FIFTY SEVEN

"Who doesn't love Bahrain?"

Larissa Cohen smiled as she stood in the paddock of the Bahrain Grand Prix, her black Mercedes suit making her already warm body become even warmer.

Thank God she was Brazilian and used to the heat.

Her long dark hair was braided in to two French plaits to make sure that it didn't stick to the back of her neck that had started to become sweaty. The braids were a tiny bit uneven, but she didn't mind.

Uncle Sebby had tried his best.

An arm wrapped itself around her shoulders, making the Cohen girl turn her head to face the man, seeing her newest team mate staring back at her.

"I love the track, but the heat is a no-no."

Valtteri Bottas smiled down at his team mate, sweat lining his face and dripping down the back of his neck. No matter how much he tried to stay cool, Bahrain was just way too hot for him.

He was Finnish, he liked the cold.

"In my trailer, there's a portable fan with a cooler system that you might like." Larissa explained to her team mate, seeing his face fill with relief, running off to find it of which he did, cheering in victory.

"It's heaven!"

He bellowed, the cooling system of the fan working wonders on cooling him down, because instead of just loads of hot air being blown in to his face, this time it was actually really really cold air instead.

"Keep it dude, you need it." Larissa chuckled, it turning in to laughter as the Finnish man ran up to her to kiss her cheek in thanks.

"You excited to be starting from pole for the first time in a Mercedes?"

Valtteri asked, since in qualifying, he had gotten himself third position whilst the Cohen girl had somehow managed to get it on pole on her very first try.

Must be in the genes.

The only driver in the way of the two team mates, was a certain Monégasque that she was dating. He had ran to congratulate her as soon as he had heard about her getting pole, kissing her in front of the cameras and revealing their relationship to the rest of the world.

"Oh you know that I am! I get to kick ass!" Larissa beamed with happiness and pride from how she managed to get on pole, with even second place being at least three whole seconds slower than she was.

"You always kick ass."

Lewis Hamilton and Toto Wolff smiled in happiness as they walked towards their little protégé, whose face was beaming with joy, which was a little bit infectious.

"Larissa."

Toto spoke up, with a soft smile on his face. "You've got a visitor."

The two men moved out of the way, side stepping to reveal a small man standing behind them, his smile a very familiar one and his clothes being merchandise of Mercedes with the name Cohen plastered all over it.

"Hey, little one."

Fernando Alonso smiled at the woman with a gentle smile, the same smile that he always reserved solely for his little niece who was now not so little.

Well, she was still five foot two, but she wasn't so young anymore, she was now twenty years old.

"Uncle Nando." Larissa nodded her head once at the man, confusing everybody around her at her unusually cold behavior towards her uncle.

The man stepped forwards to hug her tightly, though he frowned as she stepped away from him, a glare on her face.

"So you've got bored of seeing Kimi?" She glared at the Spanish man, seeing his face falter. "Finally come to see me? I'm surprised that you haven't forgotten about me."

Fernando's face filled with realisation at the words leaving her lips, his hands reaching out to take hold of hers, even when she tried to pull her hands away from him, he grabbed them and held on to them tightly.

"I didn't want to come and see you." Fernando admitted, seeing an offended look upon her face. "I was speaking to Kimi, telling him that I want to slowly pull back from being with you at every race."

"Why? You're supposed to be my uncle."

"I am. But I don't want you to rely on having me with you all the time. There will be times where I can't be with you, and I know that it was the first race of the season, but I wanted to prepare you." Fernando attempted to soothe his niece, seeing her face fill with a look of horror.

There was no way that he was saying that.

"Are you planning on dying on me?" Larissa barked at him, aggressively pulling her hands away from him. "Are you planning to leave me?"

"Not intentionally, but you never know how it goes in the sport! I'll still come and visit you often, but just maybe not every single race." Fernando pulled her in to a hug, feeling her trying to pull out of it though he held her close.

Eventually he felt her stop fighting him and let him hug her, the retired driver nestling his face in to the crook of her neck, a single stray tear leaving his eye.

"We both lost our best friend that day, it will get better, little one." Fernando assured her, pulling back slightly to kiss her cheeks and her temple. "I'd never deliberately leave you, you know that."

"I do."

Larissa whispered as she tried not to cry, since she was supposed to be making sure that she didn't have any distractions due to her starting on pole soon.

She wanted to get a race win.

____________________________________________________

"LARISSA COHEN WINS THE BAHRAIN GRAND PRIX!"

Team Mercedes cheered loudly from their garages as they watched her cross the finish line in first place, in front of that of her team mate Bottas, and boyfriend Charles Leclerc.

She had never given up the lead after getting pole, being in control of the whole race, having a lead of twenty one seconds.

She had even lapped some other drivers, like Robert Kubica, George Russell, Lance Stroll, Kevin Magnussen and Daniil Kvyat.

She jumped out of her car to see her team cheering for her, the woman jumping on to the halo of her car to do a very familiar celebration.

She threw one of her hands up in to the air as if she was throwing a ball, before clasping her hands together, swinging it towards the air where the imaginary ball had been, as if it was a baseball bat, then bringing her hand up to her visor, as if she was looking to see how far it went.

Lucy Appleton smiled through the tears at the celebration, her hand clasping around her locket around her neck, opening it to see a picture of her best friend with herself, the same man who had created the celebration.

Luiz Cohen.

Zahra Bailey screamed in pride from her spot sitting on the shoulders of the Mercedes team principal, who himself was cheering loudly for the race winner.

Valtteri Bottas pulled in beside his team mate, jumping out of his car to pick his team mate up and placing her on to his shoulders, the two Mercedes drivers celebrating a Mercedes 1-2.

Charles Leclerc pulled in on the other side of the race winner since he had finished in third, climbing out and removing his helmet and balaclava, wiping the sweat from off his head as he took note in the celebrations of Mercedes and his girlfriend.

When the Cohen girl finally removed her helmet and balaclava from off her head, her eyes met that of the Monégasque, small loving smiles passing between the two.

Larissa even teasingly blew him a kiss, which he of course had to dramatically catch.

The podium ceremony was just as fun, the two Mercedes taking centre stage as they climbed the barrier of the stage, even making the Ferrari driver in third join them.

The three of them outstretched their arms to their sides and closed their eyes, bright smiles on their faces, doing what was known as a signature move for anybody with the name of Cohen.

The move was called 'Christ the Redeemer' after the statue and wonder of the world in Brazil, the home country of the creator who was definitely looking down on them and celebrating heavily.

The rest of the drivers were cheering up at them, celebrating even though they themselves didn't win, but they didn't mind because they all still enjoyed seeing the race winner happy.

Larissa Cohen was just a person who everybody couldn't help but love.

Even Franz Tost was seen smiling, his hands clapping together for her. Even though she wasn't his driver anymore and they had always argued, Luiz had been his friend.

He had been tough on her, he knew that, and he knew that he had fucked up a few times, especially when he had been sexist towards her but he was just trying to look out for her.

He didn't want to see another Cohen crash and burn.

He wanted to see Cohen's thrive and win, like she was doing right now, being care free and cheerful and happy. He could see her smile from her, that was so bright, he didn't want it to go away.

Mercedes was always her team, not Toro Rosso, he knew that now.

She had hated driving for his team, because Mercedes had welcomed her completely, treating her as if she was already one of them, which she pretty much was, whereas he had done nothing but mistreat her and he knew that he would forever regret it.

If she could win races in a Toro Rosso, like she did, then he knew that she could easily destroy the competition in a Mercedes. She could easily destroy the field of drivers, wiping the floor and taking all of the victories and trophies with her as she did so.

His newest driver, Alex Albon stood beside him, chanting the winners name along with the other new drivers to the grid, Lando Norris and George Russell.

Even Daniil Kvyat was chanting the name of the girl who he had met a while ago, seeing her doing what she was always supposed to.

Pierre Gasly, Kevin Magnussen, Esteban Ocon and Daniel Ricciardo were all stood together, screaming the girls last name, cheering and hollering as if they were hooligans, but they weren't. They were just super happy and proud of their best friend for winning.

Lance Stroll clapped for her with a smile on his face. She may not have liked him, for literally no reason, but he was still happy to see her win. His father was too, who was now his team boss.

Her uncle's jumped up and down in celebration, their hands alternating as they moved up and down. When one was down, the other was up, and repeated the dance move until they got tired and had to stop.

It was the same dance that they did with their best friend whenever one of them was the race winner. They had decided to bring it back out of the back of the closet for when she was winning and they were so happy that they did, because her eyes sparkled as she noticed that they were doing it.

Even Sara Cohen smiled, though she was watching it on the television from her prison cell, her grey sweats that she had to wear doing nothing for her figure and her looks, but it was okay.

She did deserve it, after all.

André Santos on the other hand, was watching it with a slight glare on his face, his prison cell being cold and dark in comparison to where she was which was nice and warm.

And finally...

Lewis Hamilton screamed his sisters name as he jumped up and down, because whilst being her manager, he knew what he was seeing right in front of his very eyes.

The Cohen domination era was officially back.

____________________________________________________

A/N

Gonna do quick summarys on some of the races, so don't hate me please!

What do you think?

(Also, as one reader politely pointed out, I actually missed the fucking anniversary 🤣🤣😭 if that doesn't sum me up as a writer and a person, I do not know what does. Legacy turned 1 on the 18th, not the 19th or the 20th like I thought it did.)

I've got probably around 10 or 15 chapters left of this, I think. Maybe twenty because of the Belgian grand prix which is gonna hit her hard, I'm sorry but I'm warning you all now.

Anyway, I hope that you all enjoy this chapter and I'll see you all soon for the next one,

I'm so proud of all of you, my loves

Love you all,

-RUBY