanding it.

On the oval track, he’s so used to his competition’s habits. They’re repetitive, he learns, all his opponents seemingly never finding themselves in a situation where maybe they should change their tactics. They’re the same. They never change.

And honestly? It gets a little boring.

Releasing the pressure on the clutch, he pushes the sole of his shoes flat against the accelerator. He shifts the gears readily, weaving through the crowd of cars that he “allows” to pass him initially, letting himself fall behind just so he could catch up. A little bit of entertainment doesn’t hurt, right? Notably when the trophy isn’t up for grabs for anyone else anyways.

Lee Seokmin is made for racing. A smirk pulls on the side of his lips, eyes darken and zeroing onto the end of the lap when he notices an unfamiliar car in his side view mirror.

Jeon Wonwoo.

His skin burns—and it’s not from the sun piercing through the window. Every time he sees—no, even hears Wonwoo’s name, he can’t help but seethe with anger. How dare he enter the tournament, especially all that he’s said about those with money and race professionally? The audacity of Wonwoo, stepping onto Seokmin’s turf, like he owns the track when this is merely his first taste of professionally racing.

He’s good, Seokmin admits. Wonwoo expeditiously glides between the cars fluidly, no hesitation with each move, turning and drifting at the right parts of the oval tracks. He doesn’t let the competition scare him, in fact, he looks… comfortable behind the wheel. The expression on his face doesn’t display anything concerning, and if he was anxious, he was good at keeping a facade. 

Seokmin inhales deeply. 

Breathe in. Breathe out. In. Out.

Seokmin snatches onto the clutch. His brand new shoes lay flat against the metal pedal; eyes narrowing in onto the finish line. Freshly painted and he could almost smell the chemicals from the spray can, his chronic need to inhale in that scent of victory, the sound of the crowd cheering his name, as the flag waves behind him after he crosses the line. He doesn’t just want it–he needs it. 

“Fuck,” he mutters under his breath, the heat gusting over his shield that nearly blinds him for a brief moment. Switching the gear quickly, he does it automatically as if the car is one with him, an extension of his arm. “Jeon Wonwoo can’t fucking win.”

Here’s a thing about Lee Seokmin.

Whatever Lee Seokmin wants…

Lee Seokmin gets.

“Fuck off,” he growls under his helmet, moving side to side to block off Wonwoo from cutting him off. 

It doesn’t take long for Seokmin to pass the finish line as the flag waves down.

He sucks in his cheeks in content, a smirk tugging on his lips as he eases into his station, slipping out of his seat and tossing off his helmet. He waves to the crowd who cheer his name. 

Body shot with a wave of dopamine, he feels like he’s conquered it all. All the rejections, the doubters, and his haters—they used to fuel him with rage but they now give him a sense of relief. Without them, he wouldn’t be where he is now, arms up and encouraging the crowd more. This is it for him. Everything he has ever wanted, all in one stadium.

When Wonwoo hops out of his car, his eyes meet with Seokmin’s.

Expecting Wonwoo to be pissed, Seokmin has his fists resting at his sides, but when he sees that gratified smile on his face, confusion washes over his face.

Is he really satisfied with losing?

Seokmin will never understand Wonwoo—from the past when he went by Dokyeom up until now, he can’t loop his head around the fact that Wonwoo race but at the same time, he doesn’t understand why Wonwoo still preferred to keep his hands stained with black while underneath a car.

Deciding to shove the thoughts away, he turns back to the sea of people calling his name. Wonwoo doesn’t matter now, especially since Seokmin won the tournament. Nobody is better than him.

“I didn’t know you were a racer racer.”

“I didn’t know you were a Kyeom stan. Seems like a lotta info was missed over our text exchange,” he grins with a playful tone, hands in the fronts of his pockets. “I don’t judge. Kinda wish you were on my team though.”

He’s out of his overalls by now, in the comforts of his blue jeans and black t-shirt. Wonwoo looks more like himself; the ruffled hair, metal rim glasses that sits atop the bridge of his nose, and the genuine smile on his face is welcoming. Being behind the wheel of that car didn’t feel like him—the look he’s sporting  while standing beside his Prius feels right.

“Are you disappointed?” You ask teasingly–what was that? Was that… an attempt at… flirting? This isn’t like you, and the fact that Wonwoo effortlessly pulls you out of your comfort zone without you noticing is appalling. It’s barely been a night. “I um,” you clear your throat, straightening your posture when you catch yourself in the midst of the act. “I um, I didn’t really want to be here, I was requested to be.”

“Mm, possibly,” he answers, pearly whites all out on display. “But I think with a lil’ convincing, it won’t be too hard to get you to come over to my side. What do you take for bribes? A sweatshirt? I can whip up one.”

“Hm, I’m thinkin’ socks.”

He nods approvingly. “Socks, socks. I think I could do that. What do you want on it? My name, my car? Or what about my face? An iron-on picture of my face on your ankles?”

You quirk a brow.

Wonwoo laughs, shaking his head. “I’m kidding, I’m kidding. But, I gotta admit that I am a bit disappointed that you’re Kyeom’s lucky charm.”

“You want me to be your lucky charm then?”

“Nah, I just want you to be a cheerleader in the stands for me. I’m already winning if you’re on my side.”

Oh. Is that heat rising to your cheeks? Touching the side of your face, you feel the warmth radiating despite the cool air hitting your skin. “I–Oh. That…”

“I’m kidding,” he reiterates, the soft look on his face is enough to cause the butterflies to release in your stomach. “So… did Kyeom come and thank you yet? You know, for being here and helping him win. For someone being their good luck charm, he seems to be taking you for granted.”

You wave him off–it’s almost an instinct to defend Seokmin even when you don’t have a good reason to be. “Oh, pft. Please. He doesn’t need to thank me. I… I came willingly.” Not a lie–you did come willingly. But, what… is a lie is that you sorta… feel like you want to be thanked. Not with a huge extravagant gift or a heartfelt card, but a simple “thank you! You coming means so much to me,” would’ve been nice. Acknowledgement! Any kind. Watching him walk off with a girl after every event wasn’t really making him feel appreciated.

“Mm,” he hums, nodding slowly. He doesn’t seem entirely convinced, but he doesn’t probe any further. “Well, I thank you for being in the audience today. It was nice having a familiar face around, especially since this is new for me.”

Your lips curl up unconsciously. “You're welcome, then. Glad I could be that for you.”

As the two of you walk outside of the arena, a bright yellow car is parked by the curb. “Well, this is me.”

Startled, you point at the car then at Wonwoo. “This… This neon yellow Prius–”

“Yeah, yeah,” he whips out the key fob, and with a click of a button, the Prius’ lights go off with two beeps. “This lovely, cute car with a great personality is mine. I know what you’re thinking—”

“This is so funny.”

“It’s such an attractive–what? Funny?” You know that he’s joking when his lips curl up. “Well, maybe next time I can show you around with my whip. It’s not necessarily a Corvette, but I’m sure we can have just as much fun as some other racer with a flamboyant car.

“Mm,” you hum in response teasingly, eyes narrowing as you cross your arms and tap your chin with your finger. “We’ll see. I may have to up your offer. What other cars do you think you can show me that in?”

Wonwoo smiles sweetly, hopping into his car with a wink. “I got a Ford F-250,” he says, shutting the door before rolling down the window. “See you later then, yeah? Since I don’t think that Kyeom would let me drive you home.”

Chewing on your bottom lip, you feel the heat rush to your cheeks. “I don’t think ‘Kyeom,’”—the name is unfamiliar when it falls off your tongue but the context remains the same—“determines who I can hang out with.” Why are you flirting so boldly? This doesn’t feel like you. 

“Really?” Wonwoo says, a brow raised in amusement. “So… it wouldn’t be a bad thing if we went on that date soon?”

“I… I’m not sure if–”

“She’ll go.”

Both you and Wonwoo turn your head to the culprit of the voice, only to find Lee Chan standing there with the brightest grin plastered across his face. “She’ll go, and if her car breaks down, I’ll even pick her up to meet you.”

You turn to glare at Chan – the lasers darting from your eyes could pierce through his skin and burn it with a hiss, but he could care less. To Chan, if there’s a sliver of hope for you to move on, to find anyone else that isn’t Seokmin, he wants you to dive for it. 

“Chan –”

“Hear me out,” he begins, showing his hands. “What’s wrong with a harmless date?”

Looking over at Wonwoo, he only cheekily smiles as he rests his chin on his car door. “What can I say? People like me. But regardless of that, don’t feel like you gotta accept a date from me if you don’t wanna. No pressure–I know that there might be somethin’ between you and Kyeom, I just didn’t know if it was somethin’ you were plannin’ on pursuin’.”

Inhaling in a deep breath to calm your nerves, you pick at your fingertips. It’s true, there’s nothing wrong with going on one date with Wonwoo. Plus, just the last thing he says alone gives away that he’s exactly that–respectful, honest, and… it’s harmless. It’s not like you’re committing to be his long-term girlfriend or are agreeing to wed.

“I–Okay. I’m… I’d be interested in a date.”

That stupid grin of his grows even wider. How’s he this adorable without even trying?

“Great! Then… I’ll text you then?” 

“Sounds good,” you reply back before you exchange your goodbyes and he drives off in that traffic cone Prius.

“You realize you’re only causing trouble when you tell me that I should date Wonwoo, right?”

Chan freezes before the loaded hot dog—cheese, relish, ketchup, mustard, and the shack’s famous in-house chili to top it off—reaches his mouth, and he blinks blankly at your question. “I… What?”

You swipe your finger on the droplet of chili that falls into the red striped disposable paper tray. Slipping it into your mouth, you pull your lips into a straight line. Salty. “Seokmin, you know. He doesn’t even like Wonwoo, and if he ever found out that you were trying to nudge me in his direction, you’re fucked.”

Chan rolls his eyes, saying his final words so he could shove a portion of the hot dog into his mouth. “Not like he’s seeing other girls or anything.”

Stealing the fry that sits in the basket at the center of the table, you let out a heavy sigh. There’s a part of you that still clings onto the what-ifs when it comes to Seokmin, but when Chan is here, attempting to lure you into another man’s arms, you’re not sure if this is the right thing to do. 

“Do you really think I should go through with the whole Wonwoo thing?”

Chan looks at you with disbelief. His cheeks are full like a chipmunk’s, but he still reaches for a fry and stuffs it into his mouth. “Seokmin scares me, yeah, but I'd rather you be happy. So, if Wonwoo is that potential case, I’ll be here to back you up—even if I lose my already ‘special privileges’ with Seokmin.”

You eye the younger male carefully. He makes a statement when he declares something like that, and you wonder with all the passion he feels for you finding someone new, if other people saw it from the perspective he does. “Is it really that bad?” 

He sighs, pulling his lips into a straight line as he slowly nods his head. It’s not the answer you were expecting, but it’s one you’ve gradually come to accept. “I want you to be happy,” he reiterates once more. “And Seokmin can’t do that for you.”

So, maybe you’ll go on this date with him. One time wouldn’t hurt, right?

Seokmin is the main reason for your hesitance and he always is. But when you get a glimpse of him from across the stadium, arm around the flag girl with a smirk dressed upon his lips, your reluctance dissipates and reality sinks in once again.

If Seokmin isn’t ready for you, then you wouldn’t be ready for him either.

The taste of victory permeates all his senses; each time he crosses that line with the pretty gal in a short skirt while waving a flag isn’t the only benefit of racing, but the amount of zeros behind the first digit that gets cashed into his bank account is the fundamental cause.

For Seokmin, this lifestyle is a dream. The days where he laid underneath a car, sliding in and out on a creeper with grease stained hands and soiled clothes are long gone–he could recall those moments he’d pull his clothes out from the wash and question where the origins of the blemishes were. Some new, some old, he didn’t quite remember, but what he knew was that he couldn’t afford to buy a new wardrobe. He didn’t own a single spotless shirt.

And here he is, present day, at a private table of one of the most expensive clubs in the city with a Huge Boss suit and Gucci black leather oxfords. Seokmin only purchases top shelf liquor; swirling the drink in his hand, the ice clacks against the glass adequately as he watches a pretty girl dance on the main floor with eyes glued onto him. 

He brings the cup to his lips, the cool whiskey on the rocks reaching to his lips, sweet when it hits his tongue and smooth when it slides down his throat.

The quick arch of his brow is an invitation for her introduction.

“Hey,” she says, voice silky as she slides onto the couch beside Seokmin. “Rumor has it, you’re a racecar driver.”

Of course he’s a race car driver—he loves hearing the saccharine words of achievement leave from people’s lips. He’s a professional, accomplishing a goal that people consistently told him would be hard to reach. Now with his arms resting on the back of the sofa at a high end club with girls practically lining up to sit on his dick, he’s gone beyond what he chased for.

He couldn’t ask for anything more than this — other than more money, of course. 

“I am,” he smirks, patting the cushion beside him. “Want me to order you a drink? In exchange, you can tell me your name.”

As she giggles over a fancy mixed drink (he doesn’t even know what she got, all he knows is that it’s pink with an orange slice on the rim and it’s making her eyes swirling with intoxication), he tells her about driving on the track and how it feels to have a crowd of people cheering his name. 

Then the thought of Wonwoo appears in his mind.

It wasn’t always like this—the sharp eyes, fire burning in lieu of the chocolate irises; Jeon Wonwoo was a friend he admired in the past. They both worked together—in a body shop that seemed simple on the outside, providing service for regular people and nothing more.

But there was definitely more beneath the surface.

All the illegal activity that went on behind the scenes is what made Seokmin leave. He was welcomed into the car shop and stayed when they offered him training, learning so much from a team that he looked up to, only to realize that he’d been a part of a scheme he never wanted to be in. Wonwoo was one of the guys who held the information back. And Seokmin swears he won’t forgive Wonwoo for that.

Truthfully, he should’ve suspected something when on the first day, one of the mechanics named LNY (which Seokmin later learned wasn’t even his initials, it fucking stood for Lunar New Year and he would never learn that guy’s real name) advised Seokmin to come up with a pseudonym for working hours and any association to the auto shop. That’s when he came up with Dokyeom. Realistic enough, but far from his birth name in avoidance of putting his family in danger.

“Mm, I looooove peaches,” the girl sings, and honestly, he already forgot her name but he knows what flavor her drink is. 

“Sweet,” he grins, thumb pressing against the corner of her lips. She doesn’t have anything there, but it’s rather charming for a guy to pretend to wipe something off a girl’s cheek, right? “Kinda like you. Can I call you that for the night? Peaches.”

Her cheeks flush pink as she nods slowly.

Hook.

Line.

“I bet your lips taste like them too.”

Sinker.

Needless to say, Seokmin can report the next morning that her lips were indeed sweet like peaches.

He admits he doesn’t think of you on these nights; his thoughts are disgusting and disrespectful for someone who promised himself to end up with another. Fumigating his head would be the only route in making himself even remotely good enough for you — even he knows that.

But nonetheless, there’s something in him that plagues these ideas that this is what he wants, despite the empty promises he makes you. In his mind, there’s this fucked up mentality that you’ll stay, regardless of what decisions he’s made and what girls he picks up because that’s just it—he knows you’ll stick around.

The girl in his sheets that night creates a temporary bliss for him. It’s exhilarating, being able to swoon a woman into his home on a late night out with words and touches as intoxicating as the alcohol she indulges in earlier that night. Just like driving on a racetrack, it has his adrenaline rushing, and he craves for more.

“Gasp!” she exclaims in unison with the drop of her fork. It clangs against the porcelain plates, and you’re just grateful that she didn’t chip or break anything. “You’re joking. You’re going on a date?”

“Would you hush, P?” You shoot back, grabbing her utensils and pushing it far from the other dishware on the table. “I know you’re shocked, but you don’t gotta be dramatic.”

P’s your best friend–P being the initial of her legal name that she forbids anyone from using. She’s told you at least once before what it was, only because on a trip to Cancun, customs yelled it out when she filled out the form with the duty free limit nearly reached. “P****?” you recalled reiterating, and P was so quick to hush you. (Yes, you realize that every time you try to censor her name, it just looks like you’re redacting genitalia. But that’s besides the point). P works for one of the biggest luxury designers in the world–attending parties, runway shows, fashion weeks–name it, and she’s done it all.

Except design her own line and bring her boss the correct coffee order. “Who the fuck orders a matcha latte with six pumps of vanilla, two scoops of protein powder and three egg yolks? Of course I fucking get the order wrong. I don’t think any local coffee shop even has raw egg yolks on hand.”

“No, no no, I-I think P’s got the right reaction,” your other friend says, patting P’s back in assurance. “Last week, you sighed so hard that the lettuce in my salad blew out of my bowl because Seokmin was talking to you while checking out a girl from across the room. You wouldn’t stop gushing over him and now suddenly… there’s a new guy? Where’s you even meet him?”

P slams her elbows onto the table. “I’m with Sunny on this one. Tell us more.”

Sunny is also a nickname (now that you think about it, does anyone go by their actual name?) She earned it for her bubbly nature; generous, bright, and warm, she exhibits behavior that would be like a boost of serotonin or the equivalent of vitamin D for people (or eggs. You read somewhere that two eggs a day provides at least 82% of sunlight for the average person–makes sense why P’s boss is so insistent about getting it). You and P met in high school, friendship lasting up until… well, now, and Sunny was an easy and seamless addition when she got stuck rooming with you and P freshman year.

Rolling your eyes, you plop back into the booth seat. “I just wanna make it clear–it’s just one date. Nothing crazy. Not like he can swoon me off my feet in seconds and all of the sudden I forget everything I promised Seokmin.”

“Promised Seokmin?” P scoffs, waving her pointer finger dramatically. “Mr. Seokmin promised you a handful of things. I don’t see him following your agreement. So why should you? Go on that date with ummm…”

“Wonwoo.”

“Yeah, yeah, with Wonwoo. Speaking of, you got a pic of him?”

You furrow your brows. “What? No. I don’t have a picture of him. What year is it? Why would I keep a picture of him?”

“No, you idiot,” Sunny chimes in, whipping out her phone to open Instagram. “Like, do you have a picture of him on Instagram. Facebook, Twitter–all the social media platforms. Sure, you know he’s real, but is he a psycho?”

“He’s not a psycho,” you add, shoulders slouching in annoyance. Well, you’d hope he isn’t a psycho. The only red flag you saw was that Seokmin doesn’t like him but to be fair, Seokmin himself is a walking red flag. “But… Seokmin hates him.”

P and Sunny’s full, undivided attention is on you. 

“You’re kidding.”

“Why does it matter what he thinks?”

You shrug. “I mean, that’s the one thing I can think of that would be considered a red flag. Seokmin doesn’t like him–but mostly because Wonwoo street races and now he wants to do it professionally.”

P turns back to her own phone and taps away on the screen.

“Okay, but that’s not really a bad sign. So what if Seokmin doesn’t like Wonwoo? Get a taste of his own medicine. We’ve been telling you for what feels like forever that you gotta move on. Like–there are so many candidates out there. Have you even checked dating sites yet? Maia from my International Business Master’s Program met her husband on Tinder. Now, they have a house in the hills, two kids–”

“--Found it!” P interjects, shoving her phone in both your faces. “Jeon Wonwoo. Mechanic–a detail you failed to mention, by the way–and he’s 26, likes KBBQ and oddly enough, for a car guy, doesn’t obsessively post cars.”

Sunny snatches it out of P’s hand. “Oh my god, he’s so cute.”

“That’s what I’m saying!” P exclaims, flailing her arms theatrically. “If you don’t go out with him, I will.”

You let out a sigh. It’s almost equivalent to the one you exasperated at the last outing. “I already told him that I would, so it’s not like I can back out. Plus, Chan was pressuring me! For someone whose eyes practically sparkle when they see Seokmin, he’s so anti-Seokmin when it comes to me.”

“Yeah, because even though he looks up to Seokmin, it’s for racing. That’s all it is. He’s been treating you like shit, love. This story you think will have an ending might not exactly have the word happy in it.”

It doesn’t matter how many times you hear it, it never gets easier with each reminder. P and Sunny have good intentions, Chan does too, but you’re not ready to raise a glass to this so-called tragedy that’s known as you and Seokmin.

← last chapter | next chapter →

[raapija]

hey I'm the last anon

as I said you introduce me to strollonso but nowadays I see you posting about Indy car

I wanna start watching Indy too but felt overwhelmed because it's so different from F1, so any tips?

love, AP

Hello again 🫶

I have just gotten into indycar this season myself, so I am a bit clueless as well still ! 😅

But it is a very different sport to F1. Under the cut are some of my observations...

The rules are 90% imaginary and I don't understand them at all

Oval races are confusing as hell

The qualifying format is insane (and changes depending on if it's an oval or a street course)

There are about 300 cars in each race

The car liveries make no sense (and change all the time)

There's 16 orange cars. (i don't understand why everyone wants to be orange. and the same SHADE of orange as well 😭)

Scott Dixon is the Fernando Alonso of the series (although Dixie is not a war criminal)

Teams can have up to four drivers and change them out willy nilly (looking at your Arrow McLaren.)

Races are usually pure chaos

Everyone hates Santino Ferrucci, and that's a fact. And it's okay, because he deserves it.

All the cars have their own name sponsor (example: Colton Herta drives the Gainbridge-Honda while his teammate Kyle Kirkwood drives the Autonation-Honda)

The cars are visually identical, but there are two engine manufacturers: Honda and Chevrolet. Very little changes to car setup can completely kill speed.

The driver's most trusted companion is their race strategist. (Bryan Herta is the best. He is Colton's dad and currently works with Kyle ❤️)

The cars are very sturdy and can take a proper beating

Pit stops are scary as fuck (also much slower than F1 but somehow a lot more hectic)

The drama is crazy. The drivers are such divas.

Pato O'Ward carries the whole sport on his shoulders.

The margins are non-existent. The fights are insane. You never know who is gonna win. But somehow Alex Palou always comes out on top.

Bus Bros are the Brocedes of indycar

Races can get wild. There is a vastly different kind of caution system than in F1 and it can be SCARY at first

I will never learn the different team names. I can barely remember my fave drivers' numbers 😭😭😭😭

I think Penske and Andretti are the best teams ?????? But pretty much anyone can win a race

They introduced the hybrid system only this year. MID SEASON.

They usually travel by bus and everyone has their own bus they stay in. And there are often barbeques and parties at the bus lot 👀

So... That's some info... Sorry if this is a complete mess and overwhelms you even more 😭 Today is the last race of the season, which sucks, but at least you'll have some time to prepare for the next season !! The indycar fandom is much smaller than F1 and in my opinion, much more chill. There are not many insane fans here and everyone is pretty nice 😇❤️

And also, here are my favorite boys 😘:

Andretti Global: Kyle, Marcus and Colton ❤️

They slay ✨

[ywpd-translations]

Ride 726: Sakamichi until the Central Sports Park

Pag 1

1: Two hours earlier, Sohoku High School racing team is on the mountain road towards the training camp

2: Are you alright, Onoda-san!?

Ugh....

Y- your condition... ahh, ahhhh

Captain!!

3: We were descending at a high speed, and then the moment we entered the mountain road his face turned... white

What do we do about this training camp

Is- is.... is he going to be alright?

4: Yeah, don't worry

It's Onoda-kun's specialty that we've gotten used to – car sickenss!!

I didn't think it would happen three years in a row

Pag 2

1: At the same place!!

2: I'm- alright, Naru.... ko... kun

Yeah you don't look alright at all

Your face is as white as paper

3: During these three years.... I've learned... and

I've come..... prepared....

4: Go ahead before me

5: There's no need to contact Toji-san either

6: From here....

Pag 3

1: To the Cycling Sports Park it's 18km....

I realized that on this mountain road

Pag 4

1: If I go with my bike, I'm sure I won't feel sick!!

Pag 5

1: I don't feel faint and I don't feel sick either

And I won't bother everyone

Ahhh... bikes really are the best...!!

2: But I'll be a little later for the start

I'll hurry as much as possible

(Time display)

4: But

5: The air is sweet, and I'm able to slowly enjoy the scenery

Ah, I can see the sea

6: I even started humming without noticing

Hm hm hm

Ahhh the “Love Hime”'s third season announcement PV only has the chorsu part of the song.... I want to listen to the opening!!

Even though I'm pedaling like this

Pag 6

1: There's many things to discover

2: 3km to go!!

3: This climb, and then the descent after it!!

4: Alright, I'm at the top

5: Hm hm hm

6: Hime hime

Pag 7

1: Hime.....

2: Waaaaaaaa, he's deaaad!!

3: Someone- someone's collapsed

Waaaaa my first dscorvery

Wh- wh- what should I do

4: My phone, my phone

Pag 8

1: I'm alive

A- i- u- e- o

Pag 9

1: See, I can even speak Japanese

2: I'm just resting

On the ground

3: You can go

Goodbye

4: O-okay

Sorry, you surprised me

5: What a strange person....

Well, then....

He was wearing a unifer, is he a student.....?

Pag 10

1: Hakone Academy is around here, maybe he's an Hakone Academy's student?

2: Uh-oh, I'm on my way to training camp! I have to hurry

I left the start to Naruko-kun, but....

4: Huh?!

This smell....

5: Just now the smell of plants was mixed a little with the smell of blood!!

Pag 11

1: He's injured!!

2: Maybe I'm wrong? Maybe I'm making a mistake?

Maybe he'll brush me off again!?

3: But

4: Let's turn back!!

Aaaaaaaa

Pag 12

2: Oh?

3: The four-eyes from before

Pag 13

1: I'm just resting, you can go

Yo-yo-you're injured!!

2: I have water and bandages!!

Oh

3: Are you kidding me

4: No way something so convenient

5: is... happe.... ning

Waa-

6: Are you alright!? Were you hit by car!?

Are you alright!?

7: Huh? No... on my own.....

On your own!?

Pag 14

1: Just for a moment, I looked away just a little

And then there was a hole and I fell

2: This is so hard, this is so hard

3: He's not listening

5: He's so bad at this....

6: But

Pag 15

1: You saved me

Thanks a lot

5: I'm glad!

7: By the way, that

Is the same as the one that a famous guy from Chiba rides

The bicycle

Pag 16

1: Huh

2: You know bicycles very well?

Yeah

3: I was riding one earlier

4: Earlier?

5: Now it's a little....

Waaa- It's fallen to the bottom of the valley...!!

6: I was riding, then I got caught in a hole

Kinda like that

Pag 17

1: Leave it to me, I'll bring it to you

2: I'll....

Ohhh, what a kind guy!!

3: I-!!

Waa--!!

5: …. well then, I'll go

Somehow now it feels reversed and I feel sorry

6: By the way....

Ahead of here

7: There's only the Cycling Sports Park

And from today for the next four days it's reserved so you can't use it

So where are you going, Four-eyes-san?

Pag 18

1: To the Cycling Sports Park

2: I'm Chiba's.... Sohoku High School's cap.... captain

Do you know of it?

My name is Onoda Sakamichi

We're having a training camp there from today

Pag 19

2: Who?

Huh- ah, no- haha it's it's just a name

He doesn't know me....!! This is so embarassing!!

3: You're kidding me.....

4: The super famous person of Chiba!!

5: This is baad... I was s surprised I bluffed and pretended not to know

Ah... uhm, and you?

6: Huh, me?

I'm- I'm!!

Pag 20

1: I'm Hakone Academy first year, the super rookie!! I'm Tobirama!!

2: It hurts

This person's head looks like a scrubbing brush

[lovelyleclercs]

Chapter One- Toto 2.0

George Russell x Fem!Reader

short summary: Everything you had ever dreamed of was finally coming true, but when you learn that George is the new full time driver for Mercedes, you can't help but think back to that early morning in December.

Warnings: NOT proof read, mentions of death/accident, some false information, mentions of alcohol, making out, and being drunk.

Word Count: 2416

Author's Note: This story is a work in progress so if you want to see something specific happen within this story, please don't hesitate to ask!

February 22nd

Ever since you were old enough to understand what a job was, you had dreamed of following in your father's footsteps. Your father, Ross Brawn, was a pretty well known name in the Formula 1 world. Ross was well known for all of his work with Michael Schumacher. The pair had met when Ross was working as a technical engineer for Benetton- the team in which Michael had been driving for at the time. After winning two driver’s championships and one constructors championship, Michael and Ross had moved to Ferrari together where they would win 5 more drivers titles and 6 more constructors titles. After Michael retired from the sport, Ross moved on to start up his own team in 2009- Brawn GP. The team was a success, with Jenson Button winning the championship that year. However, Brawn GP would become Mercedes starting in 2010. 

You used to constantly beg your father to take you along to the factory or to the track. Ross loved how eager you were about Formula 1 and would let you tag along as often as he could. Everyone on the team adored you. You were well known as the girl with many questions as you always had what seemed like a thousand new questions every time you visited the factory. The team however, didn’t mind. Your father had even told them to put you to work- which they did. 

Ross was sure that you wouldn’t be this obsessed with Formula 1 forever, so he did his best to soak up these moments while he could. However now at the age of 23, you are still just as fascinated as you were 16 years ago. 

It was your official first day at Mercedes. You couldn’t believe that it was real life. This was the factory that you had spent hours running around in when you were little, dreaming of being an employee dressed in black pants and a white top with the Mercedes logo on it one day. Here you were all of these years later and those dreams had finally come true. 

It was pretty cold and rainy out in Brackley- nothing too surprising for england. You rested your head on the car window as you watched the small droplets fall onto the glass. You had a lot going on in your mind. You knew people would talk about you, you were Ross Brawn’s daughter. You knew that you didn’t have to work as hard for this job as most did, but you had been working towards this job your entire life, that's why Toto offered it to you. You usually never let people's opinions get into your head, but for whatever reason you were concerned about how your new co-workers were going to perceive you. 

When Toto parked the car, he gently tapped your shoulder. “We’ve arrived,” he said as he looked over at you. When you didn’t move, he knew right away that something was wrong. 

Toto had known you pretty much your entire life, he practically raised you. After losing both of your parents in a tragic accident Six years ago, Susie and Toto took you in under their wing. Without hesitation, they cleared out their guest room and allowed you to turn it into your home. The entire Wolff family- including little jack- had helped you through your darkest moments. You owed a lot to the Wolff family. There were no words you could ever use to express the gratitude you had towards all three of them. 

“What’s going on in that mind of yours, sweetie. Talk to me.” 

You looked over at Toto, a few tears welled in the corners of your eyes. You knew he wouldn’t let you leave this car until you opened up to him so you took a deep breath and looked down at your fidgeting hands. “I just know that people aren’t going to feel like I deserve to be here- that just because Ross Brawn was my father and I have a close relationship with the Wolff family, this job was handed to me and I didn’t have to work hard for it like they did. But that isn’t true, I have worked my entire life for this job. I might not have had to go to school for it or apply several times for it, but I have been working towards this job for years.” You said with a sigh as you wiped away the tears that had fallen down your cheeks. You hated being vulnerable- especially in front of people. “Not to mention the fact that dad should be here with us. This was our dream together, and he can’t be here to see it” you said quietly. 

“That's exactly it, sweetie. None of these people in this factory were running around here at the age of Seven asking questions or helping out wherever it was needed. You have done your fair share of working hard to get to this job, and if anyone has anything to say about it, send them my way. Nobody in this factory should be saying such horrible things about you. They should be respecting you and treating you how they treat everyone else.” Toto handed you a tissue and smiled gently. “I promise you, I have your back always. There is nothing to worry about.”

You smiled a little and wiped your remaining tears away with the tissue, sitting in a comfortable silence for a moment. 

“As far as your dad goes, I know it’s hard, I miss him too. However I do know that your dad wouldn’t want you sitting in this car crying over the fact that he isn’t here. He would want you to wipe your tears away and march into the factory with confidence and pride.”

Toto was absolutely right. You wiped away your tears and forced a smile on your face, telling yourself that today was going to be amazing, no matter what. 

You eventually got out of the car, Toto following suit as the two of you walked side by side towards the entrance of the factory. As you approached the huge sliding doors, you couldn’t help but remember that feeling you always got as a kid walking up to the factory. Curiosity, fascination, and most of all, happiness. 

When you walked inside, you saw Lewis standing at the door waiting for you. Lewis was one of the drivers for Mercedes, and had been for as long as you could remember. Like Toto, Lewis was an important person in your life and someone you shared a lot of memories with. No matter how busy Lewis was whenever you came to visit the factory, he always made an effort to spend some time with you, even if it was only five minutes. 

Lewis approached you with a huge smile on his face, his arms wide open waiting for you to give him a hug. “There she is! There's my favorite Mercedes employee!” ‘

You laughed and hugged Lewis tightly. “You probably shouldn’t say that out loud, Lew. People will start to think you play the game of favoritism.”

Lewis laughed and pulled from the hug. “Fair point, but I have also known you for a little over ten years soooo I think i’m allowed to say you're my favorite!” 

Toto jokingly rolled his eyes at the two of you. “Alright you two, we have lots of work to do today so we should probably head upstairs. George should be up there waiting for us already”

You looked over at Toto, a confused look on your face. When he mentioned the name George, you knew that he had been talking about their reserve driver, George Rusell, but you were confused as to why George would be in the meetings today. “Toto? Why is George here today? Reserve drivers don’t usually sit in on the first few meetings of the season..”

Toto and Lewis exchanged a look and both started laughing. “You didn’t hear the news?” Toto finally said after getting his laughter under control. When you shook your head, Toto handed you a folder that had a contract inside of it. When you looked down at it, you saw that it was a multi-year contract deal between Mercedes and George. 

“Wait, so George is the second driver? What about VB?” 

“He signed a deal with Alfa Romeo last minute instead of sticking around here. You usually know about things before I do, I would have told you if I would’ve known you hadn’t heard about it, i’m sorry”

You shrugged and handed him the folder back. “Don’t apologize. I think this is a great opportunity, though. George is hard working and talented. I think he will be the perfect fit for this team” you said with a smile before walking into the conference room. 

Deep down, you were a bit scared to have George driving full time for the team after the encounter the two of you had at the post season party last year. When you saw George sit down across from you at the table, your mind traveled back to that night in December.

It was nearing 2am. You had several drinks that night and couldn’t exactly think straight. Feeling hot, sweaty, and way too crammed on the dance floor, you decided to go outside to get some fresh air, maybe that would make you feel better. You made your way over to the balcony, picking up your dark red gown so nobody, including yourself, would trip on it. When you walked out onto the balcony, you closed the door behind you and leaned against the railing, taking in a deep breath to try to get the nauseous feeling to go away.

It took you several minutes to even notice that George had been standing next to you on the balcony, but when you finally did notice him standing there, you jumped. “Jesus George!! You scared the hell out of me!!”

George laughed a little and grabbed your hand to prevent you from falling. “I’m sorry, I thought you knew I was standing here. I’ll make my presence more known next time”

As you looked up at George, the response you had thought of suddenly disappeared, your brain turning to mush as you found yourself getting lost in his bright blue eyes. Before you knew it, the two of you had your arms wrapped around each other, both of you leaning in for a kiss. George was the one who decided to break the distance, his lips pressing against yours ever so gently. The two of you had been flirting with each other all year, so this wasn’t a complete shock to either one of you. Both of you had been convinced that the other didn’t feel the same way. Clearly, you were both very, very wrong. By the time you had come to your senses and realized what was going on, it was too late. You were making out on Toto Wolff’s balcony. 

“y/n? Are you listening?” Lewis whispered to you, snapping you out of your thoughts as you felt your cheeks turn a bright shade of red.

“Hm? What oh no sorry I wasn’t. What did I miss?” you whispered back to him, your eyes doing their best to avoid a look at George. 

Lewis let out a little chuckle and showed you his laptop which had a full page of notes typed up on it already. That was Lewis for you. He took his seat in Formula 1 very seriously. During every meeting you could always count on Lewis writing up a Three page essay about what was discussed. You admired Lewis for all of his hard work and determination, hoping to be half as good of a worker as he was one day. 

You turned your attention back up to Toto, telling Lewis that you would look through his notes once the meeting had finished. As you watched Toto write a few different things on the board, you could feel a stare burning into the side of your face. George was staring at you, you could feel it. It took everything in you not to give him one quick glance. Every part of you wanted to relive that moment on the balcony with George, but with you being an employee and George being a driver, you knew that a relationship between the two of you was unacceptable. George was absolutely off limits. No matter what.

When the meeting was over, you followed Toto out of the room, running to try to catch up to him. Toto was a whole foot and a half taller than you, so walking beside him was always a difficult task. “Toto I have a few questions, per usual”

Toto laughed at your comment and glanced over at you before looking back in front of him as he continued walking. “What are your questions?”

“Well for starters… What exactly is my role here at Mercedes?”

Toto smiled and stopped walking, turning to face you. He placed his hands on your shoulders, looking down at you. “You’re pretty much my assistant. If I need help with anything at all, you'll be the one I call. That’s why it’s important for you to be with me during all my meetings. You're basically Toto 2.0”

“Can my name badge say Toto 2.0?”

Toto laughed and continued walking “if you really want it to, then sure”

As the two of you approached a room that was located right next door to Toto’s, Toto handed you a key. “Toto 2.0 even gets her own office”

You smiled and unlocked the door, walking inside to look around. “Holy crap, Toto! This is huge!!” 

Toto laughed and leaned against the door frame. “It’s pretty decent for an office space, I won't lie.”

“What does this door lead to?” you asked once you noticed the door on the wall to the right of you. 

“It leads to my office. Pretty convenient considering the two of us will have to spend a lot of our time together anyways”

“Great so remind me to keep it locked at all times so you don’t bug me like you do at home”

Toto rolled his eyes jokingly and laughed. “Speaking of home, we are all done here today and Susie is waiting for us with dinner, are you ready to head out?”

You smile and look around your office one more time. “Yeah, lets go”

[polkadotjersey]

Twenty Questions for Fic Writers

finally doing this :) thank you for tagging me @kingfisherprince <3

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

currently 22. hopefully more soon :)

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

243,150 (kinda crazy to think this is proper novel length by now)

3. What fandoms do you write for?

i currently have wips for formula 1 rpf and cycling rpf, also write football rpf (slowly making my way through all sports tags, i suppose.)

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

top spot for every other sunday (crazy kudos count, i still can't quite believe it). next are an evolutionary theory of the soul (seb/charles), algorithm (max/charles), little lion man (lewis/max) and in the dark you can't see shiny cars (max/charles). nice pairing mix as well!

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Usually, yes. (although i confess i had a rough patch last year and let many go unanswered just because i had no energy to interact anywhere, but i still love each and every comment i get.)

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

that... has to be lonely hearts club (seb/charles), i think?

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

hard to figure. i realize i write a lot of endings as begginings, so... which one is the happiest? I suppose in every other sunday they're quite happy (and also kimi is doing the macarena, so there's that.)

8. Do you get hate on fics?

nope. i love that these fandoms are so chill <3

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

yes. the boring kind (sorry!)

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

never did. not sure how i'd go about it.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

erhm actually yes. wattpad debacle of 2022.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

yes! (thank you to all the lovely translators of my fics, you are the best <3)

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

no. but i am open to.... 👀

14. What’s your all time favourite ship?

no OTPs, i am all about spreading the love

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

charles lifeguard AU (main pairing to be determined). i wrote a lot of the setup, just mainly charles, alex and carlos being chaotic best friends working at a fancy beach resort.

16. What are your writing strengths?

who knows? I think i am good at storytelling (pace, etc). ooh also non-linear narratives. i am quite proud of those.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

i write at a snail's pace. can't do past tenses to save my life. still not confident writing in english, so i get stuck a lot.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

i only ever did it when it's relevant to the fic (like in a matter of expression (seb/charles), which is all about languages)

19. First fandom you wrote for?

12 year-old me writing bad harry potter fanfiction counts, i suppose? the evidence must still be lost somewhere on the internet

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

time and again (seb/charles) is my all time favourite.

i am tagging @sebchal, @kritischetheologie, @antimonyandthyme, @astronomical-light and @cupidskissx (no pressure to do it, i am just sending my love to you)

[greensparty]

This Month In History - June

Here is a round up of the big anniversaries to celebrate this month:

June 2, 1989: Dead Poets Society opens

In June 1989, one of the best movies of the 80s was released. Here is my piece from 2019. Happy 35 DPS!

June 4, 1984: Born in the U.S.A. released

In June 1984, Bruce Springsteen's 7th album was released. Here is my piece I wrote in 2014. There's a 40th anniversary edition that was recently released on vinyl (expect my review soon). Happy 40th BITUSA!

June 8, 1984: Ghostbusters / Top Secret! / Gremlins open

On one day in 1984, three all-out classic films were released. Here is my piece I wrote in 2019. Happy 40th Ghostbusters, Top Secret! and Gremlins!

June 13, 1979: Candy-O released

In June 1979, the second album by The Cars was released. The new wave Boston band made quite a splash with their first album and for the second they brought in producer Roy Thomas Baker known for his work with Queen. Everyone talks about the debut, but this one has quite a few bangers like "Let's Go", "Dangerous Type" and the title track. Happy 45th Candy-O!

June 15, 1989: Bleach released

In June 1989, Nirvana's debut album was released. The album pre-dated Dave Grohl and drums were courtesy of the highly underrated Chad Channing, and on a few tracks Melvins’ Dale Crover (who I spoke with about this album in 2017). Here is my piece I wrote about the album in 2014. Happy 35th Bleach!

June 15, 1999: The White Stripes released

In June 1999, the debut album from The White Stripes was released. Here is my piece I wrote in 2014. Happy 25th TWS!

June 16, 1994: Kristen Pfaff dies

In June 1994, Hole bassist Kristen Pfaff died at 27. The bandmate of Courtney Love died only a few months after her husband Kurt Cobain died at 27. Sadness! Here is my piece I wrote in 2014.

June 20, 1989: The Real Thing released

In June 1989, Faith No More's magnum opus was released. Here is my piece I wrote in 2014. Happy 35th TRT!

June 22, 1984: The Karate Kid opens

In June 1984 one of the great underdog sports movies was released. Here is my piece I wrote in 2014! In 2016, when I interviewed one of the stars William Zabka (one of the great 80s villains of all-time), he told me “Good movies ride on! It’s nice they are still appreciated to this day.”. Happy 40th Karate Kid!

June 22, 2004: A Ghost is Born released

In June 2004 the 5th album by Wilco was released. Following up Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was a tall task, but this was quite a follow up. This is an album I got that Summer and listened to it quite a bit on my disc man that Summer (before I got an iPod). There's some solid tracks here and notably "Spiders (Kidsmoke)", a 10 min. slow burn build-up that blows up at a certain point in the song. Happy 20th AGIB!

June 23, 1989: Batman opens

In June 1989, Tim Burton's first Batman movie was released. Here is my piece I wrote in 2014. Happy 35th Batman!

June 25, 1984: Purple Rain soundtrack album released

In June 1984, Prince and the Revolution’s magnum opus was released. It was the soundtrack to his movie which opened a month later. Prince has made some brilliant albums, but this one stands above the rest! In 2018 I got to see The Revolution live and was completely blown away, the songs are still timeless. Here is my piece I wrote in 2014! Happy 40th Purple Rain!

June 29, 1984: Bachelor Party opens

In June 1984, one of Tom Hanks' funniest comedies was released. Here is my piece I wrote in 2019. Happy 40th BP!

June 30, 1989: Do the Right Thing opens

In June 1989, Spike Lee’s magnum opus (and that is saying something based on his filmography) was released. Here is my piece I wrote in 2014! Happy 35th DTRT!

June 30, 2004: Spider-Man 2 opens

In June 2004 one of the best sequels and super hero movies was released. Here is my piece I wrote in 2014. Happy 20th S-M2!

[bright-and-burning]

just remembered i missed all sorts of tags dkjnkjfdsanf tagged by @foggieststars @omigodyall @liamlawsonlesbian @albonoooo AND @freeuselandonorris !!!

1. do you make your bed?

not unless people are coming over (i have a studio apartment), but i also only sleep w a duvet in the summer lol

2. favourite number?

13! my first high school soccer number. i loved being the unlucky number <3 something so fun about being the shortest person on the team w the unlucky number coming on and playing aggressively lol

3. what's your job?

i'm a data analyst! for a government research group. kind of. it’s complicated aksjksjd. demographics + economics + policy stuff most of the time, i think (idk, they just pay me to do numbers and code)

4. if you could go back to school, would you?

yeah, my job'll get me my masters for free and i am definitely taking them up on that

5. can you parallel park?

yes!!!

6. do you think aliens are real?

the universe is mad vast there's def lifeforms out there. definitely no humanoids in our solar system imo tho

7. can you drive a manual car?

no kfjdsakfj i've never driven manual. i want to learn! but you would not believe how hard that is like, logistically. just finding someone who owns a manual is impossible lmao

8. guilty pleasure?

i simply do not feel guilt abt pleasure. jk uhhhh. ok this is so hard i did the full thing and came back to this and still dont have an answer. naps during the workday? some of my music taste is like . fjdskajf. i guess

9. tattoos?

none for now !

10. favourite colour?

all of the sunset ones!! orange and pink and purples.. beloved....

11. favourite type of music?

im sure spotify will say my top genre recently is. rap? pop? one of those two. but that's just the mood im in this summer. last summer was extremely folk americana rock indie modge podge

12. do you like puzzles?

YES!!!! it's like. why i'm in the career im in lol every project i work on is just solving puzzles w the exact same rush of satisfaction at completing it/figuring it out lol

13. favourite childhood sport?

i did . so many sports as a kid. if it was free/cheap my parents were throwing us in just to try lol. played soccer, did taekwondo, did like ten years of dance (tap >>> ballet if im honest), running, kickball every day after school for years, gymnastics for a bit, more or less self-taught figure skating w second hand skates, etc etc. to say nothing of the random sports i tried one(or two or three)-offs of with friends at like birthday parties or w/e (loved hockey ! loved softball ! loved tennis !) i liked soccer best for sure tho. perfect mix of the like quick feet agility i loved about tap dancing and the exhilaration of success and watching everything come together in the right moment of all the other things

14. do you talk to yourself?

yes and no? im actually quite quiet despite living alone but i have a constant running monologue so things slip out all the time ldkfjal

15. tea or coffee?

...neither

16. first thing you wanted to be when growing up?

an engineer!! #womeninstem. when i was 3 i would go around saying i wanted to be an engineer and make a million dollars a year and adopt 12 kids (6 boys 6 girls). that was the very first eve dream

17. what movies do you adore?

40s and 50s musicals >>>>. technicolor how i miss you so... gene kelly movies were my bread and butter as a kid. i do love wes anderson can't lie. also chris nolan movies! they hit! like they just do!! also robots (2005).

i genuinely think everyone has been tagged. just guessing based on how many times ive been tagged here. DJFLAK

[boxboxblog]

A General History of F1: The Silver Age

It's a new day everyone. Let's go.

So, in most of the posts I have done about the history of F1, I have not really mentioned Mercedes. This is because the Mercedes we know today was briefly around in the 50s, then enveloped by other race car brands, and finally jumped back out in 2010, after the purchase of Brawn GP.

The Mercedes we know today was heralded by the drivers Michael Schumacher (who left Ferrari in 2006 and was on hiatus until 2010) and young Nico Rosberg, son of WDC Keke Rosberg. This all-German team jumped straight into fighting for top 5, finishing their first year at Mercedes in fourth place in the championship.

But it was in 2012 that Lewis Hamilton joined his best friend Rosberg at Mercedes. Hamilton was already a WDC at this point (2008 with Mclaren) and Rosberg was well on his way towards becoming one himself. This driver line up would start The Silver Age of Mercedes dominance, only coming to an end in 2021. It also heralds one of the most dramatic teammate rivalries in F1 history.

Lewis Hamilton is one of the few drivers in F1 who can say that he is a self-made man. Instead of coming from a shiny racing legacy, or well-to-do business moguls, Hamilton was born to a rather typical English family. But what he had was talent. Massive talent. It became clear to anyone who watched young Hamilton during his carting days that this kid was meant for F1. And so his family sacrificed everything and his father worked multiple jobs just to afford his career. On top of that, Hamilton was one of the only POCs in the notoriously 'rich-white' sport. That came with its own struggles.

Almost polar opposite was Nico Rosberg, who came from shiny racing money and grew up in Monaco, notoriously rich. His father owned the team he drove for in carting, helped by giving him expertise, and the Rosberg names certainly gave its own aid. None of this is to say that Rosberg didn't work hard. But to understand these two drivers and what eventually came to pass, one must understand where they came from.

In 2013 the first sign that competition could cut into a childhood friendship appeared. At Sepang, the infamous site of 'multi-21' and a MotoGP incident (again, something in the air there), team orders were given for Rosberg to stay behind Hamilton. Hamilton admitted after the race that Rosberg most likely deserved the win that day. But with Red Bull experiencing a similar incident, but more dramatic, this event was swept under the rug.

With a new era of F1 came a new era of car. Mercedes had shown they had promise in previous season, but with the introduction of the hybrid engine, 2014 was ripe for the picking. And they certainly did pick. With an astounding 16 out of 19 races won by a Mercedes car (11 1-2 finishes), the team won the WCC and Lewis Hamilton got his second WDC. The next year was almost a repeat.

To understand why Mercedes excelled so much after the switch to hybrid engines, you must first understand what kind of teams F1 has. I will use modern teams as an example, just so everyone understands. Teams like Williams, Red Bull, and Haas are not street car manufacturers. They get their parts and engine from outside sources. But teams like Ferrari and Mercedes do produce street cars. So when in 2014 hybrid engines became the new norm, Mercedes (who had been working with hybrid engines in their street cars already) were that much more comfortable than everyone else. While every other team was still trying to wrap their heads around how to best operate with this new tech, Mercedes was a step ahead.

The closest rival to Mercedes during this time was Ferrari, but who am I kidding. The closest rival to Mercedes, to Lewis Hamilton, was itself. Nico Rosberg wasn't on the team to play #2 driver. While the two drivers had been close in their childhood, competition can bring out the worst of people. Especially in F1.

When it became clear 2014 onward that no other team could even come close to Mercedes, the real tension grew. Before, they were teammates fighting others for a win. Now, Hamilton and Rosberg being each others only competition, the war turned inward.

Next part will be about the Silver War.

Cheers,

-B