Dopamine | Adrenaline Book Two

39- Il Destinato

Fate.

an and often adverse outcome, condition, or end.

When the other line went silent and there was nothing more to be added, Charles' heart dropped. He had beaten Hamilton even with the odds stacked against him but still lost out. The game hadn't been fair from the beginning, and he had been foolish to believe he could outsmart them.

Yet, soon enough, the Red Bull car of Max reached Charles' side, slowing down to match his own car's pace as Lewis stormed by the two.

Charles assumed that Lewis had rushed off to celebrate his victory and that Max was now by his side to apologize for something that wasn't his fault. Charles knew he had given it his all and that if Max could have done anything to slow Hamilton down and secure Charles the victory, he would have.

"Charles," Bryan called him on the radio. For a few seconds, Charles looked to his side to catch a glimpse of Max. "It was a photo finish but... Max finished second. He finished second, Charles."

"What does that mean?" Charles asked, knowing exactly where that would put him in the championship but too shocked to admit it to himself. His heart was pounding at a record-breaking speed in his chest, and his head was dizzy with a sense of whiplash.

As if Max could hear Charles questioning his engineer, he lifted his hand above his head and waved excitedly for the Monegasque driver as they slowly cruised together through a straight, confirming what Charles was fighting so hard to understand.

"Charles Leclerc..." Bryan, his faithful engineer, spoke through the radio, clearly trying to fight back tears. "You are world champion," he confirmed, solidifying what the driver was trying to piece together. As soon as it was a spoken truth, Charles felt a wave of emotion wash over him that left him incapable of saying anything, the only sound coming over the radio being that of his cries.

Upon hearing Charles' cries through the radio, Bryan repeated the words, this time louder and more enthusiastically. "You are World Champion, Charles! You made it, Charles! Sei il campione, ragazzo! Lo portiamo a casa!"

"YES! YES!" Charles screamed once he found his voice, laughing through his tears in disbelief. "WE DID IT! OH MY GOD, WE DID IT!"

Speeding up to do the final victory lap alongside the other drivers, Charles got emotional all over again as the realization that this was his first time completing a lap as a Formula One World Champion began to set in. From now on, he would be joining the list of the greats he had spent his entire life chasing. Every karting practice, every crash, every heartbreak had led him to this moment, and after last year, he had feared the possibility of never achieving the one thing he had spent his life chasing.

As fireworks went off, Charles spun his car alongside a few others, the signature donuts being a spectacle for their final audience of the season.

When he parked, the camera flashes followed his every move. As he stood on top of his car, Charles put up the one-finger pose that Sebby had cemented as iconic and that he was now worthy of recreating.

Taking off his helmet, his reddened face was revealed along with the tears that had stained his cheeks ever since hearing his name alongside the title of World Champion. Stepping away from the car, Charles quickly found his team. It was the entirety of the Ferrari team waiting for him, but Charles only sought those from his side of the garage. Everyone who had worked with him directly stood there with open arms, ready to catch him as he jumped into them, patting his head and cheering louder than he had ever heard.

Joining the Ferraris at Parc Fermé, Max hurried out of his car to meet his own team's embrace, proud to have secured second position after such a tight battle with Lewis Hamilton.