STAY THE NIGHT || Charles Leclerc

SEVENTEEN

Charles' pov:

"I'm so proud of you Ol" I whispered into Olly's ear "And so are mum and dad"

"Thank you Charlie" she whispered back, stepping away from me to head back to her seat

"Hello everybody" I addressed the audience- it was now my turn to speak "For those of you who I haven't met before, I'm Charles Leclerc. I first met Emily and Mark back in 2005 at a karting track not far from here. I was just eight years old at the time, and it was my first year racing in the UK. The team that I would be racing for had chosen me and their son, Jackson, as their drivers for that year. I didn't know it at the time, but the Thomas family - Emily, Mark, Jackson, Olivia and Charlotte - would become some of my closest companions.

I spent three years with Jackson as my teammate, before switching to focusing on the French karting championships, a competition that was closer to my home in Monaco. However, I never lost contact with the Thomas family, often visiting them whenever I was in the country, occasionally bumping into them in races across Europe. To me, they were like my second family; Mark and Emily were my parents, Jackson, Olivia and Charlotte my siblings. The memories that I made during those three years with them are all happy ones, ones that I will cherish forever.

In 2013, I once again found myself racing with Jack as my teammate. We didn't know it at the time, but it would be the last. As our final year racing together, I can honestly say it was the year that I enjoyed the most. I remember seeing Mark waiting for us both to return to the pits, keen to give his 'racing boys' a few pointers - where to brake a little bit later, where the best point to overtake was. I remember seeing Olly and Lottie standing around the track with some of the other parents, cheering loudly for us as we raced around the circuits. And I remember how, during the cold winter months, Emily would be ready with warm hot chocolates for us, or giving us ice pops during summertime. They were a racing family, and I was more than happy to have been welcomed in to be a part of it.

At the end of that year, I was given the chance to race in single seaters - one step closer to reaching my dream. I remember the joy I felt the day that I was given the offer - and the disappointment when I was told they had picked me over Jack. At a time when I should have felt ecstatic, I was instead devastated. A part of me felt guilty - I had benefited so much from Mark's guidance, and I believed that if that hadn't been given those little pieces of help, it would've been Jack who was offered the seat rather than myself. I remember seeing Jack walking over to me, having seen me being offered the position. And I remember how he stopped, looked at me for a second, then pulled me into a hug. He told me how he had actually declined the offer, how he had wanted to take a step back, race less competitively.

Now, considering I was gutted for Jack just a few minutes before, a part of me was now pretty disappointed that I'd actually been the second choice." I paused for a moment, as a small chuckle arose from the audience "We were two sixteen year old boys, standing in the middle of a busy karting paddock, hugging each other and crying as we congratulated and commiserated each other.

Over the next four years, the amount of times I saw the Thomas family lessened. I found the majority of my time taken up with racing, meeting the challenges that single seater racing demanded. In 2017, I lost my papa and I thought that I had lost everything. But it was Mark, the man who had watched me grow up on British karting tracks, who stepped up. I remember standing on the podium in Baku, just four days after I had lost my papa, and spotting him entwined with my team, applauding me. He had flown almost halfway around the world, because he knew that I needed a father figure at that moment. The tears that I cried on the podium that day weren't just for my papa, but in happiness at Mark's surprise arrival. Mark knew that he couldn't be my papa, but what he did know was that he could be my father. When I signed my first Formula One contract later that year, it was Mark I called first. He had coached me, helped me through some of my toughest moments. I'll never forget seeing how his face lit up on my phone screen when I told him the news, how he shed a few tears of joy as he congratulated me, telling me how proud he was. I always had my papa, but I always had a father in Mark too.

Mark, thank you for being a father. Emily, thank you for being a mother. To the Thomas family, thank you for being my home away from home, for being my family. I'm eternally grateful."

A/N: Happy new year to you all!

I actually made the decision to split this chapter with next week's, just because I loved Charles' speech so much. I'll admit, I might've cried slightly whilst writing this, I felt it was so beautiful and really told you more about the history of the characters. If you enjoyed this chapter, don't forget to vote for it!

Have you made any new year's resolutions? I've decided to start a journal this year, wanting to focus on gratitude. I feel like sometimes we get so caught up in the negatives that it's nice to take time to focus on positive things.

See you next week!

Copse x