Perfect Disaster-Charles Leclerc

twenty six

The ferrari garage during the grand prix is like seeing many people coordinated at the same time. It is a mess of people, but they are perfect as a whole. The grand prix has been underway for a few laps and Charles has managed to move up to seventh thanks to an excellent start. Carlos is protecting the position from Lewis by trying to stay behind Max at the same time. If there are two who are capable of beating max it's Charles and Carlos.

Andrea is next to me and I instinctively grab his arm as Charles starts to overtake in the corner. For that moment I hold my breath, it feels like my heart is in my throat and swallowing my saliva seems even harder. Andre rests his hand on my shoulder as Charles manages to close the overtake by getting Ocon to lift his foot, surreal as it may be, and put some distance between them, opening the throttle completely and touching two hundred kilometres per hour in no time. Sixth. I smile and look at Andre exulting for a few seconds "what an asshole" Andrea shakes his head and we go back to watching the race.

"Looking for you on the radio" 

it's Xavi speaking, I look at him puzzled and point as if to say 'me?' He nods and hands me the headphones which I quickly grab going in his direction. Fear completely eats at me, he's in a car at three hundred kilometres per hour and he's in a comeback, and he's looking for me on the radio, that means something isn't right with him 

"look how you go about winning a comeback race, heller"

 I turn to Andre who looks at me puzzled and I wrinkle my eyebrows as I always do when I don't understand something

 "leclerc concentrate" my voice sounds harsh, firm

 "yours was Lewis's fast lap, not mine. Watch me catch Lewis and do the fast lap"

 I roll my eyes, I don't know what game he's playing and I'm afraid I'll never know. I know him a little and I know he's being arrogant, snooty, like he is now, when something doesn't go his way. And I wonder what, the only thing I can do is to keep his game and not let him fall into his own oblivion.

 "Asshole, you really want to beat me huh"

 "I live for this"

 "box box, at the end of this lap" I make to take off my headphones and leave Xavi his job 

"stay with me on the radio, talk to me. I need it porte-bonheur" Xavi looks at me and nods, points at the monitors

 "you have Ocon behind you at two seconds and in front of you Gasly at less than a second" 

"you may be arrogant, but you have a sweeter voice than Xavi when he tells me the seconds"

 All three of us laugh for a second then Charles disappears into the radio, the overtaking starts and I clench my fists on the red base where Xavi has all his equipment, the monitors. He tries the outside, I watch from the onboard screen, I'm with him throughout the manoeuvre, Pierre struggles and crosses the line in the next corner and Charles passes on the inside beating him with the Drs. I exult, and for a moment I smile 

"did you see that overtake!" He shouts into the radio and I smile, Xavi taking control 

"you've got lewis two seconds in front, gasly one behind you"

 It's impressive how much the ferrari with the new updates is flying, it's a shame there's only a few races to go. I want him to win, but I don't want him to get close to Max, everyone knows what he's like on the track and I don't want either of them to get hurt. Max probably doesn't care about me, not at all, it's about the race and only that. It's always been that way, rightly so. I would sacrifice everything for my career, everything to protect the people I love.