The encounter of a lifetime - Charles Lerclerc

Chapter 63

This week is the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona. As it's been a long time since Charles was able to take part in any public events for his team, they decided to organize a promotion day at the FerrariLand park which is about an hour from Barcelona. They are going to send the two pilots to do the main attraction of the park and Isabella and I are also invited.

We make a first visit to the park, which is quite small, and we separate for a moment to let our two men do what they have to do for their stable. With Isabella we decide to go and do some attractions in the nearby park, Portaventura. We both like big attractions so we take advantage of it. Especially since as we are off-season and on weekdays so there is almost no waiting time.

We also decide to have breakfast. These are really cool moments, especially since we have time to talk more just the two of us and to get closer at the same time. Isabella tells me that she is a journalist in Spain, that she has always lived here and would never want to move. She loves her country too much for that. She also tells me about her encounter with Carlos, a simple and beautiful encounter*. She was studying journalism and had chosen to do a job on a young pilot who was promising. They talked a whole afternoon together and they hit it off. Suddenly Carlos invited her to come and see some of his races "for his work" and then little by little they got closer.

After our short time together, we go back to Charles and Carlos who have finished what they had to do. When we come back we see that the two have a big smile on their face. So we wonder what else they have planned.

They explain to us that, as we already know, during some grand prix they make challenges on Youtube. And that this time, if we agreed, we were going to participate in this week's one. With Isa we don't really know what we are getting into but we accept.

The first step is to present ourself in front of the camera. They told us to say some info about our life, and some info about our couple. I'm a little more embarrassed than Isa, because as she's a journalist, she's more used to this kind of universe.

It's Isa who starts, then comes my turn. I launch into my best English. Fortunately, I am almost bilingual.

Emma: Hello, I'm Emma, and I'm Charles' girlfriend. I am 21 years old and I am a student. And I've been in a relationship with Charles for a little less than a year.

They each take out a Ferrari t-shirt for us, obviously with their respective numbers on the back. They then tell us to sit down and come with some makeup. So they draw us on the face. Isa finds herself with a chili pepper on her cheek, a "viva españa" on her forehead and the number 55 with a heart on the other cheek.

For my part, I have the number 16 on one cheek, the Monegasque flag on the other, and on my forehead is written "I love Charles Leclerc". Really subtle.

After this magnificent make-up session, we find ourselves taking pictures with pieces of cardboard in their effigy.

But it's after that that the challenges really begin. In the park there is a place where you can try to do pitstops. So we had to compete with them. Which of the boys' team or the girls' team was going to make the fastest pit?

The boys started it. They unscrew the wheel, and put another one back on, except that they are absolutely unorganized and argue about where they put the kind of screwdriver and who should do it. Which wastes their time. After that, it's our turn with Isa. We organize ourselves in advance, she will unscrew the wheel, I take the wheel off, while I put it down she puts the new one on and I screw it back on. That way we don't need to wait on each other at any time. We make our pit and everything goes as planned. We are quite proud of ourselves. But it still took a long time to unscrew and rescrew so we're not sure we were faster.