Chapter Text
It wasn't like Ferrari to be the team rushing to get everything done, they were usually very composed, appearing perfectly organized to everyone from outside. But today, the garage was full of chaos. Charles' side of the garage anyways. The engineers on Lewis’ side were chatting, laughing, the car being in perfect order, everything in place, they were just waiting for the right time to go out. Meanwhile Charles didn't even have his fucking helmet. Curse the new team on the grid forcing them to share accommodations with Red Bull. Speaking of Red Bull though, Charles could see that Max's garage was in a similar state of panic, at least he wasn't suffering alone. The time was ticking though, he needed to get in that car and fast but that was kind of impossible to do without a helmet.
“Charles, your helmet-” he stopped listening after he heard the words helmet, grabbing it and putting it on without any hesitation, hopping in the car soon after. Everyone was in such a rush that even if something was wrong, they couldn't afford to care. After a few final checks, he was set out ready to get out on the grid.
Meanwhile just a couple feet away from him, the reason Max's garage was in shambles was because they couldn't find his helmet. It wasn't until one of the engineers saw Charles roll out that they figured out why.
“Charles has Max's helmet.”
“What?”
“How did he get it?”
“What do we do?”
The whole garage went into panic mode, attempting to figure out how the fuck to handle this. This wasn't something they were ever trained for. GP, being the only one that somehow remained calm during all of this, just told them to find Charles' helmet instead. They were already way too late for anything else.
“Max, there's been a bit of an issue,” GP said.
“Yeah no shit, where is my helmet and why is everyone panicking and talking about Charles?”
“He has your helmet.”
Max looked absolutely stunned, jaw to the floor.
“How does this happen?”
“We have never known Ferrari to be competent, let's be real.”
“I never thought it would go so low as to not getting their driver the right helmet but I guess I had too much hope.”
“You'll need to make do with his helmet this race, Max.”
“Seriously?”
“Yes, someone is already getting it for you so get ready to get in the car.”
“I should have chosen a different profession.”
“Too late for that,” GP said, handing Max Charles' helmet to put on. “Now c'mon, in the car, we need to go out.”
Reluctantly, Max put it on and got in the car, already having a bad feeling about how this would go.
“Radio check.”
“Loud and clear, Charles. We may have made a mistake.”
“The race hasn't even started? We haven't even begun the formation lap?”
“You have Max's helmet.”
Silence.
“Charles?”
“You gave me Max's helmet.”
“Affirmative.”
“I think it is best if you do not say anything else to me this race unless it is absolutely critical.”
“Copy that.”
He sighed, knowing this race was about to be a long and difficult one. He loved Ferrari with all his heart, he truly did, but moments like these really made him regret not signing for a different team. To think they are so incompetent that they couldn't even grab the correct helmet…and wait. What did this mean for Max? Charles realized he's probably racing with his helmet now. He didn't know how to feel about that, all he could do was hope that his bad luck wasn't somehow tied to said helmet. He wouldn't want Max to suffer because of how incompetent his own team was.
Back in the Ferrari garage, everyone was trying to figure out how that happened. The engineer swore he grabbed the right helmet, but no one believes a word he said. He felt like he was going insane, but so did everyone else in the team so at least he wasn't alone in that.
“GP, do you think this helmet brings bad luck and that's why Ferrari took mine?”
“Why not bless it for your man then, Max?”
“Ah sorry mate, just ran out of holy water.”
“Maybe next time then.”
“Please do not let there be a next time.
“We’ll tell Ferrari that, now focus up.”
Max's race went horribly. The car had issues, he got pushed wide more times than he could count, he got penalized and in the end he still ended up DNF-ing because of an engine issue causing him to need to retire the car just a couple laps before the end. His expression was blank as he took the helmet off, looking like he went through all the layers of hell and then climbed back up. He was convinced that helmet was cursed. After that race it needed to be. He's had his fair share of issues this season but that was some Ferrari level of unlucky bullshit happening. He made a mental note to ask Charles for his therapist.
Charles has one of the best races in his entire fucking career. His qualifying was amazing, landing him a P2, not quite pole but he made up for it with an amazing start, letting him get the lead. He was worried about the Mercedes cars, but they ended up taking each other out on lap 16, leaving the only other problem to be the McLarens and Max. Or rather he thought Max would be a problem. Max was the one on poll that he beat out turn one, but he knew the other well enough to know he should still put up a fight. Except Max was nowhere near him. He wasn't exactly sure about his position, he didn't want to go on the radio to ask, but he felt a little bad about whatever must be happening to him. Miraculously, all his pit stops were good, Ferrari didn't pull their usual strategy bullshit, and he had a gap on second place too. He finished the race P1, leaving a sizeable gap of 14,7 seconds between him and Lewis, who secured P2 with Oscar in P3 not far behind.
Getting out of the car, he felt absolutely amazing. He almost didn't want to take off the helmet. Is this how Max felt like in 2023? Maybe he should keep this helmet to himself.
The post race interview went fine, of course he was asked about the whole helmet situation but he explained it as a simple mix up in a rush and joked about it a little. A perfect PR answer that Ferrari would appreciate. Being on the top step of the podium felt unreal, it's been so long he almost forgot what it felt like. Fuck it felt good. He stood there, listened to his national anthem, sprayed everyone with champagne and rode the high that came with placing first. He needed to thank Max for whatever crack he laced that helmet with because holy shit, he needed some himself.
After taking a long and thorough shower, making sure he got all the remnants of the champagne off of his skin and out of his hair, he got into something more casual, so jeans and his teamkit, and headed out to Max's driver's room. The shared hospitality unit worked in his favor for this, slipping by undetected as everything was filled with both rosso corsa and navy blue. Knocking on his rival's room, he wanted to talk about the whole helmet swap thing and also ask about his race as he didn't really get any information about it, per his own request.
“Charles what the fuck kind of curse did you put on that helmet,” were the first words out of Max's mouth before he even let the other in properly.
“Hello Max, how are you, I'm doing well, thanks for asking,” Charles responded, smug from the race.
“Just come in and take the fucking helmet back.”
Max opened the door fully, letting Charles into his personal space.
“What happened?”
“Everything and nothing all at once, is this what you experience every race?”
“What?”
“Insanely shit pit stops, shit luck, Stroll just existing, all of it.”
“Oh yeah, that's a regular Sunday.”
Max looked at him, really looked at him, with an expression so empty it was honestly sad.
“Charlie, I have so much more respect for you after that experience.”
“But all of that doesn't sound that bad?”
“It feels like every little thing in the universe turned against me the moment I put it on.”
“Is that not how races are meant to go?”
“NO?!?”
“Oh, huh.”
Charles sat there with that, was his luck really that bad? Surely not, but with the way Max was reacting maybe it is? Max doesn't sugarcoat things, he says what's on his mind and that's that. Maybe there's some more truth to this. But that gave him a little idea.
“Can we keep each other's helmets to test that theory out?”
The moment that came out of Charles' mouth Max was shoving his helmet back at him.
“Is that a no?”
“If you make me do that I will retire.”
“Maxieee please?”
“No.”
“But-”
“I said no, Charles. Batting your eyelashes and giving me those gorgeous puppy dog eyes won't work on me.”
“You admitted they're gorgeous.”
“Yeah, because everyone can see that, I'm just not falling for them.”
Charles let out a small hmph sound and turned away, pouting. He wasn't used to not getting his way when he worked his charm. He also didn't like the fact it didn't work on Max for some reason or another.
“Will you sulk there unless I let you keep my helmet?”
“Yes.”
“Have fun then, drama queen.”
“Maaax come on! You need to be a little curious too!”
“Not curious enough to put myself through hell again.”
“You're impossible.”
“I just want to protect my sanity.”
“Like I said, impossible.”
Max sighed deeply, this was a war he didn't have the patience for.
“How about another idea, Charles?”
“Unless it is you making a helmet for me, I don't want to hear it.”
“We could design helmets for each other?”
Charles perked up in the same way a dog does when you say it's favorite word, Max found it very cute.
“Go on.”
“Zandvoort is coming up, I have a special helmet coming up for that, but it could be replaced with one you design if you want. And are quick about it.”
Charles lit up, ideas already forming in his head about what to do for this. Max didn't expect him to be this enthusiastic about it.
“We need to do this.”
“Then we will.”
“What will we tell the teams?”
“Plays off of the accidental helmet swap well, good marketing, having us make proper helmets after that. Shows there's no bad blood between us or anything.”
“Oh Maxie, I could kiss you right now.”
“What?”
“What?”
Max stayed quiet, just staring at Charles, trying to process what he just said.
“Oh stop looking at me like that, it is just a saying.”
“Right.”
“Come on, we need to talk to our teams about it,” Charles was grabbing Max's hand, forcefully dragging them out of Max's room, rushing to get Red Bull and Ferrari involved in this adventure.