#bless you mclaren mechanic

[liightsout]

the blue - part one

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✯ summary: introducting mattie and adam!! both have some news to share, one being better than the other. no danny ric content in this one, but it's coming, i promise! ✯

✯ pairing: daniel ricciardo x fem!oc

✯ content warnings: none rlly, light swearing ✯

✯ now playing: you're on your own kid - taylor swift ✯

✯ masterlist ✯

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May 2020 

“Mattie, are you even listening to me?” 

Looking up from her phone at her friend she frowned. She hadn’t been listening. Not even a little. It wasn’t that she wasn’t interested in what her friend had been saying, it was just that she had a lot on her mind.

She sighed softly “I wasn’t Adam, I’m sorry, what were you saying? Something about a new driver on the team?” 

Matilda and Adam had been friends since childhood, the pair had met on the first day of junior school. She had just moved to the small town over the summer and was starting school a complete stranger amongst all her peers.

Her mum had reassured her she’d make friends quickly, but she wasn’t so sure. Looking around the playground she could see that almost everyone already knew one another. She spent the first few hours of school that day on her own, carefully shying away from drawing too much attention to herself. 

Then came lunch break. She remembers it like it was yesterday, Adam came bounding over to her, scruffy uniform and beaming smile with a few teeth missing. He asked her if she wanted to play race cars with him. She explained nervously that she didn’t know anything about racing and he should probably ask someone else. Adam had scoffed at the idea and said that he didn’t want to play with the other kids.

Adam spent the rest of the hour lunch break explaining everything he knew about racing and telling her about his favourite driver ‘Michael Shooomacker’ and the red car he drove. 

Their friendship had lasted throughout their schooling days, all their awkward teenage phases and early adult years. It was a no brainer for the both of them to decide to move in with each other when they both found themselves in need of a home.

Rent in and around London was expensive, and there was no one on Earth either of them would rather live with. Which had proven to be a blessing when 2020 had rolled around and Covid had hit. The pair of them agreed that they would have lost their minds had they spent so many days locked inside with anyone else but each other. 

Adam had gone to University when they turned 18 and earned a degree in Mechanical Engineering, hoping to further his dream of being an engineer for one of the top Formula 1 teams when he was older. It wasn’t long before he had achieved said dream and found himself a spot on the engineering team at Mclaren.

“At least you’re honest! I said I got a call this morning from my boss,he confirmed the driver that’s going to be replacing Carlos next year. It’s Daniel Ricciardo” explained Adam, with a beaming smile.

Mattie paused trying to put a name to a face. “Which one is he?” Adam laughed “as if you don’t remember! He’s the Aussie you think is fit, the one who used to drive for Red Bull.” 

“I thought that was Mark Webber?” the girl questioned, pulling out her phone getting ready to Google the new driver her friend would be working with for the next season. Adam’s laugh got even louder “close, but not quite” he said. 

Mattie rolled her eyes and continued her Google image search. Yep, she remembered who Daniel Ricciardo was now. Adam was right; she did think he was fit. More than that, she thought he was one of the most beautiful men she had ever seen.

She looked up from her phone to the knowing eyes of her best friend “yeah I remember who he is, but anyway, irrelevant, is this a good thing for you? Are you happy?”.

Adam nodded enthusiastically “oh definitely, he’s one of my favourite drivers, getting to work with him is huge. I reckon him and Lando will be a great pairing as well, roll on 2021 as far as I’m concerned”. 

Adam had always been obsessed with Formula 1. Even from the age of 10 he had been so sure that it was the career path for him. He had spent countless hours as a teenager working in his dad’s garage and learning everything he could about cars, engines and the mechanics behind them.

This was something Mattie had always been jealous of. Not that she had also wanted to be a mechanic, definitely not that. She had been jealous of his ability to decide exactly what it was that he had wanted to do with his life, seemingly from the minute he had learnt what Formula 1 was. 

Mattie did not have the same luxury. Growing up she had toyed with many ideas about what life would have in store for her, but none that ever had really seemed to fit.

When she was 13 she had wanted to be a famous pop singer; the dream was soon crushed when a music teacher told her she could barely hold a note.

Then came fashion. She had spent a whole summer reading through every copy of Vogue she could get her hands on. Drawing up rough designs of different clothes and garments she would try and craft herself. This dream ended with a high school textiles teacher telling her that she was terrible at stitching and would never pass the class.

The list was endless, dream after dream quietly crushed by being told she would never be quite good enough. 

For a while she thought that maybe she had set her expectations too high. She wanted too much, dreamt too big. She wanted extraordinary, but needed to settle for ordinary. 

Until she had realised at the age of 17 that it had been staring her in the face her whole life. From the moment Mattie had learnt to read she had her nose in a book. She had become infatuated with literature and everything about it.

She loved that no matter what was going on around her, she could always find solace in a good book for a few hours. She loved reading about different characters who could live every life she had ever dreamt for herself. It was at the age of 17 that she decided she would study English Literature at University. 

She quickly found a job after leaving University, working for a small independent publisher. She loved her job and although she was disappointed she would never be a famous pop star, at the age of 24 she knew that it was probably for the best. 

“Well, I’m happy that you’re happy and hopefully this will be a good thing for Mclaren as well. It’d be nice to see you guys moving up in the constructors championships!” Mattie smiled at her friend who was practically buzzing with excitement at the prospect. 

“Enough about me, we’ve been talking about me all afternoon. Did you find out from your boss anymore about your job?” Mattie sighed, admittedly she had been avoiding the subject, but such was Adam that he would bring it up eventually.

She had received a call from her boss around a week ago explaining to her that due to the financial pressures Covid had placed upon the small company she worked for, that it was likely they would be liquidating the business before the month was up.

Mattie had been blissfully ignoring the issue, escaping to the dreamland in her head where everything was fine and her employment wasn’t in jeopardy. That dreamland had come crashing down around an hour prior when she had gotten an email from the CEO explaining that they were all being let go effective immediately. 

“Yeah, so, Glenn sent an email about an hour ago confirming it… bit shitty of him to do it over email, but yeah, I’m unemployed” breathing deeply Mattie held back the tears she knew were threatening to escape from her eyes.

“Oh fuck, Mattie, I’m so sorry, I can’t believe you’ve just let me sit here and tell you about all this when you’ve got this bottled inside you, why didn’t you say anything sooner? Are you ok? Do you want a hug? Or is this one of those times where if I hug you it’ll make it worse and you’ll start ugly crying? Do you want me to beat up Glenn? I’ll do it-” 

“Adam stop. I’m fine. Honestly, it sucks, and yeah I’m upset but we knew it was coming. It’s fine, I’ve got some money saved up so I’ll be alright for a little bit and I’ll start sending out CV’s to some companies and I’ve got connections now. I’ll find something, it’s just, yeah, it’s just shit” Mattie said, cutting off Adam from his rambling.

Adam was great, she knew that no matter what she could rely on him to have her back, but he did have a tendency to panic when he thought that his friend was sad.

That’s just how he was, over protective and ready to punch her boss in the face if she asked him to. 

Adam nodded, checking for signs of tears on the girls cheeks. Once he was satisfied she wasn’t going to start crying he stood up and headed for the fridge, opening the door and pulling out a bottle of rose wine he knew Mattie kept there for emergencies.

“Well, in that case, I’ll order us a pizza and what do you say we get drunk and watch a movie? I’ll even let you watch Tangled seeing as I’m such a good best friend”. Mattie grinned looking at him from the sofa. She was so glad he decided to play racing cars with her when they were kids.

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✯ authors note: hey guys! it's been a bit of a crazy couple days... as a a ferrari gal i'm still a little bit in shock and processing the news tbh. anyways, i've got like 6 days off work so i'm hoping i'll be able to post a couple updates if anyone's interested and reading. still finding my feet a bit with writing/editing again so if anyone has any (helpful) suggestions or feedback pls let me know. asks are always open and would love to chat with some of you :) ✯

#daniel ricciardo #dr3 #danny ric #dr3 imagine #daniel ricciardo fanfic #daniel ricciardo fanfiction #formula 1 #formula 1 fanfic #f1 fanfic

[abbatoirablaze]

Racing Stripes, Chapter 22

Word Count: 1.9k

Warnings:  some cursing.  Nothing major.

“Sugar!”

Sugar looked at her boyfriend, surprised to see that she was being picked by another man. 

But not just any other driver.

Valtteri.

“Dinner was wonderful…thank you Valtteri…”

“I figured that I owed you for the conversation that we had the other week,” he admitted shyly, as he led her towards the room, “for everything…really.  I-I’m grateful that you gave me the opportunity to talk with you this week as well…”

“Valtteri…”

He held up a hand, stopping her words.  She stopped walking and the driver put a hand on the small of her back, “I am serious, Sugar.  I was wrong in ever treating you the way that I had…in assuming that you were my property.”

She gave him a soft look, “Valtteri…we-we talked about this.”

“I’m not hitting on you,” he chuckled, as he picked up his stride once more, leading her towards the hotel room, “I’m just explaining and apologizing…”

“Yo-you don’t have to…so long as you know that Lando and I-“ But she stopped her words when she noticed that she was in front of the McLaren driver’s door.  Her brow raised as her attention turned from the door, back to Valtteri, “Valt?”

“You deserve wonderful things, Sugar!” he said simply, before knocking on the door.  A few moments later a sleepy looking Lando appeared, his exhaustion, coupled with the sadness on his face, made Sugar think that Lando had expected the same things of Valtteri that she had. 

“What do you want, Bottas?” he asked grumpily, “here to rub it in?”

“I’m here to give you your girlfriend,” he answered, gesturing to Sugar, “do not worry…we did not do anything.  I simply took her to dinner and then walked her over.  I wanted you to know…the both of you, that while I did not initially respect the bounds of your relationship, I do now.  Lando, Sugar is a hell of a woman.  She’s sweet.  Smart.  Loving.  She deserves to have all the happiness that she wants, and if she wants it from you, I’m not going to stand in the way anymore…”

Lando looked bewildered as he stared at Valtteri, unsure of what to say.

“I-is this what you want to do with your prize, Valtteri?”

He looked back at the motorsports girl and nodded, “it is…”

“Thanks mate…” Lando said slowly, still a little wary of the older driver. 

Valtteri gave him a tight-lipped smile before turning on his heels and leaving the floor.  It wasn’t until the elevator doors closed that Lando’s attention fell to Sugar.

“W-what was that?”

“I think that was his way of giving us his blessing,” she sighed softly.  Lando felt the smile working its way onto his lips as she put her arms over her chest, “i-is it safe to ask if I can come in and be your prize for the week?”

Lando chuckled, his flirty nature rolling forward as he leaned against the door, “I don’t know…I have this girlfriend who I’d hate to disappoint by letting a motorsports girl in…especially one that I didn’t even win…”

“Oh,” she replied playfully, before pointing back to the elevators, “well I’m sure that I could probably still catch Valtteri…if-“

Lando cut her off, sweeping her into his arms and pressing a firm, but loving kiss to her lips.  In the moment, she forgot tat they were both now in the hallway of the hotel, and her arms slipped around his neck before tangling in his hair.

“Lando…”

“GET A ROOM!”

The two lovers snapped to attention at the jokes of one of the mechanics who was coming out of his room with a few of the others.  They catcalled and whistled playfully at the couple, while Sugar hid her face against the driver’s chest. 

“Come on!” Lando insisted with a chuckle, pulling her into the room, “lets…get a room…”

“I choose Bebe!”

Both Bebe and Checo looked at one another, and while he seemed to get a sad look, Bebe merely shook her head. 

“Bebe…driver Max Verstappen has chosen you as his prize.  You may go with him!”

“No thank you.”

Everyone appeared to be silent again as their eyes traveled between the driver and motorsports girl. 

“Bebe…”

Her eyes went to the Mexican drivers once more, and she shook her head a little more firmly this time, “I-I do not wish to go with driver Verstappen…”

“Bebe, do you have any reason to not go with driver Verstappen?”

“I would like a private meeting to discuss the matter!” she said nervously as she looked at them.  The stewards sighed and ushered her forward.

“Driver Verstappen, please follow us as well!”

“The choosing ceremony will reconvene in approximately fifteen minutes!” one of the stewards announced, before waving the girls and drivers off. 

The group had followed into a private room, and the stewards looked between Bebe and Max, “Bebe, is there any reason that you do not wish to be chosen as the driver’s prize.”

“I am in a relationship with driver Sergio Perez…” she said slowly.

Max rolled his eyes, “Checo is married…what does it matter if you’re screwing around on him?  He’s screwing around on you!”

“Checo is actually in the middle of a divorce…and I-I’m there for him!” she stuttered, shaking her head, “he’s not screwing around on me.”

“And you’re rejecting the driver’s choice?”

She nodded, “I am.”

The stewards looked between the driver and the girl once more. 

They were closing in on the end of the season, and due to the 2020 covid scare, a lot of their staff had been slashed, leaving them with the bare bones.  They couldn’t afford to lose another motorsports girl and they knew it.  Not when they knew they already lost La La, and knew at the end of the season they were losing Mon Ami, Sheila, and Hanna as well. 

They looked to Max, “very well…driver…you may choose another woman…”

“You can’t be serious,” he scoffed, “she’s a motorsports girl.  She gets paid to service the drivers who choose her!  And you’re just going to let her say no?  When do they get that option, huh?  That’s insane.”

“We do agree that it is unfortunate,” one of them frowned, “but we are not going to force a girl to have relations with any driver.  It is in each of their contracts that they have the right to refuse a driver if they’re picked from the ceremony.  However, if they do so, they will not get paid for the week, and they will be unable to be chosen, and barred from spending time with other drivers that week.”

Max looked back to Bebe, who was refusing to meet his gaze, before his attention fell to another of the stewards, “this is bullshit.”

“Would you like to pick another girl, driver?”

“No!’ he spat, stomping out of the room, “give me the fucking bonus instead.”

Max was shocked when he opened the door. 

After the choosing ceremony had been reconvened, he was on the receiving end of a text from his team principal about how he needed to calm down and not throw temper tantrums.  Apparently, one of the stewards had called him and told him about the small, aggressive outburst. 

He was told that he was going to have a debrief, and had prepared to be sat down by the principal to go over his behavior, but was surprised when he opened his door and saw anyone but Christian Horner. 

In his place was a young woman, decked out in the Redbull racing administrative gear.  She’d had her hair pulled back, the ponytail sticking out the back of her cap, while her shirt was tucked into form-fitting jeans.  In her arms was a sleek iPad and a binder sitting beneath it.

“Mr. Verstappen.”

Max raised his brow, clearly still surprised at seeing the young woman, “who are you?”

“I-I’m Mr. Horner’s assistant,” she said quickly as she held the iPad out to him, “I have your debrief on your iPad, as well as some information that Mr. Horner asked me to drop off…wh-where’s La La.  She usually sets this up for you…”

“La La’s gone!”

“Oh…pity…she was quite helpful,” she frowned as she pushed her way past him and into his room.  Max stood at the door, unsure of what to make of the young woman, “you know…she would take the lead on setting this stuff up for you so that I could get Mr. Horner debriefed before his call with his wife and kids, but-“

“You mean…La La never actually got my debrief?”

“No Mr. Verstappen…she collected it from me when I got the information from the engineers, mechanics, and analysists, and she would leave it out on your desk so that you could view it at your leisure before the official meeting in the morning.  Did you need for me to go over it with you?  I usually go over it with Mr. Albon last as he likes to get some dinner and then a shower and a personal meeting with his strategist…I-I could go over with you first, that way Mr. Horner has time to speak with his children.”

“I-no…it’s fine…I’ll do what I’ve continued to do so far.”

“Okay…well, I do need to collect signatures from you over the incident this evening in the choosing ceremony.  Christian has some documents from the stewards…and we-“

“Incident?” he scoffed, “it wasn’t an incident.  A motorsports girl rejected me because she’s sleeping with one of the drivers and I told her to get over it.”

“I-I’m sorry, Mr. Verstappen, but I’m not at all interested in what those girls do.”

Max’s brow rose.  He found himself curious at the way she said ‘those girls,’ “You don’t like them?”

“Women…selling their bodies for a few minutes of attention…I-it’s not any of my business.”

He smirked, sensing the fire in her at the beginning of the statement, before it faded and she tried to seem more neutral.

“I don’t like them either.”

She scoffed, and Max found his heart beating a little quicker, “sure you don’t…that’s why you pick them…”

“I wouldn’t pick them if I could find a girl worth my time,” he shrugged as he leaned against the wall, “I mean…for us guys, its either marry a former driver’s daughter, or find some girl chasing clout because she’s a model or influencer and wants an athlete trophy boyfriend.”

“Is that what you think of yourself, Mr. Verstappen?” she teased, unable to hold back her own smile, “a trophy boyfriend?”

“I have enough of them,” he shrugged, “at some point you have to ask yourself if you’re anything more than what you win…”

“I’d like to hope so,” she shrugged in response, “if people weren’t, they’d be a lot less interesting.”

“You think?”

“I do,” she admitted as she pointed to the papers she’d put on the table, “sign the confirmation that you acknowledge your little outburst was wrong and that you’re sorry so I can bring this back to Mr. Horner.”

“But it wasn’t,” He smiled, “and I’m not.”

“I don’t think they can tell you’re lying from your signature, Mr. Verstappen…just sign it…”

“I will…if you agree to go over the debrief with me after the meeting tomorrow.”

“No point in that,” she laughed, clearly amused by the driver, “after the meeting for tomorrow morning, I start focusing on Portugal.”

“Then let me take you to breakfast after…” he offered, “we can discuss Portugal.”

“I think the strategy is best saved for those who are paid to do it…” she replied, pointing to the paper once more.  Max sighed and signed it.  She smiled, packing the paper and pen back into her binder, “have a good night Mr. Verstappen.

“You too…” he smiled dreamily as she let herself out.

Chapter 23

Tag List:  @lohnes16, @prokey16

#racing stripes #formula 1 #f1 #motorsports #redbull racing #max verstappen #valtteri bottas #mercedes #mclaren #lando norris

[dizzyduck44]

Daniel sound waayy too bitter in that article, I liked Daniel outside of the car but lately hes been too much of an old bitter man, I struggle to warm up to him because he was a fucking bully to Lando in late 2020 but I let it pass because he was ass (lol) , he finally admit that he knows what to do, that Lando help him and share what to do with him but he lacks the technical knowledge to immitate him and that is 100% his fault.

I have this belief that one of the reasons nothing worked for him, not the upgrades, his setups and Landos setups is because he doesn't know how to describe whats wrong or which part he is struggling with (apart from the brake, which is his "speciality"), mechanics in every single team he has been had mention his lack of interest and knowledge of the car, the reason he did great in RB was because (this was said by Christian and Marko) he was using Max setups and since both of them formed in the same teams he could keep up until Max begin to make his setups more aggresive. The "I race with vibes" was not a joke.

Daniel lack of interest last year seal his future, like idk if you remember when Andreas (?) commented that Daniel barely did any sin work and that he was barely in the MTC while at the same time calling Lando furniture because he was there too much and then this year Daniel said that he was working really hard and then you read the article and it was just that he was doing sim work 💀.

He really thought mclaren wouldn't dare to fired him and that he was safe. And he still cant admit he at fault for this, he is a grown man with a decade of experience making excuses for driving like a rookie and wont drive in other teams because he thinks he too good like he hasn't driving at the same pace as them 2 years.

I love how detailed this ask is and I’d forgotten about the whole “vibes” thing or the comment about his lack of interest.

Sadly Daniel has brought this on himself. I still maintain if you are a “great” driver you can adapt to anything. All those of his experience have proven they can, Lewis, Seb, Fernando, Valtteri, Carlos, Sergio. Kimi was a master of it.

Meanwhile Lando, threw himself into driving anything the team would let him, George is the same, Max drives different things for fun, Alex did a year of DTM, even Pierre is up for a bit of off roading. They all don’t want to get too comfortable with the one car, just in case.

If I’m being kind, Daniel got blindsided by the generation that came through. 8 or so years ago the karting press were talking about the talent of Max, Charles, George and Lando. People were touting Pierre, Esteban, Nyck, Alex, Lance, Mick for F1. There was so many of them and Daniel acted as though it wasn’t a problem, he had this. But they were all great and F1 bound. They now make up half the grid and he isn’t the number 1 in a team that leans towards him. It too late to see them off now.

Also bless him, Lando was part of the furniture as he was told to come to the factory any time of day or night if his anxiety got too much, so he did. I spoke to a McLaren employee who told me he would just randomly turn up with biscuits and start making tea for people. He discussed with the team about moving to Monaco. He is a complete and utter nerd and absorbs data. Lando actually admitted that was one of the things he worked on, was being able to vocalise how the car felt to his engineers.

Maybe the biggest downfall for Daniel was he was so different to Lando in that respect. He didn’t want to be at the track at midnight going over data. He didn’t want to stay behind to help pack up rather than go back to an empty hotel room. He didn’t love sim work. I don’t know. And let’s be fair, until last year Lewis didn’t want to do any of those things either. He proudly told journalists he did 2 days of sim work a year!

I think Daniel really needs to do some soul searching. I honestly don’t think he realises how many people he has thrown under the bus along the way to end up where he is. Things he’s said about Red Bull, about Renault, now McLaren. I think his comments about Lando will age as well as his comments about Max.

I think ultimately he just wants a to be a racing driver and doesn’t deal well with all the other crap. In some ways he is like Kimi in that respect, but he doesn’t have the career stats or natural god given talent Kimi has (to be fair few do). As I’ve said before, the sad reality is that Lewis or Kimi or I think even Fernando would be doing what Lando is doing and dragging that car into Q3 week in week out, on a wing and a prayer. That’s what Daniel needed to do.

I think he is a little bitter, because he realises this could be it and he’s not ready to go. But wishing for a Jenson Button set up where someone hands you a championship winning car, set up for you, from the start of the season is a fantasy.

#asks and replies

[albonium]

nothing will ever be as funny as rental cars lapping the circuit on the night before the turkish gp

#i remember being half asleep opening reddit i believe ? and seeing this #i mdk why but it was hilarious to me #and then the rain washed away any kind of rubber they may have laid down 😭 #bless you mclaren mechanic #i hope you didnt get into troubles #there isn't any more footage of this #who was driving ?????? #i have so many questions

[blackswaneuroparedux]

The Great Drive: James Hunt and Niki Lauda at Fuji, 1976

I feel really sorry for Niki. I feel sorry for everybody that the race had to be run in such ridiculous circumstances because the conditions were dangerous and I fully appreciate Niki’s decision. After an accident like he had, what else could he do? Quite honestly, I wanted to win the championship and I felt I deserved it. But I also felt Niki deserved to win the championship – and I just wish we could have shared it.

- James Hunt on winning the Japanese Grand Prix 1976 to become F1 World Champion

James Hunt’s epic title battle with Niki Lauda, during what many see as the definitive F1 season, was topped off by a thrilling race in the land of the rising sun. It became an instant classic, one of F1’s Great Drives.

With everything to lose, in treacherous conditions, and with late drama, James Hunt's drive in the 1976 Japanese Grand Prix was one of the greatest of all time.

James Hunt delivered his greatest drive in spite of himself. It wasn’t just the peak moment of his career, but also a defining drive for F1.

The British gentleman racer conquering the world’s best in far away lands – Hunt embodied it.

Despite this, the Brit’s landmark drive came in the midst of late night escapades, mechanical disasters, psychological warfare and F1 politics.

As the ‘76 season approached its climax in North America and Asia, it seemed all might be lost for the McLaren team and its lead driver. Hunt had been duelling with Ferrari’s Niki Lauda throughout the year, but losing his British Grand Prix win to disqualification (announced by the FIA at Round 14 in Canada) seemed to have derailed his season for good.

McLaren team manager at the time Alastair Caldwell describes the state of affairs as they approached the North American leg of the season: “We abandoned the idea of winning the world championship. I let him misbehave in Canada and in Watkins Glen. On both occasions we were pissed on race eve, both of us in a bar after midnight getting rotten – me on alcohol and him on women, because he was always very successful with women.

“James met a girl – the leader of the band at the motel in Montreal – and so he came to the race dishevelled, in the same clothes as he’d been wearing the previous night – and he won the race!

“Even then we still thought we were out of it. Then we won Watkins Glen too! So suddenly we became serious again.”

Lauda had scored 4 points to Hunt’s 18 in this period. With the championship fight back on, the rejuvenated team and driver looked at the season finale in a new light. The championship fight was back on, and as a result, McLaren prepared for the Japanese GP with renewed vigour.

James Hunt had been in Japan a fortnight, ostensibly to test at a circuit  new to him. Delays at customs, car problems and bad weather had severely  restricted his running, but at least now he was totally orientated and, in his inimitable fashion, ‘relaxed’. That meant when he wasn’t  strutting his stuff on the hotel’s squash court, he was billing and  cooing with its latest migratory flock of pretty air stewardesses to bed. It beat  jogging.

Lauda arrived later, low-key and at a low ebb. The spirit that held  the demons at bay during his remarkable Monza comeback had evaporated in  Canada and America. Now running on empty, he was full of doubts. While  Ferrari team manager Daniele Audetto attempted to whip up retro oppo to  McLaren’s ‘illegal’ testing, his star driver looked the other way and  wished it over: Lauda was sick of Enzo and his minions, of a season in  its 10th month and of press intrusion.

McLaren’s earlier preparations were in sharp contrast to the rest of the field who arrived just for the race weekend itself. According to Caldwell, “The others all turned up on the Thursday, including Niki, you can see them all get off the plane knackered and then trying to find where this new racetrack was.”

It wasn’t just through testing and acclimatisation that Hunt and McLaren stole a march. Caldwell thought he might use interactions with the press to his advantage: “Just for a laugh we spread a rumour. A journalist said to me ‘what’s the track like?’ I said ‘It’s is good but it’s got a lot of loose gravel on it.’”

Enjoying the effect the track surface story had on the rest of the field’s preparations, Caldwell thought he’d develop the rumour into a full-blown design feature.

“Because we were bored and had nothing else to do, the mechanics made mesh covers for all the air intakes on the car, to “protect” the brake ducts and air intake.

“Then Niki (Lauda) came down to our garage, which he always did – he spent more time in our garage then Ferrari’s. He would joke with us and do mechanic’s repartee.

“Psychologically we had them on the back foot right from the start.”

“Niki had come to see what we’d done with the cars as he was also a spy. So I told the mechanics, ‘just by mistake’, to take the covers off the cars so you could see the mesh covers on all the intakes. They did this and then they put it back on in a hurry while I ‘looked displeased’.

“And so then Niki broke off the conversation, trotted back to Ferrari and said ‘f**king hell, McLaren have put vents near these grilles over everything in the car, we got to do the same.’

“The whole Ferrari organisation went out to find these grilles, find where they came from and make them for their three cars. Then we put our three cars in the pit road and took all the grilles off the T-Car. Niki came down and said ‘You f**king bastards!’ They came down the pitroad and Ferrari had this shit all over their car – these grilles all over the radiators.

“He had to tear back and tell them to take them all off. Psychologically we had them on the back foot right from the start, there’s all this psychological warfare.”

Niki was plastered across front pages because of his near-death  experience on the track; James was on them because of the life he led  off it. Their battle and clashing personalities, though they were good  friends, had made the world championship a global news shit-fight. Hunt,  outgoing but often lonely in a crowd, pretended to be okay with it.  Lauda didn’t.

Friday’s practice sessions provided blessed relief, therefore, even  though both men suffered understeer on the stickier Goodyears made  available to its faster teams because of the rare presence of  Bridgestone and Dunlop on one-off Japanese entries. The title rivals  finished the day one-hundredth apart on a provisional third row.

Each improved on Saturday – Hunt to second, Lauda to third – and  James, a notoriously slow starter who, by his own estimation, needed to  win the race in order to become world champion, was in a much-improved  mood. Niki’s never budged.

Then it rained. And rained. And rained some more.

The storm that swept in from China a day later than forecast was the  last thing Lauda needed: another element beyond his control. Mist  shrouded the snow cone of Mount Fuji, which supposedly bestowed good  fortune – when visible – and Niki felt hemmed in by circumstance.

The mind-games might well have been in vain, for the monsoon weather which rolled in on Sunday looked like putting the race in jeopardy. If the Grand Prix was cancelled, Lauda would be handed the World Championship.

Not that Hunt was enamoured with the situation. He spoke privately  with Lauda and agreed an attempt to have the race postponed – albeit not  before he stressed that he would take the start if necessary and race  as hard as Niki forced him to.

The Grand Prix Drivers Association had been formed to have some influence on such matters, to stop the interests of teams, the governing body and sponsors taking precedence over drivers’ well being. Hunt and Lauda were both members and convened prior to the race start in an effort to have it stopped.

“They were adamant the race wasn’t going to be held. Bernie (Ecclestone, Brabham team boss) and I were in the race control tower trying to convince them to hold the race.” says Caldwell “And James kept on saying ‘No no, we’re not going to race’. I tried to explain to him that no race meant no World Championship. He replied “No, no, no, it’s totally unsuitable, we can’t race”.

Alistair Caldwell, McLaren Team boss, resorted to more imaginative tactics to swing the mood towards starting the race.

“I was going down (to the pits) getting my car mechanics to start the engines every half an hour, which would make all the other teams start doing it – they didn’t know why. The engines were making this noise ‘woop, woop, woop’”.

The engineer then turned his attention to activating the spectators.

“I was trying to get some enthusiasm from the passive Japanese crowd, they’d been there for hours doing nothing. They weren’t even talking, just sitting in the rain – miserable.

“I said to our tyre man Lance Gibbs ‘Do you think you could get the crowd going?’ So he got up on the pitwall with his ACME Thunderer whistle, which had been given to the boys to use as a horn, for when they pushed the race cars around the paddock.

“He went ‘beep beep’ and hundreds of spectators did the same – got them doing a concert. We then did the business of slow clapping, when it gets to the end, people can’t keep up, they lose co-ordination and you get a huge noise.

“I went back to the tower and the geriatric Japanese officials and said, ‘Look, you’ve got a riot on your hands’ Bernie was there and he said ‘Yeah, you’ve gotta hold the race. Otherwise you’ll have trouble’. So they said ‘Ok we’ll have the race.’”

With the decision made, the cars finally lined up to start at 4pm. The deliberations had been going on so long that the light was now beginning to fade, reducing the limited visibility even further.

Hunt, nervously retching and hacking more than ever, was so  distracted that he took a leak in full view of the spectators. Cue  polite applause. Ominously, he then walked a plank laid across a puddle  and stepped aboard his McLaren M23. He tipped his helmet back against  its roll-hoop and closed his eyes in contemplation. Lauda, crushed by  all that had gone before, hunched forward in his 312 T2’s cockpit. Both  knew that fate was about to be sorely tempted.

Hunt made a blinding start and held a huge lead by the end of the  opening lap. As the rest pecked hesitantly in his rooster-tails, he was  out of sight, both physically and metaphorically.

Meanwhile, Lauda, unable to blink because of his burn injuries, was  drowning in the pack and questioning his sanity. He formulated an answer by lap two. The Ferrari – “a paper boat in a storm” – rolled into the  pitlane and drew up at its garage. Measured. The team descended while  designer Mauro Forghieri craned into its cockpit to ascertain the  problem.

After just 1 lap, Lauda had seen enough. Deeming the conditions too dangerous, and having already nearly lost his life at Nürburgring that year, the Austrian decided it simply wasn’t worth carrying on. He pulled his Ferrari into the pits and walked away from the 1976 World Championship. Lauda, the reigning world champion, had the skill but not the will to continue. It was “murder” out there – and life was for living.

Hunt, as drivers without a world title feel compelled to, pressed on  and kept his date with destiny. Hunt being Hunt, of course, he almost  missed it. Not until his post-race red mist lifted could he be persuaded  that he hadn’t.

With Lauda out the race, Hunt’s task was now a little more straightforward. He simply had to finish third, and the title was his.

The McLaren driver pressed on and by lap 10 his lead had doubled to over 8sec. Meanwhile, interesting movements were afoot further back in the pack.

Local hero Kazuyoshi Hoshino, driving a privately-entered Tyrrell 007, had made his up to third, from 21st on the grid!

More worrying for Hunt was that March’s Vittorio Brambilla had overtaken Andretti and was beginning to hunt him down. By lap 20, Brambilla had closed right up behind the Hunt.

On the next lap, the March driver decided to go for it. Brambilla, known for an erratic driving style, conformed to type on this occasion by inadvertently out-braking himself as he dived down the inside of the McLaren.

Hunt had been wary of Brambilla and was monitoring the situation constantly. In a moment of brilliant anticipation, he allowed the March to spin in front of him, performing the cutback and before carrying on as if almost nothing had happened.

Brambilla dropped to fourth, the danger to Hunt being over for now. Andretti at this point was gradually dropping back through the pack. It was Hunt’s team-mate Jochen Mass who was behind him now, with a McLaren 1-2 now looking very much on the cards.

Seeking to control the race from here on in, the team’s new concern was the drying line which was now appearing on the track. Caldwell put out a pit board sign telling his drivers to cool their wet weather tyres – this was done by searching for wet sections of the track, the water preventing the rubber from overheating.

To his team manager’s frustration, Hunt didn’t appear to be heeding the warnings: “As soon as Mass saw the sign, he pulled over in the water right in front of us. Then on the next lap he came down the right hand side of the track, splashing through the puddles, which cools the tires down, (while) James didn’t react.

“The next lap we gave it to Hunt again, the next lap again, he still didn’t do it. So we took away the pitboard, just gave him the ‘cool tyres’ sign and he still didn’t react. So then everyone in the team started pointing at it (the sign). Everybody in the team pointed, Teddy (Mayer, McLaren Managing Director) and everyone else and he still did nothing.”

Hunt carried on down the dry line, running his tyres way above their recommended temperature, seemingly oblivious to the warnings.

If Hunt wasn’t going to heed the warnings, then Andretti was: “Because we were emphasising this so much, Andretti saw it and started to cool his tyres. So he started running through the puddles. He didn’t have to stop (as a result).

“But James just resolutely drove down the middle of the dry track, and we could never bring him in, because he was never that far ahead. It was never possible to tactically stop him because there’s a big long pitroad at Fuji.”

Jochen Mass, benefitting from his team’s tyre advice, now began to reel in his team-mate. If he got past, he would have no trouble driving off into the distance to take the win.

However, the German’s diligence came to naught, as he spun off and out of contention on lap 36. This would have a huge bearing on the race later.

For now, Hunt was again in the clear. Another challenger, Shadow’s Tom Pryce, moved into second, but he too retired as his Cosworth engine expired on lap 46.

As the grand prix wore on, Hunt remained in a seemingly trance-like state as he stuck to his line, the situation became critical.

Whilst yet another to danger to Hunt had abated, the McLaren driver was now deciding whether to play the percentages. He could either pit to replace his worn tyres – and lose track position – or try and stick it out at the risk of losing so much grip he would be overtaken anyway.

Hunt took the second option. He could afford to drop to third, and this is indeed what happened. On lap 61, he was overtaken not only by Tyrrell’s Patrick Depailler, but also the resurgent Lotus of Andretti.

If Hunt managed to hold position, he would be world champion. For the next 7 laps, the plan appeared to be working. Then, on lap 68, disaster struck.

The McLaren driver suffered not one, but two deflated tyres – both on the left-hand side of the car. They were, as Caldwell puts it, “worn down to the air”. Hunt managed to drag his car round for half a lap before scraping into the pits.

F1 jacks at the time were not designed to lift a car with puncture at the front and rear of the car. While the jack was used to lift the rear of the car, TV shots show Caldwell and other team members lifting the other end of the car themselves to replace the front-left tyre.

It was a long pitstop, and once out, Hunt found himself back in fifth place. There were four laps left and Hunt was two places down on where he needed to be.

Two more laps passed and the Englishman was no further up the order. It looked as if he may have lost his championship chance.

Then, with two laps left of the race to go, Hunt started the fight back. At the exit of T1 he managed to get past the Surtees of Alan Jones. One more place and the championship was his.

Next up was the Ferrari of Clay Regazzoni. It turned out there were some Scuderia politics at play which would work to Hunt’s advantage.

Caldwell filled in the back story: “Ferrari’s reaction to Niki’s crash was to sack Regazzoni (for 1977). He had already been sacked (by Fuji).

“So he was pissed off at Ferrari. When James came charging along, he just stepped out of the way and let him by.”

After benefitting from Regazzoni’s apparent generosity, Hunt was suddenly back in the golden position, the third place he needed to clinch the championship.

The McLaren man just had to keep it on the road for two more laps and he’d take the title. The tension mounted, both in the team pit and back in the UK, where his family were watching the live television feed at 3am.

Despite two nerve-wracking final laps, the Englishman duly brought his McLaren home in third place. He was the new F1 World Champion.

Photographs show Hunt angrily remonstrating with his team as he climbed from the car. He hadn’t realised he’d got the job done.

Caldwell himself had mixed emotions about the whole affair, “He didn’t look at the board and when he came into the pits he started shouting at us, because he didn’t know what happened. He was incredibly annoying on the day. He did drive magnificently, he kept it on the road – that’s one point of view. From my point of view it was the most frustrating day – I could’ve hit him with a baseball bat! He could have won the race, just strolled the world championship. All he had to do was read this pitboard and drive in the water, which is what Andretti did, so he didn’t wear the tyres out and could paddle across the line with the same ones.”

In spite of Hunt seemingly making a championship-losing decision, he had still managed to pull it off.

However, such was Caldwell’s consternation, the two didn’t discuss afterwards.

I was so angry about it. We flew back to England and I wasn’t talking to him on the plane. He was pissed as a newt anyway – we were all pissed as a newt and totally exhausted. He just went to sleep.”

The two never discussed the reasons behind the events, but it didn’t change the result. Three years after making his F1 debut, Hunt was the world champion.

Ten weeks later Hunt arrived in Argentina to begin his title defence  feeling underwhelmed and under-prepared. A few celebratory cigs and tins with his friend Britain’s newly crowned 500cc motorcycle world champion, Barry Sheene, at Fuji and a riotous return flight had been followed by a  disorientating whirl of meetings, interviews and engagements. The  race-by-race title chase had been thrilling: a sequence of one-day  stands. Making it official had cooled the relationship. The love affair  was over.

Though both men would retire summarily during the 1979 season, Hunt  did so because he felt frightened and disillusioned, whereas Lauda did  so because he felt nothing, which frightened him.

Niki, though, had a system – plus a plan to run his own airline – and  ultimately would return to the F1 cockpit and be successful. James,  whose theories were sometimes somewhat scrambled, would not. He bred  budgies instead. You do what you have to do.

Lauda’s decision to stop at Fuji ensured that he would be able to  continue. Hunt’s decision to continue ensured that he would have to stop  sooner rather than later. One racing mind wiped clean, the other  cluttered – and racing.

In spite of his career’s decline, Hunt’s endeavours had captured the imagination of the wider world in a way no racing driver had done before.Hunt knew that life was for living, too. Tragically, however, he had just discovered how best to when fate too soon snatched it from him.

#niki lauda #lauda #james hunt #hunt #quote #motorsport #grand prix #formula one #racing #driving #racers #drivers #world champion #japanese grand prix #fuji #history #sports #adrenaline rush #rivalry #sports car #culture

[maranello]

they cut off my prayers to the ferrari saints for the weekend in the tags smh so now I have to type it all here:

ciao raga, it's me again. but firstly with thanks: I have had a really terrible awful no good night, and, well. this morning has been significantly better, to say the least. and despite the horrible panic and pain I was going through that night, I have a strange feeling that things may turn out to be very good this weekend after all. and I owe it to you. so please, hear my prayers:

a prayer to saint charles of impossible qualifyings, you of the strong one lap and race pace, you who seem to push shitty cars along by sheer force of will. guide our path this weekend, may your will be done on track. lead us to greater heights than we have known for two years, for you are the light that leads the way for this team in its dark times. blessed be thou, fruit of maranello, go well in this race weekend and be the game changer that our PU4 definitely totally is not, as you and the team keep saying.

our holy michael in switzerland, hallowed be thy name. for this is ever your horse ranch, I ask you to protect one (1) "crazy horse" this weekend. as strong is your will, may his resolve, consistency, and pace be. may your spirit race alongside us and shunt all those who covet our positions. you whom we love more than anyone else, help us see this sport love us the way we love our team.

hail gilles, full of grace and courage. in the hours of rain to come this weekend, I invoke your aid to make it a blessing for us (and a curse for everyone else). may charles, as your and holy michael's spiritual successor, be blessed in his holy campaign this weekend, and bring us tifosi our lost joy of hearing the italian anthem on the podium. may your magic and miracles be seen in the echoes of his engine.

a prayer to saint carlos too, you of the quiet drives and reliability. may both of cars be guarded from reliability issues and make it to the points. protect our cars and protect our strategies from being wrong. may you go well in this race and make up more than 10 places so that we may see mclaren crushed in the standings by the end of this season.

f2004, the most holy of all cars ever to exist, I invoke your powerful aid this weekend. protect our suspension, gearbox, engine, chassis, and all components that the sf21 is made of. bless our PU4 with its 2022 parts with reliability and power unlike any other teams have ever seen before. guard it from evildoers who wish to sabotage us and see us fail, protect it from the unjust hammer of the fia's concept of legality. may the sf21 be the black horse on the yellow horizon that mercedes and red bull do not see coming and stomp the competition to death with its hooves. o f2004, be with us so that we may be given a taste of your glory once more, and the emotion and dreams you have borne. for what can be conceived, can be created. bless our mechanics and engineers to find the perfect setup, and bless those in maranello to ensure that your second coming be soon.

finally, a prayer to the founder. you would have liked charles.

forza ferrari, amen.

#maranello.txt #turkish gp 2021 #🙏📿🧿

[formula-one-thoughts]

2020 Italian Grand Prix

Oh my god. I still can’t quite believe what we all witnessed last Sunday. Despite a slightly mixed up qualifying (with a bit of slip stream drama thrown in for good measure) resulting in Verstappen starting from 5th and Sainz and Perez locking out the second row of the grid, Monza was set to have another paint it by numbers podium, with the overwhelming talking point being Ferrari’s disappointing pace. Oh how wrong we were. In addition to the Scuderia’s weekend being even worse than they could ever have imagined, we were gifted one of the most unexpected podiums in the history of the sport (well, not so unexpected if you were the mystery individual who reportedly placed a 20 cent bet on the top three and got back over €33,000!)

Mercedes lost what could have been an easy 1-2 through a combination of factors, first of which was Bottas’s terrible start. Overtaken by Sainz and then Norris (who took advantage of Verstappen’s poor start), he was swiftly eaten up by Perez and Ricciardo. Such was his lack of pace he thought he might have a puncture, and whilst he did pick up a small amount of damage from contact with Norris, it wasn’t enough to explain the pace with which he moved backwards through the field. Whilst Hamilton was able to motor away undisturbed into the distance, the lack of a teammate to protect him and help with pit stop strategy didn't look to be ideal. I couldn’t help but feel it was a small serving of karma following Hamilton’s less than complimentary comments on Albon and Red Bull during the week, where he suggested Alex wasn’t a strong enough number 2 driver to help Max and the team to victory. It wasn’t however a strong weekend for the Thai driver either. After another disappointing quali he made contact with Gasly, went wide across the first chicane and dropped back to 15th, a position he occupied for the majority of the race. His cause was not helped by a 5 sec time penalty for a first lap episode with Grosjean, and the damage his car sustained. His teammate meanwhile found himself stuck in the DRS train behind Bottas in P7.

Whilst their woeful qualifying result of P13 and P17 had already put Ferrari on the back foot, it really started to go downhill on lap 6. Whilst battling to avoid being overtaken by George Russell, Seb’s brakes failed and he careered quite comically straight through the polystyrene barriers at turn one, before retiring the car. The field was spectacularly bunched up in these early stages of the race, with the DRS train extending all the way from Norris in P3 to Latifi in P19. After the action of the opening laps no one could seem to make a move, least of all Bottas. His Mercedes wasn't only one of the slower cars in a straight line on the track, but also fundamentally isn’t built to follow other cars, being accustomed to leading the field.

The cars came in to pit for the undercut from lap 16, one of them importantly being Pierre Gasly. Lap 20 then brought about the turning point of the race, albeit in a less then dramatic fashion. Who would have thought that Kevin Magnussen pulling over on the exit of the Parabolica would have such insane consequences! With the Dane’s retirement came a safety car, and with that I assumed there would be a steady flow of cars into the pits, terrible timing for those who has recently pitted. Only the race leader and Giovinazzi came in though, and it soon became clear why: the pit lane was closed as Magnussen’s car was being recovered into it. Hamilton’s race lead actually played against him, as it meant his team had the least amount of time to warn him of this. With there being just 19 seconds between the safety car deployment and him crossing the pit lane entry he was alerted to the issue 5 seconds too late. Mercedes error was thus understandable to an extent, whilst Alfa Romeo’s, who had a whopping 75 secs to warn Giovinazzi, was not. However, both teams could have avoided the penalties that soon came their way had their drivers noticed the red cross signals indicating the pit lane closure. Again though, it’s somewhat understandable that they didn’t. Being such an unprecedented occurrence, the only driver to register that the signs meant they could not pit was George Russell.

Once the signs were gone though everyone yet to pit but Stroll filed in, McLaren pulling off a flawless double stack. It turned out that pitting before the safety car was a great call, and when racing resumed Gasly and Leclerc were in 3rd and 6th, respectively. The Monegasque quickly swooped past the two Alfas but it was to be a short-lived high for Ferrari, as he lost the back end of the car at high speed and went careening off at the Parabolica. It could have been an extremely nasty accident but instead we were reminded once again of how brilliant the sport’s safety measures are. Due to the extent of the damage to the tyre barriers the race was red flagged, and Giovinazzi and Hamilton were informed of the punishments for their illegal pit stops – a ten second stop/go penalty. Whilst the combination of the first safety car and red flag cost McLaren a possible double podium, the pause in the race massively advantaged Lance Stroll, who was able to make his mandatory pit stop without, well, pitting! This loophole has kicked up a certain amount of chat and criticism across the world of F1 (especially from a certain Lando Norris), and maybe the rules will be altered to say the obligatory tyre change can’t take place under red flag conditions. As the vast majority of red flags are due to heavy rain, the cars are on wet weather tyres when they come in and hence this has never been an issue before; it will be interesting to see whether the FIA address this for future races.

Another anomaly thrown up by the non-wet weather red flag was a second standing start (as opposed to a rolling start as per usual). I liked this, as it was a more neutralised beginning to the second half of the race rather than being the race leader’s to control. With Hamilton taking his penalty at the end of the lap, which would place him in last, the re-start was Stroll’s to lose, and that's kind of what he did! Losing places to Gasly, the two Alfas, and Sainz, he was in 5th within two laps. Max Verstappen’s race came to a dismal end as he pulled into the pits with power unit issue, but he had an uncharacteristically poor race prior to this, failing to make much of an impact on the cars in front of him. As Raikonnen moved backwards through the field, Hamilton was battling up the order, overtaking with much more apparent ease than Bottas (though admittedly most of the cars in his way were of the slower variety). As the countdown to the finish began, it was Gasly, Sainz, Stroll at the top, a potential podium I found near impossible to imagine. Surely Bottas would wiggle his way up to second, Hamilton would appear in first and Verstappen would return from the dead to plonk his car in third? But the trio were secure, the only possibility of a mix-up coming from Sainz, who lap by lap was nibbling into Gasly’s lead.

It was only on the final lap though that he was able to get DRS, and as much as I love wheel to wheel racing, I was terrified of the prospect of the pair taking each other out and Bottas lucking his way onto the podium. But fortunately, it was not to be, and we were blessed with the first podium not to feature a Mercedes, Red Bull or Ferrari since Hungary 2012. In complete disbelief, I cried as Gasly crossed the line and the Alpha Tauri garage erupted with joy, the most emotional race ending for me since Abu Dhabi 2016. What it meant to both Gasly and the team was palpable. After an unimaginably difficult 18 months, that saw him relegated from Red Bull and lose one of his best friends in the most tragic of circumstances, Gasly emerged as one of the most deserving ever winners of a Grand Prix. For Alpha Tauri, it was their second ever win and first in 12 years, at their home race to boot. As the Red Bull mechanics congratulated their sister team and Leclerc, Grosjean and many more came to congratulate Gasly in Parc Ferme, the waterworks really started on my sofa. Add to that the Williams drivers’ heartfelt messages of thanks and farewell to Frank and Claire Williams and I was a sobbing mess! Gasly sitting alone on the top step of the podium, taking it all in, is an extremely poignant image I'm sure will live on for years in the minds of every F1 fan.

It was a superb weekend for McLaren, securing a 2nd and 4th on pace that gave them a brilliant boost in the constructor’s championship. Whilst it was a disappointing afternoon for Perez, Stroll continued what has been an impressive season, disproving his doubters with a second career podium. It was sad to see the Williams drivers unable to score at the family’s last race, but they do seem to be on the up and hopefully will be in good hands to return to the top of the sport. With retirements due to both mechanical and driver errors, the weekend couldn’t have gone worse for Ferrari at their home race; as Seb said it was a good thing the Tifosi weren’t there to witness it. Nonetheless, they've got two more Italian Grand Prix to try and claw back a bit of their reputation, with their 1000th race at Mugello set to be an unpredictable one that they can hopefully capitalise from. I can’t wait.  

#f1 #formula 1 #formula one #monza gp #italian gp #pierre gasly #alpha tauri #ferrari #charles leclerc #sebastian vettel #mercedes #lewis hamilton #valterri bottas #red bull #max verstappen #alex albon #lance stroll #williams #mclaren #carlos sainz #lando norris #motorsport

[isabellaospinaonfire]

The Golden Angel

Image Courtesy of: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/547187423454506112/

Chapter 1

The Mission

God had just sent me on another mission. I have to take care of this kid named Asher but he doesn’t want me to but after everything that has happened to him, he decides to not do what he has been doing. He is 15 years old and a juvenile delinquent. My name is Tom. Now my friends call me the Golden Angel after everything that I’ve done.

The first time God saw Asher, he knew that kid needed a guardian angel, or else he would have tons of problems. That first time God saw Asher, he saw him robbing a bank because his friends told him to. The second time God saw him, he was at juvie so then when God saw that Asher got out of juvie, he sent me to take care of him and teach him to do the right thing. And I was like, this is going to be a piece of cake, but I was wrong.

Once I got to Earth, I hid my wings so I could blend in more, I took the form of a 15-year old then I filled out all the paper-work so that I could attend the school Asher goes to. The woman asked me where my parents were and I told her they were working but then she said that I had to have one of them sign or else I couldn’t attend the school. I went to an apartment I rented and planned on changing my form tomorrow to pass as my supposed mom and sign the paperwork and it certainly worked! The woman at the front desk told me that school started in 1 week and to be prepared. 

Later that day, I went to the mall to buy new clothes and supplies for school, then I had an encounter with Asher. I was just walking away from all crowds then he comes and starts blocking my way then accuses me of trying to keep him from passing. Then one of his friends yelled ¨ fight, fight, fight!!!¨ Then they all joined ¨fight, fight, fight, fight, fight!!!!!¨. Asher started rolling up his sleeve and waving his fists at me trying to punch me, but of course, I didn't let myself. I punched him in the face and his nose started bleeding severely. They all came at me and even though there were about 6 of them, I hit each one at least once. They all ran away but before Asher joined them I told him ¨Those aren't good influences, they´re the reason for all that has happened to you. Especially what happened to your parents.¨ It was noticeable that he was trying to hold back the tears. 

Chapter 2 Ashers Robbery Layer

Image courtesy of: https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/found-old-cabin-1192684564

¨I don't know how you know what happened to my parents, but NEVER talk about them ever again!!¨ He yelled. ¨ It wasn't your fault, but you shouldn't have done that.¨ I told him. ¨ I told you not to talk about them!¨ He said while running away with tears flooding down his face. After that, I went back to my apartment and laid down on my new couch and thought about how I was going to get Asher to change. Because first of all, I had to have him change friends, second of all, make him believe in God and third of all, teach him to not do what he's been doing, like robbing stores, stealing from the bank, hacking other peoples social media accounts, and many more illegal things. 

The rest of the week went by pretty quickly and soon enough I had to go to school and complete my mission. I went over to my locker and got all my books for my first class, biology. I don't really like it but I had to do it because I was going to take every class Asher was in so I could finish this mission ASAP. Once I walked into the classroom, I didn't see Asher so I waited for him until class started. 

He never came in, so I asked the teacher if he knew where he was and he told me, ¨ Asher threatened me and all teachers that if we told his parents he never came to school he'd kill us. He wants to be with his gang all the time in that abandoned house.¨ He said with anger. ¨ Where exactly is this abandoned house?¨ I asked Mr.Travis. ¨Why do you need to know?! No one dares to disturb their robbery meeting!¨ He asked, surprised. ¨ Why don't you tell the police if you already know what he's been doing! Did he threaten you with that too?!¨ I asked alarmed. ¨ Yes, and if you really want to expose yourself to Asher’s gang, the address is 3854 Ashmore ln.¨ He said. I took a taxi and when I told him the address, he said, ¨You sure you wanna´ go there kid?¨ I told him ¨yes¨ and he said, ¨If that's what you really want.¨ Once we got there, he told me to get out quickly and he left so fast that his tires

screeched so loudly that they brought the whole gang outside. One of them squinted and said frightened, ¨It's that kid from the mall!¨ Then another said, ¨OMG yes!¨ They all ran into the house except for Asher. He walked up to me and said ¨Are you here to annoy me about my parents again? By the way, who are you? I have stolen from every single person in this town and have never seen you.¨ He asked, confused. ¨You have never seen me because I´m new and come from somewhere else, ¨ I told him. ¨ What city? Oh, also be expecting me to steal from you soon.¨ He said, then laughed. ¨ I´m from heaven, and God has sent me to make you a better person, ¨ I told him. 

Chapter 3 The Truth About Asher's Parents

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Asher paused for a second then burst out laughing. ¨ You really expect me to believe that!¨ He laughed even harder,¨ God isn't even real and if you are really an angel, show me your wings!¨ He said, still laughing. There was a forest nearby so I decided to show Asher my wings there so no one else saw us. ¨Seriously, you’re going to make me go all the way there to just get some fake wings and tape them on your back, pffft, no way!” He said, then headed back to the abandoned house. I did a 360 turn to see if anyone was looking. No one was in sight so I opened my wings and grabbed Asher and he started screaming. ”How are you doing this?! Let go of me! HELP!!!” He yelled. One of Asher’s friends came out and told the rest to come out. “Where’d those wings come from?! That kid didn’t have them before!” One yelled. Even though I was really high in the sky and far from all sight, I could hear them yelling.

 I landed in the center of the forest but didn’t let go of Asher. “ Look, I didn’t come to Earth to pick a fight on you, but I did come to fix you,” I said still holding on to him so he wouldn’t run away. “Let me go you retard! I don’t need any fixing, I’m perfectly fine!” He screamed, struggling to get away from me. “ It's not necessarily fixing, it’s getting you away from all the bad and rotten stuff you’ve been doing,” I said. “I can do whatever I want!” He yelled.

 “Even do what you did to your parents?” I said. “ I had no idea it was their car!” I said, crying. “ Tell me the full story, I don’t know all of it,” I said, interested. “ They were off to date-night but our car was in bad condition so they said they were going to surprise me with the new car when they came back. So while they were gone, I went to do some mischief with my friends and they came up with breaking the brakes of a car. We went to this fancy restaurant and found a Mclaren Speed Tail. I knew the most about car mechanics so I destroyed the brakes.” I let him go and he fell to the ground to cry. “I went back home, and the clock hit 4 am and they still hadn’t come back. Then, about 2 days later, a police officer knocked on the door and said that they had crashed into a truck. Then he told me that they were in a Mclaren Speedtail,” his voice cracked, “ And then I fell down to cry.” He said, sobbing. “All this suffering is caused by not believing in God and not letting him forgive or bless you. If you had believed in God and worshiped him before you had these bad influences, your parents would still be alive. And you wouldn’t have to be robbing stores to pay your foster parents monthly.” He looked up into the sky and said, “Do you really think God is real and he takes care of you?” He asked. “ Of course, that's why he sent me, to take care of you.” I said, smiling now that I got him on the right track. “ Is there any way I can, through God, ever see my parents again?” He asked, hoping I’d say yes. “ No, you can’t see them, but they see you, they have forgiven you, and they will always take care of you.” He stopped crying, looked again into the sky, and said, “God can be real but he is no good!”.

I took him back to his abandoned house/robbery layer. And all his friends were now scared of me so when I told them to return all the things they had stolen they listened but then Asher stopped them, and since he was their leader, they all listened. “I now know God is actually real, but don’t worry, he does no good and I shall never worship him.” He said furiously, then shot me a deep glare. 

Before Asher could go back into the house and plan more robberies I opened my wings and swooped him right off the ground and decided to take him somewhere special so I could figure out what was wrong with him because by now, he should’ve been worshiping God. And of course, Asher started protesting so I’d put him back down. And I’m sure that his friends know that I took him and that he didn’t run away.

Chapter 4 All The Bad Is Gone

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I landed in front of the community church and walked in. Today was really empty but I wasn't going to take any chances in getting into problems because of my wings so I hid them immediately after I landed. I dragged Asher and he didn't stop protesting. Thankfully the only people that were there were on the other side and they didn't hear Asher screaming. I took Asher to a corner where no one could see us and I somehow made him go unconscious. I had an idea of why Asher would not want to worship God but I wasn't sure if it was that. I did what my other friend did on his mission similar to mine. The person he had to take care of had a demon controlling him so that's why he didn't accept God. I had memorized what he did in case I ever needed it at any moment.

I first had to find out if there was actually a demon in him. To do that, I showed the cross at Asher and even though he was unconscious, his body tried to get away from it. He did have a demon in him. And from what my friend taught me, this type of demon was a strong one. I started the exorcism process on him and he wouldn't get out. ¨Leave, Asher will never worship God. So don't even try it! ¨ The demon said through Asher. ¨Once I get you out I will finish you once and for all!¨ I shouted, not so loudly to not bring attention to myself. ¨Try me!¨ Said the demon. I did another method my friend had taught me and it worked! The next step was to get rid of the demon and it was pretty simple. All I did was do this chant and he was gone for good.

¨What happened? Where am I? Who are YOU?!¨ Asher asked confused. ¨Asher I'm an angel that was sent from God to take care of you. And you’re in this church because I had to take the demon that was controlling you to do bad stuff.¨ I said, hoping he´d calm down. ¨Show me your wings.¨ He said. I opened my wings a little bit to minimize the risk of being caught. ¨You are real! You´re the angel from my dreams! You’re my guardian angel, right?¨ He said, acting as if he were a completely different person. My friend did tell me that after taking the demon out of someone, they will seem like a completely different person, so I wasn't that surprised. 

¨Yes, I am your guardian angel. I have one question for you Asher. Do you believe in God?´´ I asked Asher, hoping he'd say yes. ¨Of course, he's the one that sent you to get that demon out of me! If it weren't for him, this town would still be getting robbed by me.¨ He said, now smiling.¨Have your parents forgiven you for what you did?¨I asked, now testing him. ¨Of course, they have forgiven me and will always take care of me.¨ he said. ¨Very well. I think you should go back to the house where you have all the things you and your friends have stolen and return them to their rightful owners.¨ I told him, expecting him to listen. ¨Sure. I still can’t believe I was the leader of all this robbery and everything!¨ He said. 

We headed straight for the house, and thankfully the rest of Asher’s friends were still there. Well, they were more of the demons friends rather than Ashers but anyways, as I said earlier, Asher’s friends were really scared of me and would do whatever I told them to so when I told them to return everything, even though it was a lot, they did it. Now, Asher wasn't a problem, he, instead of stopping his friends from returning stolen things, he helped me supervise that they did return them. ¨Why is Asher acting so weird?! Its as if he were a different person!¨ One of them said as he was returning the stolen money from the bank. ¨I know right, its as if that angel had taken away his bad roots!¨ Another responded. I heard what they had said and then decided to sneak up on them and tell them the truth. ¨Yes, it is as if he were someone else.¨ I said. They both jumped and dropped most of the money. ¨ You see, Asher was possessed by a demon, which is what made him do all these bad things and create this gang. But God sent me to exorcise that demon from him. Y´all think that Asher is acting as if he were someone else but the truth is that you two don't know the real Asher and now that I took away the demon, he's a completely different person.¨ I explained. They were both speechless so they just continued with the task I put them to do. 

They had finally finished, after about a week, and I told them to stay away from that house and that they should go back to school. I also forced each and every one of them to take away the threats they had put on everyone, even the teachers. After all that I only ever saw them at school when I went with Asher. He put in more effort in school and got good grades. He is now about to graduate high school, has good friends that do not do illegal things, and he even has a scholarship for Harvard. I am always protecting him from repeating what happened when he was 15 and everything else. God is very proud of me and Asher. And soon enough it was time to say good-bye. He was off to college and I would go back to heaven to receive more missions. It wasn't easy to say good-bye to someone you had been protecting for 3 years, but it had to be done.

#writer #angel warrior