. .
He won Bahrain. Again.
He won Monaco.
He won Monza. On a one stop.
Then he won Austin. Cota.
Charles had a mantra in his head ‘steer left and brake, steer right and keep turning.’
The car was having such bad understeer on the left, and over on the right, he had to train himself to ignore.
Ignore ignore ignore.
Because god forbid he angered Ferrari
He knew he was this close to getting ravished on media. He always was.
..
But he chose to ignore.
To be patient.
..it was working.
Norris, with his ROCKETSHIP of a car,
Finally, in Mexico,
Bottled. Getting a dnf.
And Charles gained the lead. And stole P2.
..now it was to catch Max.
This was Charles’s greatest ever chance.
The car looked…semi- consistent. The media would say he was using excuses if he said otherwise.
And he had enough races to try.
..
So slowly,
And slowly,
And slowly,
He made up the lead.
.
And it was getting scarily close.
Oh so close.
—
And the day came.
Abu Dhabi.
Only 5 points off.
..and he prayed.
God he prayed.
He went to a church, back in Maranello.
He prayed when he woke up. On that December day.
.
And he looked at his father’s photo. And Jules.
..himself in between. he needed to win.
That’s all. He needed to win.
He had qualified with a magnificent pole, only 0.005 seconds off track record.
And, the race began.
.
But maybe the gods didn’t answer his prayers that day.
—
Max did a terrible overtake.
Charles roared into the radio, as Max flew past over track limits.
”PENALTY! PENALTY! ITS A FUCKING PENALTY!”
”Charles yes, yes we have send an appeal.” Bryan tried.
.but it was a clear penalty..wasn’t it.
It was weird..how that appeal was left unanswered, even at the end of the race.
As they gathered in the cooldown room. Answers.
Answers. Where were they?
Finally, both of them, with the engineers, received news.
”no further investigation.”
. .
Charles just stared as Max broke into celebration.
He won, he did it!
.
And finally.
Charles broke.