#something something the names on his cars going from carlos sainz jr to carlos sainz to smooth operator...

[mediapen]

DETAILS

[bunnys-kisses]

hiyaa!! may i order a banana bread and tres leches with a side of mocha coffee,a vodka shot and root beer for Charles Leclerc please 🤍

bakery menu

want to submit your own order? then hit up the menu! there's tons of items on there for your liking! i also accept prompts outside of formula one, so hit me with it! i'd love to hear from you! as for this sender, thank you for the lovely series of prompts! i really like what you ordered and i hope you like what i've cooked up! enjoy!

banana bread ("i'm going to fuck that sweet pussy of yours until the only word your little brain can form is my name.") + tres leches ("i wonder if your brother know i cum in you.") + mocha coffee (breeding kink) + vodka shot (rough sex) + root beer (filming/recording) served by charles leclerc (formula one)!

cw: smut/pwp, mean!charles, sainz!reader, filming/recording, breeding kink, unprotected sex, pregnancy, dirty talk

charles had pretty boy privilege. he was charming and funny. green doe-like eyes, a pretty smile and the kind of features that made anyone with a working set of eyes go crazy.

he had fans. he could honestly have anyone he chose, regardless of gender. charles leclerc had the world at his fingertips, and yet he always seemed to find you under him.

you knew the camera was on you as charles kissed up your body. you tried to hold back moans as you felt the throb between your legs. charles leclerc only yearned for two things; a win at monaco and the sister of his teammate, carlos sainz jr.

carlos should've been a little more worried about his younger sister going off for a night. he had trusted charles to look after you while he was busy, after all they were quite close after being on the same team.

but as you waved your brother goodbye before you got into charles' car to "pick up your friends", you could feel the hungry gaze of charles on your back side. it was like he was mentally undressing you. once in the car, drove like he was headed in the direction of your friend's apartment but when he was far enough from carlos' home, he took a sharp turn down a side road and ended up at his own home.

charles' hand was on your thigh the entire drive, even though his eyes were on the road. his fingers inched up your skirt. "i was always curious. i wonder if your brother knows i cum in you." he said it so casually.

you froze for a moment and said, "who i see isn't carlos' concern. i'm an adult." it was true, your brother didn't have to meddle in what you did from a day to day basis.

charles nodded, "i'm just curious. i wonder if he knew what we did, the little lies you told him over this time." he patted your thigh and pulled the skirt of your dress down to where it was, "that you're a whore."

you swallowed at his words and shifted in your seat. his words were tainted with venom as if their contents were degrading. you only ever really slept with charles. mostly because your older brother would scare off anyone who tried to romantically close to you. but charles slipped right into your life under the guise of wanting to protect his friend's sister.

"i said, he doesn't need to know about it."

charles pulled into the driveway, "one day he will have to, no? our luck is going to run out."

you knew charles was filming you, when he got you undressed. you could feel the lens of his phone on your heated skin as you laid out on the bed.

"i'm going to fuck that sweet pussy of yours until the only word your little brain can form is my name." he said, "i think leclerc is a little nicer than sainz." he teased as he ran his finger across your front. the sight of you was beautiful.

"i'd like to keep my last name thank you very much."

he laughed and took you by the face, "not forever, ma petite salope." then pressed a kiss right beside your mouth. you whimpered and felt the heat pool in your gut at his attention on you.

the relationship with had with charles was past purely sexual. there was something that lingered. it almost felt like a possessive curl of charles' hand into your soul. a promise that no matter how far you ran, he would find you.

when he pulled away. you admired his naked form. the sight of his moles across his body, the tanned skin and toned muscles. he licked the pad of his thumb slowly before he rubbed it up against your clit. you moaned an arched your back, your hands clutching on the pillow under your head.

"femme... mère... pute." he said softly.

you tensed at the words and gave him a look, which only made him laugh. he pressed a little harder on your clit and gave you a look that read 'don't worry'.

wife.

mother.

whore.

you were the thump in charles' chest. maybe that was why he needed you so deeply. it was like being separated from his heart. and even though it was all bathed in a sexual ecstasy you both craved. charles wanted to make sure that he stood out in your mind, and that you didn't go running off.

he eyed your expression as he sank his cock into your sweet pussy. he made a soft noise and felt the thrill of pleasure down his spine as he got himself inside of you.

his pace was heavy with, giving you little room to breathe as he kept his cock inside of you. you were less of a participating lover and more of a toy around his cock.

but don't worry, charles wasn't known to break his toys. after all, who else was going to be the mother of his children? you silly little thing, charles was worried about you getting away. so he had to make sure that he left you with something a little more permanent.

"tu es à moi." he said, his hands dug into the meat of your hips. he had to admit that your entire family was very beautiful. carlos wasn't smooth operator for nothing. so charles wasn't worried that the child you and him had wouldn't be beautiful like their mother.

the thought of it excited him. the knowledge that you'd be having dinner with your brother tomorrow. laughing over a homemade meal, but your biology was doing the heavy work to make sure that charles' seed took.

even when you were apart, you'd have a part of charles with you.

he continued to move against you, egged on by your moans as he felt the sea of lust in his gut. he panted heavily as continued to move. not letting his cock out of you for a moment. he could feel the heat down to his feet as he hit your insides just right with his cock.

"you are mine. no? you know what you are to me. my dirty little slut. i wonder how your brother would feel if he saw you right now. pinned under me, face in the pillows and your hips in the air. letting me breed you like the good girl you are." his words were filthy and burned into your mind. it made you need it more. every inch of him stuffed in your poor cunt.

over the last two years of sneaking around with charles, you had to become pretty resilient to deal with the barrage of fucking from the man on top of you.

you nodded and replied, "of course, only for you."

charles loved the sound of that. he pressed into you further and shifted your hips so he could get in deeper, really feel you inside and out. it was hot, it made him feel a little red in the face as he fucked you.

you held onto the pillow under you as he got his chest up against yours. you were squished against him, but the way he was bullying your cunt left you out of breath. you could feel the heat radiating through your body.

"such a pretty little thing." he chuckled as he pressed kisses along your jaw, "so soft, perfect for me." he dragged his tongue a little bit. which made you shudder. your core dripped with heightened pleasure.

"charles."

he smirked a little bit, "don't worry, my love. you just look nice under me. let me take it all." his words were softer than before and it made the pleasure more intense.

he continued to fuck you, rutting against you with a feverish demeanor. you soon came around his cock and held onto his tanned shoulders tightly for some semblance of support. you manicured nails were rug into the skin, you could feel the shifts in his muscles as he thrusted into you. you groaned loudly and clenched around his cock. a rush of euphoria hit you.

"that's it, that's a good girl." he groaned as he battered his cock up against your womb. letting the blunt tip leave your insides bruised and creamy. he finished inside of you with a promise.

he was going to get you pregnant and make it very well known to your brother that you were with charles. enough of this sneaking around.

-

carlos did find out. maybe not the whole truth of how you and charles 'got together'. you omitted the months of sneaking around and sex. when you got pregnant, charles only became more liked by your entire family.

he was already pretty integrated into the sainz family. so this little union between you and him felt almost natural. how he doted on his pregnant girlfriend, even going as far as to tell your mother that he was expecting to propose after the season and after your son was born.

"he's going to be a good husband." your brother said as he picked at his dinner, "good father too. but you'll let me know if starts causing problems, right?" always the protective one.

you nodded with a smile, the necklace charles had gifted you gleamed in the faint light of the restaurant. in all fairness the necklace was less of a dangly chain and more close to the neck. like a choker. like a collar. you rested your hand on your cheek and stared at your brother. you nodded, "of course."

"and don't move too fast! you have to finish school!" he added, "you've only been with charles for less than a year."

the timeline for carlos was skewed, but it was for his sake. you didn't want to give the driver a heart attack. it was bad enough that you came home pregnant without a ring (for now). you just chuckled and said, "don't worry!"

you didn't want him to worry, especially if he looked too closely and found the faint appearance of love bits across your neck that had been carefully covered with make up. what carlos didn't know, wouldn't hurt him. <3

[dilemmaontwolegs]

Would you write a dark and toxic romance fic?

For instance, Carlos Sainz has a girlfriend. F1 has an influencer program and invites a lingerie model to a race. Carlos is highly attracted to her, basically on his knees for her. She doesn't want to get involved and pushes him away. Carlos can't stop thinking about her and wants her more every time he sees her. He starts to try and seduce the model. She secretly enjoys his touch and pet names, dirty talks and etc., but stops him every time. Under some circumstance they finally fuck, Carlos is obsessed with making her feel pleasure. After that she's avoiding him but all Carlos wants is more of her. She even prohibits the driver from braking up with his gf. Carlos obey but in exchange wants the model to be his friend with benefits

**Not dark sorry**

Lady in Red (1) || CS55

Pairing: Carlos Sainz Jr x fem!reader Warnings: 18+ only, NSFW, smut, oral, cheating WC: 2.7k

One || Two || Three || Four

You tried to resist him, you really did. You could honestly put a hand on your heart and swear you turned down the advances he made but he was persistent. 

“You’re riding with me, hermosa.” You jumped at the Spanish driver's voice in your ear, not realising he had managed to get so close to you without noticing. 

“I’m meant to be in Charles' car,” you replied as your heart rate crept up, like his cleverly hidden hand on your ribs.

“Plans changed, now I get you all to myself.”

Each day you found it harder to fight the urge to give into him. The nights left you tossing in an empty bed as you imagined all the filthy things he had whispered in your ear each time he passed. This promotion with F1 and Ferrari in particular needed to end soon or, so help you, the temptation would be too much.

A clap of hands drew your attention away from Carlos and the professional photographer waved you forward to the red sports car waiting for you. You were accustomed to being the envy of the men around you, you were literally paid to lure them in with your body and the lingerie you paraded. This promotion was no different, only it seemed to be working a little too well on one man in particular - a man who was in a very public relationship. 

“Gorgeous, honey!” Cristiano blew a kiss as he snapped away on his camera, capturing your poses on the hood of the car effortlessly.

It would have been a lie to say you hadn’t noticed Carlos shuffle his way through the lighting staff and makeup artists to get a better view. You noticed, and you played with fire.

Carlos tugged at the collar of his race suit as his body temperature spiked. He had never been so enthralled by a woman before and he couldn’t let you leave without taking a bite of the forbidden fruit. The way you sat on the hood of his car made his blood race and when you leaned back and spread your legs as you looked to the sky, he swore that he had found the altar to worship on his knees for. 

Carlos bit his lip and vowed to take you like that before the campaign was over. He was going to have you, he didn’t care what he had to do to make it happen - there was no price he wouldn’t pay, and everyone had a price.

Cristiano spotted Carlos edging forward, his shadow interfering with the light and snapped his fingers at the man. “You, red man, go to her.”

Carlos didn’t need any encouragement as he strode confidently to his car and looked down at your reclined position with a dark smile. “How do you want me?”

Your lips parted with an answer before you realised he was speaking to Cristiano and snapped your mouth closed but Carlos’ smirk grew. “Do you have something to say, hermosa?”

“I thought this was a lingerie shoot.”

“I can strip down for you, I have no problem with that,” he said as he reached for his collar but you caught his hand to stop him.

“I think your girlfriend would have a problem with that.”

“Then don’t think about my girlfriend.”

“Red man, baby, you’re too stiff. Relax and take a seat,” Cristiano called out, curling a finger for you to stand up. Carlos took your place on the hood and an assistant darted across the track with his helmet. “Okay, honey, turn around and do your thing.”

You inwardly cursed as you faced Carlos and saw your reflection in the tint of his visor, the bright red lace you wore matching his suit perfectly. 

“Do your thing, hermosa,” he dared from the helmet as he lifted his feet to the front bumper and spread his knees for you to step between. 

You told yourself this was just a job, that the chemistry was purely for camera, as you placed your hands on his knees and arched your back before looking over your shoulder. The sound Cristiano made was pure excitement and he snapped a few shots with encouragement to do more. 

“Fuck, you are beautiful,” Carlos groaned as your position thrust your breasts into his line of vision and he all but whimpered when you turned around. 

You didn’t have to fake the pleasure on your face when you leaned back against Carlos and tipped your head back onto his shoulder, looking up under your lashes as you bit your lip. Without needing direction, his hands found your hips and pulled you flush against his body and your hand reached up, slipping beneath the back of his helmet to tug the strands of hair you caught.

“How wet are you, hermosa?” he whispered in your ear. “I bet you are absolutely dripping for me.”

You crossed your legs as naturally as you could in the stiletto heels and felt his chest bounce with a laugh. “Don’t be shy now. We are just getting started.”

His hands burned your skin as they slowly rose up your body and you didn’t dare breathe until they reached the cup of your bra and you pushed away from the car. You were at risk of doing something very stupid if you stayed there a moment longer. “What’s next?” you asked the director, silently begging it to be something solo so you could recover from being so close to Carlos. 

But your wish was ignored.

 “Some hot laps, you’re with Carlos.”

You looked longingly at Stacy who was making her way to Charles’ car but your view was interrupted by Carlos and the arm he threw over your shoulders, turning you to the passenger door. “Ready, cariña​?”

“Carlos…” your words died out as he opened the door and gave you a look that dared you to moan his name again so you silently took your seat.

“Open your legs.”

“No!” you gasped before looking at your lap and seeing the seatbelt was nothing like ones you had worn in the past. This one had a buckle between your thighs. “Oh.”

“Don’t act like you didn’t think about it,” he chuckled as he reached for the metal clasp, a hiss of air escaping your clenched teeth when his knuckles brushed over your panties. “It is humid here, isn’t it? Very moist.”

“Oh my god,” you groaned.

“What? I am talking about the weather. Unless you know of something else that is moist?”

“Please stop saying that word.”

“How about wet? Do you like that? You can tell me what you like, I am a very good listener.”

“I would like you to please focus on driving.”

“Relax, I am good at multitasking.”

“Like having a girlfriend and still trying to get my attention?”

Carlos scoffed before closing the door and walking around to his side. “Cariña, I’m not ‘trying’ anything, I had you the moment you walked in my garage.”

“It’s not going to happen.”

The engine started with a purr and your heart skipped a beat as Carlos smirked to himself. “We’ll see about that.”

Your entire body was trembling by the time the car came to a screeching halt at the start of the track. Adrenaline flooded your body and after the thrilling speeds that Carlos had driven at the world seemed to spin too slow. You wanted that heady feeling again, it was addictive.

Carlos had barely paid attention to the track as the sounds that you made drained his brain of his blood and sent it straight to his dick. He took the turns faster so your shoulders brushed with his and he hit the chicanes harder to see your perfect tits bounce in the barely-there bra.

“Dinner, tonight,” Carlos stated as he turned the car off and reached over to the buckle and pushed it in. The plastic pressed to the juncture of your thighs and a moan escaped before you could suppress it and he grinned. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

Carlos knocked at your hotel door right on time and you checked yourself over once more before opening it. After seeing how he had reacted to the red Ferrari & I.D Sarrieri lingerie crossover set at the photoshoot, you found an equally racy dress in the same shade of rouge.

“I thought we were going out?” you asked as you saw a tray balanced in his hand.

The look he gave you was truly devilish as he dragged his eyes down your body and back up to your face. “I prefer to eat in.”

He slipped past you and hooked his shoe on the door, kicking it closed. You stared at his back as he walked deeper into your hotel room before he turned and curled a finger, beckoning you to join him in the dining room.

“Shit,” you murmured to yourself as you took a step towards him without meaning to and thought, I’m in trouble.

Carlos placed the covered tray on the table and pulled out a chair before holding his hand out for you. Against your better judgement, you placed your hand in his and let him pull you closer. His arms curled around your back as your hands settled on his shoulders as he smiled triumphantly.

“I finally have you all to myself, hermosa.”

One hand slipped down your back but you couldn’t find the energy to fight his advances as his palm caressed the swell of your ass. You were just trying to figure out how to make your lungs breathe again when his lips stole what little air you had left.

You curled your body against him as his tongue lashed across you lips and they parted on instinct as you wanted more.

“This dress is killing me,” he groaned as his hand travelled further down until he reached the hem and dragged it up over your hips. Cool air kissed your skin that was completely bare beneath the dress. “Looks like you had plans of your own.”

Your head fell back with a moan as his lips sealed over the racing pulse in your neck. “I didn’t want lines showing on the dress,” you lied, because the fantasy of this moment had crossed your mind. You just hadn’t thought about the possibility of letting it go this far in real life.

You felt his teeth graze your skin as he smiled at the lie and his hands gripped your hips before he lifted you onto the table. “What are you…”

Your words faded out as he dropped into the chair and licked his lips at the sight before him. “Eating in.”

You screwed your eyes shut knowing you were going straight to hell with a Ferrari red A pinned to your dress. You screwed your eyes shut as he kissed your left calf and placed your heel on the arm of his chair before doing the same to the right.

“Cariño,” he murmured between the kisses and bites he trailed up your thighs before he lashed his tongue through your folds. “Hmm, you are so wet for me.”

You reached for his thick, dark hair and combed your fingers through it as you gave into the temptation. You tightened your fingers in the strands and pulled him back to where you needed him most. “Hasn’t anyone told you not to talk with a mouthful?”

“Where are my manners,” he chuckled, his breath scorching on your skin. “Let me make it up to you.”

Your head thumped back on the tabletop as he completely devoured you, moaning at the taste of you on his tongue. The chandelier above you was almost as bright as the stars that danced around your vision as the man made a buffet of you. You had never had someone put so much passion into eating your pussy and it showed as your first orgasm quickly built and wracked your body with undulating waves of pleasure that he eagerly lapped at.

“You taste so fucking good, hermosa,” he praised as he lazily traced his fingers along your dripping slit and he rose to his feet. Your mind was in a haze and you smiled dumbly as you looked up at Carlos to see his lips glossy with your come.

“You are a filthy man,” you purred as he swiped his thumb over his bottom lip before licking it clean.

“We’re just getting started,” he teased as he reached over to the tray and lifted the lid. “Strawberry?”

You parted your lips as he dipped the sweet fruit in the tub of chocolate sauce but instead of giving you a taste, he drizzled the chocolate over the swell of your breasts. You didn’t care if it ruined the dress because his lips were on your skin, his fingers pulling the material down to bare your breasts before his tongue swirled around them.

“Fuck, Carlos,” you cried as he sucked your nipple to hard peaks. Your body burned for more, your back arching as your hips rolled in search of friction to ease the ache to be filled. “Fuck me, please.”

He didn’t need to be told twice as he reached into his pocket for a condom before unzipping his trousers. You were impatient, squirming on the table as he tore into the foil and rolled the sheath down his hard length. You sat up at the edge of the table and surprised him as you wrapped your hand around his cock, guiding him to your entrance as he watched on hungrily.

“Take it, cariña, take it,” he grunted deeply as he inched himself into your tight cunt until your bodies were pressed to each other. Your legs wrapped around his hips, your nails dug into his back, your teeth buried in his neck and he cried out your name as he snapped his hips forward.

Guilt ate at you as you dressed the next morning. The evidence of what you did was buried under layers of makeup and you swore it couldn’t happen again. Carlos was in a relationship, that should have been enough to stop you.

But he was persistent.

“Stop, someone might see,” you growled as you put your hand on his chest to stop him getting any closer. He had cornered you in a private room of Ferrari’s hospitality while you reapplied concealer to your neck.

“No ones going to come in here,” he chuckled as he easily brushed your hand aside and pulled you against him. “Don’t you want me to make you feel good again?”

“No,” you lied, your body betraying you as your nipples hardened in the thin bralette you had been scheduled to model. “Go.”

“Your lips say one thing but your hips say another,” he teased. “One touch, cariña, one touch and if you’re not wet for me then I’ll go. One. Touch. Deal?”

“No…”

“Why not?” he asked knowingly.

“Because…”

“Yes?”

You looked away from his darkening eyes and clenched your thighs together. “Because I want you to but you have a girlfriend, Carlos. This is wrong.”

“Then I’ll break up with her,” he offered, like it was the most obvious solution in the world, and pulled his phone from his pocket.

“What! No,” you gasped, grabbing the device. “You can’t do that.”

“Why not?”

“Because I don’t want to be the reason, and this was a mistake.”

His hands went back to drawing small circles over your hips and you felt yourself relaxing before you caught yourself and pushed him away. “I’m serious, Carlos, once this promo is finished we aren’t going to see each other again.”

“Then let’s enjoy it while it lasts.” His pout had you sighing in defeat. You had already crossed the line once, did the number of times really matter after that? “I’ll make you another deal, I won’t break up with Rebecca if you have dinner with me again.”

You knew exactly what he meant and exactly what was on the menu but you lied to yourself. “Just dinner,” you clarified as his smirk grew.

“Just dinner.”

Click here for part two.

[spngi]

My tears ricochet | mafia!carlos sainz jr x reader

Prologue | part 1 | part 2 | Part 3| Part 4 |part 5| part 6 | part 7

Part 8

summary: Mr. and Mrs. Sainz lived in a dream for many years, now everything is falling apart and they need to deal with their feelings

warnings:Grammar mistakes, mentions of violence, Carlos is an idiot, mentions of cheating, sexual content, angst, mentions of Charles and reader.

“And you're tossing out blame, drunk on this pain, crossing out the good years, and you're cursing my name, wishing I stayed look at how my tears ricochet”

I spend two weeks in a daily and torturous routine.

When I finally get home after the suffocating days in the field for that damn wedding I look for the envelope that had previously been very well hidden.

I lock myself in my painting room, I leave a drink next door as a friend and an old vinyl playing, the first time I opened that envelope I needed to take my time, consider if that’s really what I wanted, things seemed to be going better after all...

When I’m finally sure I want it, I open it and read it, Carlos was right, he had been as fair as possible when putting together the papers. He provided me with a good amount of money that would give me a comfortable life, I would have an apartment, I could stay with the country house and a car, I would have access to his lawyer whenever I needed and a phone available 24 hours in case of any emergency.

I signed those damn papers in that first day, and honestly it was the easiest part of all this, I lacked the strength now to continue on this journey.

For two weeks I tortured myself looking at these papers, looking at my signature there, and when I wasn’t looking I kept remembering him. I remembered him even after my daily race with paco, or when I lay in bed now with Carlos back by my side, at dinner time or when Carlos presents me with a new armored car.

My routines bother me because I know they will no longer be a routine for me after I get divorced, the new car does not cheer me up because it won’t even be mine, and if I really were to ask for something it wouldn’t be a car, nor an object or jewelry.

When the 16th day arrives to face the document whose words I already know by heart I know that I really have to do something for myself, I have to be strong and continue with it, I have to start my life from scratch.

I was afraid that this time it was Carlos who would deny himself, that he would make me stay and I know I would, because I loved him despite everything. And I needed to love myself a little more, so I needed to put myself first this time and I knew I would need to make this irreversible both for me and so much for him.

That’s why I give lando time off and take the opportunity to go out alone in the late afternoon knowing that Carlos could not come back so soon because he had problems at work, I drive nervously through the streets of Madrid, in the new green Aston Martin until I found the building I was looking for.

I didn’t allow myself to drink a sip of alcohol or at least smoke a cigarette, an old teenage habit that seemed to be coming back in the last few days, I needed to do it sober and without excuses.

I look at myself in the rearview mirror and get out of the car before I start thinking too much, the delicate white miu miu dress adorning my body and the noise of the heels hitting the stairs of the building distract me, and when I finally get to the door of the one who was going after it I give me some time to breathe, I needed to do this.

Maybe I would never forgive myself with what I was going to do from the moment I knocked on that door but it was necessary, because that way Carlos wouldn’t forgive me either.

I fix my hair properly brushed and falling on my shoulder, smooth the fabric of the midi dress and grab my bag tightly as if it were my saving boat.

I don’t need more than two knocks on the door to be received, my perfume mixing with the owner of the apartment in the hallway with the simple gesture of opening a door, I smile no nervous this time.

“Y/n” Charles exclaims surprised to see me, he looks at my figure in front of him as if it were something mythological and I know I made the right choice when choosing to come right here. “Please enter, did something happen? Do you need anything?”

“Thank you” I thank him, crossing the door, entering his privacy. I try not to feel guilty about what I’m going to do to him, for taking advantage of the way I saw his eyes sneaking to me several times and how he has always been kind to me. “Actually, yes...”

He is enchanted by my smile, too lost in me and I feel like a mermaid enchanting him. He would never know but it would be thanks to him, Charles Leclerc, that I would finally get my exit card, and it would no longer be Mrs. Sainz. I let the bag fall on the table, a programmed gesture, showing the lack of a ring in the left hand, the same ring I had left at home before leaving.

I approach him, all the gestures very well thought out, very well articulated and I observe how darker the green iris of the man in front of me get.

“I need your help...” I sigh, giving time until my next sentence, I lay my hand on his chest and I feel strange. “With something very intimate actually”

It’s strange to be so close to another man who wasn’t my husband, it’s strange for me to wear this skin as if I were the most seductive woman in the world when I was shaking underneath, afraid of this crazy idea going wrong, afraid of being rejected and becoming a joke. The man in front of me still seems in a trance, and I understand why he is so astonished, it is not every day that his boss’s wife knocks on your door begging you to fuck her. Although he still didn’t know the last part.

I take advantage of his shock and continue with the initiative in hand, I lower the zipper of the dress and let it fall on the floor in a dry thum, I stay there in front of him, exposed in only burgundy color heels and the delicate white lace panties.

“Y/n” Charles whispers in shock, his eyes taking detail from every piece of my naked body in front of him, his muscular arms not knowing how to behave. “You?”

“Don’t make me beg for you, Charlie,” I whisper, and I feel like the most daring woman in the world. “Don’t make me regret giving you this chance...”

He doesn’t make me regret it, he’s quick to take an initiative, he’s quick to take action, hands exploring my body and taking his time, taking advantage of the moment and afraid that maybe I would disappear in front of him like magic. He kisses me as if he was waiting for it all his life and when he kneels in front of me he looks at me as if he were greeting a goddess, this image of him constrating with the rigidity he wore on a daily basis, the delicacy with which his callous hands touched me, the bipolar way his eyes face me - full of desire, ferocity and passion and at the same time looking like a child in the candy store.

He is careful and leaves no marks on my skin, although I believed he would like it. I don’t need to remind him that no one could ever know this while he helps me get dressed, he knows he would be a dead man if Carlos found out.

And besides the fact that I actually used him tonight, I know that none of us regretted what happened when I walked through the door of his apartment and went back to the future no longer my house.

I take advantage of the last hours in that house to say goodbye, I look at all the rooms and remember the good things I lived there, I observe all the corners and windows, all the paintings and tapestries.

The things I most esteemed in that house had already left earlier, going to a hotel in the city next door, I did not take gifts or jewelry, nor the expensive and exuberant clothes, I needed to start from scratch with just a few sentimental things, good and lived memories of an old joy that I lived in this place along with the small paco that would gain a new home with me.

I observe the papers in my hand and the wedding ring I hold, not daring to use it since the night before. In one last breath I enter Carlos’ office, he smiles when he sees me, when he sees me tidy - the mark of the last chapter that I would do it only for him.

“Is everything okay, love?” He asks, noticing my restless figure entering the room.

“Yes,” I answer firmly, everything was fine and everything was going to be right. I put the papers in front of him, the ring landing on top subtly and watch as his face frowns in doubt.

“What....” He looks at me in doubt, doesn’t understand what I’m doing, and I wonder if when he proposed the same thing to me some time ago how I reacted. “You didn’t want a divorce, I thought we were fine? What’s going on, y/n?”

“You were right, Carlos.... We haven’t been well for a long time, we’re just pretending that nothing happened,” I answer him.

“I love you” he speaks, voice rising a tone in despair.

“I love you too, Carlos” I sigh, not imagining that this conversation would be so difficult, after all he proposed this to me for the beginning of the conversation. “But we can’t go on like this anymore, we don’t respect each other anymore... it doesn’t work anymore”

“I thought you wanted to forget everything, we could try again from scratch, we can try couple therapy or whatever you want, y/n”

“We can’t, Carlos. And I don’t think even you could...” I murmur.

“What do you mean?”

“I betray you, Carlos” those words look like knives entering him, the pain in his eyes, the posture falling more and more, he looks at me hoping it was just another joke. “As I said before, we don’t respect each other anymore...”

I take advantage of his silence to keep talking, I didn’t want to leave like that, just letting him know that I had disrespected our marriage the same way he did, I wanted to end everything in good memories even though we were already too far from it.

“I want you to know that I don’t regret anything I lived with you, and if I had the opportunity I would do it all over again.” I sigh, his eyes stare at me foggy “I just regret letting things go so far between us, you were right when you said we needed to have finished with everything before, it would have spared us a lot of bad things. I would save myself to remember you with so many bad memories, but I know we had a lot of good memories during our wedding to remember.”

“Y/n... please” he begs, I see a tear come out in the corner of his eyes and I don’t know what he’s begging for, I wipe away the little tears that also run down my face.

“Think of it as a good story, carlos... with some cuts at the end” I try to laugh “ we were a good couple while it lasted, carlos. And I’m honored to know that I had the chance to be yours Mrs. Sainz.”

I approach his body sitting, let myself evaluate his features one last time, observe his brown eyes, his dark hair falling in waves down his face, the way his brown skin is hot even in the slight distance.

“I’ll be waiting for the lawyer to call,” I tell him, the last farewell before turning around and leaving.

I don’t take my time to leave, I had already said goodbye to this house, I didn’t need memories of it the moment I was leaving. I meet lando at the exit, paco in his arms and waiting for myself leaning in the car I was taking with me.

“It was good to meet you, lando” I smile and hug the boy in front of me.

“It was good to be your friend, y/n.” He returns the hug and then looks at me “don’t become a stranger, we can still be friends”

“I’ll keep in touch, I promise” I smile at him “you have a huge future at hand, lando. Believe in me”

I smile, I don’t let myself look at the house behind me, I get in the car and see the companion of my new life through the rearview mirror sitting on his dog support. That was it, I managed to finish this chapter of my life, it wouldn’t be easy but I took the bravest step of my life, and I was free.

I watch the images repeat themselves on television in front of me, the words of the reporter have long in silence in my head, only the scenes repeating themselves in infinite looping.

It had been a month since I had left home and had not received any news about the divorce or Carlos.

Until that moment.

The TV shows images of him, handcuffed hands, face down and the police taking him. The scene leaves me in shock, I don’t know how long I stay in front of the TV watching and understanding what happened, but when I finally come back to me I pick up the phone and call Lando.

The connection is short and full of codes, all afflicted with any threat of also being caught by the police, which forces me to make the 2-hour trip by car to Madrid again. The path is disturbing and I don’t know what to expect, the police had already hit our old house several times, Carlos had already been arrested, staying a day or two until they couldn’t prove anything against him, I myself had already been stuck at the police station for one night while the police waited for me to let anything escape. This time it looked different, apart from the tension evident in the call I had with lando, there were newspapers and reporters, and I remember very well the caption on the screen talking about years in prison.

When I get to the house I left in the last month nothing seems to have changed, except the whirlwind of men running through every corner as in a war, which in this case seemed to be against justice. Lando seems to wait for me when I enter, I expected there to be some restriction on my presence but no one says anything, maybe not yet used to my absence, the house remains practically the same as my gaze while I let myself go up the stairs to the office that was Carlos’s, Charles is inside and when we enter he hangs up the phone.

“I was talking to the lawyer” he sighs, scratches his head and then smiles at me “it’s good to see you, y/n”

“I figured I would need to come and get the protocol if the police knocks on my door” I say, I sit in the chair for visits and wait for the right arm of the sainz family to pass the news.

“The news is not good...” he murmurs “carlos was caught and this time the police had evidence, we are talking about 5 to 10 years in prison according to his lawyer, and this is not the worst part yet...”

“Where do you mean, Charles?” I ask, the anxiety taking over me, making the white silk pants pinch on my body.

“Carlos never went to court with the divorce application” he scores the words by taking the document and showing me, only my signature there. “What keeps you both married, you don’t have to depose against him if you don’t enter the protocol...” he sighs and looks at lando as if he didn’t know how to follow from that information.

“And there’s the business part...” lando starts talking, sits next to me “the other families are afraid after prison, and they will prefer to negotiate with a face they already know”

“What you mean is that I should tear these documents and pretend I’m still married to Carlos?” I ask when interrupting the thought of the two, understanding where the conversation came from.

“Carlos’ own father gave this idea, you know that he does not intend to return from retirement... and he trusts you to manage it” the leclerc speaks, the figure tense with the whole situation and standing in front of me contrasting with the one I had the opportunity to be weeks ago.

“That’s a lot” I murmur, tilt my head back and close my eyes, pondering the turn my life was taking.

“We know, and Charles would still be here as a right-hand man to help, you would have everyone’s support if you want to stay, y/n! But we also understand if you just want to go, I know you were trying to leave all this behind” lando says, his words touching me gently.

“It seems that this life never lets us move forward, doesn’t it?” I ask a rhetorical question, I get up and cross the table, I watch Carlos’ chair that I sat so many times playing.

It’s a risky decision, it’s a decision for a lifetime, I was trying to start from scratch, have a new life and move on. But maybe that was it. I had moved on without Carlos, I could move on taking his place, without him in my life, maybe that was what the future was waiting for me. I sit slowly in his chair, I take my time feeling the feeling of being there, of what it means to sit there.

“Do I need to know anything else before tearing these papers?” I ask the men in front of me.

“You won’t like this part” Charles says and I wait for him to continue “as you are married, let’s say you are entitled to an… intimate visit”

I watch him speak, his hand scratching the back of his neck and I interrupt his discomfort.

“A visit that is not recorded or supervised... carlos explained to me a few times about it”

“It’s just in case you need to inform something that the police should not know and if you feel uncomfortable about it we will find another way” he is quick to explain himself.

“I can take it, Charles. Don’t worry”

“They’re going to do a complete review, y/n. It won’t be comfortable for you and honestly I’m not comfortable of having to use this method with you to talk to Carlos, but let’s find a way along the way for you to avoid it, okay?” It is comforting to listen to the words of the leclerc, to realize the care with the choices of word and the care with the situation that I will be exposed to, worrying about my well-being.

“Thank you, Charles. I need you to keep me updated about the whole situation and I also need your help so that business continues to happen” I smile weakly at them, take the papers in front of me and tear them “it seems that the sainz family finally won a female leader”

Charles was right when he said that it would not be easy for me to make that kind of visit, at all times I felt uncomfortable, although the worst part had been seeing Carlos again. It was horrible to see him in that situation, in a dimly lit cell, in an inmate uniform. He seems surprised to see me, but he doesn’t smile or at least say something, his head is quick to understand the whole situation and he knows at that moment we are talking on an equal footing.

Not as husband and wife, but from boss to boss.

He understands that today his life inside this prison and his future depend solely on me now.

The conversation is tense although the two understand that they need to leave inequalities aside at this moment, we need to be adults and talk about business and not about our problems. Nothing could make this conversation as comfortable as possible, not even if I eliminated the part of the body review or the wet cell we were in.

It’s libertating when I can finally get out of that prison, when I can go back home and stay away from that situation, Charles was right and would need to find another way to communicate with Carlos.

When I get home stunned and urgently in need of a bath, a strange sight in my living room makes me stop and observe the abnormal object in front of me, nailed to the wall that before was empty.

Madame Monet and her son face me, the painting on the wall of my living room where it definitely shouldn’t be, I paralyze looking at the painting that I admired, which should be in the United States on the other side of the ocean.

“You were right, it’s a beautiful painting” the soft voice of charles resonates behind me, taking me out of the trance I was in.

“This really is the ...” I don’t have the courage to finish the question, still in shock, with the painting in front of me and with the action of the man next to me.

“Yes” he says, body next to me admiring the Monet in front of us.

“I didn’t know we were involved in the theft of works of art now,” I murmur in disbelief.

“We can say that he wasn’t really at the museum...” he smiled “you said it would be a dream to be able to see him every day... I thought it would be a good welcome gift for you”

“I really have no words to thank, Charles” I smile at him, my face moved. I didn’t know how to thank him for his gesture, not because it was great on his part but because it was emotional and important to me, I also didn’t know how to thank him for what he gave me without even knowing, the freedom I gained. “Thank you very much”

“You deserve... much more than that, much more than you imagine”

“I don’t want to go back there anymore, Charles.” I sigh tired, defeated.

“So you won’t...” he replies calmly “you order it here now, y/n. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want, your voice is the rule now”

These words make me alert of my position now, make me aware of where I am now and what I am now.

Although I had never even imagined becoming what I am now, I could not imagine myself doing anything other than that.

“Yes,” I smile at the leclerc next to me, “it’s good to know that”

A year ago things were very different, now everything changed. I had accused Carlos of having contaminated me with his business but maybe I just liked the way things were and let his darkness make me like him. There were many things that I stopped being and many things that I became on this journey.

And I wouldn’t have done anything different.

We have reached the end of a journey! Thank you very much for all the comments and affection you left along the way! ❤️❤️❤️

[adventuringblind]

A Little Sick

Carlos Sainz Jr. x Reader

Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Sick fic

Summary: Carlos' struggle to take care of his girlfriend who's both sick and regressed. Lucky for him, he knows how to get her to nap.

Warnings: Agere/age-regression, non-sexual ageplay, non-sexual use of daddy, sinus infection, fear of doctors, mentions of past trauma

Notes: Haven't written for Carlos in so long T_T

Masterlist // Request Form // My Website // buy me a Ko-Fi

Carlos knew the second he heard sniffling that something wasn't right. The way fatigue seems to drip from his lover didn't go unnoticed.

The problem is that was two weeks ago. She'd claimed allergies or a minor cold. Her disgust at anything having to do with sickness and doctors showing through her lack of acceptance.

Carlos has half a mind to just lay on top of her and force her to rest. Alternatively, if he could get her to regress, this would be immesley easier.

He can see her forcing herself not to. The delicate line between headspace getting blurrier with each day.

It's when she wakes up in tears, the Carlos knows something has to be done.

"Princessa?" He rolls her over and bundles her up into his arms. Her entire body is on fire and when he touches her face, she wails in pain. "We should go see a doctor, amor."

She's non-verbal all morning, trying desperately not to slip in headspace. Until Carlos finally take the initiative. He hates doing this, but he's been doing this long enough to see when she needs to slip and let Carlos take care of her.

Carlos starts small by picking out her clothes. Comfortable, obviously, since they are just going to the doctor. Then he puts her shoes on for her and ties the laces. By the time he's done, he can see the look in her eyes. The one that aches with the need for comfort. Desperate to not face the object of her nightmares.

Carlos grabs her comfort item and places it gently into her hands. He kneels down in front of her. "I won't leave you alone, okay? I'll be with you the entire time. Can you be brave for me?" She gives him a shy nod in response.

Carlos gets her into the car and buckles her seatbelt for her. He turns on soft music and she bobs her head along to the words. He coos at her with how adorable she looks at the moment.

She freezes up the second he pulls into the parking lot. The fear in her eyes says everything. She's on the verge of a breakdown, but Carlos is there to calm her. He holds her hand and helps her breathe before helping her out of the car.

He manages getting her checked in since she's still non-verbal and on the verge of tears. Eyes glassy with terror over being in the place she despises.

Carlos runs his fingers along her spine. "You're doing so good, carina."

She freezes when her name is called. Her body trembling in fear and squeezing the life out of Carlos' hand with her own. He swiftly wraps an arm around her and whispers into her ear some reassurance.

She doesn't say a word to the doctor, only watches him with suspicion. He ends up prescribing antibiotics and sending them on their way.

She wails the second they are in the safety of the car. All the nerves she'd been biting back finally able to burst free of their confines. Carlos has to get her to breathe. The hyperventilation nearly making her sick. He doesn't let go of her hand the entire way home.

He carries her inside, still sniffling from the overwhelming emotions from earlier. Carlos feels awful for having to put her through such a thing. The fact he knows full well why she hates it making it even harder to do.

He settles her on the couch. One he can see her from despite being in the kitchen and hastily throwing together soup. The television is playing her movie of choice. The background noise has become soothing to both of them.

He ends up having to feed her the soup himself. Not that he minds, it just means having to change her clothes afterwards. Which is no easy task considering she's deadweight in his arms. On purpose, mind you, but she's giggling about it, so Carlos makes no complaint.

Carlos puts the movie back on afterwards. Her head resting on his lap as she curls up on the couch. The mountain of blankets obscuring her body and stuffed animals she dutifully brough with her.

"I did good, papá?" Her squeaky voice carries from where the blankets muffle it.

Carlos keeps a steady rhythm, fingers running against her scalp in a comforting manor. The repetition has always put her to sleep within minutes. "The best, amor. Sleep now, the more you rest the sooner you'll get better." Ke kisses her forehead. Her eye's drifting off into a peaceful slumber.

[landhoe-norris]

"carlos did the bare minimum of what he was hired to do, nothing more nothing less"

i've seen this take a lot today, in many different forms, all of them hyping up charles while doing their utmost to trash talk carlos.

no one is denying that carlos was hired to score points and podiums. that's the name of the game. (almost) everyone on that grid is hired because the people in charge believe that they can bring their teams some kind of glory.

but what this race (and the other three races he's managed to partake in) highlights is more than just his ability to "do the bare minimum."

time and time again we have seen his ability to overtake and defend, that's not something anyone can argue. but some of y'all still try your hardest 'til you're blue in the face.

there seems to be a consensus for a lot of people, especially those who support his teammate, support the current world champion or support the driver who will take his seat next year, to talk down every single thing carlos does. when he does his own strategy, he's a bad team player, when he follows strategy, he is being favoured by the team. when he's the faster ferrari driver, it's only because there's a problem with charles' car, but when charles is faster, it's because he's better.

two things can be true at once, and those two things are: carlos and charles are both excellent drivers.

they both have their talents, but i'm here to talk about carlos' talents.

his race strategy is, very often, unmatched. there is a reason he's called a strategist, and it's because he is incredibly smart but also very insightful and can calculate what's best for himself while driving an f1 car at top speed. not everyone can do that, and that's fine. other drivers have other talents.

but it's so integral to realise that his contributions extend beyond the cockpit. his teamwork, communication with engineers, and feedback have contributed significantly to ferrari's car development and team strategy, enhancing ferrari's competitive edge. the fact that people at maranello didn't know what to do with him in his first year cause he was always around, looking, learning and contributing says a lot about him.

his resilience in high-pressure situations, his adaptability to changing race conditions, and his determination to maximise every opportunity on the track make it clear that reducing his contributions to merely doing the "bare minimum" doesn't do justice to his capabilities or achievements. the weirdest part of this for me is that people seem to resent him for knowing his worth. they dislike him because he knows his talent, and knows his strengths, and isn't afraid to stand up for himself.

for the past month or so people have been talking a lot of shit; from saying that bearman should get the seat for the rest of the season to calling his win after abdominal surgery a fluke, his podium in bahrain being ridiculed because his teammate had brake problems and therefore "he never would've been on the podium if charles' car hadn't failed him" and now people are saying his p3 in japan means nothing.

there have been severe accusations thrown at carlos and his father, and i would even go as far as call them libel. these people who have spread false information and made up ridiculous rumours are lucky they're nobodies either on here, reddit or twitter, otherwise they could be in a lot of shit.

i could genuinely go on forever about this, but i won't. just know that carlos sainz jr is an amazing driver who deserves to have a team that not only fully appreciates him, but also is able to give him what he deserves.

ferrari is not, and never has been, that team. and i hope that the fans of the team that he will end up with, will appreciate everything about him and not resent him for wanting to be the driver that he knows he can be ❤️

[libraryofloveletters]

chapter three: the eyes never lie

Chalres Leclerc x Fem!Reader + Carlos Sainz Jr x Fem!Reader

Warnings: nerves, guilty feelings, charles is a bit oblivious to the fact that his girlfriend is out here like that, inconsistent race schedules sorry, carlos is ignoring/not feeling the guilt, mentions of cheating, a few cheeky comments from carlos, tension, lingering looks, flirting, the use of 'slut' in a derogatory way.

Word Count: 2.4k

Author's Note: sorry for the wait besties! hopefully y'all are into this as much as I am lmao

Call My Name Masterlist

---

The nerves were racking you and you can't help but feel guilty about your actions.

Your darling boyfriend Charles seems to notice your nerves, but chalked it up to nothing more than nerves over your upcoming exams. It was more than that; it was the fact that you had left him with a good intention of going home and somehow ended up in the bed of his teammate.

There's a bit of a break between the races in Monaco and Monza, you and Charles spent the majority of the break in Monaco, relaxing and unwinding - at least Charles was.

It's eating away at you, swallowing you whole every time you look at your boyfriend. You felt guilty just thinking about Carlos, let alone when Charles brings him up - you push away the thoughts, shutting the conversation down.

You love Charles or at least that's what you keep telling yourself.

Forcing yourself to think that you were in love with him and in some ways you were, but you knew that it was never going to be the same way it was with Carlos.

Now, if it was love you felt for Carlos? You weren't sure.

All you knew was that Charles never - in the 7 months you've been together - ever made you feel the way that Carlos did.

Days to Monza turned into hours and into seconds; now, there you are, at the home of Ferrari with your boyfriend. You find yourself, surrounded by Charles and Carlos, their faces plastered everywhere, the crowds chanting their names; you can't escape either of them.

It wasn't Charles you wanted to escape, but Carlos.

He was everywhere you didn't want him to be.

It was easy to pretend with Charles after a while. You ignored everything Carlos related, you and Charles lived in a harmonious little bubble without a thing in the world to bother you. Now that you've left, it was hard - so hard. Every single second you had a gut wrenching feeling that you'd be caught. That someone, somewhere, would know what you and Carlos did in Monaco.

They'd find out that you weren't a loving girlfriend but instead a cheating slut.

While you were battling your moral conscience every day, Carlos seemed perfectly fine.

You never understood how he managed to go on with his days as if you two hadn't done anything wrong. It was wrong, so fucking wrong but god, did it feel good. The guilt was eating you alive, you needed to talk to Carlos - you didn't need to be around him, you really should stay away but you needed to get this off your chest.

Charles was in the media pen and you had maybe half an hour before he came back. So you took that as your chance to go speak to his teammate.

Finding your way to his driver's room, you knock on the door. You were expecting Carlos, not Rupert. "Hey, y/n." The ginger smiles, "everything okay ?"

Rupert wasn't expecting you, his brows furrowed as he sees you peek behind him. "Is Carlos here? I uh.. I need to speak to him."

"He had to grab something from his car, he'll be back in a few."

"Oh," you nod, "I'll come back."

"No no, that's okay. You can come in and wait for him, he'll be back in a few and I have to go prep his stuff for quali anyways."

"You're sure?" You asked, hesitantly stepping into the room.

"Absolutely," Rupert steps to the side, letting you make yourself comfortable before shutting the door behind him as he leaves.

You sit by yourself for a while, taking in the surroundings. You had never actually been in his driver's room - you had no reason to be in there. There's a Spain flag hanging on the wall, a few family photos here and there, a terrifying comparison photo of him and his father; something of nightmares but to each their own. The pillow behind you had the Spain flag printed on it, your finger traced over the patterns when the door opens.

"You're not Rupert," the voice calls, shutting the door behind them. Setting the pillow down, you look up to see Carlos. "Would you like me to call him back?" You asked, standing up before you fixed the pillow.

Carlos smiled, shaking his head. "No."

"And why not?"

"Rupert won't kiss me the way you do," he admits, making you roll your eyes. As much as you wanted to scream and fight, he was so charming and you couldn't help the smile on your face.

"If you paid him enough, I'm sure he'd probably kiss you."

Carlos took a step towards you, his hand resting on your lower back. "Still won't be as good as you."

You give him a soft shove, creating some space between the two of you. "Do you not feel guilty, Carlos?"

"Guilty?" His brows furrow, the faintest of head tilts as he looks at you. "What for?"

You scoff; you're not sure if you're more mad at yourself or at him for not knowing what you meant. "Monaco." You say quietly, eyes fixed on him.

Carlos shrugs, sitting on the little couch in his room. You turn to face the man, his eyes wandering up and down your body. "Stop that." You say, rolling your eyes yet again.

"Need I remind you that I'm not the one in a relationship?" His arms crossed as he looked at you.

"So it's all on me?"

He hums, shrugging. "Could have walked out that night, y/n. You didn't have to stay and you definitely didn't have to do that thing with your-"

"Stop." You cut him off, pointing a finger at him. Carlos smirks, pursing his lips as he clears his throat.

"You texted me, you kissed me, Carlos."

"You didn't have to come, y/n. You didn't have to kiss me back, I wasn't holding you hostage."

"Might as well have been."

"Oh please, you loved it." He smiles, raising his eyebrows. You scoff, unable to believe the nonsense you were hearing from the man. "Fuck you, Carlos."

He leans back, his arms behind his head. "You sure did, y/n."

You groan, unsure if you wanted to punch him, strangle him or suffocate him with his stupid Spain throw pillow but instead, chose to walk out of his room; just as you did, you bump into one person that shouldn't have seen you up there.

"You okay, babe?" Charles's hands rest on your arms, steadying you after you bump into him. You smile, nodding. "I was just coming to look for you."

He notices Carlos's door open, the Spanish driver watching the two of you. "What were you looking for me for?" Charles asks, his arm over your shoulder as his glance moves from his teammate back to you.

"My sunglasses are in your room." You smiled, leaning into your boyfriend.

"Were you just with Carlos?" Charles asks, curiosity getting the best of him. You nod, "I just walked up with him, I was waiting for you to come up so we were just chatting."

"Yeah," Carlos pipes up from his room, smiling at the couple; y/n's a quick thinker, he thinks to himself - that'll come in handy.

You look at Carlos, the man locking eyes with you and you look away but his eyes stay fixed on you. Something about the way he looked at you rubbed Charles the wrong way and being the good boyfriend he was, notices the uncomfortableness of the situation.

"Did you get your sunglasses, love?" He asks, walking you towards his driver's room. "No, the door was locked." You tell him, "Andrea must have locked it."

Charles nods, towards his door before unlocking it for you. "Go on," he lets you walk in, shutting the door behind you two.

The two drivers' rooms shared a wall between them, everything could be heard, there was essentially no privacy when it came to them. Carlos could hear when Charles asked if you were okay. You tell him you're fine, Carlos is certain you've got your signature reassuring smile on your face as you tell him you're okay.

He hears the door open and shut again, the footsteps approaching his driver's room. It's Charles, "meeting starts in 15 in the garage," his teammate tells him, leaning on the doorframe.

Carlos nods, glancing at the woman behind him. "I'll be there."

The Monegasque driver nods, reaching for his girlfriend's hand, the two of you interlocking fingers as you make your way to the stairs. Carlos gets up, walking over to the doorway and leaning on the doorframe as he watches you make your way down; red skirt bouncing with each step, your sunglasses pushed into your hair - no one would ever think that you were anything other than Charles' loving girlfriend.

Carlos knew you were so much more than that.

---

No matter how much you tried, how you tossed and turned, sleep would not come. Charles was already in dreamland, his arm over your waist as he snored quietly.

Usually, it'd put you to sleep - even if you did find it annoying at first but now, it's a reminder of your constant guilt.

Unable to sleep, you find yourself getting out of bed. The stirring wakes Charles and the man sitting up as you put your slippers on.

"Where are you going?" He asks, rubbing his eyes.

"For a walk. I have a headache so I just want some fresh air." You turn to face him and he nods. "Do you want some company?"

You smile but shake your head, "it's okay, babe. Stay and sleep, I'll be back in 20 minutes."

Charles smiles, laying back down. "Be safe," he mumbles, eyes already closed. His hand reached out for you, something he did when you left before he did - the different time zones he travelled through often left him in bed for longer than you.

You hold it, walking around the bed to his side and leaning down. Charles opens his eyes for a moment, his free hand cupping your jaw as he smiles sleepily at you.

"You're sure you'll be okay?"

You nod, "I'll be back before you know it." The man smiles, pulling you down slightly to give you a kiss. As horrible as it was, the thought crossed your mind; it didn't feel the same as Carlos. The passion wasn't there.

You pick up your room key, stepping out of the room and shutting the door behind you quietly. You took the stairs, making your way outside through a back door.

You end up by the pool and you're certain no one was going to be out there, it's nearly 2am.

Much to your surprise, there was someone there.

You can't see the person just yet but you can see the figure in the pool, the outline of their body. As you walk closer to the edge, the person comes up to the surface, causing you to freeze in your tracks.

Carlos.

"Seems you keep finding me," he says, floating around.

You shrug, "just needed some fresh air, what are you doing up? Should you be getting your beauty sleep for the race tomorrow ?"

"Swimming helps me relax; Rupert is sleeping and the gym is closed so here I am." Carlos tells you, watching as you left your slippers by the table, walking over barefoot and sitting at the edge of the pool. Your legs hung down into the cold water, your face twisting in momentary displeasure before you relaxed slightly.

You always seem to be on edge these days.

He swims up to the edge, leaning on it. His tanned arms rest over the edge, water dripping off his muscles as he looks over at you. "I don't feel guilty." He says.

"I do."

"You shouldn't." He whispers and your brows furrow. "Charles isn't that great of a boyfriend."

You scoff, unable to believe his audacity. "How could you even say that?"

"If he was such a great boyfriend, if he really knew you; he'd realize something was off by now and considering that you two are still happily in love, he hadn't put two and two together."

It takes you a minute to gather your thoughts; unsure if you should drown him or cuss him out but you bite your tongue and hold back the urge to drown him.

You get up, pulling yourself up from the pool. "I think I'll be going back to bed."

Carlos nods, getting out of the pool himself. You had brushed the water from your legs, putting your slippers back on.

Just as you go to walk away, Carlos grabs your hand. "You shouldn't feel guilty about something that feels right."

Again, you don't answer the man but pull your hand away instead.

"You know exactly what I mean, y/n." He calls out to you as you walk away, you stop to look back at him before you walk into the hotel, half minded to turn the lock on the door and leave him outside.

Once again, you find yourself on the stairs, walking up to the 15th floor. You stop by your room door, feeling your pockets for the key as you catch your breath.

The lock clicks when you slide the key into the slot.

Charles had his back to the door, you set your key down and took your slippers off as you made your way to bed. He feels the mattress dip as you get into bed, his arms wrapping around you before pulling you into him.

You settle into his chest, the tip of his nose brushes against your ear. His brows furrow, the man half asleep when he asks, "why do you smell like that?"

"What?" You look at him, "smell like what? I showered, you know."

He chuckles, "no, like.. the pool, chlorine."

"Oh," the image of Carlos shirtless and wet crosses your mind and you push the thought away. "Ended up by the pool when I went for my walk. There were some teenagers splashing around."

"So late?"

"Yeah," you shrugged, "I can change if you want-" "Just stay," he whispers, arms tightening around you.

The room falls quiet, Charles is snoring again and you pray that sleep comes as you close your eyes for the second time that night.

---

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[landinrris]

do you know of any fics that explore their age gap? i always forget that they really are like 5 years apart, i feel like that dynamic is kinda interesting

Hey! I sometimes forget as well, and then it's like "oh yeah, okay cool 😭" I've gone through my bookmarks (which is by no means an exhaustive list) to try and pull some things together that touch on their age difference. Some of these are definitely more "in the spirit of" and touching on the gap in their experiences rather than "they are 5 years apart" The list got a bit long, so it's under the "read more." Feel free to add anything for the ones I inevitably missed or let me know if you'd like me to take your tag/work off the list!

"Canon"-based

⁘ and everything that i do is out of lovin' you by raikkonen (Rating: E)

Racing will always be his first love, but Lando is his second, and he doesn't want to imagine a life where he can't have both.

⁘ Free Practice- Romance Edition by f1princess (@f1princess) (Rating: E)

Lando drives cars at 300kph for a living. He got a hotly contested seat in the pinnacle of motorsport at the young age of nineteen. Experts call him the next British prodigy. Yes, Lando might be in his fourth season of Formula One but he still doesn’t know how kissing works, let alone other forms of intimacy. Cue Carlos, Lando’s best friend and former teammate who agrees to give him free practice sessions when it comes to romance. or: Lando and Carlos are friends with benefits but the benefit is experience and of course they are secretly in love with each other.

⁘ i don't ever wanna leave when you cry by peargasly (@peargcsly) (Rating: T)

the heady apprehension creeps through him like molasses – the sudden knowledge that something is wrong. lando half expects carlos to brush by him without a word and he starts reaching out before the prickling anxiety tells him to let this one go. but carlos’s eyes catch him in their snare and he’s always been hopeless under his stare. carlos’s name is on the tip of his tongue, but carlos is speaking before he can take a breath to say it. “think a little next time, i know you do not like to, but it could be us both if you do that again,” carlos says, voice low and biting. (or carlando post-brazil angst that is solved by the power of friendship and the looming presence of pierre gasly)

⁘ In the Wet by plastics (@shinyfakehard) (Rating: E; very E. pwp E)

How did you learn to get so good in the wet? ... These conditions are where the greats are recognized. - Carlos Sainz Jr. in Beyond the Grid, on how he won every British Formula 3 race in the rain.

⁘ like two ships that passed in the night - our story that gets told in many many years by palalabu (@palalabu) (Rating: T)

The long and intricate history of Lando and Carlos.

⁘ The life we built by formulacherry (@formulacherry) (Rating: T)

Lando is one race away from potentially being World Drivers Champion, Carlos and their kids go along to support him.

⁘ Until you came to me by phebes (@phebess) (Rating: NR)

Carlos Sainz, with the hair, the famous dad, the face - Carlos Sainz is going to be his teammate. In Formula 1. And Lando is supposed to just meet him in a marketing room at the MTC on a Tuesday like it's not something he's maybe thought about for 7 years. Lando really thinks he might shit himself. // Or: A fic based on these tweets from Lando in 2012. Title inspired by the song We Belong by Katie Herzig.

⁘ Yours by phebes (@phebess)(Rating: E)

Carlos watches Lando grow up. Carlos watches Lando explore. Carlos is not jealous.

⁘ You Crawled Inside My Head and Set a Fire by kolyarostov (Rating: M)

Falling in love with Carlos wasn’t an all-of-a-sudden thing, but it happens quicker than Lando would like to admit. One day while they’re eating lunch at the MTC during an off-week, just the two of them between meetings in mid-March, Lando looks up at Carlos laughing across from him, and just thinks: “Fuck." Or: This is how Lando and Carlos fall in love

Alternate Universes

⁘ best intentions by madlyiephasetwo (Rating: E)

And then Carlos asked, the tone of his voice one somewhere between amusement and curiosity, “And what about love?” *** Lando Norris does not wish to marry.

⁘ Dancing You Into a Lonely Night by kolyarostov (Rating: E)

The noise of someone yelling is probably just some stupid first-year who got locked out by a roommate who has headphones on. What greets Carlos instead is a boy about halfway down the hallway with a head full of unruly curls looking like he’s ready to go out. But he’s not out— he’s hammering and kicking at a door in a residence hall at 9:30 at night. A boy kicking and yelling— “Danny! You piece of shit, answer the door!” Or: Carlos has his night interrupted by a tetchy first-year, but maybe it's not all bad in the end

⁘ Every Minute Boy, Steady Rhythm Joy by kolyarostov (Rating: E)

It should be embarrassing that Carlos’ touch makes him shiver after being apart for less than twenty-four hours, even when the touch is above his hoodie. But Carlos sliding his hand around Lando’s waist and below his backpack does just that. Maybe it’s the subtle and blatant possessiveness of Carlos kissing his temple when he pulls Lando close, plain to see in front of Daniel. The press of Carlos’ lips still makes Lando’s knees weak. Before Carlos is able to tug Lando fully out of the room, Daniel calls back for them. Both of their heads turn, but Daniel’s look is inscrutable. He hums to himself and shakes his head. “Fucking of course.” It’s said mostly to himself, but Lando can’t help but grin to himself because Daniel’s right, in a way. The irony isn’t lost on Lando about who he’s ended up with. Or: Looks into Lando and Carlos' life after they decide to give their not-casual-one-night-stand thing a proper go

⁘ fall and fixture by heroics (@restacks) (Rating: E)

Lando’s already had a very poor time of it this morning. First there was no real milk in the break room refrigerator, so he had to put almond milk in his tea, disgusting. Then he caused a panic in the explosives lab by knocking over someone’s project. Now he’s faced with Carlos Sainz Jr., Foreign Operative #055.

⁘ God knows you're lonely souls by fox_this_lap (@redshoulderedblackbirds) (Rating: M)

Lando is an engineering student in Paris, celebrating graduation before he starts his career in motorsport, but there's more to the evening in the bar than he could ever had expected. Like the Universe meant for him to be there...

⁘ If the Love is Pure by loveleclerc (@holacarlando) (Rating: E; a/b/o)

After being attacked in the middle of the night by an unknown Alpha, Lando flees to Spain for protection from the Sainz Pack while his fathers search for a way to keep him safe in England. He never asked to be a male Omega, a designation rare beyond belief and sought after by Alphas around the world, but fleeing into the care of Carlos Sainz Jr. may just be the solution to all of his fears... and dreams.

⁘ i'll race you for pinks by cazio (@chubbydino) (Rating: M)

Heist!AU. Carlos Sainz Jr. is heading a heist operation based out of New York, following his father's footsteps as a criminal mastermind. Max Verstappen, the most feared mercenary in the business, is his second in command. Daniel Ricciardo is the deadly charmer that gets them whatever they need, from whoever they need it from. Lando Norris is the mystery. Carlos has never met him in person, but he knows Lando will be perfect for the job. But Lando is not exactly what Carlos envisioned a computer nerd to be. In fact, he is very, very hot.

⁘ Love is the Heritage (And Cousin to Death) by kolyarostov (Rating: E)

Carlos stays quiet, trailing Lando through the ornate halls that are simultaneously cold yet warm with their rugs and furniture. He watches the way Lando walks, the way the younger boy lets his shoulders fall the farther they get from the watchful eyes of his family. It looks like he’s shedding a coat, a mask specifically put into place for his family’s sake. The change is fascinating— there’s a story there that would explain all of Lando’s intricacies, and Carlos finds that he wants to know every single detail. The family had appeared to be perfectly amenable, so why is the change in Lando’s demeanour so painfully obvious? Or: Carlos travels to England to apprentice under Lando’s father for the summer and admittedly ends up falling in love along the way

⁘ ¡Revolución! by hibivrooms (@interlagosed) (Rating: E)

19-year-old Lando Norris, originally from the Kingdom of Anglosax, decides to pursue his undergraduate degree at the State University of Hiberia. There, he strikes up a relationship with a 25-year old Hiberian man, Carlos Sainz. Carlos is beautiful, kind, and deeply passionate about the Hiberian people and their struggles. Though Lando knows very little about he wants out of life, he knows one thing: he desperately wants Carlos. But against the backdrop of an increasingly tumultuous political situation in Hiberia, will Lando be brave enough to open his heart to all of Carlos?

⁘ the shadow of radiance by hibivrooms (@interlagosed) (Rating: E)

No one expected Galla, protector state of the Holy Principality of Seuloger, to turn heretic in such a violent way. After several years of Galla-stoked hostilities short of war, Anglosax and Hiberia set aside their differences in favor of a grand alliance to return Il Predestinato, Charles of House Leclerc, back to his rightful and Goddess-ordained throne. Years later, as a gesture of goodwill, Hiberia sends several of its squires to Fort Silverstone, where Anglosax's finest pages and squires learn to become fierce knights. Squire Lando of Norris, loyal to Anglosax beyond words, must contend with his own distrust of the leader of this Hiberian contingent - Prince Carlos the Younger of Sainz, a newly minted and already-decorated Knight of Hiberia. Prince Carlos is immensely talented, kind, suspiciously handsome, and seemingly dedicated to this alliance. But Lando isn't buying any of it - for the sake of Anglosax. Allegedly.

⁘ Señor Sainz by phebes (@phebess) (Rating: E)

Lando wants to die. Crawl in a hole, and die. His tombstone can read 'Here lies Lando, he did not speak Spanish.' Carlos repeats himself, looking at Lando with faint amusement in his eyes. Lando can feel his cheeks flush as his simply stares back, absolutely no clue what's being asked of him. // Or: University AU where Lando doesn't speak Spanish but ends up in an advanced class, and Carlos is a young professor determined to teach Lando Spanish.

⁘ What if we said goodbye to safe and sound? by tiredtiredsharl (@wolfiemcwolferson) (Rating: E)

Lando realizes as Carlos is telling them all about this job in London that maybe the feelings he's been carrying around aren't so straight or bro-pal-lad as he thought they were. It's really unfortunate that Carlos is set to move 5,478 miles away from him in just a few weeks. Told over a year and set directly after the end of our Piarles/Maxiel stories, we see Lando come to terms with his own feelings about Carlos, make a lot of mistakes along the way, attempt to get through the last year of his program with Alex, and realize that sometimes being the smartest person in the room isn't as valuable as he's always thought it would be.

[pierresteban-loyalist]

OKAY OFF TOPIC BUT I FUCKING KNEW IT!!! for some reason theres rumours going around that carlos is moving to Audi in 2025 AND LET ME TELL U SOMETHING, this was something I've been thinking about ever since I heard of Audi's return to the grid. and technically, Audi 2025 would be Sauber 2025 since the Audi name will only come in at 2026. OH MY GOD shit oke we are cool, we are calm. but this is 1/3 of my predictions for the Sauber-Audi team.. if it is true then what the fuck.

i'm manifesting it rn:

1) carlos sainz jr in Sauber 2025 or Audi 2026

2) ************* in AR-Sauber 2024 / Sauber 2025 / Audi 2026

3) *********** as Team fucking Principal of Audi 2026

things to take into consideration (very long & rambling):

1) bottas' contract ends in 2025 so he'll be here for Sauber 2025 (please refer to 4.3.1)

2) guanyu's contract ends in 2023 (need to fact check this!) so it frees up 1 spot but Carlos' contract doesn't end until 2024 season.

4) but if ************* comes in at 2024 with AR-Sauber, there is an overlap for 2025 line-up since bottas is still contracted. so ************* and carlos will not be a potential line-up until 2026 under Audi team.

4.1) idk if ************* actually has any relations to Sauber or Audi (huh, gotta research this)

4.2) i say AR 2024 / AR-Sauber 2025 / Sauber 2025 / Audi 2026 etc bcs i'm still unsure of the 2024-2025 AR and Sauber partnership and team name and how that effects the management team or majority voting rights of shareholders. huge impact of business presence of pilots and their profitability in the eyes of whichever manufacturer.

4.3) timeline for the Sauber and Audi transition is fucked for 2024-2025 since apparently AR is slated to team up with Hass (out of all other teams wtf) in 2024...? can't confirm bcs, again, wtf.

4.3.1) what happens with bottas' existing contract if AR moves title sponsorship to Hass in 2024 when his contract ends in 2025? does he move with AR or stay with Sauber?

5) so were the rumours correct when they said Carlos-Audi but they got the dates wrong? it isn't 2025 but actually a move for 2026?

5.1) do the Sainz family have any connections to Audi that may back this move?

5.2) where does that leave Carlos for the 2025 line-up? or will his Ferrari contract be extended for 1 year? it's not entirely uncommon for 1yr extensions...

6) regarding TP, we know that *********** and f***** has a history or partnership with Audi and they are pretty involved with the motorsport side of the brand.

6.1) more importantly *********** has the business aspect and racing exp of being a ************* as seen in his f***** history and firsthand in ******** and *******E

6.2) he's the insider anomaly of TPs. can bring more personalised insight AND has the mechanical/technical knowledge to back it up. will balance pilot and team dynamic but still firm with their leadership.

6.3) don't forget ** ** ******!

6.4) why not another potential driver like ********? because *********** has shown interest in managing a team. (hmm return to this, needs more evidence)

6.5) but whats abt Sauber's take on ***********? he and AS dont have any known connections.. hmm..

7) yes this means not a true All German line-up but AR-Sauber 2025 and/or Audi 2026 must focus on their rebrand and establishing their car competitiveness on the grid to be a profitable investment for Audi's return.

7.1) riding on the hype of an All German line-up will only get them so far and if they can push out AT or Williams in the first 1-2 years of their debut year? Audi would be a beast after 4 seasons at least.

8) AR is currently using Ferrari 1.6 liter V6 turbo hybrid engine in their cars, but Audi is on record saying that theyre building a *new* engine for their F1 cars, separate from Porsche which is doing RBR's engines (is this already in play.. i gotta research Porsche-RBR more).

8.1) Porsche and Audi are under parent company VW, so VW will need to fund 2 separate engine development programs. how different will wtv Audi engine be if parent companies are involved?

8.2) Audi's exp in Dakar rallies should be a point in reference.

8.3) Apparently, the new engines will only come into effect in 2026 under Audi, so 2024-2025 will still see them use Ferrari engine on the cars.

9) i'm so stupid i just realised that Sauber is a fucking Swiss-based engineering company...

9.1) double coincidence so THOUGHTS ARE BEING THUNKED MR. ************* !

9.2) i feel like i've seen ************* and AS interacting quiet often too? (gotta research this!)

9.3) dont know if thats enough though, maybe they aren't impressed by *************'s skills and dont see him as profitable in the long term for the brand's competitive image.

[double-yellows]

ok so lemme get my (recent) herstory straight here:

2016: Helmut decides he doesn't like the cut of Daniil Kvyat's jib but he IS in love with a baby dutchman, so yeets Daniil down to Toro Rosso after a measley 4 races. This move is widely attributed to the fact that Max was going to escape RBR's clutches if they didn't promote him ASAP and, well, Kvyat was not doing well on travk or in the press at the time.

2017: In what they no doubt thought was a VERY generous move, Scuderia Toro Rosso waits 14 races before yeeting Daniil out of the formula entirely, in favor of a cherubic Pierre Gasly. But...

2017: Renault was hanging out with the wrong crowd (the RBR racing family) and picking up some bad habits - they uncerimoniously dumped noted street circuit enthusiast Jolyon Palmer after 16 races, laying the true Commentator's Curse upon him (cursed to be a commentator rather than race). Then-Toro Rosso-driver Carlos Sainz Jr. thought to himself "you know what I better yeet before Helmut gets another itch to fire someone midseason" and changes into black and yellow overalls, leaving a hole at Toro Rosso that could be filled by only one man - Daniil Kvyat!

2017, Still: Well, filled for only one race that is - Daniil raced with Sainz's replacement Brendon Hartley (put some respect on his name) in the US GP because Pierre had to go finish the Super Formula season in Japan that weekend. After one race, Daniil was once again kicked to the curb like last week's lunch. At least when they eventually came crawling back to him, he got two full seasons of racing in!

2019: In what can only be called true twin flame RBR punching bag kismet, Pierre is booted down from the highest highs of the big kid team to AlphaTauri (was it always supposed to be one word? wth) during the summer break, 12 races in. I highly recommend going to look up the AT content with these two, there's something special about their dynamic. Alex Albon, babygirl coded, is promoted to replace Pierre as a fucking test of his mettle!! Scary shit. At least he eventually got turbofired between seasons and not during...

2023: After Pierre gets tired of pootling about in a mid to shit car and slides down the classic Toro Rosso/AlphaTauri to Renault/Alpine pipeline, Nyck De Vries drove what has now become a true shitbox on wheels for exactly 10 races before ol Masochism Ricciardo got called up from the bench, a move which in retrospect seems like it may as well have been fucking scripted. I'm sorry Nyck, PLEASE go get an endurance or sports car seat, lad 🙏

[lovelytsunoda]

last friday night // carlos sainz jr

summary: after her best friend's bachelorette party, she wakes up in bed with a stranger and no memory of what she did the night before. carlos can't remember either, but he knows he wants to spend as much time with y/n as he can, so he offers to help her figure out what happened.

pairing: carlos sainz jr. x female! reader

warnings: heavy drinking, one night stand, terrible drunken bad decisions, implied smut but it's not written out. sexual innuendos, memory loss due to said heavy drinking. skinny dipping, spanish pet names. some cheating bastard named jake and his cousin brad get their car egged. semi-drunk driving ( don't do that, guys. it's unsafe )

mallorca, spain.

saturday morning. 8:54 AM.

something felt wrong, and it wasn't the pounding behind her eyes or the expensive sheets on her sweat-soaked skin. it wasn't the spanish sun streaming in from the blinds.

no, what was wrong was the arm over her body. the muscled, strong, tanned- stop. backtrack. scream.

she sucked in a breath, slowly sitting up. her thighs ached, the familiar after sting of a night of relentless sex. and when she realized she wasn’t wearing any clothes, she couldn’t stop the scream that tore through her heart.

she leaped out of bed, stumbling across the marble floor as the scrambled to wrap the duvet around herself. her memory was a black hole, the previous night a blur.

the man in the bed groaned, his hand patting down the mattress as he looked for his companion. mortified, y/n paced the floor, searching for her clothes from the night before. her entire body recoiled at the idea of putting on the previous night's panties, but she wasn't exactly about to go without any whatsoever.

she moved quickly and quietly, searching for her romper, which she finally found thrown over the back of a fainting couch. she held it up with disgust, looking at the frayed threads where one strap was beginning to sperate from the rest, and at the wrinkles in the sunshine yellow fabric, the stains that she simply prayed were food-related and easy to clean.

she wished she could remember what had happened.

"corazon?"

she cursed herself for how far she jumped when he spoke, his spanish accent thick and seductive. and when he sat up in the queen sized bed, she couldn't help but think that, even as drunk as she was, she had picked well. his messy hair was voluminous and fluffy, borderline pornographic, and she had to hold back a moan as she took in the sight of his toned, muscled chest.

"i'm sorry, can you tell me what the hell we did last night?" her voice was shaky, and she wasn't sure if it was from anger, uncertainty, fear, or something else, something hornier, as she tried not to think about how that god of a man had touched her in so many intimate ways and she couldn't even remember his name.

"i'm assuming we had incredible sex, if the marks on your neck are any indication, but beyond that i can't remember a damn thing." he groaned, falling back against the pillows. "and what a damn shame that is, carino."

"fuck." she groaned, tilting her head back. "i'm y/n, in case you don't remember. and you are?"

"carlos." the spaniard cocked his head in the direction of the fainting couch. "if you could toss me those sweatpants, i'll run downstairs and get us both some advil. how does that sound?"

"like the best idea you've had all morning."

friday night, 7:55 PM.

the sun was sinking against the horizon line, palm trees silhouetted against a cotton candy sky as the orange sun reflected across the water.

y/n stood in front of the barbecue, stoking the fire and tending to the meal as she swayed her hips to the rhythm, joining her fellow bridesmaids in the chorusing of a throwback katy perry hit.

at the center of it all was holly, one of her long-time university friends. a bright pink silk sash across her body proclaimed her as the bride to be, and she wasn't letting anybody forget it, gleefully slipping a mention of her fiancee, carlos onoro, or 'caco', as he had first introduced himself to her.

"y/n, i'm sure the barbecue won't spontaneously combust if you take a quick break to take a picture with us." holly encouraged, hoping that the quieter girl would join her for the bridal party photo.

the hen week in mallorca had been jennifer, the maid of honor's idea.

rolling her eyes, y/n closed the lid on the barbecue and grabbed a can of white claw, joining her fellow bridesmaids behind the glass patio table for a picture.

the party that night was intended to end the trip, a friday party before they flew back home the following tuesday to return to their normal lives. little did they all know, jennifer had one more trick up her sleeve.

a trick that would turn the whole night on it's head.

"everybody shout 'same penis forever'!" jennifer cried, holding her phone out in front of them for a selfie.

the girls repeated the joke, their grins and giggles captured on the camera as they dissolved into drunken laughter.

"now, holly, i have one last surprise for you." jennifer said, pulling a chair out from the patio table for the bride-to-be to take a seat. "i know this week has very much been girl time, but i also know that you've been missing a certain special someone."

at this point, y/n had gone back to her beloved barbecue, tending to what was supposed to be their dinner. she knew what jennifer was planning, her little scheme being an open secret with the group of bridesmaids.

jennifer stood behind holly, gesturing to someone who was hiding in the background.

"carlos!" holly shouted in delight as carlos onoro made his presence known, appearing underneath the pergola where the ladies were gathered. "what are you doing here?"

"coincidentally, my own bachelor party was also in mallorca, because my dear cousin is so uncreative." caco rolled his eyes, looking at a man with olive complexion and a man of dark, fluffy hair.

"the cousin is quite the looker." sophia, another one of the bridesmaids, said lowly with a grin, nudging y/n in the side. "if i wasn't already spoken for, i'd be going after the cousin."

as holly and caco spoke in low tones with each other, laughing at their inside jokes and kissing each other gently, y/n found her eyes wandering to the cousin. she bit her lip to stop herself from running her tongue across her bottom lip in a suggestive manner.

"care to introduce the guest?" sophia said with a grin, nudging y/n, who she knew was too shy to ask by herself.

"this is my cousin, carlos sainz jr." caco said with a grin, clapping his cousin on the shoulder. "not only does he wear the carlos name better, he is also a bit of a big deal. he's a formula one driver for ferrari!"

carlos.

well, hello carlos.

saturday morning. 9:25 AM.

dressed and with food in their stomachs, y/n and carlos set out across the beach and back to the villa that had been rented for the bachelorette party.

the pergola was a mess of empty white claw cans and broken wine glasses, one of the chairs completely overturned. y/n's beloved barbecue hadn't been cleaned properly, and the burnt remains of what the group had tried to eat was seared onto the grill.

"what the fuck happened last night?" she said slowly, picking her way over the sand in her flip flops. she had been unable to find her shoes in carlos' villa, but he promised that he's have one of other carlos' groomsmen look for them.

when it looked like carlos might actually answer her rhetorical question, she glared at him with a look that shut the spaniard down instantly. she kept moving, bounding nervously up the stairs of the villa, somewhat scared about what she might find inside.

she eased the back door open, a part of her relieved to find each member of the bachelorette party passed out in the living room in varying hungover states, save for the bride and other carlos, who were nowhere to be found.

y/n sighed in relief before shaking the sleeping bodies of her mates, hitting their backs with pillows and trying to get them all to wake up while carlos stood in the doorway and laughed at the spectacle. he never asked where his cousin was, because he assumed he had a pretty good idea of where caco was, that being in bed with his bride to be.

"ladies, up and at 'em, lets go!" clapping her hands together as the bridesmaids groggily wake up

"can someone close the blinds?" jennifer whines, pulling a throw pillow off the couch and pressing it over her face. "its too fucking bright."

"we're in mallorca, jennifer. get used to it. come on, we have cleaning to do and hangovers to beat."

sophia sat up groggily, her blonde hair a rats nest on top of her head. she yawns, patting down the blaket hasitly thrown over her body to try and find her phone. and once she does, the sound of pure disgust is enough to get the rest of the bridesmaids to flock to her side.

"what happened, soph?" jennifer was suddenly wide awake, and even carlos could be enticed away from the doorframe

"we did something really fucking stupid last night." the blonde groaned, pulling up her instagram story. "so do you remember jennifer's ex-boyfriend?"

"what, jake the cheating asshole?" jennifer yawned. "what does he have to do with anything?"

"just watch the damn video, jen."

the video played for less than thirty seconds, and with each second, the regret and guilt began to seep in, coupled with the complete shock at the fact that they even did what was caught on film in the first place.

"holy shitballs."

"very eloquent, thank you jennifer." y/n huffs sarcastically. "if anybody needs me, bother carlos. i'm going to get dressed. and then we're going to sort out exactly what we did last night."

friday night. 8:35 PM.

"that cheating bastard!"

jennifer's shout is enough to get the bridal party's attention over the drinks being poured, and the songs blaring from the wireless speaker. y/n and sophia had never left the barbecue, with the blonde attempting to encourage her shyer friend to talk to the spaniard who was sharing a beer with his cousin.

"fucking jake is in mallorca!" the maid of honor groaned, turning her phone to face the group.

"i thought you blocked his sorry ass three months ago. we talked about this, jen. you need to release the toxicity from your life." agatha, another bridesmaid sighed.

"its not jake's instagram, its his hot cousin, brad. he's here in mallorca with that fucking ginger spice wannabe."

sophia glanced at the screen, biting the end off a twizzler. "in all fairness, the name of his hotel is geotagged."

"and what's that supposed to mean? we get it, bitchy spice's parents are rich and probably paid for the entire thing. brad isn't smart, he probably wanted to boast about the luxury that his cousin's girlfriend was paying for."

"flick one slide over, i think that's his license plate number." sophia grinned. "anybody got a palette of eggs and some bog roll?"

"oh, you're evil." holly throws her head back with a laugh. "right, caco, since you haven't had anything to drink, would you love to be a darling and drive us uptown so we can egg jake and brad's car?"

caco sighed. "i'm going to regret this, aren't i?"

"totally." sophia agreed with a smile. "but we'll all wake up tomorrow with hangovers and plausible deniability."

half an hour later, armed with cartons of egg and rolls of toilet paper, the drinks and barbecue long forgotten and fall out boy on the radio, the group were pulling up outside the hilton.

"fuck you, you cheating bastard!" jennifer shouts with her head out the window as she lobs an egg at the rental car that was badly parked outside the front lot. "you gave shitty head anyways!"

they all climbed out of the car, not even waiting for caco to park.

"i had to put up with her drunk sobbing ass at three in the morning, dickbag!" holly shouted, throwing another egg, the yolk splashing all over the back windscreen.

sophia stands off to the side, laughing as she films the carnage.

"can i throw one?" carlos asks quietly, reaching for the box of eggs that y/n was holding.

"knock yourself out. i don't even know jennifer, i'm just here to watch them make fools of themselves."

"fair enough, carino." carlos laughs, the entire sentence turning her insides to mush. "want to throw one with me? whatever jake did, he probably deserves it."

she knew it was a shitty idea, especially since sophia was filming it. if word ever got back not only to her family, but to her employer, she was done for.

but there was something about carlos sainz jr that made her want to make terrible choices.

"okay. yeah, let's egg this sucker."

saturday morning. 9:35 AM

"so did you fuck mr. ferrari?"

"sophia, get out!"

the blonde laughed. after revealing the activities of the night before, sophia had enough of watching the other bridesmaids going through the stages of denial and decided to busy herself with something better: grilling y/n about what she had gotten up to the night before, since she was the one person who hadn't ended up taking extra tequila shots to cobra starship and passing out on the villa floor.

"i'm just asking. come on, he looks like a spanish porn star. you can't tell me that you went home with that and didn't smash."

y/n shook her head, pulling on a fresh t-shirt that didn't smell like barbecue smoke and alcohol. "yeah, i fucked him. and it's a damn shame i only remember bits and pieces."

"do you remember how many orgasms he gave you?" sophia pressed, hoping for more information. "or what he sounds like when he comes? i bet he speaks spanish in between your legs."

"sophia!" y/n was blushing bright red now. "you know as well as i do that i have no memory of last night. we were hammered!"

"do you remember anything?" the willowy blonde asked, sitting at the foot of y/n's bed. "now that i've seen the egging video, i remember going to the bar afterwards. i think mr. ferrari picked up the tab. yeah, they were playing some latin club music thing on the speakers and you and carlos were snogging in the corner."

and suddenly it was like lightbulbs went off in y/n's head. "that's right, i think i remember it now."

actually, what she remembered was dancing with carlos, his hands toying with the hem of her romper, his crotch against her ass. his breath hot against her neck as she whispered dirty things to her in spanish. the soft moan she let out as he gripped her thighs.

"do you remember what happened after the drinks?" as much as y/n wanted to know what they got up to the night before, desperate to fill the gaps in her memory, a selfish and decently horny part of her psyche wanted to know what she had done with carlos.

it seemed like such a waste to have a one night stand with a man like him and not remember any of it.

"no idea. i found a crumpled receipt for the rounds of tequila and the parking pass for the hilton in my pocket." sophia stood up, patting down her white dress pants again. "maybe there's something else? ooh, what's this?" the bridesmaid extracted a crumpled sheet of paper from her pocket.

"a parking ticket? for a public park? what the fuck?"

friday night. 10:01 PM.

"okay, that's last call!" the bartender shouted in spanish, the music overhead going quiet. "we're a respectable establishment, not a night club."

"boo!" jennifer shouts, pulling away from the random stranger she had decided to dance with. "you're such a buzzkill!"

"and you're drunk, jennifer." caco rolled his eyes. even the groom to be was drunker than he had been when the party left the villa. "i think you're all drunk, actually."

"but this is the bachelorette party!" holly whines. "at least there weren't any strippers, but we can't let the night end this early!"

at the back of the horde, carlos still had his arms around y/n's waist, his body pressed up against hers in a way that was anything but innocent as he whispered in her ear, sending shivers down her spine.

"we could get out of here now, corazon, and head back to my villa. let the night end with me inside of you?"

she hums in content, turning to face carlos, her face heating up at the memory of his tongue in her mouth, his lips against hers, his hands leaving a bruising grip on her waist "very tempting, but in case you haven't realized, i'm the sane one. they're definitely going to get themselves in trouble if i don't go with them."

"i'll go wherever you go, corazon. and once you're certain they aren't going to get into trouble, the two of us can go back to my villa and get up to our own, good kind of trouble."

his lips were so close to her neck, and she had to bite her bottom lip to stop from moaning.

"carlos." she whined lowly, thankful that they were at the back of the crowd and everybody else was too drunk to notice.

"i know, carino, i know."

they were back in the car, with holly and y/n sitting on their lovers's laps due to the total lack of space within the car. they were violating so many traffic laws, and there was no way that sophia was sober enough to be driving.

holly and caco were making out in the backseat, and agatha was complaining about god knows what while y/n fought to restrain herself from guiding carlos' hands between her legs.

"ew, ew ew, im covered in egg yolk and it's drying on my skin!" agatha whined, shaking her hands in the air. "it's bloody disgusting!"

"what do you want us to do, agatha?" jennifer whined. "you were fine in the bar."

"yeah, until your drunk ass spilt a pint on my dress!"

"ladies, ladies, let's mediate this, let's sort it out." sophia urged, taking a corner far too quickly. y/n was grateful that the spanish roads were empty, and that there were no cars around for sophia to crash into. "look, there's a pond over there."

holly stopped kissing caco for a fraction of a second, her head flying up, the top of her ponytail grazing the ceiling of the rental car. "you can't seriously be suggesting what i think you're suggesting."

agatha laughed, throwing her hands in the air and hitting both caco and carlos in the faces. "let's go skinny dipping!"

with a cheer and a few decidedly unsafe driving techniques, sophia navigated the car into the park, almost hitting a flock of seagulls in the process as she drove right up to the pond's edge.

the girls flocked out of the suv, immediately stripping down to lingerie and getting in the pond. caco took his dress shirt off, hoisting holly over his shoulder before wading in up to the knees on his slacks.

y/n spun around with a mischievous look in her eyes, making eye contact with carlos as she began to slide the straps of her romper down her shoulders. the ferrari driver's hungry eyes followed her movements as she began to show more and more skin, a prominent bulge appearing in his jeans as he swallowed hard.

"what do you say, mr. ferrari?" she was now down to her pale yellow matching set, a color complementary to the floral pattern she had been wearing previously. "care to join me for a swim?"

saturday morning. 10:00 AM.

now that the bridal party was mostly awake and coherent, they were dressed in sweats and gathered in the villa kitchen, hounding carlos for breakfast and spanish hangover remedies.

"excuse me, mr hot bartender, why is my drink this green?" jennifer whined, scrunching up her nose as she sniffed at carlos' hangover remedy

"because there's kale in in, dumbass." agatha rolled her eyes.

carlos turned to y/n, who was messily picking her way through a breakfast frittata. he looked her in the eyes, mouthing 'help me', to which the bridesmaid simply laughed.

around 10:10, holly and caco stumbled out of the bedroom in varying states of disarray, their hair a mess and hickeys all over both their necks. holly barely even glanced at her bridesmaids, instead grabbing jennifers untouched glass of kale and egg yolk and chugging it down in one go.

"so we know about the egging, and we have the receipts that prove we were at the bar," agatha began. "but why do i smell like a pond?"

"maybe it has something to do with this parking ticket." sophia asked thoughtfully, placing the paper, written fully in spanish, in the middle of the table.

holly snapped to attention "oh my god, the car. that's on my dad's credit card. i swear to god, if anything happened to it last night-"

caco placed a hand on her arm. "hermosa, im sure it's fine. i'm sure nothing that bad happened to it."

"we used it in the comission of a crime."

jennifer choked on her omlette. "yeah, and it was fucking fun. you should see how salty brad and jake are. they posted a whole ass rant on facebook. god, i hate them both."

y/n rolled her eyes. "let me take one for the team and go see if the car is out front, how about that?"

she got up from the island and walked around to the front of the villa, tile cool against her bare feet. she never had found her heels. when she opened the front door and stepped out onto the porch, her heart stopped.

the car was missing.

friday night. 10:37 PM.

y/n wasn't sure how the night had gotten this insane.

the bridal party were drunk off their asses, floundering around in a public pond in mallorca with the groom and the best man. agatha was making out with sophia, a fine line the duo had been dancing around since the group all met in college and y/n was seriously considering jumping carlos sainz jr's bones.

somewhere along the line, a very out of key carrie underwood karaoke session had begun, with the drunken bridesmaids singing 'before he cheats' as they splashed each other with the mucky pond water.

agatha had stopped complaining about the egg yolk on her arms, but it wouldn't be long before she started complaining about pond dwelling fish, or algae, or fucking frogs.

somewhere on the shore, a phone began to ring, the generic apple ringtone breaking through the tone deaf song.

"i'll get it!" jennifer shouted- well, more like slurred, before she began to swim to shore, her head barely hovering above the dark water as she made a grab for her phone and her dress.

y/n and carlos hadn't ventured in very far, the pond not being that deep anyways. there was no space in between their bodies, her hands on his shoulders and her legs around his waist as he supported her body.

"hi." she said quietly, like time had slowed and this was a moment just for the two of them.

it was the clearest her mind had been all night.

"hi." carlos said back, matching her tone. "you look beautiful, carino."

"kiss me, carlos."

and so he did, his soft, plump lips cushioning hers as he cradled her body against the pond's edge.

"holy fuck, guys the cops are here!"

the group may have been drunk, but they were sober enough to know that none of them wanted to end up in a spanish jail under a drunk and disorderly when they all had jobs they needed to get back to on tuesday.

"motherfucker!" holly shouted. "what do we do?"

"for one thing, we put our clothes back on!" agatha shouted back, splashing through the water with sophia right behind her. "and then we get in the car and hope thye don't fucking see us!"

the bridal party scrambled out of the water, hastily pulling their clothes back on before sophia started patting down her pockets. "guys, i can't find the keys!"

jennifer's eyes bulged. "what the fuck do you mean you can't find the keys?"

"i mean they're not here!"

"everybody calm down!" y/n encouraged. "i'm sure they're just, in the grass somewhere."

"is that a parking ticket?" holly screamed, pointing at a mint green slip of paper under the windshield. "oh, my parents are going to hate this."

"that's the least of our worries right now, holly." carlos rolled his eyes before sinking to his knees and patting down the grassy area where the clothes had been scattered.

"is anybody at all going to help us look?" sophia shouted, the rest of the group snapping to attention and beginning the hunt for the subaru keys.

minutes flew by, and drinks were wearing off. agatha had already been sick in the pond, scaring away three swans.

"guys," y/n panted, ready to throw in the towel. "we're never going to find the keys in the dark, let's just leave the car here and fucking come back for it."

"it's going to get towed if we leave it in the open. we need to hide it somehow." caco pointed out

jennifer scoffed. "we can't just push the damn thing into the pond."

"no, but we can hide it in the bushes." agatha suggested. "if we cover it with enough branches, nobody will be able to see it. we just have to hope we can find the keys in the morning."

and so it was decided. with help from caco and carlos, the group managed to push the rental car into the bushes, pulling branches over the rear window as sophia called for two ubers back to the villa.

friday morning. 10:45 AM

"are you sure this is the right park."

"it's what the parking ticket said, jennifer! you'd know that if you could read something other than cosmopolitan and vogue!" agatha shouted, waving the ticket in the air as a flock of morning doves startled and flew off.

sophia raised her hand, waiting for the already agitated agatha to call on her, giving her permission to speak. "this is all pointless if we can't find the keys."

"right, let's split up then." agatha rubbed at the skin on her forehead. "half of us will look for the car keys in the grass, the rest of you search the shrubs and shit. maybe the pond, too."

"i'm not getting back in there." holly pouted "there's no way we parked the car underwater."

"fine. don't look there, then."

they broke off into groups, desperate to find not only the hidden suv, but the keys that would allow them to drive it home and pretend like friday night had never happened.

but there was still a major part of friday night that y/n was trying to get back, and it pained her that she never would.

"hey, carlos." she said softly as she and the spaniard began sifting through the large mounds of shrubbery around the pond. "im sorry that i don't remember anything from last night."

"it's okay, y/n. i don't remember too much of it either, if that's any consolation."

"but it's not." she shook her head. "from what i can remember, and what i saw this morning, you seem like a really sweet guy and its a shame that we're going to throw the whole damn thing away."

carlos stopped moving branches, resting his hand on hers. "how can i make it up to you?"

"maybe you can refresh my memory?" she suggested in a tone that she hoped was even the slightest bit suggestive, indicative of where she hoped this new love might lead her. "after a nice dinner, and maybe a walk along the beach?"

carlos laughed, turning to face her. "i would like nothing more."

"good." she said with a smile before cupping his cheeks with her hands, and pressing up on her tiptoes to kiss him, his hands flying to her waist as the bridal party caught sight of the two and began to cheer.

the couple continued to kiss sweetly in front of the shrub when a large beeping noise startled them, red lights illuminating the inside of the shrubbery as the couple jumped, y/n still held safe in carlos' arms.

"i found the car keys!"

"shut up, agatha!"

[final-script]

Godfather Lando |CS55

Pairing: Carlos Sainz Jr. x Reader

Sumary: Where they turn Lando into the godfather of their baby.

Warnings: English is not my first language !!!

.......................................

Since we learned we would be parents, who would be our baby's godfather was more than clear. For us…we didn't need to think much about it. Lando was an important person to both. Even though he sometimes says he repents a little, he is the culprit of our marriage. It was the milk-loving boy who encouraged Carlos to ask me for an appointment. (…)

And/N- Definitely NOT!, we won't call our baby like you but… if there's something we want to ask you. C- You're very important to us as you already know… As much as we already had it decided Carlos was very nervous about asking his best friend about it. L- Are you a good friend, do you know they can tell me anything. I think the nerves Carlos had were already spreading to the boy.

C- No, it's nothing bad… just that it's important and… L. Well…if it's important, you better say it as soon as possible. C- We… want you to be our baby's godfather. By her face , I think Lando couldn't believe what she was listening to. L- I…you want…really? Y/N- Well… As Carlos said, you're very important to us, thanks to you we're together and good…

C- We believe this is a way of thanking you. I could assure you that the boys were working hard not to let go of the tears they had accumulated. L- Wo, I really don't know what to say? Y/N- Well… just accept… C- if you want to clear it. He said quickly.

L- Nothing would make me happier, of course I accept. We all smiled, while Lando hugged us very happily. (…) Since that day Lando had become more than a protector of me and his godson. When he received the approval from us, he told each person that he could be the best godfather in the world. And its protection had become overprotection, so much so that …

Y/N- Lando Norris, if you do not leave me alone at this very moment, you will make me reconsider my decision and Luisinha will be left without a boyfriend. L- I only take over while Carlos is not nearby. Y/N- I know and thank you very much for what you do, but I need a respite and anything I need I'll call someone. (…) Month by month my belly was growing and our son's arrival was approaching.

Last month we made the decision that I will stay in Madrid, my mother and Reyes moved with me to stay on the watch. But that didn't take away the fact that I received a few messages every hour to check my status. Like Chris, Lando was on the call, from messages to video calls. Lucky, the week our son made the decision to enter this world, Carlos was on vacation.

And if they ask him… he had brought him with him, he said he wanted to be by the time of his birth. When my fountain broke, we were in our courtyard sharing a moment of charity between couples. Y/N- eh…honey! Right away he turned to look at me. - I think our little one wants to know this world. Right away he left everything and since I wasn't so much pain yet, he took me to our bathroom so I could clean up and go to the hospital.

In the distance while our car was going, I could hear Luisinha calm Lando's nerves. (…) hours later C- Do you think you can let him in? , hasn't stopped sending me messages. Y/N- Of course, I think like us you've waited a lot to get to know it. You're ready, let Lando enter with Luisinha.

Y/N- Look who's come to see you sweetheart?. I spoke to my baby. A anxious Lando approached us. L- But look at what beauty Y/N- do you want to hold it?. A look of panic appeared on his face. L- I don't think so… me..no

Y/N- Let's go, I don't think holding a baby is as difficult as driving your car. Leaving her nervousness aside, she extended her arms and took my little one. L- Hey baby, I'm your godfather Lando, you're a very pretty baby. C-His name is Mateo… We were definitely not going to name our baby Lando but… we did give him a name he proposed that turned out to be very nice.

After several months, Lando finally met his godson and was sure he was going to spoil him a lot just like us.

---------------------

ANOTHERS

They say that... - Carlos Sainz Jr. x Reader

Young, frightened and inexperienced - Lando Norris x Reader

[the-toasted-teacake]

Hi, can you read the following and let me know your thoughts please? Would mean a lot. It’s my first bit of Carlando writing. Love your writing!! Also your blog too! Hope it’s not too much to ask!! It turned out to be a lot of words but once I started I couldn’t stop, thanks if you do read it!!

………………..

 Two days.

That’s all he had to wait until he could see Carlos. If he’s honest with himself he hadn’t realised till now how much counting down he had done the last week whilst he’d been away with family and friends. If he’s overly honest with himself he didn’t want to acknowledge the amount of counting down done. That would be too much honesty for Lando.

It wasn’t that he hadn’t enjoyed his time away with his family and friends in Croatia and the several other places they’d travelled to on the stunning boat they’d hired for ten days, it was just that he really couldn’t wait to be in Carlos’ company again. He wouldn’t have been half as bothered about seeing Carlos again if it weren’t for the fact they’d practically spent no time together in the first half of the season.

There was no doubt about it, since Carlos had left McLaren and Daniel had came in, it hadn’t been the same. Not only because of the new atmosphere Daniel bought, but also because Lando had nowhere near seen Carlos as much as he used to. Different hotels each race weekend. No more Carlos living half an hour away in a car and definitely nowhere near as much Fifa. It hadn’t been easy. That’s where Lando drew the line at admitting how difficult it had been though because any further admittance of this made it look like he couldn’t cope and was a massive cry baby missing his old teammate far too much. If he’s overly honest again, he really hadn’t given Daniel the time of day due to still being in complete shock that Carlos had actually left McLaren. It had been a shock since day one of finding out and the shock hadn’t left his system.

Lando was a bit nervous about seeing Carlos again. He was hoping that all the unspent time together hadn’t created an awkward atmosphere between the two of them, he was sure it hadn’t, but you never know. Anyway, even if it did, they had plenty of activities to enjoy to forget about any awkwardness. Lando was flying from Greece over to the Balearic Islands where Carlos was with some of his family and friends. He felt bad that he was leaving Max and the rest of his friends in Greece but he couldn’t refuse Carlos’ offer of four nights spent together as they would be immediately separated again the week later by their hectic F1 world’s.

Just two little days to go he thought. If he could make it five whole months without properly seeing Carlos, then he could definitely last two more days.

And what a two days it was.

Lando had the best two days of the entire holiday, probably because he tried to enjoy it more due to knowing he was leaving them early. What a reward he was getting at the end of those two days as-well; four nights spent with Sainzy. How lucky he was. He could barely contain his excitement once he’d said Goodbye to Oliver and Savannah at the port. Oliver had noticed and had obviously teased him about it. “This is the most excited I’ve seen you all holiday and of course it’s as your abandoning ship to see Carlos”. Lando had just laughed in response. “Tell him I said hi and to not injure my younger brother before the second half of the season starts please” Oliver said as Lando got into the car taking him to the airport. Again, He just got a laugh in response. It was more of a scoff really as Lando knew Carlos would never put him in danger. He never had done, if anything he’d protected him at all costs.

The closer he got to landing, the more the butterflies came. He didn’t know why, but he knew they were definitely there. A few deep breaths later and he regained a little bit of composure. Nervous about seeing Carlos? No surely not. Sort your self out Norris he said to himself quietly.

The airport was busy so he made his was through it as quickly as possible. He really didn’t want to be noticed right now. Eventually he found himself in the arrivals terminal where he was expecting someone to be waiting for him as previously mentioned by Carlos over text. He couldn’t seem to find his name being held up by anyone though. Just keep walking and you’ll find it he thought. Out of nowhere a voice shouted “Landoooo”. He froze immediately. He was hearing things surely. Carlos had not came himself to the airport to get him. No way. Surely he had sent someone.

He eventually plucked up the courage to look over to where the voice came from and stopped dead in his tracks. His feet were frozen to the floor and he couldn’t move. The butterflies had well and truly taken over. It was Carlos. Carlos had came to get him from the airport. Carlos had got into a car and drove to the airport to pick him up. Why was this such a big deal to Lando? Maybe it was just the surprise of seeing him this soon after just landing on the Spanish island. Yes definitely surprised.

He hadn’t even noticed how close Carlos had gotten to him until he heard his name being shouted right at his face. “Mate are you ok?” Lando just smiled and asked him what he was doing here. Of course Carlos had replied teasing him. “What, are you not happy to see me?” Lando laughed and finally gave him a long awaited hug. Once that was out of the way, Carlos took Lando’s case and began walking towards the exit of the terminal. Lando protested “You don’t have to take that I can manage” “I know but you are my guest and I am your chauffeur so this is my job”. Fair enough Lando thought.

Once they’d got into the car and left the airport it was Lando’s turn to tease. “So Mr Sainz Jr. couldn’t wait to see me that much, that he had to collect me himself from the airport.” Carlos laughed and looked over to Lando smiling, he quietly said “I’ll admit it, I am excited to see you, but the driver cancelled last minute so here I am.” “Anyway, having me pick you up should be an honour, I am the best chauffeur about.” Lando just responded with a nod. Carlos seemed to easily be able to worm his way out of being teased, he had done it effortlessly, to the point where Lando wasn’t sure why he had bothered to tease him in the first place.

For the first time since they’d got in the car Lando looked out of the window properly, he could already see the sea in the distance and the landscape around them was stunningly breathtaking. He was sure he was going to enjoy the few nights he had here.

After a bit of small talk of how their summer breaks had gone so far they settled into a comfortable silence. Lando took this as his opportunity to check his phone. After he’d replied to a few texts and checked a few notifications he placed the phone back into his pocket. He wanted to put a story on of chauffeur Carlos, but he was sure that would overload the Carlando world. These few days were supposed to be about them two finally getting to spend time together and having fun so there was no point in advertising it to the world this early on into the trip.

Once they got nearer to Carlos’ house Lando asked “So who’s at the house then, which members of the Sainz family do I have the pleasure of spending time with?” Carlos looked at Lando with confusion and he thought maybe he’d said something wrong until Carlos responded “I thought I’d told you, it’s just us two. My mum and dad left a few days ago and my sister and her husband left yesterday.” Oh, Lando thought. He was sure Carlos hadn’t mentioned it because he was definitely not under the impression that it was purely just them two for five whole days. Wait. “What about Isa and all of your friends?” “What, you don’t want to spend time with me, you want to see everyone else but not me?” Carlos said as he laughed. Back to teasing again Lando noticed. “No it’s not that, I just didn’t know it was just us two in one big house, I saw everyone on your Instagram and presumed we’d have lots of company.” Carlos just looked at him funny “Yeah my friends were here but they’ve all left too, I thought I’d get rid of them because they all talk far too much Spanish for you.” WHAT. Carlos had gotten rid of his friends for him? Before Lando could panic too much, Carlos added “Just joking mate, they all had to go home back to their lives and Isa has some work in London so she left a couple of days ago too.” So it really was just them two, not a single other person. Lando could swear that Carlos always knew when he was panicking because he always managed to swiftly change the topic of conversation. “Anyway we’re having burgers for dinner tonight, thought I’d cook your favourite for your first night in Casa Sainz” he said with a very thick Spanish accent. And with that swift change of topic Lando didn’t have anymore time to think about it just being them two, he’d also remembered the dogs where there so at least he had someone. Even if they were animals.

Lando’s first opportunity to have some time for his own thoughts came half an hour later when Carlos had shown him to his room and excused himself to go and start dinner. Lando hadn’t seen quite as beautiful of a view before. He was lucky he had this from his balcony attached to the room Carlos had gave him, the sunset was gorgeous and he had the perfect shot from where he was to view it. Time for a quick story he thought. Once the story (without a location) was posted he unpacked his things and changed into a comfier shirt and shorts. His mind drifted off to the conversation they’d had in the car. Carlos had definitely not told him it was just them two for the five days, so why did he think that he had. Maybe it wasn’t a big deal to him but it definitely was for Lando. How could he have failed to mention it. He was already worried about any awkwardness due to the lack of time spent together this year, so the news of it being just them two had caused full blown panic in his head. How would he cope. He quickly realised he may be overthinking this way too much and he didn’t want to turn into a complete mess on the fist night so he grabbed his phone and took off downstairs, that way he couldn’t give himself any more time to dwell on it.

“You like the view, yes?” Carlos asked as Lando approached him in the kitchen, Carlos held up his phone to show him that he’d seen his story. He added “Im glad you didn’t tag the location, I put a story on this morning of me lying next to my boat, so the Carlando world would, how’d you say it, go crazy wild? You know if they knew you were in the same place as me.” For the record, Lando had seen the story but Carlos didn’t need to know that. “Oh really? Good job I didn’t then, to be honest I thought the same before in the car, I wanted to post a chauffeur Carlos story whilst you were driving, but the Carlando world is not ready for that” he said as he laughed. Carlos laughed too and smiled at him acknowledging that they were both on the same page. Maybe a story in a day or two would be fine but not just yet. The world could wait for Carlando content, they’d already waited the whole of this year so what was a couple more days for the previously promised Carlando content. “As for the view, yes I love it, it’s stunning. Thanks for giving me that room and letting me stay.” Carlos smiled once more and Lando could’ve sworn the thanks had made him blush for a second. “No problemo Mr Norrisio.” “Go and set the table outside for me, dinner will be ready in a few minutes.”

The two men sat and enjoyed their burgers outside under the night sky and spoke like no time had passed at all since Carlos had left for Ferrari. They didn’t even have to discuss racing to fill any awkward silences. Carlos had even persuaded Lando to have a few glasses of wine with him. It wasn’t often Lando drunk, but he was on his holidays and he was with Carlos so why not he’d thought. Maybe it was the warm air or maybe it was the wine but Lando started to notice Carlos’ gazing eyes more and more throughout the evening. Carlos was practically staring at him. Eventually he’d had enough of it and plucked up the courage to say “why do you keep looking at me like that?” Gulp. Had he really just said that, why did he say that. Oh dear. He had no clue why he had just out right asked that. No more wine for him. To his surprise, carlos didn’t even hesitate to answer. “Sorry, I just noticed for the first time how much you’ve grown. You’ve seriously changed...Not a little boy no more si?” The smile on Carlos’ face was accompanied with another blush, and it was noticed by Lando for the second time that night. Lando laughed and posed with his muscles by his head. He was no body builder but he had been working hard to build muscle. He was tired of being the small one on the grid so him and Jon had been working on bulking for quite a while now. Carlos laughed in response to the pose, “You’ll get there mate, not there yet, but you’ll get there.”

Once they’d finished dinner Carlos had sleepily asked Lando If he wanted to watch a film before they settled for the night, Lando of course had said yes, he couldn’t wait for another movie night with Carlos. This would be their first movie night since Austria 6 weeks ago. He felt lucky to even have that, Carlos had been so busy this season that their movie night in Austria had been there only one this year. Their movie nights always consisted of great films and great banter, it was usually films Lando had never seen before that also happened to be Carlos’ favourites. He wondered what they’d end up watching tonight. “We’ll watch shawshank redemption tonight, ok?” “Yes sure. Never seen it so should be interesting.” “Landooo I don’t understand how you never seen any films, do you live under a rock, yes?” Lando laughed at how he’d said his name, god he’d missed that. Gulp. No don’t admit that. Moving quickly on from that. “I never have time, too busy beating your ass on the simulator.” He wasn’t wrong. Carlos laughed and said “ahhh yes true, but you will never beat me in FIFA.” More laughter was the reply.

They settled into the film. Lando was sat down comfily with his back pressed up to the enormous couch pillow behind with his feet up on the coffee table in front of them, Carlos in the exact same position next to him. Lando grabbed a pillow to hold as he felt he needed something to cling onto for comfort. About half way through the film, Lando noticed Carlos was getting sleepy as he was slouching and leaning into the couch more and more, must be the wine he thought. Why was he not feeling sleepy also though? Maybe because his mind was on overdrive about the FACT that it was just them TWO. Up until this moment he hadn’t given himself time to actually think about it. FIVE whole days with Carlos, he couldn’t believe it to be honest. If someone had told him a month ago this would be the case, he would have laughed at them and told them to stop chatting nonsense.

As if he’d noticed Lando’s panicking, Carlos shot over a look at him, and whispered “are you enjoying the film?” “Yes it’s good, your getting tired though so it’s ok if you want to settle down for the night.” “How do you know I’m getting tired, huh? Are you a reader of the mind?” He poked him in the ribs as he said that and made Lando jump a bit from the unexpected feeling in his ribs. Lando couldn’t help but laugh at him, he knew he was tired yet he didn’t want to admit it to him because he had 100% noticed that Lando was not tired, it was cute really. Carlos was cute. Gulp. Best not to think on that too much. Gaining some composure after being poked in the ribs, he thought about saying let’s just finish watching the film but he settled on “Carlos, you are obviously tired you’ve got that sleepy look and I don’t want to keep you awake any longer than you need to be, come on, lets just finish the film tomorrow, we have plenty of time over the next few days to finish watching it.” “Huh, sleepy look ai? What does the ‘sleepy look’ look like?” He responds whilst continuing to poke Lando some more. Ok Lando thought, he wants to play poke wars. We’ll see about that, Lando pulled a funny face and poked him back “You go all slouchy like this” as he slid himself down the couch and then said “and your eyes go like this” as he flickered his eyes open and shut. Carlos was laughing loud now at the sight in front of him. The wine had definitely encouraged the silliness from the two grown men who were supposed to be watching quite an emotional and serious film. However, the film was long forgotten about at this point.

The poking continued as did the laughter for at least another 5 minutes. In fact you could argue that they were full blown play fighting now. 2 adult men play fighting. From a distance if you were viewing this sight of them, you would think there was more in this than two friends play fighting. They grabbed each other so harshly that knuckles were white. Also the looks they gave each other were way too intense, Lando wondered if they’d be able to do this if Isa were here, maybe it was best she wasn’t. That’s what made him stop immediately. He let go of Carlos immediately which must have been unexpected as Carlos literally fell on top of him with a small thud. A short-lived silence fell amongst the two of them. Carlos spoke first. “Ouch, why’d you stop?” He gazed down at Lando without moving almost like he was frozen on top of him. Lando hadn’t a clue what to say back, he was stuck gazing back at him, also frozen. After what felt like an eternity of staring into his eyes, he finally spoke. “Ha ha, sorry. Figured you were gonna win anyway so I gave up.” Cool as a cucumber. Played that smoothly Norris. He thought he’d deflected really well from the real reason he’d stopped. But why was Carlos not moving off of him. Lando really thought he’d move any second now or more hoping he would because his stare was becoming unbearable, what was going on? Was something wrong? They’d finished play fighting what felt like an eternity ago so usually Carlos would well be off of him by now. But here he was, flat out on top of him, gazing down at his face literally centimetres away from him.

“God I’ve missed this.”

WHAT.

Where had that come from?! Lando just opened his mouth forming an o shape. The shock took over and he was sure Carlos was looking back at him wondering what on earth was he thinking. They were both so still, not a single bit of movement at all. They were so close that it looked like they’d been moulded together like a sculpture. This was probably the longest look they’d ever given each other. Neither knew what to say. Carlos looked surprised he’d said it. Lando looked surprised he’d heard it. He had to say something. The silence couldn’t continue. The first thing he could think of. Quick. “I’ve missed this too.” SHIT. WHAT. No. What had he done. What a stupid thing to say. Carlos was smiling now. Gulp. That smile was everything.

Without another second passing Carlos decided he had to make a joke out of this, it had become too intense between the pair of them so some light hearted humour was needed. “Awww mate that was sooo cute” the exaggeration of the words so and cute was very much needed. Carlos finally climbed off of him. Lando shuddered from the coldness he felt without Carlos on top of him. If he’s completely honest he didn’t want him to get off of him. He didn’t mind it. But surely that was crossing a line. Yes definitely crossing a line. Lando sat up straight almost immediately dismissing the thought, he had to go to bed. Carlos definitely had to go to bed. That gave him a thought of how to make a joke out of this. “Awww there’s that sleepy voice, told you that your sleepy.” Carlos looked down at him (as he was now standing) almost in disbelief that he’d managed to gain the upper hand. This boy had gotten braver than he used to be, it was true, Lando had changed and Carlos had definitely noticed it. He had especially noticed it today. Having the one on one time with him had made sure of that. Not only had Lando physically changed but he’d grown way more confident. If Carlos was completely honest with himself it made him feel a bit sad, his little friend was not so little anymore and perhaps he maybe did not need him as much as he used too. Had anyone of asked though, he would never admit to this making him sad.

Lando got up from the couch and placed the pillow that had fell on the floor during their play fight back on the couch neatly. He turned back round to Carlos and wished him goodnight, a quick hug and he was out of there. Practically running up the stairs to his bedroom. Leaving Carlos stood there all alone to think about what had just unfolded amongst the two of them. He hadn’t quite meant to let slip he’d missed them play fighting or whatever it was they did. And he definitely had not meant to express it the way he had done to his younger friend. But truth be told, he really had missed him. And having him back here now in his house had got him so excited he just had to tell him. Of course he did. It’s not like he regretted it but he could see the complete shock in Lando’s eyes once he had.

As Carlos tidied the living room he thought about Lando’s response. First the shock and then the silence and then finally…he missed it too! Even if he knew he had said it in a panic it still meant something. He could tell it was said in a panic because Lando never admitted anything. Especially not missing him, it had even become a joke in their press conferences last year. The joke was how much Lando did not want to admit he would miss Carlos. You could not get him to say it to anyone. But he did. And that made Carlos very happy, probably more happy than it should. Once he’d finished tidying the living room he turned off the lights and walked up the stairs. He thought about knocking on Lando’s door just to say another goodnight and check if he needed anything as he had run off rather quickly. But he decided against it. He knew not to bother Lando when he ran away, and he didn’t want to make things awkward, that was the last thing either of them needed. Once he got to his room he quickly checked his phone. A message from one of his friends thanking him for the week away showed up and that made Carlos beam, he was so happy he was able to share his house with his friends. It had been such a good week with them all. Once he’d replied to that he saw another message pop up. It was Isa. Shit. He hadn’t text her all day. Hadn’t even thought about it. He’d been too busy getting the house ready for Lando and buying dinner to cook for him. He was sure she’d be a bit annoyed he hadn’t messaged to ask how London was. And as he read the message this thought was confirmed. It read ‘Hi, haven’t heard off you all day? Everything ok? London’s as rainy as usual, missing the Spanish weather!’ Yep she definitely had noted that he hadn’t text her. Nor had he text her back. He only just realised that her message was sent 4 hours ago. Shit. Before he had time to start replying he heard a noise out in the hall. He looked towards the door. Someone was definitely moving out on the hall. It must be Lando, maybe he wants to talk about what happened, probably not. He got up to go and have a look and sure enough he opened the door to find Lando standing in the middle of the hall looking confused.

Lando was just about to close his eyes and try and get some sleep when he realised he hadn’t set an alarm for the morning. Nor did he know what time to set the alarm for the morning. He’d just ran out of the living room as quick as possible and now he needed to go and find Carlos to ask what time he needed him up for in the morning. They were going running together and he knew Carlos liked his early morning runs. Oh god, 1) why did he agree to the run and 2) why would he not just ask Carlos downstairs instead of running off. Because now he had to see him again right after that incident (if you could even call it that) had happened. Without a second to think he quickly climbed out of bed and walked out into the hall, suddenly realising he hadn’t put a shirt on so was just in his boxers and he didn’t actually know which room was Carlos’. Right at the moment he heard a door open. Shit. It had scared him slightly in the dark. He glanced over to the door to find Carlos looking at him confused. “Uhh hey, sorry I realised I never knew which one was your room when I came to find you.” Carlos was even more confused now, why was Lando trying to find him and why did he practically have no clothes on. Lando looked very awkwardly over to Carlos noticing the look Carlos had give his body and said “sorry yeah I just forgot to put some shorts and a top on. I’d gone to bed so had took them off”. God he was rambling he knew he was but he couldn’t be stopped. “Sorry err did I wake you up?” Before he could ramble some more Carlos suddenly walked out into the hall to join him, so he could see him better. “Well thank god you weren’t sleeping in your buff.” The laughter from Lando echoed through the small hallway they were standing in. If it’s one thing carlos was good at, it was breaking the ice. The joke had immediately removed any possible awkward atmosphere between them. Carlos spoke softly “this is my room” motioning for Lando to follow him as he stepped back into his room.

If Lando had thought the view from his balcony was incredible. Well, the view from Carlos’ balcony was unbelievable. It was beautiful. He was immediately drawn to it and had walked straight over to the window. At night time it was so pretty, he imagined how pretty it must have been in the day also. Carlos noticed Lando looking at his balcony and smiled. “Here, come look outside.” He opened the door and motioned for him to follow him again. As they both stepped out onto the balcony the stars above them shone so clearly that both of them couldn’t help but look up. It was the clearest night sky that Lando had ever seen, it was filled with stars and a moon that was so clear it looked like it was right by them. The lighting of the town centre could be seen as could the port where Carlos’ boats floated quietly on the sea water. You could pretty much see the entire island, it was so calming to Lando. He had never felt peace quite like it before. The way they both just appreciated the view and enjoyed the silence made it even more peaceful. Lando stood in just his boxers on Carlos’ balcony really should have been awkward. But it wasn’t. Thank god for the view.

“It’s really beautiful isn’t it” Lando couldn’t help but say. “The island?” “Yes the island but the view of the island from this balcony is incredible, especially with it being night time, look at the sky, it’s like a photograph hung up on a wall but your looking right at it in real life.” Carlos couldn’t help but smile at Lando’s words. It had been quite some time since Carlos had seen Lando so happy by something that he had been able to show him, he used to be able to show him new stuff and make happy all of the time, but that was rare these days. So Carlos was thoroughly enjoying this. Lando had noticed Carlos smiling at him and suddenly felt a bit self conscious. Also a bit chilly. After all, it wasn’t sunny anymore and he was literally just in his boxers and nothing else. “Do you wanna maybe finish watching the rest of the film in here” Carlos suddenly asked as he pointed back to inside his bedroom. Lando wasn’t expecting that. Lando hadn’t expected any of this to be honest. Never the less, yes, yes he wanted to spend more time with Carlos. “Yeah sure.”

The two settled on to the bed and Carlos put the film on where they were up to. Lando actually did want to know how the film ended. Not long into the peacefulness of them both being engrossed with the film he realised he hadn’t actually asked Carlos what he’d needed to ask him, he’d gotten so distracted with Carlos scaring him in the hall and then the view from his balcony that setting an alarm for the morning had been completely forgotten about. He chuckled. Carlos heard the chuckle and looked over at him confused once again. It was definitely not a funny part in the film so why was Lando chuckling. “Sorry, I err, wait, pause the film a second so we don’t miss any.” Carlos picked the remote up and paused the film almost immediately. “I just realised I hadn’t actually asked you what I meant to when I came looking for you before when you found me in the hall.” “Ohh yes, did you need something?” “No, I just remembered that you wanted to go for a run in the morning and I needed to set my alarm, because I know you like early morning runs and I will definitely not wake up early. But I didn’t know what time to set it for.” Carlos smiled. It was adorable that Lando had remembered at all that Carlos wanted to go for a run. He had asked him hours ago before they’d drank the amount of wine they did. “Don’t worry, we are on holiday. Let’s not set any alarms. We will go for a run once we are both awake.” A wasted trip Lando had took into the hall then. Maybe not though, because he had got to see the most amazing view ever and now he was in Carlos’ bed enjoying the rest of the film. That made him happy and for just this once he’s ok with admitting that to himself. As if Carlos knew what he was thinking he smiled at him. Lando smiled back. The smile between them was sweet. Too sweet really. But neither man cared at this point. They were both too sleepy and too happy. To hell with a smile being too sweet mattering right now.

Carlos put the film back on and they both became engrossed once more. Lando was getting way too comfy in Carlos’ bed and was starting to drift off. He felt himself get sleepier and sleepier but he was far too tired to move. This resulted in Carlos finding his friend fast asleep next to him at the end of the film. As if he’d missed the end of the film, it was the best part. Carlos made a mental note to make him re watch the end of the film tomorrow. In the mean time, he needed to sleep himself. He turned off the tv and then his bedside light and settled further under the duvet. He looked over to Lando and whispered “good night, sleep tight.” God he hated to admit it but Lando did look cute whilst he slept. Carlos hadn’t ever seen him in such a deep sleep so close to him before. This suddenly made him panic about sharing a bed to sleep in, it was a first for the two of them to actually fall asleep in a bed together. After some thought about whether he should let Lando sleep alone in his bed he decided on did it really matter if the two of them slept next to each other. They were both shattered. So it really did not matter at this point. It didn’t take long before both of them were fast asleep dreaming peacefully. The moon and stars glimmered through the window as the room became silent.

Anon, first of all: thank you so, so much for sharing your writing with me! 🧡 I've already told you how much I enjoyed reading this, but I just want to reiterate that I love how you well captured the dynamic between Carlos and Lando, and that you had me completely hooked! This afternoon, I still keep thinking about the scene where they wrestle on the sofa and THAT LINE (“God I’ve missed this.”) because it's packs such a punch!

I really hope you do feel encouraged to write more Carlando, because you have a real way with these characters. I am smiling so much after reading this, and I'm sure others will enjoy it as much as I did 😍

So, with Anon's blessing, I'm sharing this publicly so you guys can also enjoy this absolute gem of a Carlando fic! 🧡

[4-25-am]

Expectations and predictions for the 2021 season of Formula 1

Intro

As of writing, we are five days to seeing the cars out on track in Bahrain. Many changes happened from where we left off in Abu Dhabi, specifically driver changes, team changes and my overall expectations for the year.

Driver changes

Many changes in the driver pairings for this year. Daniel Ricciardo to McLaren, Carlos Sainz Jr to Ferrari, Sebastian Vettel to Aston Martin, and Sergio 'Checo' Perez to Red Bull are the key driver swaps. We also say farewell to Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen as they venture to Indycar and IMSA respectively. Alex Albon has been demoted to the position of reserve driver for Red Bull while Daniil Kvyat moves to Alpine, as a test driver.

Plenty of new faces as well as one new but very familiar face. The rookies of the 2021 season are Yuki Tsunoda in Alpha Tauri, Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin in Haas and two-time world champion, Fernando Alonso in Alpine.

Having Alonso back in F1 was never quite a huge surprise since everyone expected him to return sooner or later. Personally, I'm glad that he's back in the cockpit and excited to see his performance this year with Alpine.

Now back to the actual rookies, Schumacher, Tsunoda and Mazepin finished in the top five of the 2020 Formula 2 standings in first, third and fifth respectively.

Schumacher and Mazepin in Haas came as quite a surprise. At the end of 2020, Haas was in terrible shape so having two rookies with minimal experience in an F1 car brings many questions : Is this what Haas really needs? Can the two rookies bring out the best in the 2021 car? Will the fresh slate be what Haas needs to get back on their feet?

Enough about Haas, let's talk about the drivers themselves. Mick Schumacher, 2020 F2 champion, member of the Ferrari Driver Academy and son of seven time world champion, Michael Schumacher. He is a talented driver and it's not just because of his last name. Speedy starts and smart, tactical braking are some key attributes of Schumacher's driving style. He is a very capable driver and fought hard against Vice Champion and fellow academy driver, Callum Ilott. The world definitely has its eyes on him.

Nikita Mazepin, fifth in the championship and hailing from Russia. His performance in 2020 was quite a surprising one since his team, Hitech GP, was a brand new team in F2 and he had a pretty underwhelming 2019 season. Mazepin has a very aggressive driving style and questionable on track movement. It doesn't get any better off track because he has plenty of controversies following him. (Topics surrounding him are pretty sensitive so I will not cover them here because I aim to speak about his driving ability without prejudice and bias.) Expectations both on track and off track are high for him.

Yuki Tsunoda, member of Honda Formula Dream Project and Red Bull Junior Team, winner of the 2020 Anthoine Hubert award (Rookie of the Year), and youngest driver on the 2021 grid hails from Japan. A lot of expectations on him in the Alpha Tauri car as he replaces long time Red Bull academy driver Daniil Kvyat. With a new RB junior driver making the step up to F1, there are many doubts as to which driver is capable of matching number one Red Bull driver, Max Verstappen. Many have come and failed but Tsunoda seems to have good prospects of being the one seeing how he is able to quickly adapt to new cars. Very excited to see his performance this year.

Team changes

Two teams have had major rebranding as mentioned earlier. Racing Point will now be known as Aston Martin Cognizant while Renault is now Alpine. Some key changes that come with the name change is colour. Aston Martin will race with British racing green colour and Alpine will pride themselves with the colours of the French flag. These two have had quite the battles in the last few years for the "Best of the Rest" position in the constructors championship. Very excited to see them go head to head on track especially since they will both have one relatively young driver (Lance Stroll vs Esteban Ocon) and extremely experienced world champions (Sebastian Vettel vs Fernando Alonso).

Expectations

Now, the moment you've been waiting for.... My predictions for the constructor championships~ (no driver standings because honestly it can be pretty unpredictable)

Team Standings

Mercedes

Red Bull

McLaren

Aston Martin

Alpine

Alpha Tauri

Ferrari

Williams

Alfa Romeo

Haas

I believe that a completely fresh driver lineup at Haas will do them some good but the car has already been built so there's not much other than to build data and learn from there. Hopeful for them in 2022, not so much for 2021....

The reason why Alfa Romeo is below Williams is simply because I am unsure of the reliability and strength of the Ferrari-powered engines. An engine can really make or break the car and since. Ferrari has been going down, I think they might lose out to the Mercedes-powered Williams.

Williams have been improving pretty rapidly and I trust in their upward growth and potentially see points this year! There have been a bunch of Q2 appearances for George Russell and Nicholas Latifi has finished P11 a few times, I really think 2021 will be the oasis in the desert for them.

Ferrari is just not doing too well in my opinion. I love Ferrari and have supported them since I first started watching F1 but whatever is going on with the car has been really sad. Not sure how good of a chassis they can come up with since they wanted to try something new this year which is very bold of them. With Leclerc and Sainz, they are both really good drivers and have. their merits but they tend to make poorly planned moves and pretty bad luck. So yeah, P7 for them.

Alpha Tauri with Gasly and Tsunoda is a superb combination. The Alpha Tauri car is also very competitive and with the right circumstances even won a race! They have potential to fight for that P3 in the constructors but not too sure about the Honda engine as compared to the Mercedes engines and Alpine.

Now this is where the competition gets tight. Honestly, this could be anyone's game but I decided to put them as McLaren, Aston Martin, and Alpine respectively. McLaren has made leaps and bounds in terms of progress. Since 2019, they've gotten 3 podiums and that was with a Renault engine. Now. imagine how many more they can get with a Mercedes engine. That's where the 2021 McLaren car comes in, along with the experience of Daniel Ricciardo. Aston Martin will follow closely behind but I think they might have a slow start to the season and then pull in big points towards the end. Lastly, Alpine in P6. I think they're great but the team has a very strange power play since they don't actually have a team principal. They are also the only one with a Renault engine so they might lose out a bit more than the others.

Obviously, the top two are Mercedes and Red Bull respectively. I don't think I need to clarify further. Even though Mercedes have shown some struggle during Winter Testing, I think they will have everything settled by the first race in Bahrain. Red Bull might be much closer in competition to Mercedes than previous years if Verstappen doesn't have a bad luck streak of getting knocked out by other people and Perez is able to withstand the pressure of being Red Bull's second driver and is able to hone the car to his strengths as he is quite a consistent driver.

[f1chronicle]

2021 Signals A New Beginning For Sebastian Vettel. But How Smooth Will It Be?

Nothing can stop or delay the changing vagaries of time. And how dramatically do times change where it comes to Formula 1- no? Until about a little over two months ago, it seemed it was the end of the line for Sebastian Vettel, currently driving with the Scuderia until the end of 2021. The racing future of several big names on the current grid had been secured. There was massive upheaval in the paddock and the world off it with Ricciardo due to join McLaren for 2021 with Sainz all set to race in red overalls next year. But there was one name missing from the list.

Moreover, in the days that followed, even the mighty Fernando Alonso found a seat for the upcoming season. Only one name was missing in the latest developments from the topsy-turvy world of F1 racing. It’s precisely the name that’s currently dominating the discussion.

If you were someone who had almost written off Sebastian Vettel from the 2021 scheme of things, then maybe, time to stand corrected. Ahead of the Scuderia’s 1000th F1 race, all set for Mugello, in the captivating Tuscan wilderness, here comes a piece of news that’s sent the sport into a massive tizzy.

Enter Vettel; Exit Perez

HUNGARORING, HUNGARY – JULY 17: Sergio Perez, Racing Point RP20 during the Hungarian GP at Hungaroring on Friday July 17, 2020 in Budapest, Hungary. (Photo by Mark Sutton / LAT Images)

Sebastian Vettel is confirmed to join Racing Point for the 2021 season. In so doing, he is going to replace Sergio Perez, among the finest and vastly respected drivers on the current grid, and shall, therefore, team up with Lance Stroll.

But what’s dramatic to note is how a single piece of news may read so differently for fans. If you are a fan of the former Red Bull driver, a man who was so utterly dominant in the 2010-13 seasons (wherein he won four world titles), then the news of Vettel staying on for the next season may read nothing short of bright sunshine.

Just the piece of development that can rescue a flimsy day and make it glorious. But if you are a fan of Perez and haven’t had a tough time in noting which driver has been in rich form having contributed to his respective team’s chances, then Vettel-news may not seem the greatest.

To any racing nerd and purist who regards Formula 1 and regards it as a great leveler of life, it might be hard, even cruel to overlook Perez’s great talent. For a driver who held a six-year stint with Racing Point (formerly, Force India), Perez, became for a period of over half a decade, synonymous for the now Lance Stroll-owned team.

He’s seen the upheavals; the ups and downs and contributed massively toward raising the graph for a team that once dreamt of being a regular feature in the sport into becoming a fierce midfielder in the current annals of Formula 1.

Imagining Racing Point in the absence of Perez, it may not be wrong to say, is picturing the sport in the absence of the dominant Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.

And it’s not only for those 4 fastest laps and 8 podiums that Perez has gone on to make a space for himself in the hearts and minds of fans; it’s for his very Fernando Alonso-esque quality of extracting the maximum out from even a sedate-looking machinery that’s truly afforded ‘Checo’ a position of respectability.

Whilst he was yet to win his maiden Grand Prix, having driven considerably better machines in the past few seasons always indicated that chance that the much-awaited mighty win was just around the corner.

What if 2021 could’ve realized that unrealized moment? We shall never know.

But all eyes are now fixated on what is Vettel’s second inning

2019 Canadian Grand Prix, Saturday – Sebastian Vettel

The world, on the other hand, may surely seem brighter and full of possibilities for Sebastian Vettel, who until only a few weeks back, may have seemed a ‘has-been.’

But not anymore; what’ll be most exciting to see alongside the massively-anticipated bro-bonding between Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris (at McLaren) and Carlos Sainz Jr. at Ferrari for 2021, is whether Vettel can manage to find a way back to respectability with the Racing Point in 2021?

But tucked underneath several seemingly promising and massive 2021 moves are some nerves, if truth be told.

While on paper Sainz in red racing overalls, moreover, teaming up with the ever-so-bright Leclerc is big news; for real, the underwhelming car performance evident at present dulls the prospect of anticipating something massive for the forthcoming year.

What if the 2021 car still fails to match the commanding talent at Ferrari’s disposal- is a question that’s not the easiest to overlook.

Similarly, Vettel at Racing Point in 2021 also throws open the Pandorra’s box.

 So how is that?

While on the one hand, having a four-time world champion, a man who has against his name 53 Grand Prix victories and 120 podium finishes is brilliant, it also confronts the massive question of the team dynamics at Racing Point.

Surely, it wasn’t hard to see the Perez-Stroll dynamic being smooth and positive for the strong midfielder, that found to its drivers’ alignment a strong machine to offer the duo good chances to finish inside top five, the likes of which we are seeing in 2020.

Stroll already picked up a podium.

But with Vettel joining forces alongside the promising young Lance Stroll, the pressure will most certainly be on the German, not the Canadian (who already feels at home) to perform.

Moreover, even as Vettel may seem to be doing a good job at avoiding the inevitable question: is he beyond his best, his task is cut out.

Should he have a strong machine at his disposal, how soon can he deliver the performances expected of a top notch driver, the man who immediately rewarded the faith of his Ferrari backers by finishing second best in 2017, but only behind Hamilton?

Frankly speaking, while Vettel at Racing Point is the start of a new chapter in F1, it may not be the smoothest journey that the Heppenheim-born might have undertaken thus far; for Vettel will be under pressure from day 1 in 2021.

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Formula 1: All you need to know about F1

Formula 1: All you need to know about F1

Formula 1: All you need to know about F1

The Belgian GP is live on 5 live, 5 live sports extra and the BBC Sport website

Formula 1 was supposed to spend much of the last three and a half weeks since the Hungarian Grand Prix on a summer break, but the teams and drivers seem not to have got the message.

The normally quiet August period instead ended up witnessing a series of major news stories, including on the future of one of the sport’s biggest icons.

Here is a handy catch-up guide on everything you need to know as F1 returns for the decisive second part of the season, starting at this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix on the classic Spa-Francorchamps circuit.

Alonso’s leaving

Fernando Alonso first raced in Formula 1 in 2001 and he won the world title twice in his career

Undoubtedly the biggest story of the summer break was Fernando Alonso’s announcement that he is to leave F1 at the end of this season.

The 37-year-old Spaniard is still at the top of his game – which makes him with Lewis Hamilton arguably the best driver in the sport �� but he says he can find “bigger challenges” than F1 can offer elsewhere.

What that really means is that none of the top teams want to sign him, and he does not believe his McLaren team, after a season in which just how far they have fallen has been laid bare, can become competitive in the near future.

Alonso is likely to move to a full-time Indycar programme, with the aim of winning the Indianapolis 500 and becoming only the second man in history to win motorsport’s unofficial ‘triple crown’ of Monaco Grand Prix (or F1 title, depending on how you swing), Le Mans and Indy.

That means F1 fans likely have only nine more races to enjoy Alonso’s unique abilities, fascinating personality and charisma. Many will be hoping that somehow his McLaren will allow him to find a way to go out on a high, unlikely as that may seem.

Ricciardo’s moving – and so are many others

Daniel Ricciardo has won two races this season but failed to finish in a further four

Alonso’s announcement was actually the second big driver news of the summer, following a week or so after Daniel Ricciardo announced his decision to move from Red Bull to Renault for 2019.

It was known that the likeable Australian was vacillating over signing his Red Bull contract – he had it in his briefcase over the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend – but even so, the move came as something of a shock to most in F1.

That’s because of the obvious performance difference between Red Bull and Renault. They might be F1’s third and fourth best teams at the moment, but the gap between them is so big that the Renaults have been lapped by the Red Bulls at some races this season.

Ricciardo explained on Thursday in Belgium that it was “by no means an easy decision” but that he felt he was becoming a bit stale at Red Bull and wanted some fresh motivation.

He said he was impressed by the presentation made to him on how Renault plan to move up to compete for wins and world titles in the next few years.

Ricciardo’s decision has set in motion a whole load of other moves.

He will be replaced at Red Bull by Frenchman Pierre Gasly, whose F1 career only started this season, and Spaniard Carlos Sainz has been released from his Red Bull contract to join McLaren.

Many other driver moves hang in the balance, not least mystery over whom Toro Rosso will fill both their cars with next season. There is also speculation over who Sainz’s team-mate at McLaren will be – either incumbent Stoffel Vandoorne, their reserve Lando Norris or Force India’s Esteban Ocon – and the line-ups at both Williams and Force India.

Which brings us on to…

Force India have been saved

Sergio Perez started administration proceedings against Force India to fend off a winding-up petition from another creditor

Force India went into the summer break in administration but were quickly saved by a consortium of businessman led by Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll, the father of Williams driver Lance.

That has led to the rather odd situation whereby Stroll owns one team but his son drives for another. The conclusion to that is obvious – Lance moves to Force India. That will almost certainly happen for 2019, but there remains a possibility it could happen before then.

After that, who will be Stroll’s team-mate in 2019 out of Force India’s current pairing, Ocon and Sergio Perez?

The obvious conclusion is Perez, as he triggered the administration process having taken advice from the team’s management, and his Mexican backing is worth more financially than the benefits of having Mercedes-backed Ocon.

The Frenchman is also proving marginally superior this year – so if Perez stayed, that could make the not-so-far hugely impressive Stroll Jr look better against his team-mate.

Not only that, but Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff is trying to persuade McLaren to take Ocon – and the 21-year-old is a tempting opportunity as a known and highly rated quantity to put alongside Sainz.

Vandoorne, on the other hand, has looked unconvincing alongside Alonso since he made his debut in 2017, and Norris is obviously talented but still very raw, and would arguably be better served with a second season in Formula Two in 2019.

However, while Force India have not yet fundamentally changed their name, legally they are a new entity, and that means they need permission from all other teams for their rights to prize money to be transferred.

McLaren, Williams and Renault are holding out on that permission because they fear Force India is now effectively a Mercedes B team, an arrangement they fear will competitively disadvantage them.

Whether they continue to hold out remains to be seen – negotiations are ongoing on the subject of guarantees that they will operate as an independent entity.

And if Force India (or whatever they end up being called) are a Mercedes B team, wouldn’t it make sense for them to have a Mercedes-contracted driver – ie Ocon?

Additionally, McLaren are making a stand against Force India (and by extension Mercedes), and therefore are not likely to be that keen to take on a Mercedes driver.

Stroll’s move – whenever that is – frees up a seat at Williams alongside Russian novice Sergey Sirotkin. They also use Mercedes engines, so perhaps Ocon could get that. But then relations between Mercedes and Williams have cooled as a result of the prize-money transfer thing.

Could that open the door for a fairytale race return for reserve driver Robert Kubica, nearly eight years after his career was curtailed by the horrendous injuries he received in a rally crash in February 2011? Don’t rule it out.

Look out, by the way, for Norris’ first appearance on track on a grand prix weekend, when he runs in Alonso’s car in first practice.

The title fight

After 12 races of the 2018 season, Lewis Hamilton leads the standings on 213 points, with Sebastian Vettel second on 189 points

That’s most of the off-track stuff, what about on the track?

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton goes into the final part of the season in an apparently strong position, 24 points clear of Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel after winning the last two races.

But Hamilton’s victories came against the run of form – on pure competitiveness, Vettel should have won both races.

The German threw away victory in his home event when he crashed out in a late-race rain shower, perhaps partly because he knew how quickly Hamilton was catching him.

And the Ferrari was the fastest car in Hungary, but Vettel was scuppered by Ferrari’s lack of pace in the rain in qualifying, when he could line up only fourth, and Hamilton took pole.

Vettel finished second, but might still have challenged Hamilton for the win had Ferrari’s strategists not made some obvious mistakes.

Can Ferrari carry on that form at Spa, a track whose long, fast corners might be expected to favour the more efficient aerodynamics of the Mercedes? If they can, it would be a worrying sign for Hamilton.

At the same time, both Mercedes and Ferrari are expected to be introducing their third specification of engine either at this race or the one a week later in Italy. Ferrari currently have a power advantage. If either makes a decisive step forward, it too could shift the balance in the title race.

Raikkonen set for yet another chance

Kimi Raikkonen is third in the drivers’ championship, but is yet to win a race in 2018 and has not won since returning to Ferrari in 2014

Talking of Ferrari, they are the only major team yet to reveal their driver line-up for 2019. Sebastian Vettel is under contract but will Kimi Raikkonen get another year?

Before the sudden death of former president Sergio Marchionne last month, a decision had been made to promote Sauber driver Charles Leclerc from Sauber to replace Raikkonen.

However, the mood music on that has now changed.

Vettel has made it pretty clear he would like to keep Raikkonen, saying at the German GP: “I like Kimi. As I said, I’d be happy to continue like that, but it’s not for me to mention, to decide.

“Charles, one way or the other, will have a great career. He’s a great guy, he’s fast, he’s got everything, so definitely, he has no rush.”

Now the word is that the new management of Ferrari have gone back on the Leclerc decision and decided to persist with Raikkonen for another year.

If that happens, it is presumably in the interests of stability and because they worry the Monegasque might still be a bit too raw and inexperienced for the unique demands of being a Ferrari driver in only the second year of his F1 career.

If he does not get the Ferrari drive this year, Leclerc is expected to be moved from Sauber to Ferrari’s other satellite team, the more competitive Haas, where he is tipped to replace Romain Grosjean, the Frenchman who has had an incident-strewn season.

For those who see great potential in Leclerc – and that is many – it is a disappointment, even if his last two races in Germany and Hungary were not up to the extremely high standard he set from the fourth race in Baku until Silverstone.

But given Raikkonen’s experience and willingness to kowtow to the team’s demands when they want to favour Vettel, it is understandable.

There was, though, another driver potentially available.

And what it says about the priorities and decision-making at Ferrari that Raikkonen can retain a top-level drive in F1 while Alonso – who crushed him when they were team-mates in 2014 – is apparently not of interest, the reader can decide for themselves.

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