𝟐𝟔𝐭𝐡 𝐨𝐟 𝐒𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟏

For three years, Amilia Ana López competed in the Formula 3 championship, and for two years, she fell short of winning the title. She came close a couple of times, finishing in the top five, but there was always someone else who managed to edge her out. But Amilia refused to give up, she kept pushing herself harder and harder, spending countless nights in the simulator and working with her team to fine-tune her car. And finally, in her third year of competing, everything came together. It was her first year driving with PREMA Racing and she knew from day one, that it was her ticket to a seat in Formula 2.

The championship deciding race was intense, with several drivers trading the lead back and forth. But Amilia refused to be intimidated. She drove with skill and precision, taking advantage of every opening that presented itself. And in the end, she crossed the chequered line first, with a lead of just a few tenths to her teammate Dennis Hauger. She couldn't believe it. She had done it. She had won the FIA Formula 3 championship.

Standing there on the top step made her feel like she's standing on top of the world. Thousands of people beneath her screaming, clapping and cheering. All the hard work had finally paid off, she was ecstatic, overwhelmed with pride and joy. Take that motherfuckers.

3 years of being the most hated driver on the grid to being the first woman to win a championship title in the FIA history. 3 years of being discriminated in every interview and every article Amilia was involved in. It may seem like the happiest moment of her life, but Amilia also felt like the fans didn't want to see her holding the championship trophy. They wanted to see one of her teammates holding it. Hell, they would love to see any other driver holding the trophy, as long as it wasn't the Spanish small-town girl holding it.

Amilia looked to her right, seeing her teammate Dennis standing on the second highest step, waving into the crowd, having the biggest fake smile plastered on his face. He finished not only second in the race, but he also finished second in the championship, which was a blow to his ego. He would be okay with second place, but being second place with a woman on first place, was making him furious. He hated the idea of letting women drive in the Formula championships and he let Amilia feel his disapproval at any time possible. He knew, that the fans wanted him and him only.

Amilia turned her gaze downwards and her heart dropped, the fans were holding up signs with Dennis' number on it, they were screaming his name and cheering for him. Not her, him. Her head was filled with the many times, that Hauger had mocked her and manipulated her into hating herself for who she was. He'd make sexist jokes about her in interviews and tell the world how women should stay away from the Formula world, because "it's a man thing", that's what he'd like to call it. Amilia's head was pounding with everything that happened in the last months, she really couldn't stand this man.

She tried to push those thoughts aside and focus on the moment. She smiled for the cameras, raised her trophy high, and waved to the crowds. But deep down, she was struggling to keep it together, because she could already smell the incoming hate on social media, simply because of her gender. The comments on her driving or the judging of her body wasn't even the worst, it was the death threats she kept reading in her DM's.

Her eyes wandered over the masses, looking for one person and one person only. When her eyes caught his, she felt a wave of comfort rushing through her body. Arthur's soothing smile washed away her worries for the moment and when he noticed, that he caught her attention, his smile grew even bigger. He let out a loud cheer and threw his arms in the air, celebrating his friend's title. It was good to know that there were people who supported Amilia, who believed in her abilities and know about the effort she's been putting in since she started competing.

Arthur Leclerc has always been supportive of his teammate Amilia. He celebrated every podium of hers and stood always by her side when possible. He knew about the situation with Dennis, but there's not much he can do about it, except defending her behind closed doors. But it's all their reputations at stake and if the media finds out about the conflict between the PREMA drivers, this would mean an insane amount of trouble for them, but mostly for Amilia.

After the Spanish national anthem has ended, Amilia took the expensive bottle of champagne in her two hands and with her new found confidence she wanted to start shaking the bottle, as she already felt some of the bubbly liquid against her skin. Jack Doohan, who made it to P3 that day, was happily spraying all of his champagne on the freshly crowned champion. Amilia pretended to be shocked, just for her to shake her own bottle behind her back and let all the liquid go straight into Jack's face, his Pirelli cap being blown off, because of the pressure. Both laughing at the occurrence, they turned back to the crowd for a last wave. Amilia and Jack slowly started making their way down the stairs, to get ready for media duty.

Dennis Hauger rushed down past them, trying to get away from this insolence, he just wanted to get this whole thing over with. Amilia was chatting with Jack as they walked down the stairs slowly, trying not to trip, because of their shoes dripping in champagne. They parted ways to go back to their garages, waving for a short goodbye. Amilia neatly avoided any photographers on her way back, she wanted to avoid photos of her in wet clothes being circulated on the Internet.

When she returned to the garage, Arthur was already waiting for her, leaning against a pile of her nearly dead medium tires. When Amilia spotted him, she flew into his armes, trying to escape reality, knowing, that the interviewers will tear her to pieces in a few minutes. "Arthur, I'm done with this shit", she mumbled into his shoulder. "Did you see them? The fans? Cheering for that douchebag, when I was the one winning the whole thing, I was the one making history!" The championship meant a lot to Amilia, she wanted to be the role model for all the little girls getting into karting and motorsport. She wanted to show them that it is indeed possible to win a title as a female in a male-dominated sport.

Amilia wished, she had someone to look up to, when she was a little girl competing in local races and trying to make a name for herself in the racing world. The thrill of the speed and the tension of the competition made her long for more. In a span of a few years she made it from occasional karting lessons on the countryside over competitive karting to finally being able to drive real racing cars. She competed in Formula W for two years when she was 20, before she finally signed a two-year contract with MP Motorsport to enter Formula 3.

All these years by her side, Lewis Hamilton, being her best friend and also a pretty big name in Formula 1. When Amilia was 9 years old she moved with her parents from Spain to England, because little Amy has already out-competed every kid her age in Spain. Therefor her parents took all their savings and rented a small house right outside of London in order to give Amilia bigger opportunities to develop further and progress into higher leagues. That's when she met Lewis, a small boy from a similar family situation as her and they hit it off immediately. He was a few years older than Amilia, that's why they only raced in the same category for a short amount of time, but they had become good friends. They would share stories about their races and offer each other advice. As they grew older and spent more time together, their relationship started to deepen and they developed a deep platonic connection.

"I know, chérie. I know how hard it is, trying to live up to expectations, that you'll never meet in a lifetime anyway. But you gotta stay strong and show him and the whole world, that you're the champ and nothing's gonna take that away from you now, okay?" Arthur pulled Amilia out of her thoughts and his words made her look at him. Amilia knew, how hard it was for him to fit into his brother's shadow. "¡Mierda! You're right... It is all a bit too much for me to handle today. Let me put on a shirt real quick, then we shall go and feed the hungry coyotes" Arthur chuckled briefly at her metaphor about the interviewers.

Wearing their red PREMA shirts over their racing suits, Arthur and Amilia walked towards the masses, throwing themselves in front of the endless cameras.

"Amilia López, how does it feel to win the championship as a woman?"

"Emily, do you think you deserved the championship, after all the hours Dennis Hauger has put in?"

"Amilia, what's up for the future? No Formula 2 seat in sight, I suppose?"

"Miss López, do you wear your bra underneath all of this and wouldn't it be a fire hazard?"

This one's got a lot of nerve. As much as Amilia wanted to crush his teeth with her fist, she simply smiled and said: "That's one secret I'll never tell" and winked seductive.

After a very exhausting hour, Amilia was spontaneously asked to speak a word or two in front of the whole crowd, to close the season. They handed her a microphone and told her to stand on the red x on the floor. A camera was directed at Amilia and a man in the back counted down from 5 to 1 on one hand, signalising her when to start talking.

"Hello everyone, I just wanted to say thank you for everything. Thank you for supporting me during all those years. Thank you to the team, for creating such a beast as my car this year. Thank you to my friends and family for always believing in me. And thank you to the FIA for integrating women in motorsport. Since I was a young girl, I dreamed of achieving, what I have achieved today. I hope to inspire all those young Amilia's out there, waiting for their opportunity to do what I did." She stopped talking, lowered her gaze to the floor and sighed. Thousands of eyes on her, not knowing what her next words will be. "But... I'm retiring from Formula 3 as of today"

The crowd erupted into loud cries of protest. Amilia quickly turned around and hurried into the PREMA garage to lock herself into her drivers cabin.

𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐭'𝐬 𝐢𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐮𝐞, 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲? :) 𝐈 𝐡𝐨𝐩𝐞 𝐈 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐲𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭!! 𝐚𝐥𝐬𝐨 𝐩𝐥𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞, 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈 𝐚𝐦 𝐚𝐥𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐟𝐥𝐮𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐄𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐢𝐭'𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐦𝐲 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐮𝐚𝐠𝐞, 𝐬𝐨 𝐛𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐦𝐞 <𝟑

- 𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐚