Chapter Text
Speed
Seo Changbin's entire life was set at the never-changing pace of a desperate sprint; heart racing and hands trembling as he stands on the edge of life and a very fucking quick and very real death in a tin can casket buried in the side of a steel barricade waiting for him around every corner. He wouldn't be the first to die behind the wheel and nowhere near the last; and there would be a hoard of talented and equally insane drivers lining up to take his seat the second he was pronounced dead.
Almost every driver will say the fear of the race is drowned out by adrenalin, a drive to win that exceeds all else…..A guttural desire to be the fastest in the game. They're all fucking liars. Racing felt a lot like life, the raw unchecked power that it is to fly across a tarmac strip at three hundred kilometres per hour, but it also felt a whole lot like a goddamn death wish.
Changbin didn't care all that much about dying, he cared about winning.
"Radio check, radio check"
Changbin takes a deep breath, squeezing his eyes shut and clenching his leather-clad hands around the steering wheel as he felt the thrumming of a formula one engine all around him. It was a familiar feeling, part of who he is on a soul deep level, and yet it still left him almost gasping for air every time. " Ya Changbin! Can you hear me or not?" Chan calls out, his voice perfectly clear through the custom earpiece in Changbins ear. Changbin groans and rolls his eyes, lifting his hand to slam his visor shut as the thirty second warning is called and teams flee the track as the starting time rapidly approaches "Yes darling I can hear you, christ" Changbin groans, letting his eyes fixate on the stretch of pure open road in front of him "First pole position of your career, and it's a flat tie between us and Mercedes for the podium points-wise….Bring it home, it's boring if those fucks win every year " Chan says as time races away.
Changbin can't help but smirk, the adrenalin of his first finals race causing the skin underneath his race suit to prickle and spark as if he's being charged by an electric current and not a human heart.
"You got it, boss"
The first of the red lights flicker on, partnered with a loud pip…..And a second….And a third….All the way until the entire bottom row is painted in neon read. Now or fucking never, Changbin. The second between the end of the countdown and the beginning of the race feels impossibly longer this time than it did the whole season. Changbin takes a breath, and revs the engine just enough to make a smirk break out on his features underneath his helmet.
Go
The car seems to respond to his brain before his hands, and they move as one team as they roar down the track. "And we're off ladies and gentlemen! The 2019 Formula One Championship race!"
Bring it fucking home, Changbin
….
Power
Lee Felix flourished under the cover of darkness, in dark streets just past midnight in crowds of those society had cast out. He was a well known face and an even more well known name on this street racing circuit in Australia and even beyond if the rumours were true. Lee Felix, the kid who's far too nice to be winning as much as he was. It was a common misconception that you had to be mean to be a winner, that you had to start fights and throw fists and act in a way that Felix could only describe as being a fucking diva. That wasn't exactly his strategy, he'd turn up to meets and play nice, play the role of small and young and a little bit ditzie. He'd bat his eyelashes and ask for advice on the track, despite winning on it many times, and the airheads around him would simply drop their guards, reducing him to an amateur despite them very well knowing his record.
Those gaps in their perception of him that form, are plenty wide enough for him to drive his Subaru through in order to overtake them. Which he did, every fucking weekend without fail. Felix stood leaning against his car, staring down the track as the other drivers mingled with girls far out of their leagues and boasted as if they're formula one drivers not criminals. Speaking of. Felix lets his eyes float across the track, nestled just outside of Melbourne's city centre, and finds them. He only started noticing them a few weeks back, a small clump of men far too old and well dressed to be at a street race, Felix wouldn't think too much of it if it weren't for the way other drivers ogled at them. He had brought it up to another one of the drivers only a few weeks before, and they'd laughed in pure shock upon discovering Felix didn't recognise the men who watched them so intently at races.
"They're scouting Lix, for Ferrari's F1 team"
Ferrari? Formula one?
Felix doesn't realise one of the men is staring back at him, and he's quick to turn his head away and swallow. None of us could drive for fucking formula one, what the hell are they even looking for? Felix sighs and pulls open the door of his car, putting one leg in and calling out to their self-appointed race marshal "Hey! Are we gonna start at any time soon?" He calls out over the music, and Jackson turns to smile at him "In a rush to wipe the floor with these assholes tonight are we?" He laughs, and Felix shrugs "Maybe" he mumbles as he sits in his seat and slams the door beside him. With a simple turn of the key the car comes to life around him, loud and humming with power. Felix grips the wheel, watching through his front window as drivers start to get in their own cars as Jackson hurries them along. They all line up side by side, a starting line of disgustingly large tail wings and neon lights tacked underneath a collection of beefed up consumer cars.
Felix lets his mind wonder…..To what it would be like to be behind the wheel of a Ferrari. He doesn't get to ponder the thought long, as Jackson takes his stance at the front of the line, a beaten up green t-shirt in one hand. He raises it above his head and spectators stumble off of the track. Felix feels incredibly alone in that moment in the way he always does just before a race, just him and the thrum of the engine and the way the finish line calls out to him. "I want a nice clean race ladies and germs!" Jackson yells out, laughing as the drivers respond by revving their engines, Felix scoffs as he braces for the start of the race.
Jackson drops his arm, letting his makeshift flag fall. Felix rams his gear stick into first gear, and his tires screech as he launches off of the starting line.
Faster
…..
More
Changbin pushes his foot flat against the accelerator as he rockets down the final straight, trying to blink sweat out of his eyes as fatigue begins to set in. "Final lap Changbin, just keep pushing but for fucks sake keep it off the curbs your tires are-" Chan says through the head piece, and at the exact same time Changbin rockets over a curb as he hugs the inside corner of the upcoming turn "Yes those curbs, Changbin" Chan growls, and Changbin can't help but bark out a laugh "I was just checking, how close is Minho?" Changbin asks, sliding around another corner and catching a glimpse of the silver Mercedes on his tail "Less than half a second behind" Chan sighs, and Changbin lets out out a growl "Too fucking close" he hisses. "Just keep pushing, you have him in the corners" Chan tries to reassure him, and Changbin grips the wheel impossibly harder, feeling his fingers cramp under the strain.
There's nothing quite like this
No feeling quite like taking a corner at two hundred kilometres per hour and somehow not dying. He'd chased the feeling in other things; in drugs and alcohol and foolish stunts like cliff diving and off-road motorcycling but nothing came even close to the way driving a formula one car felt. This was his second season, having dominated formula three and two in his younger years and being taken on by Red Bull racing last year. Everyone else was ecstatic with his season in 2018, to finish second in your first formula one circuit had never been done….But being that close to first and missing it by only a smattering of points was enough to make Changbin's blood boil. As if he can hear his thoughts, as Changbin can taste the victory on his tongue as they rocket through the second half of the last lap, Changbin sees Minho on his inside.
He instantly jerks the wheel, closing the door and forcing the Mercedes to have to drop back "Oi! None of that you almost fucking touched him" Chan yells over the ear piece "He was going to pass me-" Changbin rushes out, pressing impossibly harder on the accelerator "You need to drive safe right now Changbin, this is lap seventy not lap one, any tiny mistake could cost you the race" Chan says, and Changbin nods "Understand, I'm sorry" he says, pushing the car around another winding s-bend. "Minho won't catch you, he won't risk a dangerous overtake you know how he is" Chan says
Lee Minho
The driver of the car currently crawling up his ass, was a friend. He drove for Red Bull for almost four years, one of the youngest drivers they'd ever taken on and the one to carry Red Bull out of the midfield to start playing with the likes of Mercedes and Ferrari, then-
"Jisung says easy on the breaking, the engine temperature is getting a bit risky-" Chan instructs, and Changbin instantly drops a gear to slow that way as he slides around yet another corner.
Han Jisung. Han Jisung was another of Changbin's dearest friends, the lead mechanical engineer of the team and…..ex-driver. Jisung and Minho were the existing driving pair for Red Bull, until Jisung took it head first into a barrier when his breaks failed in practice, a crash that very nearly cost him his life…..He can't even sit in the seat of a formula one car without having a meltdown now, which is nothing less than a fucking shame. And Minho….He refused to race without Jisung, and off to Mercedes he went. "Changbin push"
He sees the checkered flag ahead
He slams his foot on the accelerator, flying down the straight towards the finish line. He sees the Mercedes pull up beside him, and lets his head turn just for a second to see Minho now directly beside him. Speed. They were neck and neck, and Changbin had his foot flat on the accelerator. He could see the monitor in front of him spiking, warning him of a cooling fault, which he couldn't care less about.
" It's going to be very close here!" The announcer booms
Changbin can see the Mercedes slowly edge in front, and very quickly and far too easily he makes a decision which could cause his engine to stall immediately. He drops the car down a gear, the engine screams…. but it's enough. It's enough to cause him to lurch forward a metre or so ahead of the silver Mercedes, and rocket over the finish line. Changbin's world instantly goes silent, he doesn't hear the announcer or Chan in his ear until he's halfway through his slow-down lap
Did I do it?
"Changbin!? Changbin are you there?" Chan is screaming through his earpiece when Changbin finally returns to reality, noticing the Mercedes is no longer beside him but has dropped behind. "D-Did I do it?" He chokes out, and can immediately hear screaming and crying in his ear that's surely coming from the pit lane "You sure fucking did! Seo Changbin you did it! My god!' Chan wails, clearly very near tears himself. Changbin feels his eyes widen as he passes through a straight, looking up to the crowd in the stand who scream and wave at him. Changbin raises one hand and screams, he screams and whoops and yells as if his life depends on it, immediately turning the car into a sliding stop right in front of the finish line and standing up in the seat.
Changbin pumps both his fists at the sky, pulling himself out of the car and dropping to his knees on the tarmac as he screams in pure joy. It takes only minutes before he's being pulled to his feet, his helmet yanked off by Jisung as the pit crew rush him. Chan is close behind and Changbin can see Hyunjin - his manager - in the distance with tears in his eyes as he claps. Changbin is lifted up by his crew, held over their heads as they scream with pure elation in unison with the crowd.
" They've done it! I can't believe it! With the final 25 points added Red Bull have officially won the 2019 formula one championship! And they owe that all to Seo Changbin!"
Changbin doesn't even try to hide his tears as they celebrate, tasting victory on his tongue and seeing the podium that awaits him behind his closed eyelids.
I did it
…..
Felix crossed the finish line almost five whole car lengths ahead of his nearest competitor; a seasoned driver with triple the experience and ten times the work done to his car. Felix heaves out a breath as he comes to stop, almost choking as the adrenalin leaves his body in one clean sweep leaving him with a hollow and almost sour feeling. Spectators rush at his car, crowding around it and pounding at the windows as they holler and congratulate him. Felix feels impossibly small then, boxed in by strangers in the eve of another victory. Eventually Jackson manages to force his way through and tugs the driver's side door open "Let's go, freckles" he yells over the crowd as he pulls Felix out.
Felix takes the keys with him, trying his hardest to smile at spectators as they congratulate him in slurred voices, jumping when one guy dumps half a cup of beer on his arm as he stumbles into him. Jackson does his best to get Felix away as fast as possible, and Felix flashes a small smile at the guy who came in second behind him, but the man only scowls at him, making Felix scoff. Just drive better then, asshole
"You have a chat in you, Felix?" Jackson asks as they round the corner into where the driver's usually hang post-race, and Felix shrugs "Do I have a choice? If it's another fucking vape company wanting to sponsor me I swear to god Jackson, why on earth people want to sponsor illegal street racing will never stop blowing my mind-" Felix hisses, and Jackson claps his shoulder with a laugh "Oh this pisses on that, don't you worry" he laughs, and Felix screws up his face in confusion "What have you gotten me into now-" Felix groans, wringing his hands together as they shake from the final dregs of adrenalin leaving his body. Jackson doesn't get a chance to respond as a group of men step out from beside a black van to stop them in their tracks. Felix halts, bracing as if he's about to be robbed, but faltering when he realises who they are…. Ferrari
"Lee Felix, correct?" One of them asks, holding out his hand. Felix looks at it as if the appendage is going to suddenly catch fire, and Jackson groans beside him, reaching out to shake the man's hand "This is him, yes" Jackson says, flashing his widest smile at them before scowling at Felix "Ah, are you his manager?" One of the men asks, and Jackson laughs awkwardly "Uh….We don't really do that here-" he chuckles, and Felix finally gets the nerve to speak up "Can I help you with something, gentlemen?" He asks, and all three of them turn to look at him.
"Well, that's something I think we need to have a little chat about"
…
"BREAKING NEWS; In a shock announcement following their second year in a row placing third in the formula one championship, as opposed go their normal #1 or #2 slot under Mercedes - Ferrari officially announces they will not be extending the contract of their current top-driver Kim Woojin.
When asked to comment on the issue Ferrari representatives were surprisingly candid, stating that they had had a slew of disciplinary issues with Woojin, his treatment of staff, very poor attitude and his repeated lacklustre performance had made him quote "Nothing more than a hindrance to the team"
It is yet to be announced who will take his place next season and it looks as like we won't know until winter testing at the earliest, as Ferrari have closed off their practice circuit for media coverage. Whoever this new driver is, assuming they already have contracted one, is being kept well under wraps.
Will he have what it takes to claim back their top place from Seo Changbin and Lee Minho? Tune in for next season to find out.
Kim Woojin has not secured a seat for 2020, and it appears he has been forced into retirement. He has had a less than admirable reputation in terms of conduct over the last few years, and it can be confidently said that most in the F1 field will not miss him."
Changbin chuckles as he puts his phone down, turning to look at Hyunjin whose smirking in a way that makes Changbin roll his eyes "So, looks like we're gonna have some fresh meat next season, hmm?" He teases, pushing against Changbin's knee as he stands up and wanders towards the door. "Seems like it, Ferrari need it, they're good name is being absolutely dragged through the mud" Changbin tutts, dripping sarcasm. Hyunjin only hums in response, looking at his own reflection in the glass and fussing over his pastel pink hair.
Some young-blood on the track, could be fun
Changbin eyes his 2019 Championship Trophy in the cabinet, and something clenches in his chest
Or it could be trouble