#european talent cup | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

chxxrybxxmb · 1 year ago

Text

: ̗̀➛ Met the professionals

Synopsis: after winning the U-20 match, Ego starts planning the third phase of the project and you were requested to come back a few days earlier than the players for a quick briefing and to introduce you the new people that you would be working with.

Reader is 18.

Warnings: fem!reader, English and Japanese honorifics, swearing, reader has a little brother, suggestive comment, reader wears a dress and has makeup on, flirting, hottest dilfs alive and Micheal Kaiser.

Ego in his sugar daddy era???

“How’re you, Ego-San? I hope that you’ve been eating well for the past two weeks since I wasn’t here to cook for you.” You grinned kindly at your boss, entering the high tech office. Placing your handbag on the table, Ego doesn’t look at you and continues to immerse himself in important data.

“What’re you my mother? I don’t need you to look after me.”

“If I don’t look after you, who’ll make Japan win the World Cup?” You sassed. Approaching the table the looked at the holographic data floating mid air. You still wonder to yourself how much money went into this and how high tech this all was.

“Anri-San told me over the phone that I should come back a few days earlier than the players, when I tell you that those boys-”

“Ah, ah.” He raises his hand over to your mouth, stopping you from saying anything and you huffed, sitting on the tables edge. “Alright, tell me-” A holographic screen slides to your direction, revealing the information before you.

“The third phase of this match is called the Neo Egoist League. Where players pick a team that matches their skills. This phase will introduce a variety of investments, including high salaries, various offers from different teams all over Europe to play in their leagues, and so many more,” you click on the icon, Germany and saw the familiar face of the one who beat Messi in a match from three years ago.

“Noel Noa…?”

“Oh, yeah. The teams the players will choose are England, Germany, Italy, France, and Spain. Each European team is an S-class team led by the most exceptional strikers…I think you already know them.” Cue for the familiar faces of famous football players to come into the screen. Chris Prince, Lavinho, Noel Noa, Marc Snuffy, and the familiar face of Julian Loki.

“After the players pick their respective teams, they will be separated into different stratums or buildings. Anri-Chan will be sending you the rest of the details. Don’t embarrass yourself when you’re up close with them.” He says, giving you a side eye as you stare at a picture of Snuffy. You immediately snapped back to your senses and swiped away the image of the Italian footballer.

“I-I won’t! What makes you say that?!” He huffs and pushes you off the table.

“Unpack your things and help the other staff with room preparations. You will be preparing for five teams with twenty plus players. Go away.” You huffed at him and fixed your clothes. “Can’t you be more gentle?! Geez!”

“What’s this?” You looked at the white box, wrapped with a black bow that Anri handed to you, she looks very excited you took notice. She beams at you as you placed it on the dining table.

“Open it! Ego-San got it for us.”

“That Vector look-a-like got us something? Are you sure he’s alright? Should I call a doctor?” You worried turned to the older woman. Cue for Ego to smack you on the back of you of your head with a file.

“Ow!”

“Be grateful, you waste of talent. I’m pretty sure you don’t have anything decent to wear.” He hissed, pointing at your working clothes and you gasped dramatically.

“These are my working clothes, asshat! I can’t run around working in a mini skirt.”

“Oh, come on, Ego-San. (Name)-Chan just got back and you’re already picking a fight with her!” Anri scolds the two of you, pulling both her boss and colleague apart before they tear each other apart. “Just open the gift and tell me if it fits. Don’t approach me if it isn’t your style.” Ego spoke, going into the kitchen to prepare himself yet another instant ramen packet.

“If it fits?” You thought a bit confused. Did he buy you clothes? Or maybe it’s a new staff uniform, either way, you pulled on the strands of the ribbon, making it come undone. You then lifted the cover and saw some white paper covering, Anri was squealing excited next to you. Moving away some of the wrapping, you soon realized that Ego had bought you a designer dress.

You took out the dress from the box and looked at it with eyes peeled open. Ego, your harsh boss, had bought you a dress that was totally your style and in your favorite color? Is the world ending?

“Omg, Ego-San, it looks beautiful on her, definitely (name)’s style!” Anri gushed at the man who didn’t respond. As you continued to admire the dress and its intricate appearance, Ego cleared his throat.

“Do the two of you have any jewelry?”

“I only brought a few earrings with me, nothing special.”

“The ones that I’m wearing, I don’t change into anything different unless it’s a special occasion.” You and Anri answered. You wondered why Ego bought you an expensive dress and asking you about jewelry, all he ever talked about was football not fashion.

“Ego-San, what’s with the dress? I don’t think I can wear this to anywhere and this must’ve been expensive!”

“Is that really what you have to say…?” You shut up and looked at Ego and his unusual behavior. He sounded a bit disappointed as he slurped on his noodles. You grinned at the realization and brought the dress to your chest.

“Thank you, Ego-San, truly.” You could’ve sworn you saw a smile on his face. “Are you smiling, Ego-San-?”

“Being delusional has its fucking limits, kid.”

“I may be delulu but my eyes aren’t lying, c’mon admit it, boss!” You continue to tease as he continues to deny your claims. Anri smiles at this interaction. For once you weren’t spouting insults at each other or trying to kill each other.

“Shut the fuck up and take this.” Ego had enough and tossed you and Anri small bags of yet again designer, products. You then looked at Ego and then at Anri. “In all seriousness, why’re you gifting us these and where did you get the money of all of this? Last I remembered, we ran out of funds cause of the second selection.”

“After winning the match, sponsors came flooding in to support the project. Hence the brands and how we’re able to afford those teams to collaborate with us.” Anri explains. Looking at the Selim Mouzannar box in her hands with bulging eyes. You had a similar reaction as her as you look at the Azlee brand necklace on your hands.

“You didn’t really have to buy us so much…”

“I wonder how much of this costs…”

“I only bought you both heels. The dresses, jewelry and makeup were gifts from the coaches.”

“…are they looking for a sugar baby?” Anri and Ego smacked you on the back of the head.

“You look so beautiful, (name)-Chan!!”

“Have you seen yourself, Anri-San? You look like you’re going to the met gala!” The red-haired woman blushes as your compliment. She wore a red satin floor length dress with off shoulders. You looked at yourself in the mirror and saw a different person. You looked even more beautiful with the makeup on with lips were colored in lipstick. Your dress hugged every curve of your body and the jewelry made you look mature and expensive.

All in all, you look like you were going to a ball. Like a Princess.

“You look like you’re going to throw up.”

“I… I’m scared I’m gonna ruin this dress, like, what if I accidentally spill food or drinks on me?!” You continued on with your nervous rant about possibly ruining the dress, she sighs and grabs you the shoulders, pushing her face closer to yours. “(Name)-Chan, nothing is going to happen to you or the dress! They gave you this dress and it’s your choice what to do with it.”

She reasons and you nodded tentatively. She smiles and picked up her handbag, so did you.

“I’m amazed Ego-San wanted to host a welcome party of the teams.”

“I was actually the JFU who arranged this occasion.” You looked at Anri as if she grew a second head and laughed uncertainly. “Ahaha… really?”

“Really.”

“Like… really, really?” She nods and you scoffed. “Now that he lost our little bet, he’s sucking up to us? Serves him right for doubting us.”

“Oh, you should’ve seen how Ego-San reacted when the president told him about hosting a welcome party!” Hand in arm, the two women were immersed in their conversation as they walked down the dystopian-core hallways of blue lock and exited the premises where a wagoneer jeep waited in the entrance.

“I think Ego-San is indulging himself a little bit too much.”

“That car was sent by the JFU, dumbass.” Ego sighs as he walked out from the glass doors, clad in a navy blue suit with a bolo football tie. He didn’t look all that much to different from his usual getup. The suit was reminiscent of the one he wore in the U-20 match.

You immediately noticed at the bolo tie was a little loose and went in front of him, taking a hold of the tie. Ego seemed surprised at the sudden closeness and pulled away.

“What the hell?”

“Stand still, your tie looks sloppy…” You murmured, tightening it. Ego sighs and lifts his head a little to give you space, Anri smiles in amusement at this rare moment between the two of you. Like a daughter fixing her fathers tie before he goes off to work. It was adorable in her opinion.

You pulled away and looked pleased with Ego’s appearance with a smile. “Let’s go?”

“Let’s.”

You looked at awe at the building where the welcome party was taking place. You initially thought it was going to be at blue lock but apparently JFU didn’t deem your building fancy enough and held the welcome party at a five star hotel. As you wrapped your arm around Anri’s forearm, you peered through the city of Tokyo from the glass window of the elevator. It looked like a sparkling jewelry box from up there. The doors open and Anri pulls you along with her.

Anxiety emptied your stomach as your hands grew sweaty around Anri’s plushy arm. The older woman looks at you with a gentle smile that made your worries go away. You then looked Ego who had his hands on the large doors in front of you three, he looks at the two of you and you nodded confidently.

Ego pushes the doors open and you were welcomed by a flood of overlapping chatter, elegant women dressed in designer clothing and men stood tall and erect in their identical-looking suits. The hall looked massive with a balcony on the right side of the room.

Everyone stopped with what they were doing and bore their eyes into the three of you. Now you felt like you were going to throw up if they continue to stare at you any longer.

“If it isn’t the mastermind behind this amazing project!” You heard a boisterous voice boom your ears. You looked up and saw the fat rodent that is the president of the JFU waddling his way towards your direction. The feeling of nausea was replaced with disgruntled feeling as you held on Anri’s arm a little tighter.

“Chairmen, thank you for arranging this welcome party for the teams.” Ego thanked the bloated tanuki. He was uncharacteristically polite. Your brows furrowed deeper and the corners of your mouth tilts down as he glanced at you and Anri, he gulps and looks back the bull-cut-haired man.

“I-it’s the least we can do. Because with blue lock, I know we can win the World Cup with your guidance!” He spoke and the others in the room erupted in praises and applause.

“We’ll be doing our best to do so. Thank you for financially supporting our project.” Anri replied with a light bow and so did you, “I’ll be supporting the players as best as I can since I’m the manager and all of that.”

The chairmen then usher the three of you to the rest of the JFU members for some reason. You didn’t talk all that much and looked around the banquet hall, “tell me, (name)-Chan. How the players generally act?”

“Generally act?”

“What’s their behavior towards the other players? I’m quite curious.” One of the members asked. You tried to think of an answer without revealing the fact that everyone is at each other's throats, “well, they remain respectful to each other, off and on the field,” that was a bit of a lie considering Isagi calling Baro a donkey mid-game.

“They work hard and dedicate themselves, body and soul to the sport. They accept defeats to grow better not only as a player but as a person.” You replied truthfully this time, fiddling with the fabric of the dress. They took your word for it and seemed intrigued by your answers with nods and hums.

“And how do they act towards you? Since you’re one of the many female managers after all.” They smirked with suggestion. You sucked in the corner of your bottom lip to avoid snapping at him. What was even going through their sick heads? Do they want this project to end with just one sexual speculation?

“Respect… we maintain a distance that is manager and player. We don’t have a rather close and intimate relationship with each other.” That was a bit of a lie. The players acted relatively close to you but still maintained a respectable presence with you.

Aryu runs his hands in your hair while complimenting your makeup and outfit. Chigiri would ask you to play with his hair. You were terrible at it, but he didn’t mind. Otoya would constantly flirt and ask for your number. Karasu and Yukimiya would save you from him. Baro, Kunigami, and all the other boys would try to pitch in to help you. Bachira would always hug you whenever you entered the room. Nagi trails behind you like a lost puppy, along with Reo, who would talk your ear off about the stock market and ask you to go out on a date with him once he’s out of blue lock.

And so many more, the boys acted like you were friends at school which made you feel comfortable with your stay and you really appreciated the boys and their behavior towards you.

“Is that so? Nothing-?”

“Hey, shithead. Do you think it’s a good idea to ask a girl who's 18 if she’s having intimate relations with a bunch of guys who are 18 and below? That’s fucking disgusting.” Ego spat in a whisper to the man as he pulled you by the wrist and hid you behind him. Your eyes widen as well as the JFU member, and he stammers out an apology that Ego didn’t take so kindly.

You looked up at Ego as he glared in disgust at the man. With your heart beating against your chest as if it wanted to break free, sweat pooling into the palm of your heads, you pulled on Ego’s cuffs, and he turned his attention towards you.

“Ego-San, let’s not cause a scene…” you whispered lowly, gesturing to your side. Spectators were turning their heads at the three of you, who were drawn to what you were discussing. Ego looks at you, then back at the man. There was an unreadable expression on his face before he clicked his tongue and gestured for you to follow him.

“Don’t show your putrid face to me or my staff.” He hissed before walking away from the man with eyes following your every move like owls, but one look from Ego, and they returned to their conversations.

“Ego-San… thank you for doing that. I greatly appreciate it.” You spoke, pulling on the mans wrist. He stops and looks at you before flicking your forehead. “The hell?!”

“Be more careful next time when you encounter nosey pigs like him-”

“So you do have a heart in there, Jinpachi Ego.” You heard a voice state amused from behind. You couldn’t understand what he was saying. It sounded like German. You whirled around and saw the mystery man.

It was Noel Noa. Clad in a suit and bow tie. He had a stoic and serious expression with an ever-present frown on his lips, gold eyes dull into Ego’s obsidian pair of eyes before he shifted his focus to you and then back to him. When both your eyes met, you felt your heart rate go faster than ever before.

It was the Noel Noa. In the flesh! The greatest striker in the world, standing in front of you!!

You have seen this man in your television or phone but seeing him in the flesh was whole new experience.

‘Omg, omg, omg, omg, omg, omg-’

“What’s that supposed to mean, you stoic robot?” Ego hissed in German. You looked back and forth between the two. They seemed to know each other, you observed as they casually conversed with each other. “Seeing how you stood up for your female employee is out of character. I thought you weren’t Ego when I saw you.”

“Do you know each other, Ego-San?”

“In a way. Wear these. You’ll need it when communicating with the other coaches.” Ego fished out a small black box that had Blue Lock’s symbol on it. You took it from his grasp and opened the box. There were black wireless earbuds.

“Earbuds?”

“Reo Mikage’s family had decided to sponsor Blue Lock and give us one of their products. That being translator earbuds, it’s light and won’t come off no matter how much you move around, and it’s hardly noticeable.” You wore it, and it almost felt unnoticeable. You then turned to the striker and slight bow.

“What is Ego Jinpachi like at work, Ms.Manager?” You were a little shocked, hearing him speak so clearly in Japanese with a believable accent. These earbuds are something else.

“O-oh, well. He can very harsh and would constantly criticize you for the littlest thing.”

“That’s accurate enough.”

“You damn brat.”

“I’m (name) (last name), Mr.Noa. It’s an honor to meet you.”

“I’ve heard many things about you from Ego.”

“Good or bad?”

“A bit of both.” You sighed hearing his quick response.

“Although, he often notes how you go above and beyond with your work despite being so young,” Noa mentioned—taking a sip of his champagne. You worked up hearing his statement and looked at Ego, who didn’t meet your eyes.

“Ego-San sometimes shares with me his instant noodles and such.” On occasion, when you would be busy with your work, Ego would always make you some instant noodles for a snack to go with your work. It touched your heart as he did care for you after all. (Before he berates you for doing absolutely nothing)

“How… amusing.” Noel glances at his friend, whose eyes softened by a fraction. The striker was quick to take a champagne glass from a waiter's tray and hand it to you.

“Ms. (Last name), you wouldn’t mind if you left your boss and me alone for a while? So we can talk a little about this passion project of his.”

“Of course, have fun.” You whispered before walking away from the two men, placing a hand above your beating heart, and your lips formed a shaky smile—excitement and adrenaline running through your veins. You did your darn best to keep your smile under wraps in favor of showing a calm and professional side of you to the man himself.

“I need to tell Anri-San about this—!” You spun your head from left to right to find the red-haired woman, but you saw her surrounded by sponsors, with Anri conversing seriously with them.

You decided to calm your excitement down and walked around the ballroom. You had to admit, this was something you would see in a movie. The piano was playing in the middle room; you were drawn to its alluring melody, and before you knew it, you were in front of the grand piano while admiring pianist playing.

“Are you into classical music, Miss?” A man purrs into your ear from behind. You recoiled away upon feeling a person's hot breath against your ear. “Haha! Didn’t mean to scare you there, lovely.”

The man had short, curly blond hair, sapphire blue eyes and a mole in the corner of his right lip. He had a well-built body, the suit fitting snuggly in his body. He was taller than you, your head level with his chest.

“I don’t think it’s good manners to suddenly whisper into someone’s without even introducing yourself.” You retorted lightly at the man, and he raised his hands in a playful gesture. “Sorry, miss. I thought I saw a diamond in the corner of my eyes.”

He confessed with a lazy grin. You sighed softly at his attempt at flirting, and you looked back at him. He seemed familiar like you’d seen him before.

“Maybe it’s because of my necklace.”

“I wouldn’t think that if I were you, lovely.” He winks at you, you left a bit uncomfortable with him. “Umm, I just turned 18, I’m not that to comfortable with someone older by a few years older than me…”

“Ahahaha!! Just wait until the fans see this, Chrissy!” A boisterous voice boomed from across the room. A man with tanned skin and wild blond hair, swung his arm over to Chrissy. He wore a black suit with a gold blouse, some of the buttons undid to reveal his chest tattoos.

“You were the one who told me to do it! Miss, I am truly sorry.”

“No, he’s not. He was, like ‘dude, check out that girl with in that dress, she super fine, ‘m gonna go talk to her and hold my drink.’ Basically.” The man matter of factly. Chrissy’s jaw dropped and looked at you who was trying to process this information.

“Lavinho, you’re this worst!”

Wait, Lavinho? As in that famous Brazilian dribbler? Whose representing the Spanish team Barcha?

“You’re… Lavinho?” You spoke and the man turns to you before grinning ear-to-ear. He took your hand and bowed.

“In the flesh, pretty lady! Man, am I lucky to have gorgeous woman like you to know my name. It’s an honor.” He boasts to himself before he grabbed his friend by the arm.

“By the way, this is Chris Prince! But call him Chrissy, though, it’s cute right? Chrissy, Chrissy~”

“Oh my gosh, can you stop? You’re embarrassing me in front of her!” Chris Prince, commonly known as worlds no.2, whispered harshly into Lavinho’s ear, who blew raspberries into his face.

“Oh my gosh, are you immature!” You couldn’t help but laugh at their shenanigans. You never expected them to be this carefree in person. It was fun!

“Let’s calm down now.” You cooed at them, trying to stop Chris from pulling on Lavinho’s collar. “What the lady said, Chrissy. Calm down.”

“I am calm!”

“Says who?”

As Chris was about to strangle Lavinho, you hurriedly took him by the arm and tried to anchor him down with your body weight.

“Let’s calm down! We wouldn’t want to attract too much attention now, do we?” You stammered nervously as the crowd’s eyes were on the three of you. How many times has it already been since the attention was suddenly focused on you.

“You heard the lady, Princey-”

“That includes you, Mr.Lavinho.” He looks at you with shock and Chris glanced at Lavinho with a victorious smirk.

“He’s such a wild person, isn’t he, lovely?”

“A little bit.”

“What?!”

“But not in a bad way.”

“I knew I could trust in you, pretty lady!” Lavinho laughed as he slamming his palms on your shoulders making you wince.

“I hope you can forgive me for that initial greeting, miss?”

“Oh, right. I never introduced myself! My name is (name) (last name) and I’m the manager of Blue lock. It’s a pleasure meeting you both, Mr.Lavinho and Mr.Prince. And it’s alright, Mr.Prince. You didn’t do anything if offense anyway. You briefly introduced yourself with a bow and a smile.

“Oh~! So you’re the woman glasses mentioned we would be working with! Nice to meet you too. Hope we can work together soon!” Lavinho grinned as did Chris.

“Are you a model by any chance? I mean, you have the potential one.” Chris asked curiously. Your posture and beauty were very much similar to models. He would know as he posed with some female models in the past.

“I actually did some modeling jobs when I was 16. Although I’m currently on a break.”

“Ha! I knew it! A beautiful girl like you would be scouted sooner or later. Hey, how about we do a shoot-?”

“She told you she was taking a break from the cameras, Chris.” Another man reminded to the English man with a sigh as he came from behind you and smiled at you apologetically. He had short blond hair and large emerald green eyes with a very well defined nose.

“I’m so sorry about him, Ms.(name). Please don’t let him bother you.”

“It’s alright. I don’t mind doing a shoot with him.”

“See?! It’s almost impossible to say no to this handsome face.” Chris laughs. Pulling out a hand mirror and admires himself, smiling at the mirror and winking at himself.

“Is he… usually like that?”

“Sadly.”

“You seem to know me.”

“I happen to overhear you introducing yourself, my name is Marc Snuffy. Call me Snuffy. It’s a pleasure meeting one of Blue Lock’s beautiful managers.” Snuffy grinned kindly at you making your heart skip a beat.

“Beautiful? Now, I think that’s a stretch!”

“Not what the posts say about you.” He laughs lightly, pulling out a phone to reveal screenshots of a Tiktok comment section filled with compliments and love towards you.

“I must say, the media quite likes you after those little videos with you and Pablo Cavasoz dancing.” You glowered in embarrassment as you remembered the famous baby-face Argentina player, who was mysteriously drawn to you and dragged you to Harajuku with you to film Tiktok dance video’s in the middle of the street or inside the stores and to go shopping.

Never again were you going to be bribed with food and a promise of manicures.

“I-I’m honestly flattered that you think that way, Mr.Snuffy. Thank you. You’re Uber’s coach, right?”

"Correct and I hope my team wouldn't be too much of a trouble to deal with." He jokes lightly making you laugh.

"Have you seen my players? They would be at each other's throats if I look away for a couple of seconds! Like my Rin and Isagi for example."

"Considering the fact that your no.10 dodged a hug from 11... I'd say that their relationship is..."

"Rough? Absolutely."

"We all have those friends." You and continues to conversed at one another about your teams along with his. Snuffy is quite the gentleman you noted. Very polite and respectful.

"Yo, Snuffy. When're we gonna go back to the dorms, 'm tired." You heard someone complain. A man with messy black hair with purple tips and dark purple eyes, laid his head on the Uber's captain's shoulder with a sigh. You rubbed your eyes to wear off any drowsiness as you thought the man had gold teeth for a second.

"It's only 10 pm, Lorenzo and button up your shirt." Snuffy scolded Lorenzo who groaned but stopped midway as he saw you. "Who's this pretty lady, Snufs?"

"Her name is (name) and she's Blue Lock's manager. Be kind."

"Isn't she on the news one time? Like people thought she was Pablo's girlfriend or stuff." You sunk on the floor in embarrassment, remembering the countless news articles that you were his girlfriend. You even got a call from your father who was pissed at you for keeping your not-boyfriend a secret.

"Erm, I'm actually not his girlfriend... hehe, it was an misunderstanding."

"Huh, really?"

"Yup, the media assumed that we were dating just from a few videos of us dancing and doing some sightseeings around Harajuku."

"I see. So yer gonna be our new manager?"

"As far as I know, yea."

"Let's be friends then! Snuf, 'mma borrow her real quick." Lorenzo immediately went towards you and wrapped his arm around your shoulder and waved goodbye at Snuffy who told the two of you to have fun.

"Names Don Lorenzo but just call me whatever you want since we're gonna be friends and all."

"Alright, Mr-"

"And no Mister and all that title shit, just call me Lorenzo or whatever- oh! Snuffy does call me Donny at times."

"So is Lorenzo alright with you?"

"Totes." Lorenzo was quite the character. He's friendly and a laidback type of guy, you felt at ease just by being with him as you started to slip from your professional mode. You were enjoying yourself with Lorenzo as the two of you conversed with other topics other than football.

"By the way, are this gold grills on your teeth?" You asked curiously. The two of you were seated a couch with a plate of crackers, cheese and caramel popcorn. He stops eating the popcorn and pulled on the corner of his mouth to give you a full view of his gold teeth.

"These babies? Nah, before all of this, i was some homeless kid on the streets of Italy, begging and robbin' people of their money until Snuffy came into my life askin' me if I wanna play football with him,"

"I was like, 'what's up with this dude? He crazy as fuck,' so then I was like 'replace my rotten teeth with golden ones' and do you know what he did afterwards?"

"He immediately dragged you to the nearest dentist and had it replaced with gold teeth?"

"Exactly! You're so smart." Lorenzo praises, throwing popcorn in the air and caught some with his mouth while also missing some, which you then picked up from the couch and ate it so it won't go to waste.

"Who knew that Mr.Snuffy is such a kind man."

"Kindest in the world. He's the type of person to not give up on others just cause." The player says fondly. You grabbed your champagne glass and felt it was unusually light, you then saw that it was empty. "I'm out of champagne. I'll go grab some more."

"Nah, I'll do it. You sit your pretty self here."

"Thanks but I can handle it, Lorenzo." You pat his shoulder before taking off with your empty glass and towards the bar for a quick refill.

You arrived at the bar and leaned against the counter. "Excuse me but can I get a refill in champagne? Non-alcoholic if there is."

"In a second."

"Can I get a martini?" Someone ask beside you. You glanced at them saw the familiar fluffy hair of brown to purple beside you.

"Are you... Alexis Ness from Bastard Munchen, by any chance?" The man beside you perks up upon hearing his name and turned to you with a nod and a kind grin.

"Yes and you're?"

"(Name) (last name). One of Blue lock's managers. It's nice to see you this evening, Mr.Ness."

"Please no need to call me Mister, just call me Ness and the pleasure is all mine.”

“Ness it is then. About that match with (club name), you did a good job out there.” You praise the player. You watched his match with (club name) a few weeks ago and was amazed at Ness’s clean assist and passes to a star player in his team.

“Really? I didn’t do all that much, it was all-”

“Why would you say that? Your assists were clean and quick. Not even the other players knew you would do it.” You interrupted Ness, and you meant every word you said. He looks at you in shock before red soon blossoms on his cheeks.

“You really think so?”

“Yea, although… I do have a tiny teeny problem…” Ness frowns upon hearing your last words. He had hoped he would gain a fan after all his hard work, but it seemed his efforts-

“That you didn’t score any goals!” Now that left him confused.

“E-excuse me?”

“You’re obviously a great player with amazing dribbling and passing skills, so why don’t you use it score your own goals? I mean, seriously, I hoped you would score that last goal before you passed to number 10.” You went on a little rant, and Ness stood there in awe with your words.

You weren’t focused with Kaiser but instead your attention was on Ness and even wanted him to score goals!

His heart started to beat even faster when you were praising his work and sets of skills. Ness looked up and got a good look at you, he had to admit, you were very beautiful in that dress.

“Kaiser is Bastard Munchen’s Ace so we dedicate all of the goals towards him.”

“But isn’t that letting your own skills go to waste? You’re hindering yourself just so that your number 10 can win. How about this?” You grabbed Ness by the arm and sat him on the stools, and you sat across him. Leaning towards his shoulder, you narrowed the distance of your lips to his ears. Ness’s heartbeat grew increasingly erratic as you drew closer. He felt your hot breath against the shell of his ear and smelled the perfume in your skin, blending with the champagne you were drinking.

“Your ace knows that you would be passing to him for every game, no?”

“Yes…”

“And I’m also sure that the rest of your team along with Mr.Noa would be aware of this fact. What I’m trying to say is that,”

“When trying to pass to your beloved Ace, change course and score the goal for yourself. I’m sure the opposing team would also know about your play style. Therefore, they would surround your ace to prevent a successful pass from approaching him.” You explained with a mischievous smile after seeing Ness’s shocked expression. Gone was his ear-to-ear grin as it was replaced with an open mouth.

“B-but Kaiser-”

“So what about him? He can score his own goals if he’s your so-called ace. Ness, you’re an amazing player, but you lack the independence of one or, rather… the ego of one. Omg… I’m starting to sound like Ego-San.” You pulled away from Ness and seriously contemplated your words. Ness, however, was silent as he let your words sink deep into his consciousness. You looked at Ness’s blank face, and yours swelled in embarrassment.

He probably didn’t understand your rambling. Even when you thought you sounded cool saying it!! You stood hastily after the bartender finally refilled your drink and cleared your throat.

“I probably wasn��t making any sense. This is more on Ego-San’s department. Forget I said anything, Ness-”

“No… I was hoping you could explain more about this ego. Please… I want to learn more about it, Ms.(name).” Ness took hold of your wrist and slightly tightened his grip on you. His tone… it sounded like he was begging you.

You stared at the B.M player with a conflicting mindset as you looked between your drink and Ness.

“So this is why my drink has been taking a long time. I didn’t know you were busy flirting with a girl, Ness.” A man purrs condescendingly as he struts towards you both. Ness reluctantly lets go of your wrist and looks shamefully to the side. “So-”

“And who is this lovely lady keeping you company, hm?” The man in front of you grinned at Ness. He had blond hair styled into a long mullet with blue fades. He wore a dark blue suit and matched it with a tie. Something was peeking from his collar, but you couldn’t determine what it was, probably a tattoo or something.

“(Name) (last name), one of the managers of Blue Lock, and I take it that you’re Kaiser?” His smile grows as his name rolls out from your tongue, and he takes your hand, fluttering his lips over your knuckles before he firmly presses his lips on your knuckles.

“Micheal Kaiser, das Fräulein. Star player of Bastard Munchen.” The Ace says matter-of-factly with a grin, and you smile at him uncomfortably, looking at the area where he kissed.

“Ew, ew, ew, ew, ew.” You repeated in your head as you tried to pull back your hand, but Kaiser gripped you as he incoherently conversed with Ness.

“I take it that you know Blue Lock’s Ace: Isagi Yoich? That plain looking guy.” Your lips turned into frowns hearing him describe your friend.

“Yes. Is there something you wanted to ask him?”

“Oh no, I was just making sure that you were his specific manager. After all, I would want him to look at your face once I humiliate him.”

“Excuse me?” You honestly expected Kaiser to be a prideful person. That was for sure. But for him to straight up admit his intentions in front of you? Now, that was a bold him.

“I think you heard me, (name). I plan to make Isagi Yoichi, the hero of Blue Lock, an obstacle for me to overcome. Make sure he’s worthy of that title.” Kaiser requested you like it was a normal thing to ask. As your glare towards him hardened, Kaiser couldn't care less. You slowly exhaled, placed your glass gently, and pushed yourself towards him.

“As you wish, I’ll make sure Isagi Yoichi will be an impossible obstacle for you to overcome.” Now it was his turn to be annoyed as he took his vacant hand and roughly grabbed your upper arm to pull you closer. His face was nearing yours with a cocky snarl.

“Is that a threat?”

“A promise, rather.”

“To think that Blue Lock would have such a feisty manager, I wonder how Jinpachi Ego leashed you.”

“Leashed me? Do you think I’m some kind of dog?!”

“Oh, I know! You’re the character who blindly placed her fate into the clown who thought of himself as the main character, but that’s going to change once I step into the field,” he removes his grip from your upper arm and clasps his hand around your jaw to pull your face even closer to his. You instinctively tried to tear away, but his strength proved greater than yours.

“I could just imagine what dear Isagi’s face will look like once I humiliate him in front of his pretty manager.”

“As if that would happen.” You rasped, trying to pry his hand away from your face. As Ness was about to intervene finally, Lorenzo came into sight, taking hold of Kaiser’s wrist with a deadly grip, his gold teeth shining against the light, and the Italian let out a whistle in amusement.

“Damn, Kaiser… never you would act like a dick if a girl don’t wanna be with ya.”

“Where did you come from, you damn zombie?”

“Wonderin’ where (name) was at, said she was goin’ to refill her drink. Didn’t know you were holding her hostage.” The two-star players glared at each other in disdain. Kaiser started to feel the blood being cut off from his hand and he rips away his grip from your face. You stepped back and massaged your jaw.

“Are you alright, (name)? I’m sorry I couldn’t-”

“It’s alright. I expected he act like this. Fucking prick.” You huffed, drinking your champagne as Ness looks ashamed.

“Honestly… I should’ve intervened when he grabbed you by the arm. I’m so sorry-”

“Ness, Ness, baby, love.” You sweet-talked and grabbed his jaw gently. (Unlike someone) “It’s alright, I get it. We all freeze sometimes, even I do. So you don’t gotta worry about it, okay?” You smiled. Expecting him to agree with you and let all of this be over with. He tentatively nodded, and you let go of his jaw before turning to the bartender. “Actually, can I get the bottle?”

Before the bartender could hand you the bottle, Lorenzo snatched it from him, took you the waist and led you away from the bar, making a mocking face at Kaiser.

“See ya in the field, naked emperor!” The Italian player laughs as he waves and pours you a drink. You turned to Ness and gave him a smile and wave, which he returned. You met Kaiser’s glare and returned it with a glare and a middle finger.

“Is he always so arrogant?”

“24/7, babe. 24/7.” Lorenzo sighs, patting your shoulder. “Hey, your lipstick… Kaiser must’ve smudged it.” He stares at the colored streak nearing your jaw. You placed your finger on it and saw the colored stain on your finger. You hissed at the sight and covered the lower half of your face.

“Damn that rat. Lorenzo, I’ll be back. Need to fix myself.”

“Sure, I’ll be on the couch!” He removed his arm, and you speed-walked through the crowd towards the hallway where the servers were going in and out. You swiftly dodged the waiters that’s were carrying snacks and drinks, you saw a waiter who seemed to be on break, seeing that she was on her phone.

“Excuse me, miss. Where’s the bathroom?” She looks up from her phone and points at the direction where to go.

“Second to the last door on the left.”

“Thanks.” And with that you immediately took off.

During the trip toward the bathroom, you recalled your rather eventful evening. A JFU member asking disgusting questions, Ego saving you, meeting Noel Noa, Chris Prince flirting with you, Lavinho laughing at Chris, Marc Snuffy appearing, Don Lorenzo whisking you away from the night, meeting Ness and getting harassed(?) by Micheal Kaiser.

And here you thought you would be the loner who escaped from the party to the safe haven that was the balcony. So much for that, at least. As you wiped the stain away, you were quick to reapply a new batch on your skin but before you exited the bathroom, you took a few photos of yourself for good measure and sent a few to your brother to let him decide which ones should you post as you were indecisive.

[You sent 15 photos]

You: which one of these do I look the prettiest?

Little demon: none

You: what if I tell Ma and pa?

Little demon: Your alrd pretty tho but for me 1 4 9 and 13 are the best ones

You: I know I’m pretty. I’ll be positing these soon after party

Little demon: don’t post. Dress is revealing. I can see your BOOBS

You: only a little :(

Little demon: what if I tell Ma and pa?

You: I hate you

Little demon reacted: 👍

You huffed seeing your younger brothers weak response and before you could text something back, you bumped into someone’s side.

“Sorry- (name)?” The man spoke, and you looked up to find the black French player in front of you wearing a suit paired with a bow tie. You lit up seeing the player and tucked away your phone to give him a big hug.

“Loki!! Oh my gosh, how’re you?”

“I’m fine. It’s good to see you again after a couple of weeks. Mr.Pablo has been bombarding me with texts asking for your socials. That man won’t give up.” He sighs as he pulls away from you, and you laugh.

“You might have you endure that for a little while longer, Loki dear.” He sighs again and you took him by the arm and dragged him down the hall.

“I heard we’ll be working together again. Good luck to us then.” Loki says, patting your hand before giving you a kind smile, which you return. The two of you reentered the ballroom and went your separate ways. Loki said he couldn’t leave his team alone as they would likely cause a scene without him there.

“I’ll see you at work, peace maker.”

“Have a fun evening, (name).” Then you went back to where Lorenzo was sitting, spending the rest of the evening with the Italian, joking, judging other people, talking about your respective counties and your experience with football.

____________________________________________

This only took me 3 weeks to finish what a record 🙏

I hope you guys enjoyed this long ass fanfic, this was originally gonna be like 2 parts but then I decided to publish this a whole rather than separate parts.

Reblogs are much appreciated!! I love you all I hope you guys have a great day!

-@chxxrybxxmb

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chibrary · 10 months ago

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Some at the team knew he was the man for the job, but Charles Leclerc's procurement of a seat relied on a neat bit of manoeuvring in order for their boss to agree to a deal.

We're not talking here about the delay that followed Sergio Marchionne's death before Leclerc gained a 2019 Ferrari Formula 1 drive, rather his maiden season of car racing in the '14 Formula Renault ALPS series.

Fortec Motorsport engineer Martin Young knew all about the talents of the 16-year-old Monegasque driver.

"My background is in karting," he explains. "I used to work for the factory teams in Italy. I knew the drivers to watch from karting would be Max Verstappen, Ben Barnicoat and Charles Leclerc, and Fortec wanted to run teams in Eurocup, NEC and ALPS."

It's worth explaining here that in those days Formula Renault 2.0 operated as a pyramid structure, with the Eurocup at the top, and the Dutch-promoted Northern European Cup and Italian-run ALPS series as the base. Fortec was already established in Eurocup and NEC, but was venturing into ALPS for the first time.

"At the time it looked like Verstappen would be doing Eurocup, and we had Ben signed for NEC," continues Young. "I spoke to Jamie Dye [Fortec managing director] and said that if we wanted to move forward in ALPS we needed to get Leclerc.

"We did a test day at Motorland [Aragon] and we sort of lied about his times - we'd put Charles up against a lot of experienced drivers, so he was 1.2-1.3 seconds off - so that Richard [Dutton, team principal] would stay interested in giving him a bit of a deal. Richard was asking, 'Is he really good?', and we said, 'Yeah, we know he's really good.'"

Barnicoat, now a factory McLaren GT racer, was already familiar with Leclerc - as a Racing Steps Foundation protege, he was part of the ART Grand Prix line-up in international karting in 2012 and '13, while Leclerc belonged (and still does) to the All Road Management stable of ART shareholder Nicolas Todt.

"I had two years as team-mate to him in karting," says Barnicoat. "The first year I was directly racing with him, and in the second he went into gearbox [KZ] karts. He was one of the best team-mates I ever had, if not the best. A great guy.

"That first year, Charles won the WSK series and I won the European championship - that was up against the likes of Verstappen, so the competition was extremely high. I feel sort of left out!

"He had a bit more track knowledge so in the first half of the year he was beating me, but then we pushed each other really hard and that worked for the team - we got a lot from that.

"Looking at how good he is, it's nice to know I beat him on occasions, to know that I had the talent and ability to do that."

Fortec was one of the teams that tested Verstappen, and was also eyeing a deal with another talented karter: George Russell, whose plan was to combine Renault ALPS with what was then BRDC Formula 4.

Russell, who now is on course to succeed Leclerc as Formula 2 champion, eventually joined Prema Powerteam for ALPS, but that deal fell over on the eve of the season and he secured a last-minute berth at Koiranen GP.

"We wanted George; we tried to sign him," says Dutton of what could have been a mighty line-up had Russell joined Leclerc. "But he signed for Prema and then [Lawrence] Stroll [who had taken a majority shareholding in Prema] stopped him from going there."

"Me and Charles were testing for Fortec," says Russell, "and at the same time Verstappen was there with Josef Kaufmann Racing, I think. We were in talks with Fortec, but we decided to sign with Prema."

When it's pointed out what a mega line-up that would have been alongside Leclerc, Russell laughs: "In hindsight that could have worked out better for me than Koiranen. That [the late Prema split] put us in the shit a little bit, and three weeks before the first race I didn't have a deal. We took the gamble on Koiranen."

Autosport reminds Dutton of an awards evening over the 2013-14 winter when, asked about Russell, he said: "We've got someone even better - a lad from Monaco..."

"It was really quite a late deal," recalls Dutton. "He missed most of the winter-test programme. But you just knew he was the real deal. In and out of the car he knew what he wanted. In lots of ways he reminded us of Verstappen when we tested him."

Young confirms that the sum total of Leclerc's pre-season mileage was four days at Aragon, and two at Barcelona, before going straight into the pre-weekend test for the Imola opener.

"The first three race weekends his experience was a bit low," says Young, "but as soon as he got on the podium he was there every weekend.

Leclerc went on to finish runner-up to the flying - and experienced - Nyck de Vries in the ALPS points, with two race wins at Monza under his belt, but perhaps the more impressive performances came in his three 'wildcard' outings in the Eurocup. The first was at Spa, one week before the Belgian track's ALPS round.

"He was 30th in qualifying at the Eurocup," says Dutton. "We changed everything - we couldn't understand what the hell was going on. One week later he qualified third for ALPS. That was really, really special."

In his next Eurocup outing, Leclerc took a fifth and a second at the Nurburgring, and in his final one he took a brace of seconds at the Hungaroring.

"I was looking after Matt Parry and Jack Aitken in Eurocup," says long-time Fortec driver coach Matt Howson. "I'd heard [Leclerc] was something maybe a bit special, but you hear that all the time, and wait until you see it yourself.

"Usually you understand the driving style straight away - what's good, what's bad - and the thing with Charles is it didn't matter whether there was understeer or oversteer, he seemed to deliver a lap time."

The cerebral approach of Leclerc and engineer Young frustrated Howson at the Nurburgring.

"He'd never seen the place, and there were only two 45-minute [test] sessions, and furthermore Martin was determined to try things on the car," says Howson.

"I said, 'Don't do it, leave him out'. He was last in the second session, and then he was P3 on the grid for the second race - that's unheard of in Eurocup [for a newcomer]. Renault is a very finicky formula, and it all has to come together to deliver results, but Charles seemed impervious to everything.

"Based on that first year, I knew he was a little bit special. Whenever he was tested in Eurocup, he defied his experience. That's a marker - that you can break all the accepted rules."

Talking about that Nurburgring episode, Young says: "That literally sums up Charles Leclerc. That year we were struggling in Eurocup, and I said I'd come in with Charles and we'd do some testing. Going into qualifying he'd never run new tyres, but he went from last to the front. Nothing ever fazed him."

In Young's view, he also compared favourably to Lando Norris, who tested FRenault cars with Fortec in 2014 before his first steps into single-seaters: "I worked with Lando towards the end of the year, and Lando eventually got to the same point [as Leclerc] but needed a lot of testing, but Charles could just get in and drive. It was second nature to him."

Russell took a distant fourth in the ALPS standings, although he did claim the 2014 BRDC F4 title.

"With Nyck winning the championship it didn't make any sense to me, but I think at the time there were a few dodgy chassis around," he says. "When I tested Nyck's car it was extremely different in terms of characteristics. I wasted a season there, but it was character-building."

He also suffered from chicken pox that caused him to miss the Monza round, where Leclerc took his two wins.

"I didn't think it affected me at the time, but I struggled a bit for no reason in the following few F4 races," says Russell. "It was quite severe - I've still got some bad scars. I put my family off their dinner a few times!"

But Russell trumped Leclerc by joining Tech 1 Racing for the final Eurocup round at Jerez as a wildcard - and winning: "I got my self-confidence back a bit, jumped in that car and won."

Both Russell and Leclerc had initially targeted a full season in Eurocup in 2015, but such were their reputations by the end of '14 that each went to the Formula 3 European Championship, Russell with Carlin, and Leclerc with Van Amersfoort Racing.

Fortec tried to hang on to Leclerc for F3. "We tried so hard to get him for F3, but we lost him to VAR," says Dutton. "We did some tests with him in the F3 car and he was straight on the pace. At Silverstone he was quickest of everybody there, and then we went to Valencia with him and we had a nightmare with mechanical issues. I think that didn't do us any good."

All who worked or raced with Leclerc agree about his qualities as a man.

"Of all the drivers in F1 who've come through us, Charles is the one who gets [guest] passes for the British Grand Prix," says Dutton. "He had Martin [Young] and Jamie [Dye] there this year the whole weekend, in Sauber hospitality. He's a proper guy."

"I still speak to Charles every week or so on various topics," adds Young, who attended Leclerc's initial grand prix free practice outings in 2016. "He's still exactly the same person."

Barnicoat, who is one of the drivers for the McLaren hot laps at F1 events, bumps into Leclerc regularly.

"When we raced against each other in Renault there was quite a lot of rivalry from what we'd had in karting," says the Briton, who added three 'wildcard' ALPS outings as direct team-mate to Leclerc to his title-winning NEC campaign.

"But it would have been nice to get more direct comparisons. In 2013, when we were in karting, I went to the grand prix with him in Monaco and stayed on his uncle's boat, and had a really good time. We spent a lot of time together, and although we were rivals we helped each other out. He was a good friend of mine and still is."

Leclerc is also resilient. "Jules Bianchi came to the Hungaroring Eurocup round to mentor him," says Howson, "and I understood then how close they were. After that incident [for Bianchi] and his father [who died in mid-2017], he's probably been tested off track more than anyone else, but it's not bled over into anything on track.

"He's incredibly mature. He's relatively introverted - he doesn't come in and make lots of noise, but he's polite, considerate and always looks you in the eye when he talks to you. It doesn't matter whether he's got loads of cameras on him, he'll always come over for a chat."

Russell, meanwhile, is "100%" sure that Leclerc will flourish at Ferrari.

"Charles is one of a handful of others I put in the best-of-the-best group," he says. "In my opinion he absolutely deserves his chance at Ferrari. He's got the speed and the talent, and I'm excited to see how he fares next year. I've no doubt that he will be competitive."

#series:f1 #year:2018 #driver:george #driver:ben.barnicoat #format:article

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coimbrabertone · 4 months ago

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A History of Formula One Grand Prix in the United States

After a near month long hiatus following the Singapore Grand Prix, Formula One returns this weekend with the United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. This is the second of three races in the United States this season, and a lot of people attribute the increase of American GPs to Drive to Survive and the peak in popularity that caused over here.

That may be true, however, two things complicate this fact:

One is that this is not the first time there have been three American F1 races in a season.

Two is that Grand Prix racing in the United States goes back further than in any country other than France.

So, today...let's talk about the history of the United States Grand Prix, and Formula One races in the United States more broadly.

The first race that could be considered a Grand Prix in the US was the Vanderbilt Cup, held on Long Island in the early 1900s. The initial 1904, 1905, and 1906 races were held on dirt roads, however, in response to the success of the 1906 French Grand Prix, William Kissam Vanderbult II financed the construction of the Long Island Motor Parkway.

This would not just provide a paved, modern road to Long Island, but it would also serve as the setting for the 1908 Vanderbilt Cup, won by American George Robertson in an American-made car called the Locomobile. An American victory in an American race governed by the American AAA.

But this is open wheel racing in America, so of fucking course there was a governing dispute already.

The AAA raised their membership dues in 1908, that was strike one, and then strike two was when they refused to adopt the Grand Prix regulations drafted by the AIACR - the FIA under its initial name - which paved the way for the Automobile Club of America to emerge as a competitor to the AAA.

And their showpiece event? the American Grand Prize.

Yup, the ACA went down to Georgia, found a stock car race run by the Savannah Automobile Club, and decided to turn that into the very first proper Grand Prix in America. The state of Georgia authorized the use of convict labor to lengthen the stock car track to 25.1 miles for the Grand Prize.

It was held in 1909 and won by Frenchman Louis Wagner...who in 1926 would go on to win the first British Grand Prix as well. An impressive resume.

The tea drinkers can write their own blog though, more on the US now!

Come 1911, and both the Vanderbilt Cup - aimed at American talent - and the American Grand Prize - aimed at international drivers - would both be held together in Savannah, Georgia. They would once again be hosted together in Milwaukee in 1912, in Santa Monica in 1914 and 1916, and in San Francisco in 1915.

World War I would kill off European participation however, and after 1916, the American Grand Prize went away.

The Vanderbilt Cup would briefly return in 1936 and 1937, back at Long Island, this time at the Roosevelt Raceway. However, with Tazio Nuvolari winning in an Enzo Ferrari-run Alfa Romeo winning in 1936 and then Bernd Rosemeyer winning in an Auto Union next year, the American audiences weren't convinced.

The 1930s version of the Vanderbilt Cup just served as a big money race for the Europeans to win.

So the American Grand Prize and the Vanderbilt Cup didn't work out, but what was working in America at that time was oval racing on board tracks.

The Astor Cup, held on the two-mile Sheepshead Bay Speedway in Brooklyn won over the Long Island audience instead.

If the names of these trophies sound familiar, it's because in 1996, during the CART-IRL split, CART revived the name Vanderbilt Cup and built a replica trophy as the prize for the US 500. Yup, the history of the Vanderbilt Cup was used to go up against the Borg-Warner Trophy of the Indianapolis 500.

Well, after four years of the US 500, in 2000, the Vanderbilt Cup became the trophy for the CART championship instead. The Champ Car World Series continued this tradition.

When Champ Car and the IRL Indycar Series merged, the Astor Cup name was revived instead. From 2011 onwards, the Indycar series champion receives the Astor Cup.

Anyway, back to the F1 in the US.

Initially the World Championship for Drivers, in 1950, gave the US date to the Indianapolis 500, seeing it as the biggest and most important race in the United States.

This was in spite of the fact that the Indianapolis 500 was governed by the AAA - and later USAC - and once the World Championship went to F2 regulations in 1952, Indy and the rest of the championship weren't even run under the same regulations.

In fact, the only time a World Championship driver came over to Indy was in 1952 (the first year of those F2 regulations) when Ferrari took Alberto Ascari and a 4.5L V12 Ferrari 375 to Indy in an attempt to win the biggest race in America. Alberto would retire, and Indy would be the only stain on an otherwise perfect 1952 season for Ascari.

Meanwhile, road racing was returning to prominence in the United States as permanent venues like Riverside and Sebring began to emerge.

In 1958, Riverside hosted a United States Grand Prix as part of the USAC championship.

In 1959, the II United States Grand Prix was held at Sebring, and this time, it was part of the Formula One World Championship. This race was won by Bruce McLaren in a Cooper.

In 1960, the race moved to Riverside, where it was won by Stirling Moss in a Lotus. This was also the last year in which the Indianapolis 500 counted for the World Championship.

And in 1961, the United States Grand Prix finally settled on its first permanent home, when Watkins Glen was chosen as the venue. From 1961 to 1980, Watkins Glen was the home of the USGP, a stint that lasted so long that the first winner was Innes Ireland in a Lotus and the last was Alan Jones in a Williams.

It was not the only USGP though.

I'd like to welcome everybody to the wild wild west.

Yup, from 1976 to 1983, F1 came to the LBC, the Long Beach Grand Prix joining the calendar under the title of United States Grand Prix West. The 1976 race was won by Clay Regazzoni in a Ferrari, while the last four races were won by Cosworth DFV powered cars, giving Long Beach a reputation as the race that the turbo powered cars couldn't win.

Indeed, the first win for a turbo car at Long Beach was 1984, when it was a CART race. The winner? Mario Andretti.

The next race on our list came in 1981, to replace Watkins Glen.

It was the Caesar's Palace Grand Prix, held in the parking lot of the casino for two years before it too was shifted off to the CART series - which itself only lasted two years before going away entirely.

The 1981 race went to Alan Jones in a Williams, picking up where he left off at Watkins Glen.

1982, meanwhile, went to Michele Alboreto in a Tyrrell.

1982 had a third US F1 round - like I said, the current era isn't the first time this has happened - being the Detroit Grand Prix in the downtown of the motor city.

A tight, twisty track swerving through the heart of the Motor City, the first Detroit Grand Prix was won by John Watson in a McLaren, while the last three were all won by Ayrton Senna. 1986 in a Lotus-Renault, 1987 in a Lotus-Honda, and 1988 in the all-conquering McLaren-Honda.

In 1989, Detroit too became a CART race, but unlike Caesar's Palace, it was actually successful.

In 2023, the Indycar Detroit GP returned to the streets of downtown, racing around the Renaissance Center in a layout best described as "bleh."

In any case, 1982 marked three American F1 rounds, but funnily enough...none of them were actually called the United States Grand Prix.

Long Beach was the USGP West, which was a rather clunky title given that there was no USGP to be west of.

Detroit was Detroit and Caesar's Palace was just Caesar's Palace.

Is Caesar's Palace the smallest geographic unit to get a Grand Prix named after it? It's gotta be up there, right?

1984 was a similar story, as there were two American F1 races back-to-back: the Detroit Grand Prix won by Nelson Piquet, and the one and only Dallas Grand Prix, won by Keke Rosberg.

Dallas was a mid-summer race held in the high heat of central Texas and that was only the start of the problems. The track surface was crumbling, the fans were in constant fear of the event being cancelled from out from under them, and the drivers felt the track was narrow and lacking in runoff areas.

CART passed on this one, instead, it was briefly brought back as a Trans Am race before fading into obscurity.

Dallas didn't work out, Detroit and Long Beach went to Indycar, and the less said about Caesar's Palace, the better.

Was Formula One in the US dead after 1988?

Not if anything to say about it, Phoenix has.

Yup, Phoenix of all places stepped in to host the USGP - returning to that name - in 1989. This event actually lasted three years despite triple digit summer heat, a disintegrating track surface, and an uninspired layout threatening to confine the track to the same fate as Dallas.

Alain Prost won in 1989, Senna won in 1990 and 1991.

Ecclestone initially promised the promoters the Phoenix Grand Prix would be held again on March 15th, 1992, but instead, the race was cancelled.

Formula One would not return to the US until 2000.

Tony George, in his quest to make the Indianapolis Motor Speedway the top racing venue in the country, brought NASCAR to IMS in 1994, and in 2000, he created an infield road course. This infield road course has become the home of sports car racing at Indianapolis, hosts an Indycar race ahead of the 500, and has in the past hosted MotoGP, NASCAR, and F1.

This was great, right? Formula One was back in the US and it was at the same place which hosted all those world championship rounds in the 1950s. F1 had finally reconciled Indianapolis with its road racing nature. Could this finally be how the USGP finds a stable home in the United States?

Well, it was going pretty good...up until 2005.

The oval had been diamond ground when it was repaved ahead of 2005. Bridgestone - the tyre supplier of Ferrari, Jordan, and Minardi - knew this, as they owned Firestone, which supplied the IRL Indycar Series with tyres, as it does with Indycar now.

Michelin, who supplied the rest of the grid...did not.

And Ralf Schumacher crashed in practice for the second time in two years. On a Michelin-clad Toyota.

Then Ricardo Zonta stepped in to replace Ralf...and he crashed as well.

The Michelin tyres couldn't take the oval corners, which formed the big final corner of the IMS Road Course. The Michelin teams tried to find a solution - whether that be a chicane, allowing pitstops, or using a different specification of tyre.

In the end, the FIA and Michelin could not come up with a compromise.

And in Indiana State Law, if Michelin let its teams race and something happened, they could be held criminally liable.

Thus, the Michelin teams pulled out of the race.

A six-car farce of a race then occurred between the Bridgestone teams as the fans booed and jeered.

All of IMS's good will in F1 evaporated.

After 2006 and 2007, the USGP disappeared.

An attempt was made to create an American Grand Prix in Port Imperial, New Jersey with the cars racing under the shadow of the New York skyline, but after years of trying this never got off the ground.

Instead, in 2012, the USGP found its modern home in COTA. Circuit of the Americas weathered the storm of some truly awful attendances in the mid-2010s - including a soggy and awful 2015 where the teams hardly got any running ahead of the race - to rebound and become one of the most highly attended races in history by the 2020s.

In 2022, the USGP at Austin was joined by the Miami Grand Prix in Miami Gardens, Florida. A flashy, exclusive race around the Hard Rock Stadium where the Dolphins play. This race saw Lando Norris take his maiden Grand Prix victory in 2024, kicking off a return to form for McLaren.

2023 added the Las Vegas Grand Prix, taking the idea of the Caesar's Palace Grand Prix to the next level. Rather than racing around a parking lot in the day, they raced down the strip at night under the lights of fabulous Las Vegas.

Miami and Las Vegas are considered grossly expensive and exclusive races meant to milk the US market, and maybe they are, but as an F1 fan in the United States, I used to dream of times like this.

We have three races, all hundreds of miles apart to give some decent coverage throughout the country, and I'd argue each one brings a different vibe.

Miami is all pastel colors and white awnings.

Las Vegas is the neon lights with the cars ripping down the Strip.

Austin is the larger than life red, white, and blue Americana that suits the main race.

I have many, many, many, many, many problems with the state of Formula One nowadays. I have many weeks of negative blogposts to prove that, but I'll never say that Formula One has too many races in the United States.

Las Vegas is as far from Miami as Madrid is from Moscow.

I know Europe is the home of Grand Prix racing, but as this has shown...the US has plenty of history too.

So onto Austin for the 2024 United States Grand Prix, with Formula One looking to be in a more competitive place than it was at this time a year ago.

#motorsports #racing #formula 1 #f1 #formula one #indycar

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pedripics · 6 months ago

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struggling to breathe from inflating a mattress is actually very pedri 😭 but if it’s not asking too much, could you post that and the other one of his coaches? 🩷

Pedri, from inflating mattresses "with his lungs" to being the benchmark for Spain

(via Relevo - November 2022)

Fran and Dani, his two best friends, reveal the other side of the Canarian.

Pedri surprised the football world in the summer of 2021, when he played in the European Championship at the age of just 18 with the composure of a veteran. Now he is one year older, although the age on his ID card has little to do with his real experience: he has already made 14 appearances for Spain (there are up to nine players on Luis Enrique's list with fewer international caps than him).

How does the Canary Islander ensure that none of this goes to his head? That is an answer best answered by Fran and Dani, his childhood friends with whom he has played football since he was a child and with whom he is remains very close. "What stands out most about Pedri is how he is with the people around him. He is still the same as when he was little, he is the same child", says Dani. "That's what is reflected on the pitch: patience, poise, maturity… What he transmits on the pitch, he also has off it. He's a normal, humble 'kid'… I value him for that, for the great person he is, apart from the talent he has as a footballer", assures Fran.

One of his virtues on the pitch is his endurance. This virtue comes from his past in athletics, although he also trained his lung capacity in his spare time: "There was one time when the two of us stayed overnight at a friend's flat. We had an inflatable mattress but we didn't have a pump… Pedri was clever and said he could inflate it with his lungs. We were freaking out, saying that he was never going to inflate it in his life because the mattress was easily 1.80 meters long. He started inflating it and by the time we realised, he had already inflated it. But then at night, when we were sleeping, you could hear a whistling sound because he was suffocating from blowing so much. I couldn't sleep," Dani laughs. In addition to football and athletics, Fran says that Pedri had other passions in his childhood: "We loved everything with wheels: roller skates, bicycles, skateboards… We used to hang around our village".

In terms of football, he was always a fan of the Blaugrana. "When we were little, his father was president of the Barça fan club in Tegueste. I remember that once they brought the Champions League, the League and the Cup. It was a great moment for us," says Fran. Their photo with the trophies of Guardiola's treble leaves little doubt about their Barcelonismo…

The story of Dani, Fran and Pedri is that of three friends who have come from the humble pitches of their village to the biggest stage of all, a World Cup. "I met Pedri at the school, in Tegueste, at the age of three, because we both started football very early. We used to go to the pitch, Dani, him and me. We would go whenever we had free time and especially on Sundays, because a lot of people, usually older than us, would get together. Everyone was amazed by Pedri", recalls Fran about the group of friends' childhood in Tegueste, the municipality on the island of Tenerife where they grew up.

Although they try to lead the same life as always, they are aware that everything has changed a lot since Pedri is one of the best Spanish players. "At the beginning we didn't see everything that was happening to us as normal, but little by little we have been adapting. It's been very quick, time flies. We are now aware of it. Before it was difficult for us to understand it, but today we understand it".

For them, it is an honour to have Pedri as a friend: "He deserves it, he has worked hard".

The World Cup is a new dream come true for this group of friends who are looking forward to seeing Pedri lift a World Cup one day. They were just eight years old when Iniesta scored that goal. "It's a source of pride for him, for everything he has built, for his family… They have worked hard, he deserves it", they conclude.

#gonna make a seperate post for the article with his coaches because it's rather long #pedri #asks #anon #*interview

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not-that-syndrigast · 5 months ago

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The F1 feeder series masterpost

In recent events, like Oliver Bearman's F1 debut in Jeddah, him, Jack Doohan and Kimi Antonelli joining the grid as rookies in ‘25, Liam Lawson and Gabriel Bortoleto also being discussed to get a seat and the reveal that Franco Colapinto would replace Logan Sargeant at Williams, feeder series’ have gotten more and more attention. A lot of people have no starting point to get into feeder series’ though, and struggle to understand the influence they take on F1, and that's what this post is for. This post includes everything you need to know about feeder series, and if you’re interested, you’ll find discussions and thoughts about common topics between fans and clarification on common misconceptions and anything else one might need on this blog.

Before we start into the topic; this post is incredibly long and detailed, thus there is not only a table of contents below to navigate it easier, but if you want to, you can also read it via the google doc. More discussions and similar posts can be found on my blog under the #wheeltalk

1: What is a feeder series’

2: How to get into feeder series’

3: The history of feeder series’

4: Drivers academies

5: Feeder series and F1

1. What is a feeder series

Feeder series are, in this case for Formula 1, racing series that are supposed to find new talents and develop them, thus the name; feeding them to F1, metaphorically. But in more detail, there are quite a few different feeder series that have developed over the years. They can be compared to stages;

A young driver will usually start their single seater in a series on F4 level, those are the smallest and slowest cars with only 160bhp. There is no worldwide championship, as the drivers are usually very young here and it’s the smallest and ‘cheapest’ of the open wheel series. There are different regional championships in a lot of places, as an example the British F4 or the Italian F4. Interesting to note is though, that these are rather new and there are big differences in the levels, the italian F4 is very popular and bigger compared to others. F4 and most lower feeder series drive by slightly different race weekend timetables to F1 and drive on vastly different circuits due to the regional aspect.

Although it's officially not counted as a feeder series, I would like to add F1 academy, which is a female only championship that follows the F1 calendar. Female drivers participate in that series to gain more attention from sponsors to be able to afford higher categories. Although their cars drive on F4 level, it's international and thus gains a lot more traction than other racing series of that car level.

If a driver is good enough and has the funds, they will progress to the so-called formula regional. Those are, as the name suggests, also regional. Different from F4 though, they are usually on a whole continent. The cars are faster and bigger and the whole event is more expensive. Most well known is probably the ‘Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine’ or short ‘FRECA’. Once again european bias strikes because even non europeans often come to europe to drive here because doing good in FRECA still seems to be better than to do good in another regional series, this is a problem for another post though.

Once again, if a driver is good enough and has enough funds, they can proceed to the next stage. Unlike in F1, they do not get paid to drive for a team but instead have to pay to get a seat, a rather expensive ordeal that can usually only be funded by good sponsors, rich connections or drivers academies that pay up to 100% of the cost. If a driver manages to afford a seat, they can participate in F3. Different from the previous categories, there are only two F3 series, although one is the FIA F3 world cup which is only one event, so most drivers focus on the FIA F3 championship which is not just international, but also follows the F1 calendar.

“Following the F1 calendar” means that they drive on the same circuits and weekends as F1, this helps them not only gain fans but also experience because an F3 race weekend is a lot more similar to F1 than an F4 race weekend and that is not just for the cars. F3 drives a lot less rounds though and almost exclusively in europe.

Last but certainly not least, when a driver graduates from F3 their next step is F2. The FIA F2 championship is arguably the most well known feeder series, almost every F1 driver that has debuted after 2017 has competed in this series, with many having won the championship. The cars are the closest to the F1 cars but it’s also the feeder series that requires most funds, with a seat for a season being estimated to cost up to $3 million.

With all of this in mind, it needs to be added that all feeder series are spec series, so all the drivers in one championship have the same cars to ensure that the championship is reliant on racing talent, rather than the car. Still, they can change small things on set-ups and some feeder series teams are better than others, some series like F2 suffer under the so called Mecachrome, an engine that is super unreliable, so like any other racing series, feeder series have their problems.

Another important addition for feeder series is, that while there are junior academies the championships are not between the F1 teams that you are used to. I’ll explain junior academies later, but if you are watching feeder series it's important to be aware that there are other teams and rules slightly vary depending on the series. In F3, as an example, a team has three cars, but all of these are dependent on the series and you can easily find them out yourself.

For the race weekends it also slightly varies depending on the series; F2 and F3 have one free practice on friday, then qualifying, saturdays there are the sprint races with reverse grid and sunday the feature race. In the reverse grid the top half of the grid gets turned around after qualifying, the pole sitter for Sunday starts on ten, the driver who qualified for ten starts on one and so on. FRECA on the other hand has two full races with two full qualifyings. As mentioned, while I'd love to share everything, feeder series are (luckily) so broad that it's rather impossible. I’ll most likely post some pre-season guides for F2, F3, FRECA,... for the 2025 season though.

This is only a rough overview to show off how feeder series work. All of these series have official websites, social media sites and are easier to access than F1 so they are a lot more ‘fan friendly’. I will go more into detail on how and why these series have evolved the way they did later on, but I need to admit for myself, that I am a huge fan of feeder series because they are, as mentioned before, not only cheaper to attend but also really great to watch for fans and I hope I can help some people find interest in feeder series with this post.

2. How to get into feeder series

You may have seen the uproar around F2 drivers that could make their way into F1 next year, have read the previous text or decided for yourself, you’d like to watch even more racing, then this is the point where you find all the resources on how to!

I need to preface this by saying, feeder series grids are a lot less permanent than F1. Usually a driver only spends one or two seasons in a single series because they try to make their way up the ladder to F1 but also because it's a waste of money to pay for a seat when they could be in a higher category. Furthermore, sometimes seats just change in the season, with Franco Colapinto graduating from F2 mid season, he has triggered a domino effect; someone had to replace him in F2, that driver had to be replaced in F3,... For this reason, I cannot post a grid on any of the series here, for that you will have to visit the sites of the feeder series you are interested in.

What is pretty permanent though, are the teams. As mentioned, the teams are different from F1. Big feeder series teams like Prema racing, MP motorsports, ART grand prix, Rodin Motorsport, ect are present in most categories. By following them on social media you can easily find out who their drivers are and get to know them. I would also recommend following feederseriesnet on social media, it's the most trustworthy news site that covers everything related to the feeder series. Sadly, many feeder series are only covered in comparison to F1 by typical F1 news which is why those are more often than not untrustworthy.

If you question now how people have favorite drivers, then I have really good news for you; in feeder series everything is a bit more fun and to gain sponsors and fans, both teams and drivers themselves are a lot more active on social media than you’d be used to by F1 drivers. I've mentioned it before; feeder series are amazing for fans. There are good chances that you can even watch a race in person because feeder series are actually global and also super cheap, so just look at the F4 or regional championship closest to you.

In relation to this, I especially want to point out Prema. It's not only the most successful feeder series team but also by far the most popular one. The reason why Prema is so popular is on one side obviously the fact that they have won almost every single title in the past years and almost half the current F1 grid were in that team in their junior career, but also their social media presence. The Prema drivers are always by far the most well known and popular drivers in any series because Prema has been posting successful youtube videos for years now and I’ve found it the best way to get to know the drivers. As mentioned, many drivers were at Prema at some point, in feeder series drivers switch teams a lot more often so you’ll get to know about many drivers if you just look back a bit, even if certain teams post less on social media, their drivers will most likely appear in other videos.

If you want to watch the feeder series race, it depends a bit. Most regional championships you can watch free on youtube, but i’d recommend searching it up before you want to watch it. Some also live stream via official websites, really, it depends. F3, F2 and F1Academy follow the F1 calendar. Although they are not at every race, when they are, they just run via skysports, F1TV or wherever else you are watching F1.

In the end it's important to acknowledge, though, that feeder series and F1 are quite different. Feeder series are a lot more race based and things switch faster. For me, it's part of the fun to see more different types of drivers race, there is always something happening, drivers are younger and thus more bold, hoping to impress F1 teams. If you think F1 silly season is stressful, F2 is a lot worse since every single driver has to actually fear for their seat. One downside though is the fact that feeder series, beside Prema, lack a bit of fandom, there are significantly less fans for feeder series and there is a lot less content, less memes but the fans in general are in my experience a lot nicer.

3. The history of feeder series

Especially if you are a big fan of F1, trying to look at old feeder series races or are interested in the history of racing in general, acknowledging the history of feeder series is important to understand them. Feeder series have greatly evolved in roughly the past two decades; the “FIA Global Pathway from Karting to Formula One” as it has been established by the FIA only exists in the way it does now since 2014.

Many of the current feeder series have gone through a whole lot of renamings, rule changings and changes in approach; there used to be F3 and GP3 at the same time, with GP3 being somewhat comparable to F3, but the whole problem was that there were many different open wheel racing series without a linear approach to F1. If you look at current F1 drivers' junior careers, you’ll notice how different they look to each other because unlike the way I introduced previously, there was no one pathway. The FIA has established a proper pathway now though, partially to help drivers but also because it's simply needed. If you look at certain drivers like Fernando Alonso, who started his Formula 1 career roughly 25 years ago, you’ll notice that he barely had any previous open wheel racing experience. The reason for that was not only that Alonso is a great driver with potential, but also the fact that F1 cars were simply a lot easier and it was more approachable for young drivers.

Since F1 cars have become more complex, driving has become faster and the F1 championship has become a lot more serious, the evolution of the feeder series have followed the evolution of F1. Racing has changed a lot, from the eighties where you pretty much sat in a car and just raced if you had the money to now, where teenagers train from early childhood on in karts to hopefully join F1 one day, F1 has become a huge sport.

The biggest changes in recent years, following the FIA pathway program in 2014, are the following;

In 2014, the Formula 4 series was invented, to bridge the jump from karts to F3 which has become a lot faster in recent years. In 2018, Formula regional was invented for the same reason as F4; to bridge the gap between existing series. Also in 2018, GP3 and the FIA Formula three European championship pretty much merged to what we now know as F3. the year prior, in 2017, GP2 rebranded to F2 leading to the feeder series being uniformed to all go by the formula title.

I am quite sure we will still see some slight changes in the following years, especially since feeder series are gaining more and more traction as you can see here. All over the world there are also new regional championships starting out, which leads me to one of the most important parts of this; the globalification of feeder series.

Just like F1, feeder series are very european based. Many drivers had to move to europe in order to move up in the motorsport world, but with regional championships like the Formula regional middle east championship gaining traction, i wouldn't be surprised if feeder series become even more internationally, because while they are already a thing all over the world, you can clearly see the difference in F4; the italian F4 is always in focus and drivers from all over the world participate in them, while other F4s are focused more on their use; developing local talents.

4. Driver academies

Now as mentioned before, the F1 teams are not in feeder series, but there are so called ‘driver academies’ but what exactly are those and how do they work?

Well, driver academies are a sort of support system for junior drivers. F1 teams will take good young drivers into their teams. By that, they try to ensure that good drivers get the fundings to become a good future F1 driver. In return, they have contracts with the drivers and (usually) first privilege when it comes to signing them to drive for them in F1.

But there are more advantages for the young drivers; besides the monetary advantages, being a member of a driver's academie helps them greatly. Depending on the academy they are in, they get help when it comes to personal trainers, contracts and sponsors and just in general, being a member of a driver academy makes it a lot more likely that a driver will actually join F1.

But just like in racing itself, the different teams have not only different approaches but also different levels of success. While some junior academies like Ferrari can boast of being known to be incredibly loyal to their junior drivers, helping them get sponsors and become popular and having many of them graduate to F1, there are other junior academies who aren't as successful. Best example for a less successful team is Alpine, while they have many drivers, not many of them graduated to F1, even less with them. Still, in my opinion it's not necessarily a bad thing; a team like Alpine that pays for many young drivers is incredibly important and even better, they have a whole category for female racers.

In the next few days I'll post a ranking detailing a bit closer what exactly the driver academies are doing, so stay tuned!

5. Feeder series and F1

The way that feeder series have influenced F1 in recent years should have become a bit more obvious by now. With the establishment of a proper pathway for feeder series the drivers are a lot more likely to know each other and it's a lot easier to follow. F1 has become this huge sport in which everyone is a proper athlete, with feeder series becoming respected, so do their graduates.

Every rookie since 2019 had to go through at least one of the feeder series and although there will still be changes, especially with driver academies now going as early as F4 to recruit drivers, feeder series become more and more important to F1.

Even if some people aren't as interested in feeder series, many have learned this year that you can't enjoy F1 without keeping the feeder series in mind.

Still, it's a personal wish, but i hope that in the near future (and hopefully by this) there will be more feeder series fans. Although obviously the end goal is F1, not everything in the feeder series has to be about F1. Furthermore, F1 is very different to the feeder series, which is a good thing.

In the end, this whole post is a lot less detailed than i would have liked, but as mentioned multiple times, i will post even more specific texts in the future, but feeder series are such a broad topic that it would be an impossible task to explain every single feeder series because there are so many, and quite frankly, it would also be a bit boring.

If there are any questions left, or one of you just wants to talk about feeder series, request more info or discuss any thoughts, my DMs are always open and I absolutely love sharing all of these.

@the-prophesied-mouse @eve-will-perceive

sorry guys, this was supposed to be finished sooner but work ruined my life. I originally wanted to post it pre f3 final but live is hard. Also i'll be in so much pain if this fails, please.

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saraw4ters · 1 year ago

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#motogp #juniorgp #moto2 #moto3 #stock #european #talent #cup #motorland #aragón #españa #moto #motorbike #motorsport #dorna #FIM #Finetwork

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boxboxblog · 4 months ago

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Driver Profiles: Charles Leclerc

Updated December 2024

Name: Charles Marc Hervé Perceval Leclerc

Age: 27

Nationality: Monagasque

Years in F1: 7 (Alfa Romeo Sauber 2018, Ferrari 2019-Present)

Number: 16

WDCs: N/A

Driving Style: Leclerc is a very strong racer, known for his raw speed, aggression, and talent on street circuits. He is famous for his late braking overtakes, and for holding off on overtaking until the perfect moment. There have been times in races where he has chosen not to overtake/let someone by because he was biding his time for the most strategically sound moment. Often, commentators refer to him sitting behind drivers as 'prowling' due to his later actions. Like Verstappen he can be very aggressive, and he pairs it with a strong instinct and technical skills which leads him to be a very clean overtaker. The only criticism I would have is that in his nature to wait for the perfect moment, he often lets opportunities slip by. Other than that, he's a particularly well rounded driver, and when placed in a solid car is a regular on the podium.

History: Born into a racing family (his father Hervé raced in F3) Leclerc first drove a cart when he was 5 years old, and started his karting career in 2005, winning the French PACA Championship in 2005, 2006, and 2008. In 2009 he became French Cadet champion before moving up to the KF3 class in 2010, where he won the Junior Monaco Kart Cup. He continued in the KF3 class for 2011, winning the CIK-FIA KF3 World Cup, the CIK-FIA Karting Academy Trophy and the ERDF Junior Kart Masters.

(Leclerc in 2009)

Leclerc graduated to the KF2 category in 2012, winning the WSK Euro Series title, and finishing 2nd in the CIK-FIA European KF2 Championship and the CIK-FIA Under 18 World Karting Championship. In his final year of karting in 2013, Leclerc won the South Garda Winter Cup and finished second in the CIK-FIA World KZ Championship, behind Max Verstappen (his childhood rival).

(unknown on left (got lazy), Leclerc middle, Verstappen right)

In 2014 Leclerc started in single-seaters where he took seven podium positions, to finish runner-up in the championship behind Nyck de Vries. Leclerc also won the Junior Championship title in the last race of the season. He graduated to Formula 3 in 2015, and had a successful stint, earning multiple podiums, but finished 4th in the standings. In 2016 he moved on to GP3, where he took his first championship win.

(Leclerc in 2014)

Formula 2 was where Leclerc really shined. He joined in 2017 for PREMA Racing, one of the best F2 teams. In his rookie year he dominated the track, regularly getting pole positions and wins. This led him to earn the championship title before the season even ended, and made him one of a short list of drivers who won F2 in their rookie year. To this day that season is seen as one of the best performances F2 ever saw. During GP3 and F2 he was a testing and reserve drive for both Haas and Ferrari, after joining the Ferrari Drivers Academy. In late 2017 his contract with Alfa Romeo Sauber (Ferrari's junior team) was announced for the 2018 season.

Leclerc had a strong season with Sauber, regularly finishing within the points in a midfield car. It was his performance at there that made Ferrari take the plunge and choose him for the 2019 seat. This would be one of the rare times that Ferrari had actively gone after a driver, and they offered him the longest contract in Ferrari history; 5 years.

(Leclerc in his year with Sauber)

Unfortunately this year for Ferrari were not all that great. While Leclerc clinched his maiden win at Spa, and a massive win at Ferrari's home in Monza, there were multiple car failures that held both him and his teammate back. However, he did end the season at 4th in the championship, and ahead of his teammate 4x WDC Sebastian Vettel.

(Leclerc winning in Spa 2019)

2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 will all carry similar dark clouds for Leclerc. Only in 2022 was he truly battling for the championship, and by midway in the season the battle was already lost. But still, Leclerc is a regular on the podium and has won multiple races in his time with Ferrari.

His 2024 season was perhaps his strongest, showing incredibly consistent results, especially after the summer break. he had three fantastic wins, one in Monaco, one in Monza, and one in Austin. Beyond that he was a regular podium finisher. He finished 3rd in teh championship.

(Leclerc's on top step in Monaco 2024)

Major Races:

2019 Bahrain GP - This was almost Leclerc's first win, and where he secured his first ever pole position. Unfortunately a late race engine problem cost him victory and he would finish 3rd.

2019 Spa GP - Leclerc's first win, after snatching pole and keeping his lead, he held off Lewis Hamilton in the final laps. An especially emotional win, as his good friend Antoine Hubert had passed away in a F2 accident the day before.

2019 Monza GP - This was the first Ferrari home win in nearly 10 years, and was a very emotional one for Ferrari and Leclerc. Starting on pole, he drove a highly defensive race and held off the two Mercedes the whole time.

2022 Australian GP - By far Leclerc's most dominant win, he started the race on pole and had incredibly fast pace the whole time. He also snatched fastest lap (a grand slam) and crossed the line with a significant gap to second.

2023 Vegas GP - While Leclerc only finished P2 in this race, his last lap overtake on Sergio Perez wowed the crowd. This intense last-minute lunge got him up to 2nd. He stated he chose to take this risky move because he had seen Perez make a mistake on that corner a few laps earlier.

2024 Monaco GP - When Leclerc won his home GP, there wasn't a dry eye in the city. Taking pole in qualifying, he drove a level-headed and strong race, making zero mistakes the entire time. He finished with a solid lead and became the first Monagasque in 90 years to win in Monaco.

2024 Austin GP - Starting from 4th, an incredible triple overtake saw Leclerc take the lead of the race early on, and he controlled it for the rest of the time. Brilliant drive.

2024 Abu Dhabi GP - While not a race win, Leclerc drove an incredible race moving from P19 to finish on the podium. Perhaps his most impressive race to date, it was a masterclass on overtakes and wheel-to-wheel driving.

Cheers,

-B

#f1 #formula 1 #f1 driver profiles #f1 drivers #charles leclerc

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player1064 · 27 days ago

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HELP why do you guys hate becks sm i thought you liked him 😭

I HATE HIMMMMM HE IS A FLOP HE SUCKS SO BAD EVERY TIME I SEE HIM I AM FILLED WITH RAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

but as a more serious answer (this turned into a massive rant sorry...) he overexaggerates his talent as a footballer and his importance in the manchester united and england squads while putting gary's talent and influence down. like he was a good footballer but he was NOT that special, whenever he had to play without gary behind him his performance suffered and there were a Lot of matches where his rating literally said that exact thing. and 'dead ball master'... please... he missed MOST of his attempts at goals from free kicks. and he was Literally only made england captain bc he was famous. like. for 3 years leading up to his appointment as captain EVERYONE was saying gary would be next. and then!!

But everything he does has to be polished and perfect to fit into the Beckham Narrative. so according to him:

he was an AMAZING footballer (never mind that fans of LA galaxy hated him bc they thought he was only there for fame and money and never actually played bc he always had some bullshit injury)

and wowww he got to play in so many different leagues (he was literally told that if he didn't play for a european team he wouldn't get selected for england and THAT'S why he moved to milan).

and gary was just a childhood friend/ex teammate/best man at his wedding (literally it's so funny the way he Refuses to acknowledge how important they were to each other. and I'm not just saying that with shipper goggles on like the difference in the way he talked about gary when they were at utd together vs the way he talks about him now that he's retired is INSANE).

and he and victoria are soulmates!!! they have always had a perfect relationship!!!!! (he was a serial cheater - also rip but there's multiple stories in tabloids about how gary would Help him get with other girls when he was already married).

And everything he does he does for money and to cling to his relevance for a little while longer. During the euros last year I swear to god if an ad break had 10 ads he was in 8 of them. When I went to waterloo station (one of the biggest train stations in london) EVERY poster and billboard was his aliexpress ad. there is NO REASON for him to have done that ad, it was literally Just for the money. like. ALIEXPRESS???

Other atrocities:

the whole mess of the 2022 world cup. and his refusal now to acknowledge that anything happened, never mind to accept that he was in the wrong

fun fact in 2014 he was due to get a knighthood but he was taken off the list bc of his tax evasion schemes <3

ANYWAY. yeah I hate him. yes I follow him on instagram yes I feel murderous every time I see him post. The ONLY context I like him in is beville kfjdshhgjfds. like I literally tolerate his existence purely bc gary is insane about him.

#i mean. there ARE worse crimes. see: giggs & butt <3 #but yeah. this is a david beckham hate account unless he's being gay in old videos w gary #david beckham #beville

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princess-of-thebes-1995 · 1 year ago

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The ugly feeling of guilt clutched the ice cold heart of the former Dark Wizard Gellert Grindelwald. Being good was not just difficult but impossible for him.

Grindelwald was never good at being nice.

Being spoiled by his parents and being naturally intelligent, talented and handsome made him arrogant.

It was difficult to simmer down his inner fire.

He married his dream girl. A damn muggle. He was racist towards them. He considered them s burden on society. Waste of space, food, money and the list can go on and on.

Grindelwald first raped you out of hate. You were teasing him by your whispers and feathery touches. Like a damn ghost.

Never giving him inner peace. Somehow, he couldn't kill you. He just couldn't do it. His pride as a man was degraded and he blamed you. He raped other muggle women in the past to humiliate them. Not out of lust.

Grindelwald then tried to sleep with beautiful witches whether respected or even brothels. But, your lovely doll face would stop him.

Eventually, he kidnapped you to be his sex slave. After realizing he loved you. He begged for forgiveness and asked for marriage.

You wanted to leave but that was one thing Grindelwald couldn't give you. He would go insane without you.

So, you gave him conditions, you made him imprison his minions, stop his racist feelings, and use his intelligence to make both worlds a better place.

And therapy was one of them...

That's right.

Like a child, Grindelwald had to see a psychiatrist named Hannibal Lecter. He somewhat looked like him only much younger. Oh, well.

Brushing it off, he came back home early than usual. The oven had food inside and the non meat dishes were already placed on the table.

You must be in his room. Or should he say your new room you shared. Gellert smiled.

He took off his jacket and carried it with him. He opened the door quietly. You were applying makeup. The said man felt flattered but kept his stoic face.

You were dressing to impress him. Like him you were trying to make it work. Not the way he was expecting this relationship to start.

He regretted raping, kidnapping and then raping you again. You forgave him.

Name figured you were just kind of fucked up in the head but good. A little weird. Maybe that can change.

Placing his jacket on the bed. Grindelwald hugged you from behind and cupped your breasts. He inhaled the crook of your neck and began to lick it.

"Are you mad at me?" He whispered.

You shook your head

"Don't lie." He made you stand up from your vanity desk seat and lead you to the bed. He pushed you down on it to lay down. He hovered over you.

"Look." He rolled his eyes and snickered like a child. "I am sorry." It was a mouthful. He hated apologizing due to his privileged life. A rich man from a European country and a wizard.

He didn't mind submitting to you. Thank Merlin you didn't make him apologize to his victims of abuse in the past when he was racist.

He rather cut his tongue off.

But, you were nice.

He teasingly trailed his fingers between your chest. "I am sorry for yelling at you in the morning."

It was almost a month of marrying him. You would call him Grindelwald and never his first name. He ordered you but you would always forget. The first few times, he let it pass. Now, he got mad how you were so formal to him. He wants not only be called his first name but endearments. It was taking too damn long and so slow.

You almost cried in fear. He stopped hitting you but he still scared you. His vein almost popped on his forehead and he snarled like a beast.

The Wizard left without a word in anger.

"Let me make it up to you." He whispered against your lips huskily.

"But..." He smirked down at you teasing you. "I have three questions."

You blinked in surprise.

"Who is in charge?" He squeezed your right boob gently.

Your face turned red. "You... Gellert."

Uh oh. You saw the flame of desire ignite even more. Shit.

He will have sex now? Your dinner will burn!

You wanted him to fuck you after.

Should you tell him? But, he works all day in an office and you knew he was struggling trying to be kind.

With the way he goes to that creepy look alike psychiatrist. You should please him.

You ran your nails through his gray hair.

He groaned in pleasure and began to pant like a wild animal.

"Good. Who do you belong to?"

You gulped. His hands roaming your clothed curves. "I belong to you, Gellert."

He kissed your ear and began to gently nibble it like a mouse with his cheese.

"Question number three..." His fingers went under your skirt and rubbed your soaking underwear. Horny girl.

"Does Daddy know best?" He slyly grinned.

He was rubbing it in. You averted your eyes and blushed harder. You would hate how he assumed you would cheat and look at other men.

You thought he didn't care of you but was just possessive of property. Now, you realized he loves you.

You smiled. Grindelwald blinked in a pleasant surprise.

The ice was melting between those breasts of yours. You were slowly accepting him.

His efforts were not for nothing.

He felt childish joy inside his chest and libido rising. His dick pointing up and wet as fuck. Maybe you might conceive. He will not use magic to prevent a child this time.

You answered yes with his name followed.

Using magic to remove the dish from the oven and turning it off. The older man removed your panties without asking you to lift your hips. He doesn't need your help. So, he ripped that soaking wet fabric and tossed it to the side.

"yeah, he always does." He inserted his long white cock and started pounded you stupid. Your fucked up expression assured him he was doing his job right.

You could be a good prostitute. Luckily, he found you before you could discover your true calling career. He knew you would have endless number one fans and customers.

He is one lucky bastard.

This is a one shot for i-d-91

I know I have been favoring Miles Quaritch.

I am working on dark Desires. I know how to end it and the middle. I just don't know how to start it without causing confusion.

#gellert grindelwald #fantastic beasts #fantastic beasts 3 #yandere gellert grindelwald x reader #mads mikkelsen #mads mikkelsen x reader

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ollieflopkins · 5 months ago

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what exactly happened to sterling at liverpool why he was so adamant nothing would make him stay ?

THANK YOU ANON FOR ASKING THIS and apologies for the delay!

In my original post I detailed how upsetting it was for me as a newer Liverpool fan in 2015 to go through Sterling’s transfer to City and see all the media surrounding said transfer. I was upset because 1. He was a highly sought after young talent and I didn’t want him to leave in general, 2. He left to go to City of all clubs, and 3. Everything surrounding the transfer, at least to me at the time, came down to money. And yessss all footballers do care about their bag but for a 20 year old + his team who we raised to be talking about money in the press like he was? For me it was in bad taste. But I’ll try to keep it objective.

Raheem Sterling and why he wanted to leave Liverpool, plus some insight into 2010-2015 Liverpool, below the cut.

Why did Raheem Sterling want to leave Liverpool?

Wanted to win trophies. In Dec 2012 he signed a new long term contract with us under Brendan Rodgers and was enthusiastic about his future with us. However, Sterling’s entire career at Liverpool occurred pre-Klopp/pre-modern resurgence era so we weren’t ever really competing for leagues or silverware: we won a League Cup and like…almost won the prem once lolol… but that was it for Sterling’s entire career with us 2010-2015. City 2010-2015 were in Kun Aguero era and won the FA Cup, the League Cup, the prem twice, and came in second in the prem two other times. City easily were more successful and had more money to throw around at the time (still do 😌).

Wanted his bag. In 2014, he won Golden Boy, so journalists were touting him as the current best young talent in Europe at the time. He is also making pots/poty lists and such. Obviously his stock went up like crazy then. Liverpool were also being very flexible with him and providing rest/vacation time and such to prevent him from getting exhausted, etc etc aka they were glazing Sterling and clearly wanted him to stay badly. Early 2015 and Liverpool were offering Sterling an insane contract rumored to be £100k+ / week but Rodgers also said Liverpool aren’t going to rain money on him. Sterling notoriously dragged his feet on signing and fans began to boo him at matches bc the contract negotiations were being dragged out ostensibly bc of money. Sterling and his team at this point begin to give interviews talking about turning the contract down, saying at first it isn’t about money, then saying he’s not staying at the club for any amount of money…meanwhile Rodgers is pissed bc why is their player saying anything independently of the club to the BBC. Very messy. Then the bids start coming in from City and Sterling asks not to go on the summer tour with Liverpool and misses trainings, and former players and pundits are not having this. Lots of disappointment and feelings of abandonment. Ultimately Sterling became the most expensive English player ever at the time upon his transfer to City the summer of 2015. He went from making £35k/week on his current contract at Liverpool (Liverpool were offering him £100k/week to stay) to £150k/week on the 2015-2019 contract at City. Again, this is as a 20 year old winger coming off ~3 seasons of first team at Liverpool with rough generous estimate ~15 goal contributions in the prem for his time in the first team. no european experience bc Liverpool weren’t good at the time. bag chaser 🤷🏼‍♀️

I am not saying Sterling was not a good footballer - he was quick, a good dribbler, and could always pose a threat (still can on brilliant singular occasions). Like obviously he was an extreme talent bc Liverpool were willing to pay exorbitant amounts (for our club’s standards) to keep him. Sterling has always been inconsistent though. But he shone at City and fwiw they can keep him lol in my opinion he doesn’t have much of a legacy at Liverpool. That era was about SAS first and foremost - Sturridge and Suarez - with Sterling and Coutinho for support, but yes Sterling was important. He’s no legend but he matters.

I also recognize that I don’t think Sterling has been surrounded by the right people during his career. Many young players get preyed upon and misled and mismanaged. And really maybe Liverpool just didn’t matter to Sterling that much in the end. Which then…good riddance lol. He’ll always be a rat to me and if you feel differently that’s fine.

And since he’s come to chelsea and really began his tour of the big 6 clubs in earnest, he’s been a shadow of his former self. Landing at arsenal is strange and surely undesired by Arsenal fans but who knows what Arteta is cooking. Me personally, idcccccc

#I worked on this for like an hour lol #lfc historians assemble #aka if you survived Hodgson and Rodgers #thanks for reading if you did lol #lmk if I missed anything important or mixed up any info #Raheem Sterling #liverpool fc #lfc #manchester city #chelsea fc #arsenal

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silentglassbreak · 11 months ago

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The plot with Jolly at the fest sound like very interesting story. I'd love to read it

I didn't get too much detail on this one, so I'm just going to run with it? First time writing for Jolly, so let's give it a shot.

**After writing notes: WOW this one went in an entirely different direction than I expected...

It just happened. I hope someone enjoys it. LOL.

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: Soft smut, mentions of death

Sweater Weather

Why does no one ever have the balls to tell Noah he’s being a diva?

Listen, the man is my brother. We’re family. För alltid mitt blod. I would take a bullet for him, and I have no doubt he would do the same for me.

But, sometimes, he’s so fucking irritating.

How hard it must be to have such talent and be so attractive, everyone loves you, and you work hard to maintain an image. However, taking out the stress and pressures on the only guys who also know how being in this band feels?

Noah was arguing with one of the stage techs, telling him that the image they had prepared to be behind us doing our set was wrong. He’s right, they had prepared the image of the mannequins, when it was supposed to be the album cover, but that wasn’t this poor little man’s fault.

“God, it’s not a hard fucking thing to do!”

“I’m sorry, dude. I’m putting in the request to have it switched.” The man wasn’t exactly cowering, but he was intimidated for sure.

I stepped up behind Noah, letting a gentle hand fall on his shoulder. I could feel his muscles relax slightly under my fingers.

“C’mon man. It’ll be fine. We have an hour until our set. They’ll get it fixed.”

I felt him take a deep breath, and saw how he closed his eyes to center himself. This was something I taught him.

The tech scurried away, leaving us alone in our tent.

It was so fucking hot, which was interesting, given we were in Michigan. Upheaval festival was one of my favorites. It was a smaller event, which meant a more regular experience with the fans. Usually, it also meant better food and beer vendors.

“Hey, guess what I found?” Nick came bounding into the tent, a large mug in his hand.

“Beer, I assume?” Noah pointed his attitude at Nick, who rolled his eyes in return.

“They have a beer garden! Jolly, they’ve got a Swedish ale you might dig!”

I snorted. “Guarantee it isn’t actually Swedish.” Grabbing my hat from the couch, I placed it over my long hair that was pulled back in a low ponytail, and headed for the exit.

“I will go check it out though. Folio out there?”

Nick nodded. “He was spotted, so he’s chatting with some fans.”

I smirked. “Let’s hope he can get out before the set.”

Noah turned and looked at me. “Don’t be late getting back, please! We go on in under an hour.”

Shooting him a thumbs up, I headed for the mayhem of the festival.

As suspected, there was nothing Swedish about the beer, but it did have good flavor. I stood to the right of the beer garden, sipping my mug, and people watched.

It was always so fascinating to see the mix of people who came to these shows. European festivals were one thing but American festivals? You saw everything from multi-colored hair to breasts only barely covered by mesh tops or pasties. It was a sight to behold.

After a moment of zoning out, I looked down at my watch to see I still had twenty minutes before we had to head to the stage. Noah was likely bursting because I wasn’t back yet, and I smiled to myself at the thought. He could sweat for a few minutes, would do him good.

Deciding I should at least start making my way back there, my eyes scanned for the direction I needed to go, somehow getting turned around. Eyes searching over heads and bodies, I didn’t even see the person coming toward me, knocking my shoulder directly into them as I began walking forward.

My beer sloshed over the edge of the cup, pouring foam down the girl’s arm.

“Fuck! I am so sorry!” I turned, and my eyes locked onto the face in front of me.

Wisps of natural, dirty blonde hair floated in the slight breeze, framing a tan, small face. The rest of her hair was pulled up on top of her head in a bun, tightly secured. Her eyes were lightly lined with black, mascara clinging to her lashes. Pink, full lips covered by only a thin gloss were hanging open, startled by the cold liquid on her shoulder.

“Shit! I didn’t even see you, I’m so sorry!” She apologized, wiping her arm with the sweater tied around her waist. Her white tank top was now an amber color on one side.

I couldn’t speak. She was gorgeous.

“Jesus, I’m such a fucking klutz.” She groaned, hastily grabbing napkins off of the cart behind us and wiping at her arm, and then at my hand.

When her ice blue eyes looked up at me, I felt the air rush back into my lungs.

“No, no that was my fault. I’m very sorry.”

When the realization crossed her face, I saw it like a firework exploding behind her vision.

“You’re Jolly fucking Karlsson!”

This made me chuckle. “Something like that, yeah.”

I reached a hand out, which she took graciously, smiling at me with a wide, toothy grin.

“It’s such an honor. I’m a huge fan. I was actually rushing so I could get back to see your set!”

Her words snapped me back.

Fuck.

“Oh, good! I’ve got to get over there! But, uh,” My brain was working overtime. “maybe I can find you after? You can buy me another beer?”

I let any suave I had take over, which seemed to work decently, given she blinked multiple times.

“Sure, of course!”

“Jolly!” My head snapped over to see Matt barreling toward me. “Dude we go on in ten minutes!”

Looking back, I watched as her face fell slightly, my arm now being physically pulled in the opposite direction. Being led away, I hollered.

“I’ll meet you back here!”

I was only given a nod, and a wave in response.

The set was electric, Noah's earlier nerves rolling off of him comfortably as he put on a show. Nick was absolutely flawless on his bass, flipping his hair over and over. Folio, as usual, lost himself in the drum beats, freestyling here and there.

I, however, was way off my game. Something about my encounter with the mesmerizing blonde earlier kept me thoroughly distracted. Over and over, my eyes swam through the sea of people in the crowd, trying my hardest to find a blonde messy bun and steel blue eyes, but it was in vain. I couldn't see anything.

I thought about her again and again, unable to shake the feeling of wonder from my bones. For whatever reason, I needed to see this girl again. Her aura, her energy, it radiated beauty, rarity, like a gemstone.

Pärla. A magnificent treasure.

The thoughts racing in my brain made me lose my focus more than once. During Nowhere to Go, I missed several notes, my guitar making an awful screeching sound. I forgot to sing backup vocals during Limits entirely, earning me a glare from Noah, and a look of concern from Nick.

I had ignored it, and continued on, my eyes still searching. It was hopeless. I would find her after. I had to.

Once Dethrone concluded, and I ran off stage, setting my guitar down, I felt a hand pull my arm, flinging my backward.

"Dude, are you okay?" Nick looked straight at me. "You drunk?"

I furrowed my brow. "Of course not."

"Well, you don't really fuck up on stage, Jolly, so what the fuck?" Noah was standing directly behind Nick, eyes shooting me down with fury.

I shrugged. "I'm sorry. I was looking for someone."

This made them both leer backward a moment. "Who?" Noah asked.

"This girl. I met her at the beer garden."

They reacted equally differently. Nick let up a sly smirk, his eyebrows raising. Noah, however, narrowed his eyes.

"You almost blew the set for some broad?"

Rolling my eyes, I turned toward them. "I didn't blow the fucking set, Noah. Quit being so dramatic."

I could see the fire burning behind his irises, which I would definitely pay for later in the form of his attitude.

"Are you fucking kidding, dude?" Noah began scolding me, but Nick held up a hand.

"Chill. Jolly never fucks up, ever." He turned to Noah, giving him stern eyes. "And the set was fine."

Huffing, Noah stomped away, throwing a tantrum like a child.

I smiled at Nick, grateful. "You know how he gets at festivals."

Nodding, I began to walk away. "Got to go."

Waving him off, I weaved through all of the people behind the stage area, making my way back out to our tent, where Davis and Matt were already packing up equipment. I grabbed a clean shirt out of my backpack, and slipped it over my head. I pulled half of my hair up in a tight bun on top of my head, and slipped on my sunglasses.

Headed back out, I noticed the sun was nearly set, and the beer garden area was almost vacant, most people over by the stages. Sleep Token had just started, so the vendors were long abandoned by almost everyone.

I found the napkin cart, and stood, arms crossed, scanning around. After about ten minutes, I had to remove my sunglasses to be able to see clearly as night was falling. A chill ran up my spine as the temperature began to drop. No sign of her, but I didn't mind waiting.

Thirty minutes.

Forty-five.

One hour.

I stood, eyes glancing around, head bobbing to Sleep Token's heavy bass and Vessel's incredible vocals. However, my mind was elsewhere. Maybe she didn't want to miss their set? Maybe she forgot where to meet? I didn't know how to find her.

I didn't even know her name.

It was a mystery, and I couldn't get it out of my head. I was going to have to give up soon. The festival would be ending, and I would have to get back with the guys, head back to the hotel. The thought made my stomach sink. Why was I so entranced with the idea of this girl? All she did was spill beer on me. Why did I insist on finding her?

"Jolly?"

I spun, much faster than I should've, on my heel, and was met with cold, freezing blue eyes, staring up at me. Her gloss was worn off, and her eyeliner was smudging ever so slightly under her eyes. Her bun was long gone, blonde hair now free-flowing down across her shoulders.

"Pärla."

Her smile was confused. "Uh,"

"It means gem. I didn't know your name, so I decided to go with that."

The blush on her cheeks was a sweet addition to that gorgeous sun kissed skin.

"I like that." She rubbed her palms on the front of her jeans. I noticed her sweater was now around her shoulders, covering the beer stain on her tank top. "I'm sorry, I know we said we'd meet after your set. I had to get one of my friends back to our hotel."

Shaking my head, I waved her off. "No worries."

"Did you wait long?"

An hour wasn't a long time, I don't think.

"Nope."

With a finger pointed at the beer garden, she asked, "So, you want that beer?"

I perused this. I wasn't much for a drink right now, comfortable with just talking to her. "You going to have one?"

Shrugging, she looked over toward the crowd. "I don't think so. I've got to get back to the hotel with my friends soon. One of them is really drunk, and is a sick mess."

My face soured. "That doesn't sound fun."

Scrunching her face, she stuck her hands in the pocket of her sweater. "It isn't. I'm pretty annoyed about it, actually."

Nodding, I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. I had been ignoring it for a while.

Matt: Dude, if you're coming with us, we gotta go now.

I typed a quick response.

Me: Meet you back at the hotel.

We walked around the festival grounds for a while, just chatting about different things, somehow managing to distract her from the fact that she should go back to her hotel, and I, mine.

"You're from Florida?"

She nodded. "Daytona. I hate it."

"Why? Isn't it sunny and beautiful all year-round?" I chuckled.

She joined me. "Sure, if you like a lot of drugs and alligators everywhere."

We found some benches, having a seat. I pulled a pack of smokes from my pocket, lighting one.

She stared at me, smirking. I lifted the pack toward her. "Want one?"

She shook her head. "I'm okay. Thanks, though."

Blowing out the smoke, I turned my attention back to her face.

"So why come to Michigan for a festival?"

Her eyes were lost on the crowd, amused. "Why not?" She leaned back on her seat. "I love the adventure of traveling. Seeing different cities. If I get to enjoy good music while I'm at it, why not?"

"You get to meet a lot of cool people doing it, huh?"

Looking over to me, I saw her lips turn up slightly. "Yeah, I do."

A cool silence fell over us for a moment while I finished my cigarette.

Out of my peripheral vision, I saw her head turn toward me. "It's closing."

We noticed the bodies moving past us toward the exit. I nodded. "We should get going soon."

I swore I saw a flash of disappointment cross her features, but only for a second before a look of excitement crept across her face.

"Hey, you want to go somewhere?"

I raised an eyebrow. "Where?"

Smirking, she stood, pulling at my arm. "I know a place, c'mon."

With no time to protest, she pulled me, and I had to nearly jog to keep up. I watched her hair, looking nearly silver against the bright lights at the parking area, fly behind her as she ran toward the Uber line.

We waited, and I slipped my sunglasses back on, and tried not to be obvious.

Once our turn came, she leaned forward to give the driver the address, quiet enough so I wouldn't hear. The driver raised a brow.

"I'm pretty sure it's closed for the night."

She waved at him. "Just go. It'll be fine."

With a nod, he began driving. I stared at her. "Are you taking me somewhere to kill me?"

Her teeth flashed. "You'll have to wait and find out." And she turned to look out at the darkness beyond her window.

Something inside me wasn't worried.

We walked along the boardwalk, out onto the sand. We could hear the soft waves crashing, but it was difficult to see beyond she shoreline.

"Welcome to Lake Michigan!"

The stars, bright and vast, seemed to bounce off of the stillness of the water. It was breathtaking. She bound ahead of me, slipping her shoes off and holding them. Her eyes were fixed on the water, before she dropped down in the sand, looking up at the sky.

I followed suit, taking a heavy seat next to her. It was so quiet, so calm. We weren't supposed to be here at midnight, but something in the chilled air felt so serene.

"What did you call me before?" Her voice was even, still looking at the sky.

"Hm?" I had to shake out of my thoughts.

"At the festival. You called me a name. In another language."

I smiled. "Pärla." She looked back at me. "It means gem."

A warm grin spread across her lips. "I like that." She echoed her earlier sentiment.

It occurred to me at that point, that she still had not told me her first name.

"What else do I call you?"

Her eyes narrowed, thinking. What was there to think about?

"I think that'll do."

I raised an eyebrow. "What?"

Her gaze turned back up to the sky. "Pärla. That's good."

"You're not going to tell me your name?" Confusion laced my voice.

Hugging her knees to her chest, her eyes transfixed on the stars, she bit her lip. "Not yet."

It was strange, but what could I do?

Silence fell over us again, but she eventually spoke up.

"Do you ever miss Sweden?"

Clearing my throat, I mimicked her body language, pulling my knees up.

"Sometimes. It's my home."

Her lips were pulled in a tight line, and I saw what looked to be a tear brimming at her eyes. "I never miss mine. I'm never going back."

"Why not?"

Turning to look at me, a slow tear rolled down her cheek, but she held a sad smile. "I'm happy right where I am."

Trying to process what she said, I struggled, because all I could feel was the urge to grab the tear with my finger, and wipe it from her face. I kept my hands to myself, however.

"So," I tried to lighten the conversation. "how long have you been a fan?"

This made a genuine grin crack across her face. "About a year. I heard you guys for the first time on TikTok. When I looked into the music, I was hooked."

I nodded, listening to the smooth sounds of the waves. "Yeah, that's how a lot of people found us."

"It's good music. I really enjoyed the new album."

"Yeah, it was fun to make."

She looked directly at me. "Do you like being in a band? What's it like?"

That made me huff out a laugh. "It's something else, that's for sure. Chaotic, at times. Rewarding, most others."

Amused, she crossed her legs under her and turned her body to face me. "What are the other guys like?" I raised a brow and she smiled sheepishly. "I'm not trying to fangirl, just curious."

Shaking my head, I turned to face her as well. "Nick is awesome. Mediator when things get tense. He tends to keep a cool head easier than the rest of us." I sighed. "Folio is...young. He's so lighthearted, and full of life. I envy that sometimes." She smiled at that.

"And Noah is..." I trailed off, choosing my words carefully. "Brilliant, but can be a lot sometimes."

"Like how?"

"Like," I intertwined my fingers. "he gets anxious. He's a perfectionist, so there's never room for error. It can be a pain in the ass, but we owe a lot of our success to it."

She nodded. "He's talented."

"Very. So, we put up with it, mostly."

Peering up at me from under her lashes, she spoke low. "And what about you, Jolly? What are you like?"

This gave me pause. How do I answer that?

"I'm..." I really had to think about that answer. "I don't know, really. I'm just, me? The guys call me the 'Dad' of the group, but I'm really only a few years older than Nick."

A hand slid over my knee, and I glanced down at it. "Well, I don't know you very well. Only from what time we've spent the last few hours, but I think you're very interesting."

Resting my chin on a fist, I considered her words. "Do you?"

"Yeah, I do. I think you're very sweet. And complex."

"Complex?"

She let out a giggle, which broke the quiet air with a sweet sound.

"Well, you got in an Uber with a complete stranger, without knowing where you're going, and now you're sitting on a beach in the middle of the night."

This made me smirk. "Point taken."

"That's shows adventure. I like it."

I focused on the ring piercing her left nostril, and the small batch of freckles on her nose. Her hair was hanging long, the moonlight illuminating it.

I felt the pull, the same one that brings the planets together. The pull that gravity is made of. Her eyes flashed back and forth between mine, and her lips parted so slightly. Instinctively, I leaned close to her until I could feel her breath against my face. It was cool, almost cold.

When the soft skin of her lips touched mine, she took a breath in, gasping.

My hand lifted to press against her cheek, pulling her closer, and pressing our lips together.

Like a lightning bolt struck the sand between us, we were lit up with energy. Her body lunged toward me, knees climbing up into my lap as she kissed me, tongue pressing into my mouth. My hands wrapped around to her back, pulling her into me, as she writhed against me.

Her hips pressed down, jeans grinding against mine, the lack of friction making it nearly unbearable. My lips kissed down to her neck, sucking and biting at the soft skin. Her hair had fallen over her face, eyes fluttered closed. Her fingers were grazing down my chest, pulling at the fabric of my t-shirt, and eventually landing to the button of my jeans.

My own hands located the access point of her pants, popping them open. Disconnecting for a moment, she pulled back to shimmy out of her jeans, leaving her in a pair of black panties, kneeling in the sand in front of me.

Staring directly into my eyes, she reached to my jeans and opened them effortlessly, unzipping them, my aching cock bulging against the fabric of my boxers. Her hand slipped to the waistband, freeing my erection. I stared at her with intent. Something in her eyes was dark, something I couldn't place.

"Do you want to?" Her voice was so small. So desperate.

I couldn't respond, so I only reached for her, pulling her face back to me. I laid her down on her back, leaning over her and letting my mouth mold over hers, one hand slipping down her stomach, to her core.

My fingers easily grazed past the elastic of the underwear, running through the soft patch of curls just underneath, until I felt the moisture of her lips between my fingers.

She moaned into my mouth as I slipped my middle finger inside of her, curling it to press against that soft, sweet spot that had her breathing erratic.

"Fuck." She breathed against my mouth. My hand was pumping her hard, a delicious wet sound nearly drowned out by the waves behind us.

"I don't have a condom on me, Pärla."

Her eyes snapped open, and she smiled. "I'm okay, if you are."

Morals? Rational thought? Responsibility? What is that?

I was okay. More than okay. This could be bad. Dangerous, even. Something in my gut - no - my soul told me that this needed to happen, and it needed to happen now.

Steady fingers pulled her panties down, slipping them off, before I hovered over her, lining the head up with her entrance.

As slow and precise as possible, I pressed in, my eyes falling closed with the vibrant sensation that engulfed me. She let out a long, deep groan with me.

"Oh God, Jolly."

I let my lips fall back down to the flesh on her neck, thrusting in and out comfortably, savoring the feel of her on my skin.

We went on like this for longer than I would've expected. Our voices echoed off of the water, the darkness swallowing us as our bodies synchronized. Her pussy tightened around me each time I pulled out, begging for more.

Eventually, I sped up the snapping of my hips, leaning up to get a better angle, pulling her knee up to her chest.

Her hands dug into the sand around us, head careened backward.

"Oh Jolly, fuck, so fucking good." She was biting down on her lip so hard, it was sure to bleed.

I was so close. I needed her release. "Come for me, Pärla." My breathing began stuttering. "Let go, for me."

A long, visceral moan left her lips, and I felt her walls spasm around me as I began emptying into her, my orgasm smacking me hard in the chest.

I pumped us through it, one hand holding her face, watching the waves of pleasure rush over it.

Once we slowed to a stop, I collapsed next to her, a lazy smile on my face.

"That was..." I started, too tired to finish my sentence.

"Unreal." Her words were stark. Matter of fact. Her eyes were looking back up at the stars.

I followed suit, zipping my jeans back up.

"I'm glad I met you today, Jolly."

I let my eyes fall on her again, and smiled. "Me too, Pärla."

My eyes opened to a flashlight shining directly on them.

"Hey, asshole!" I squinted, my hands coming up to shield my vision from the abrasive light. "You can't fucking sleep here. Go find a fucking shelter!"

"What?" I sat up, looking up at the person in front of me. A police officer.

"You've got to get out of here, man. I don't want to take you in."

I held my hands up in defense, standing to my feet. My eyes glanced around, realizing I was very much alone.

"Where's the girl I was with?"

The cop raised an eyebrow. "No one but you here, bud. Let's go."

His hand grabbed my arm, leading me off the beach. I turned back toward the water, hollering out into the darkness.

"Pärla?!"

No response. Just silence.

A week had gone by, and I was back home.

I had done everything I could think of to find her, but still came up with nothing. No name. No number. Just a physical description and vague location. Have you any idea how many blonde-haired, blue-eyed, tan-skinned girls are in Daytona, FL? It was comical.

After about four days, I had pretty much given up. Part of me felt hurt. Why had she left? Was she okay? She knew me, why hadn't she reached out?

Was she just in it for the sex? Or to say she screwed a member of the band? Did she regret it?

Something felt wrong. Her presence, her energy. It felt so genuine. I struggled to believe she really just ran off, leaving me to fall asleep alone on that beach.

I had Ubered back to the hotel, heading straight to Noah's room to tell him what happened. It was 4AM by the time I made it back, and he looked at me like I was insane.

Still, he showed his human side for a moment, and empathized with me, offering to help try and find her.

Back in Los Angeles, I was sitting in the studio, trying to perfect a guitar rift, when Noah bounded in with Folio. We had everyone together for the next two weeks before we left for the next festival.

"I don't get why people are so scummy."

I raised an eyebrow at Folio's words. "What's that?"

He turned to look at me, falling into a chair. "This article, man. About Upheaval?"

I stopped my strumming, looking up to give him my full attention.

I took note that Noah was scrolling on his phone fervently.

"What about it?"

Noah looked up at me, pursing his lips. "I guess someone got really hurt?"

"Not hurt. Someone fucking died, dude."

This made me furrow my brows. "What?"

"Yeah. Some girl got trampled in the fucking crowd."

Noah rolled his eyes. "The article I read said she had a seizure, and fell into the crowd. They didn't get her out in time."

"During which set?"

"Sleep Token." Noah responded.

"Wow, really? I saw damn near the entire thing. I didn't see anything happen."

"Well, that's the point, man. No one did, until the end. By that time, she had choked or something." Noah handed his phone to me, and I noticed it was scrolled to the bottom of the article.

"It's bullshit they waited so long to say something." Folio chimed in.

Noah shrugged. "Trying to protect the festival's reputation, I guess. Too bad. She was fucking cute, too."

My thumb scrolled to the top of the article, taking a moment as it was long.

When the picture at the top came into view, my hand that held my rig went slack, dropping the instrument on the floor.

It didn't make sense. It was a mistake of some kind.

25 Year Old Female Dies At Music Festival - Safety Protocols Being Investigated

The photograph that stared back at me, mocking my dropped jaw and widened eyes.

"Jolly, you good, dude?" Folio asked as he reached down to grab my guitar, now on the floor.

I couldn't respond. My blood had coagulated in my veins. My skin hardened to stone as my eyes stared at the picture, mind blanking.

The girl in the picture stared into my very soul.

Dirty blonde hair. Ice blue eyes. Small patch of freckles. Plush pink lips.

Pärla.

#jolly karlsson #jolly karlsson fic #bad omens fanfiction #bad omens #fanfic #bad omens cult

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