and without further ado...the promised hangster as lestappen
The first time Bradley is put in a kart, he's four years old. He sits on his dad's lap, steering while his dad controls the brakes. His dad has to practically tear him from the kart when it's time to go home, promising that they could come back tomorrow.
Every weekend his dad is home, they go karting together. His dad tells him how to listen to the car—how to tell when to break, how to feel for tyre grip. But above all, his dad tells him how to listen to himself. How to believe in himself and trust his own instincts.
Don't think, just do, kiddo.
He starts competing at age six, with his dad coming to every race he can—even bringing his new teammate along sometimes. His new teammate eventually becomes Uncle Mav, who helps coach Bradley along with his dad.
After his dad dies, Mav is the one to support him. He pays for him to kart, paints his helmet with his father's number, and even shows up to the odd race when his schedule allows. Bradley calls him after every race, and Mav always says how proud he is, how Bradley will be one of the greats in F1 some day. That he hopes they get a chance to race together.
Bradley's mom is slightly less excited, but he figures it's normal to be nervous after what happened to his dad. And she drives him all around Europe for competitions and is always at every race, smiling at him from the stands before he gets in his kart.
(He never notices how tight the smile is, or how she excuses herself during the actual race, or how she white-knuckles the steering wheel on the drive home.)
Karting is amazing…except for one thing.
He is truly the bane of Bradley's existence. Braking too early or too late, overtaking when there was clearly not enough room, running Bradley off track after a race had ended…
The only consolation is that the feeling appears to be mutual. Their rivalry continues to grow, to the point where they're the only people who know exactly how and where to get under the other's skin.
By the time they reach F2, they have nowhere else to get their frustrations out, so they start channeling their feelings another way. It's a strange dynamic—being fierce rivals but also fuck buddies—but they set ground rules, and the passion just makes the post-race, adrenaline-filled trysts more gratifying.
Then, right before Bradley is supposed to sign with McLaren—his dad's team, his legacy—they rescind their offer. He has no idea what happened. After weeks of being ghosted by talent acquisition and his manager not having any answers, he marches down to HQ and demands to speak to the team principal.
And then the truth comes out.
Maverick—the man who sponsored him through karting all the way to F2, who told him he would have a sure seat, who filled Bradley's head with the idea that he could do it—had explicitly told McLaren and any other team not to sign Bradley.
Betrayed is an understatement.
But it doesn't matter, because there's one team he can go to. He reaches out to the head of Red Bull Racing (who Bradley knows doesn't like Mav and won't listen to him) and is put into their driver's program. It's a setback career-wise, but at least it's a seat, and he vows to show Mav exactly what a mistake trying to keep him from a car was.
Meanwhile, Jake signs with Ferrari, and is already designated as their Predestined One. Bradley shows up to his hotel room the night the news breaks. He coldly ends whatever they had the next morning.
After a few years as a reserve/test driver, Bradley is finally given an F1 seat. His first season at Alpha Tauri is…angry. He's reckless and full of rage when he drives—seeing the flashes of silver and red passing him.
He finishes P8 in the Championship. Jake finishes P7.
After just two seasons, he gets promoted to Red Bull Racing, and him and Mav have the fiercest title battle the sport had seen since Mav and Ice. They go into the final race tied, and up until the last lap, it's anyone's for the taking.
But Bradley wins. He fucking beats the 7-time World Champion.
They spray the champagne, and there's nothing but pure pride and joy on the older man's face. When they finally step off the podium away from all the cameras, Maverick tells him that he's so proud, that he always knew Bradley could do it, and that he's sorry.
Mav announces his retirement the next day.
A few weeks after the race, Mav shows up to Bradley's apartment in Monaco asking to talk. He tells Bradley that his mother asked him on her deathbed to keep Bradley from racing, to keep safe, to keep him from dying like his father.
It's unexpected. Then, even more unexpectedly, Mav tells him that he should talk to Jake. That he knows what it feels like to lose love because of competition and that it's never worth it. That Bradley shouldn't waste time like he did.
Ice is now an occasional commentator on races—he and Bradley have a very cordial professional relationship. Ice never brings up Bradley's Formula One legacy in interviews like everyone else does.
Bradley thinks about Mav and Ice, and he can't imagine how painful it must be to see each other like that—going from childhood buddies to teammates to lovers to rivals to strangers. He won't let that happen to him and Jake.
(By the time the next season starts, Bradley and Jake are giving the whole 'real relationship' thing a try. And at the first race, Bradley invites Maverick to his motorhome, while Jake tells Ice Bradley wants his opinion on strategy, and the two lock the older men in together, saying they aren't allowed out until they talk.)
((And by the summer break, Mav and Ice are back in Greece, finally.))
