Chapter Text
2025
Putting on his new team kit for the first time felt like a breath of fresh air. Lewis had seen it before, when they were talking about designs and sizes, but actually getting to put it on – felt like it finally made it real.
Charles’ eyes twinkled at him from behind the camera, when it was time for their first media shots. They had convinced him to participate more in Grill The Grid and other short challenges between Charles and him.
He adjusted his new race suit and smiled back:
“Hello, my name is Lewis Hamilton and I” – he paused and took a deep breath – “and I drive for Scuderia Ferrari. Man this still feels weird, but I at least got it correct, right?”
Charles grinned: “It’s easier than the full Mercedes one.”
“Let’s hope it’ll also get easier on track.”
Two weeks later Lewis, Charles and Arthur are standing at Ferrari’s own track in Fiorano. After everything Lewis had learned about Ferrari, the fact that they had their own track. So many things were done differently in an institution like Ferrari, but that they could do the shakedown of their car on their own track. They didn’t have to rent a track like Silverstone, as Mercedes always had.
This would be the first time that they would see the finished car for the first time, plus get a chance to take it out for a few laps. It would all be livestreamed for the fans.
Charles leaned closer to him, eyes still on their team setting up the cameras: “Feeling good?”
Lewis nodded.
“Just wait ‘till you get to hit the track.” He pointed to the fence in the distance, where Lewis could already see some fans in red gathering. “And when you drive past them cheering… It’s so great. They’re the best fans in the world.”
Charles was basically gushing over his fans, his eyes sparkling and yes Lewis loved and appreciated his fans, he was sure every driver was, but Lewis had never seen anyone love their fans more than Charles. Next to him Arthur chuckled: “If you don’t stop him, he’ll continue like this until he gets into the car. You underestimate how big of a Tifoso he is.”
Arthur had been appointed reserve driver after Ollie had signed his F1-contract with Haas and you could really see how proud both brothers were of each other.
Lewis had never driven around Fiorano before, but from Seb’s and Charles’ excited tales he knew it was a great track.
One of their assistants shuffled over: “Five minutes until we go live. You guys ready?” For Lewis’ sake she spoke with a heavily accented English. He was sure, if it wasn’t for his own inability to speak Italian, she would have not bothered. Charles definitely was fluent, and Lewis was sure that Arthur was too. Lewis on the other hand was trying. He had taken a few Italian courses since he signed this contract, but it was a slow process. It was not as easy to learn new things when you were almost 40.
“We are. Turtur, Lewis, let’s see our ride this year.”
Charles wasn’t lying when he said that this track and their fans created a different atmosphere. The way they cheered, when he drove past – he couldn’t read the signs they had brought, but he had spotted a few with his name and number alongside numerous Charles ones – made him smile and he couldn’t imagine that he’d ever regret changing teams.
And on top of that the car felt great, from what he could tell in these few laps. They would have to see how it shaped up in pre-season testing, but the deep red car purred underneath him like a satisfied cat.
They arrived in Australia for pre-season testing with a good feeling and highly motivated. They’re confident in their car’s abilities and the chances were high that Ferrari could bring back both championships back to Maranello.
From the moment he stepped into the paddock he was surrounded by press and reporters taking photos of him and his full red outfit he had specifically chosen for his first time on trac with Ferrari. All of them were trying to get his attention but Lewis’ attention was caught by a figure trying to hide between the Mercedes and the McLaren motorhome.
Lewis stopped in his tracks, he would have some time, as he was not supposed to be in the car until the afternoon. He motioned for his assistant and the rest of the team in red around him to go ahead to the hospitality, while he would investigate.
It turned out to be Kimi Antonelli, who looked at him slightly spooked, when he approached. When it was announced that Kimi would indeed be the one who would replace him at Mercedes, he had half a thought to call Toto to ask him what he was thinking, but in truth he really didn’t want to talk to the Austrian any time soon.
“Hey kiddo, what is wrong?”
He didn’t know the Mercedes schedule, but seeing how Kimi was not dressed in his race suit already, he assumed that it would be George who had the Mercedes first. Normally Lewis would have not shown up this early if he wasn’t driving first, but now that he joined a new team he wanted to see how exactly the garage worked. He imagined they did the same for the rookie now sitting across from him.
“I got lost a bit and… sopraffatto – umm overwhelmed.”
“Oh, kiddo, that’s okay. I know that this whole being a rookie in the top team is daunting, but you’re talented and I believe you can do this.”
“You can talk… You ended up on the podium in your first race.”
“Maybe, but it was still overwhelming. Look, if you need any advice you can always come to me. Regardless of what Toto or anyone tries to tell you, I will be there for you.”
Kimi smiled and Lewis took the moment to text Bono that he found his new driver.
“Also you’ve got Bono with you. He knows what to do. You can trust him to take care of you and he also knows how to reach me.”
As if summoned Bono appeared behind them, pulling Lewis into a quick hug, before looking over to Kimi: “There you are. We were already waiting. I have some quick tips for your run plan.” He sent a quick look towards Lewis, but he just held up his hands, showing Bono that he didn’t want to know the plan.
“I have to get going too, Charles is about to get into the car, but I told him that I’d be there for him, and that you can call me if he needs me.”
With these words he left the two alone, wondering slightly how he managed to adopt a grid kid before the season even started.
The Ferrari was on top of the timing sheets all three days and Lewis knew they were still sandbagging quite a bit, so they knew their car was likely a rocketship over one lap. On race pace Lewis had done a long-run that suggested little to no tire degradation and with the way Charles was beaming when he got out of the car they could actually hope to compete for both championships.
Rolling out for Qualifying in Australia, Lewis knew this was the moment where they would really see how good the rest of the teams were. They had been one-two in all practice sessions, but he knew that everyone was still sandbagging surely.
They put both Ferraris onto the medium tires for their first runs. Lewis wanted to be sceptical at first, but when he saw the lap times of the others, he knew it was the right decision.
He looked over to Ricky: “Do we even need to do another run, what’s track evolution?”
“Track evolution looks to be quite high. We’ll send you both out again, once it looks like they’ll close the gap.”
“Copy.”
They go through in P4 and P5, without having to set another lap, saving a set of softs on the way.
The same thing happened in Q2, this time using a set of used softs. Lewis was always a few tenths behind Charles, but deep down he had expected that to happen. He had known how good Charles was over one lap ever since he had stepped into that red car back in 2019, and now this team was completely built around the Monegasque.
“Come on, let's get that front-row lock-out.”
The car feels as fast as his most beloved W11, and as he crossed the line for the chequered flag he knew that it would be enough for… “that’s P2, Charles on pole, but he was just point zero six seconds faster. Well done.”
“Great job everyone, let’s get that one-two tomorrow too.”
18 years after his first podium in Formula One at this exact track Lewis Hamilton stands on the podium of Melbourne again. Dressed in Rosso Corsa only one step beneath his teammate, who enjoyed another win. 1-2 finish for Ferrari, McLaren, while fast with certain reliability issues and RedBull only a one horse race, lagging behind. Max had managed to get that third step of the podium, but with Sergio out of the points and the Ferrari with a pace advantage of about three tenths of a second per lap in both race and qualifying, they could maybe finally hope to bring the championships back to Maranello.
In the post race debrief he did a quick search where the Mercedes ended up and almost had to laugh. George had started the season almost like they had the last one, in 5th and young Kimi had scored his first F1 points in 9th.
He would have to send him a congratulating message. Charles is delighted about leading the championship (again), after two and a half years of heartbreak, Lewis is happy to be so close to a win again, after only one podium in 2024.
This year promised to become a very good one.
Ferrari stayed the fastest car for the next few races, even if Max managed to snatch a win or two in a massive fight against Charles and Lewis. The Mercedes stayed struggling. They had lost a lot of sponsors with his leave, a lot of followers and fans and were driving around in the low points.
Kimi had been struggling a bit, but Lewis and Charles had taken him under their wings a bit at least off the track. Charles had done the same with Ollie, who was doing an amazing job in his Haas to consistently score points in 9th and tenth.
He had seen that George – and Toto – were not much of a help when it came to adjust the rookie in Formula 1.
But regardless of all the podiums and joy he felt to finally have a race winning car underneath his hands, the win itself left him waiting until Miami. He had never really liked the track, but this year the track was perfectly suited for the Ferrari and for the first time since the beginning of the season he was faster than Charles. He fought off Max for the win and for the first time they would play the Italian anthem for him.
He had always known that the Italian anthem played for a Ferrari driver was a special occasion, but he hadn’t expected to be this emotional. He had to hold back a few tears as he looked at the team waving their Italian and Ferrari flags. Charles – this time only third – smiled a bit hollowly as always when he was not winning, but Lewis had been faster the whole weekend.
Lewis won again the weekend after, which turned out to be even more special. Because the next race was Imola. He had won in Imola before, but he had always been booed in Italy before. Now that the Il Canto degli Italiani would follow God Save the King he could feel a different kind of emotion go through the crowd. Imola may not be Ferrari’s ‘official’ home race, but with both of their drivers on the podium, the Italians already celebrated like they had won the championship.
They went into the Monaco weekend with a comfortable lead in the constructor’s and Charles in the driver’s championship. The atmosphere in the team was so different from what Lewis was used to in his final years – or sometimes all the years – at Mercedes that it made him want to do a double take every so often.
Charles was a great teammate. He fought hard and vicious on track, but he always kept it fair. He knew when an incident on track had been his fault – like when they had made contact into the first corner of Jeddah, letting Max run away with the win, while they fought their way back up to third and fourth – and knew how to apologise to the team. But he didn’t try any mind games or political tactics to try and establish himself as the number one driver of the team. No, as soon as they were not in the car, he turned into the perfect gentleman.
Lewis didn’t know how much of that was the Ferrari media training, but he had fun hanging out with Charles and didn’t even mind the little media challenges the team had them do.
After the dominant display of Charles last year – and the fact that his car this year was even better – Charles seemed to approach his home race weekend more relaxed than Lewis would have thought. The win last year had probably lifted a huge weight off the Monegasque’s shoulders.
“We should let Leo and Roscoe have a little play date after the Grand Prix! I can’t believe we’re teammates for three months and those two never officially met. Roscoe is in Monaco, no?”
Lewis grinned and nodded. Despite how close they seemed they hadn’t really hung out with each other outside the paddock, but now that they were both in Monaco for the Grand Prix and Ferrari would love the footage, nothing was holding them away anymore.
“We should, but first we should get that front row lockout tomorrow.”
If anyone had thought Charles in 2024 had been dominant in Monaco, it was nothing compared to the gap he pulled to the rest of the grid this year. He was driving like all the weight and all the pressure had been lifted and now he could simply enjoy the drive around his favourite track. People had called the Q3 lap of Max in 2023 insane, but Charles pulled out a lap that was almost half a second faster than his closest competitor.
At the beginning of the year Lewis would have said and hoped that it would be him, but after struggling for the first few races, Oscar had found his performance from the year before and managed to put his McLaren onto the front row. Lewis had to settle for the second row alongside Kimi Antonelli, the young Italian had found some insane performance in his mediocre Mercedes and had put himself in fourth. It was his highest qualifying position so far.
Even Ollie had found his way into the top 10 for the first time making Charles look like the proudest grid dad ever.
Nobody had an answer to Charles on Sunday and in the end he took his second win of Monaco, to further increase his championship lead. Max and his RedBull still had no answer to Monaco; he finished a lowly 7th, his lowest finish of the season.
The puppy video turned out to be one of Ferrari’s most successful videos they had posted of Charles and Lewis together. They had convinced Lewis to join their challenges and quizzes, but a simple video of them playing with their dogs in a park in Monaco was what won the fan’s hearts.That and the race they did in the newly released Ferrari sports cars around Fiorano.
Max, Charles and Lewis continued to trade wins for the next few races, Charles usually taking pole position until in Silverstone of all places there was a problem with both cars in qualifying, ending leaving both Ferraris to fight their way through the field from 9th and 10th.
Instead Kimi Antonelli managed to miraculously drag his still slowish Mercedes on Pole position. It was the first pole of his career and Lewis couldn’t help but feel proud of him. Ever since Monaco he had started to consistently outqualify George Russell. He was openly listening to Lewis’ tips and tricks of how to handle Toto and difficult situations with the Mercedes boss. They had grown closer, so that the first thing Lewis did, when he got out of the car, was to send Kimi a text of congratulation.
Obviously he didn’t expect an answer, Kimi would have enough to do with the post-qualifying press conference, but before Ferrari had even finished his debrief, both Charles and him received a text from Ollie in the groupchat Charles had made for them and their ‘gridkids’.
Text from Ollie 🧸:
I kno youre prob still in debrief but weve got a situation here
Can u come to the merc garage asap
Lewis looked up in panic to see Charles already halfway out of his seat, before he realised Alessandro was still talking about how far they were in fixing the issues on the cars. Most of the engineers had gone back to speaking in Italian in their debriefs, after Lewis Italian understanding had drastically improved. He usually didn’t dare to speak Italian yet, but he could understand the important parts.
But now nothing registered in Lewis’ brain anymore. Charles at least looked embarrassed, when he sat back down and said: “Scusa, ma io e Lewis potremmo uscire di qui? Ollie ha bisogno del nostro aiuto.” [Sorry, but could Lewis and I get out of here? Ollie needs our help.]
Fred’s face turned serious too and he nodded: “Your part is done anyways.”
Both of them were faster out of the meeting room than anyone could stop them and they sprinted over to the Mercedes hospitality. Ollie was already waiting for them outside. Ollie and Kimi had stayed close after their year as teammates – and the fact that they were both adopted by Charles and Lewis.
“What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know… Kimi didn’t answer his phone when I wanted to congratulate him for his pole, but when I wanted to check on him, they wouldn’t let me in. So I thought they would…” He trailed off while desperately looking at Lewis.
“I can try…”
Lewis strode towards the door of the hospitality, but he too was stopped, by one of George’s mechanics: “You’re not allowed to be in here anymore.”
“Will, please, I just want to check on Kimi.”
“Why do you care about him? You’re the one who left this team.” Suddenly Toto showed up behind Will.
Lewis frowned. “You were the one who slowly pushed me out of this team and erased all our history together. As if all those 11 years didn’t happen… As if my championships didn’t matter at all.”
“Lewis…”
“Don’t Lewis me…” Lewis was getting angry. “What happened to Kimi, that you won’t even let Ollie see him.”
“That’s none of your business anymore.”
Behind Lewis, Charles and Ollie scowled at Toto as well, but this was Lewis’ ‘fight’.
“Oh yeah? When I get called out of our team meeting because we’re all worried, then it is my fucking business.”
Toto still didn’t look like he would budge, so Lewis pulled out his phone and called a very familiar number.
“Hey… Quick question: are you currently with Kimi?”
Toto(stilzchen) scowled even more, while Charles and Ollie just made confused noises.
“Oh thank god, how is he?... Ollie was worried, when he couldn’t reach him and then he called me… We’re outside and Toto won’t let us in… Yeah, yeah I know… Just can you tell him we’re worried and congratulations on Pole position… Yeah, I’ll text you later. Thank you, Bono.”
He hung up and glared at Toto again: “I don’t know what you’re trying with taking away the kids phone, but you can’t keep my grid kid away from me. You may not allow me entry into the Merc garage, but I will talk to Bono that you won’t keep him away from me… Or Ollie.”
Lewis turned back to Charles and Ollie: “Bono will bring him to my motorhome later, but he’s fine for now.”
Ollie couldn’t get to Lewis’ motorhome faster, he was anxious to see his best friend again. Charles had called Andrea and Joris to collect their things from the Ferrari and Haas garages, because they would probably not return to the paddock today.
Roscoe was already waiting for them, excited for the sleepover and he immediately started playing with Leo.
When Bono finally arrived with a slightly shaking Kimi in tow at the door, Ollie couldn’t wait to pull the youngest into a very tight hug.
“Congratulations piccolino, pole position, I’m so proud.”
Kimi started shaking harder, now not able anymore to put up a brave face, especially when Charles and Lewis started praising him too.
He started crying and Lewis was reminded that Kimi was still barely an adult and he knew what kind of pressure Toto would put on you, when one of his drivers managed to get on pole. Especially with the way the past two seasons were going.
They spent the rest of the night resuring and praising Kimi and eventually fell asleep all piled into Lewis comfy bed in his motorhome.
The next day, Kimi became the second youngest Formula One race winner. He was only 88 days older than Max, back in 2016. Lewis and Charles fought their way up to the podium and neither of them could be any prouder. Lewis would have loved to win Silverstone again, but the joy on Kimi’s face let him forget everything else. He would be back on the top step next year.
Toto seemed to have taken Lewis' words to heart, or Bono had told him off as well, but he didn’t take away Kimi’s phone or refused Ollie or Lewis to see the young Italian.
Charles, Max and Lewis – now joined sometimes by Kimi, George, Oscar and Lando – kept sharing the podium and Lewis knew that his move to Ferrari had been the best decision since his move to Mercedes all those years ago.
The biggest highlight of the second half was their Ferrari 1-2 in Monza, where he was – for the second time in his career – unable to catch Charles Leclerc around the Temple of Speed. He had thought Imola was special, but it was nothing compared to watch the King of Monza, Ferrari’s il Predestinato take the top step of Monza. He had heard the crowds sing and cheer back in 2019, but now that Charles was leading the championship – or maybe because he was dressed in red as well – they seemed to sing even louder.
Charles also wins Baku and Singapore and slowly but surely he had built a gap in the championship over Lewis and Max as his closest pursuers. If he continued his season like that, he would win the championship as early as Las Vegas.
For the first time in his career Lewis was happy to help his teammate win the championship over the following triple header and when Charles took the top step in Las Vegas, winning his first world title with it, he felt nothing but joy for the younger Monegasque.
It brought back both championships back to Maranello, after 17 years of waiting Ferrari was back on top. And Charles had finally achieved his biggest dream.
And they were in Las Vegas. Their championship party was everything that Lewis had ever witnessed with Mercedes and more. Even Kimi Räikkönen had come to celebrate their new Ferrari champion and this felt nowhere like the last time he had ‘lost’ a championship to his teammate – there had been nothing to lose this year. Charles had always been on top this year and Lewis felt incredibly proud of him.
Oh, he still wanted his 8th championship and he would win it with the biggest team in Formula One, but this year’s had been Charles’ and Charles’ alone. He would fight back with the new regulations of 2026.
Even Charles – in his drunken and euphoric state – seemed to agree with him, because at one point of the night he leaned close to Lewis and whisper shouted:
“And next year we’ll fight properly for this win and maybe you’ll get another championship!”