SEVENTY THREE

"LARISSA COHEN YOU ARE THE WORLD CHAMPION!"

Her radio engineer screamed at the top of his lungs in to her ear as she seemed to be in shock, her mouth ajar, her dark eyes wide open, hands trembling.

Her Mercedes team swarmed her as she exited her car, her championship winning car, lifting her up in to the air and throwing her up multiple times, all of them chanting a name that nobody would have ever thought would be chanted again, at least not for a world champion.

Cohen.

Barely anybody called her just by her last name, only her radio engineer and occasionally Toto. That was it. Everybody else called her kid, Kiddo, Lis, Lar, Lissy, Lara, Riss, Rissa, Brazil, Miss Brazil, Joey, Little Firecracker, Little One, Little Shit and many more.

The name Cohen had always been reserved solely for her father, The Cohen. How on earth had it now been used for her?

Had people forgotten her father?

"You're the World Champion, how does it feel?"

Toto and Susie Wolff smiled proudly at their girl as she stood dumbfounded in front of them, her eyes lost as if she was still trying to come to terms with what it was that she had just done.

"I-I- Where's my dad?"

Larissa Cohen spoke as her brain struggled to piece everything together, not noticing how the faces of the two people in front of her had dropped instantly.

"Larissa, darling, you're dad is-" Susie Wolff attempted to speak up to intervene, though her husband decided to stop her, a feeling that it wasn't what they were thinking.

"He's watching you, he's proud." Toto lightly patted the girls head which made her glance up at him.

His face soon returned with a smile when the Brazilian barrelled in to him to give him a hug, a feeling in his chest that could only be described as love, pride and happiness.

A tap on her shoulder made her pull away from the Austrian man, to see two faces smiling happily at her, though their eyes were both filled to the brim with tears.

"You did it, oh my god, you did it."

Lucy Appleton surged forwards to wrap her arms tightly around the young girls frame, her tears leaking from out of her eyes because of all the emotion in her body.

The young girl that she had trained, had just won her very first World Championship. How amazing was that? How proud was she?

Her husband had managed to do the same with the girls father, and now, so had she, with the new generation. History had repeated itself.

"Kid, as your manager, I'm so proud. However as your brother and your best friend I just want to say.... welcome to the club." Lewis Hamilton lifted his sister from up off the ground as he was finally able to congratulate her.

"I'm inviting Nico. No excuses." Larissa lifted one of her hands up to his face to scold him, pointing her finger harshly at him, his face cracking in to a bright smile.

"I already did."

"You did?"

"As soon as you overtook Seb, I knew that you were winning, so I sent him a text, inviting him. He said that he can't wait to be there, Little shit." Lewis smiled as he noticed his sisters surprised face, followed by her screams and squeals from finally having made the two of them interact again.

Toto suddenly cleared his throat from behind them, pointing towards her garage where a sea of people were sprinting towards the Cohen girl, who attempted to hide behind Lewis and use him as a human shield.

"OHMYGODLISYOUAREAWORLDCHAMPIONFINALLYIAMSOPROUD!!!!"

Zahra Bailey practically launched herself on top of her best friend as she came to a halt in front of her, her heels aching from the sprint since she had previously broken her heels from jumping up and down on the ground after the initial win.

Larissa was forced to grab a hold of her best friends legs to stop her from flying over her shoulder, and to also stop herself from tumbling to the ground.

Once the Bailey woman was placed on to the ground, arms, hands and chests were all that she could see as she was swarmed by the entirety of the Larissa Cohen Fan Club.

Zahra, Lewis, Lucy, Toto, Susie, Valtteri, Esteban, Pierre, Charles, Fernando, Sebastian, Kimi, Jenson, Nico H, Nico R, Mark, Kevin, Romain, Gunther, Mick, Gina, Michael, Corinna, Yuki, Hanna, Arthur, Lorenzo, Pascale, Nicholas, Nyck, Carlos, Lando, Alex, George, Lily, Checo, Stoffel, Marcus, Tatiana, Jamie, Felipe, Pastor, Daniel, Zhou, Max, Antonio, Jack, Robert, Daniil, and even Lance was there to congratulate her.

It had gotten to the point where there were that many people around her trying to congratulate her, that Larissa Cohen simply dropped to the ground so that she could crawl through the legs of the people swarming her to escape.

And she did.

Until somebody grabbed a hold of her, giving her a very stern glare.

"I'm sorry okay?" Larissa started. "That's just a whole lot of people and I'm kind of stuck right now because I don't know how to react because I've waited my entire life for this moment and now that it's here I don't know what to do!"

Sebastian Vettel just raised his eyebrows as he waited for her to finish her rant, his fingers tapping impatiently against his arms.

"Shut up and let me hug my niece."

As soon as the German man's arms were wrapped around her, her body practically melted in to his embrace, but then again, Uncle Sebby's hugs had always had that affect on her, especially if she was super stressed.

"Go and celebrate. We'll be here to congratulate you when you come back." Sebastian lightly kissed the top of her head, though as she turned away, she was stopped yet again by a hand grabbing her forearm.

"And where are you going by yourself?"

Kimi Raikonnen spoke with an unamused tone, one of his eyebrows raised.

"I'm going to drink and celebrate without being smothered to death, if that's even possible." Larissa snarked back to her uncle, though she immediately hid behind the Vettel man as her Finnish uncle gave her a harsh glare.

Sebastian only giggled to himself at the way that he had been used as a shield.

"Bwoah, you're stupid if you thought I'd let you do it alone. Besides, I get priority, I'm the Godfather." The Raikonnen man muttered as he pushed his good friend Seb out of the way to grab his niece and goddaughter, pulling her in to his side.

"You don't have to join me, Uncle Kimi."

"Shut up." Kimi scolded, grabbing a hold of his niece and lifting her up in to the air.

"I'm carrying you on my shoulders, like old times."

____________________________________________________

"How on God's green earth, did you manage to make my car explode before I've even driven it?"

Larissa Cohen spoke with the both of her eyebrows raised high as she stared at her team of Mercedes mechanics, having been able to see that her car was now a very charred car inside of a very charred garage.

One that she could not drive for the Mexican Grand Prix.

She would not even be able to join the race, which would give her a DNS.

"We think that it was a problem with the fueling system, which then made the fuel ignite as we were getting it ready for you to drive."

The head of her mechanics informed her with an upset look on his face, though he did feel a bit better to see that she was not blowing up in his face with anger.

If anything, she was more confused than anything else.

"Right, okay well, in that case, I will go and watch the race from Valtteri's garage. Or is that too going to go up in flames?" Larissa released a deep sigh as she ran her hand over her face, disbelief so evident on her face.

"For safety reasons, we have organised for you to watch the race from a different teams garage." Toto Wolff informed his World Champion driver, seeing her eyebrows furrow together.

"And who might that be? Because I swear if it's Red Bull then I'll get my pyromainiac mechanics here to do the same to their garage."

"Ferrari."

"Absolutely not, Red Bull here I come."

Larissa Cohen immediately spun on the balls of her feet so that she could spin her body around, walking towards the Red Bull garage since she would rather spend the race there than enter the Ferrari garage.

"We'll take her!"

Gunther Steiner shouted as he pointed towards the agitated the Cohen girl, seeing that he had recieved a thumbs up from the team boss of the Mercedes team, Toto.

The Brazilian girl followed Gunther until she was inside one of their garages, decked with the face of one of her best friends, a Danish viking man who loved to drink.

It had been a very long time since she had watched a Formula one race without being in it, so it felt very strange to do so, worry within her that she would witness an accident similar to her fathers.

Though, with the help of some herbal tea that was given to her by Gunther and the owner of Haas, Gene, Larissa Cohen missed the boring race by falling asleep inside Kevin Magnussen's driver trailer.

And Gunther found Kevin's near heart attack reaction hilarious when he entered his trailer to see his best friend, fast asleep and snoring.

"You didn't tell me that she was in here? Why?" Kevin looked towards his team boss, with the man just grinning mischievously.

"Funny."

____________________________________________________

The United States of America.

Known for the likes of Beyoncé, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Martin Luther King, Hilary Clinton, Walmart, Elvis Presley, guns, and fast food.

As well as other things, of course.

Like Alexander Rossi.

"Welcome, world Champion."

Alexander smiled as he spotted the newest World Champion walking towards him, a smirk on her lips.

It was strange for the both of them, seeing each other.

They hadn't seen each other since two thousand and fourteen, when the American man was last in Formula One... and when Jules was alive.

For Alexander, he had not seen the Brazilian since she was fifteen, so for him to see a now fully grown woman and racer, he felt a sharp stab of pride within his chest, his smiling only growing as he could see what all the fuss was about.

Not the fuss that the media mentioned, but that of his former team mate, who had only met the girl once yet seemed to know how amazing she would be as a Formula one driver.

Jules Bianchi had so much faith in the Cohen girl, and Alex knew that the late Formula one driver would be so proud of what she had managed to achieve.

"Hey, Rossi, how's IndyCar treating you?" Larissa smiled as she stood next to the man, lightly nudging his arm in greeting. "How's the lil Mexican doing?"

"You mean Pato? Well, considering it's his first season, he's doing good." Alex smiled, not surprised at all that Larissa had been keeping an eye on his progress in the IndyCar series.

"I will definitely do my best to come and watch one of your races, as I do need to congratulate P." Larissa laughed, the two of them walking towards her garage, since he was meant to be watching the race from her garage.

"I sure hope that you do, Marcus will be happy to see your face again, and Pato will be incredibly excited to know that you know that he exists." The Rossi man chuckled as he lifted one of his hands to pat the girl on her shoulder, as they arrived in to her garage, taking her team principal by surprise at the presence of the American driver.

Alexander simply waved at Toto, who stared at him in confusion.

As Larissa was pulling on her fireproofs ready for qualifying, Rossi was surprised by the sudden arrival of two people closest to the Brazilian racing driver.

Zahra Bailey and Esteban Ocon.

"Am I hallucinating or is Alexander Rossi standing right in front of me?"

Esteban Ocon muttered in confusion as his eyes widened to the size of saucers, his girlfriend standing beside him also incredibly confused by his presence.

"Am I still drunk from celebrating Larissa winning?"

Zahra Bailey whispered, running the both of her hands over her face repeatedly, expecting him to no longer be there when she removed her hands from her face.

However, when she finally moved her hands, all she saw was the American waving at the pair of them, similar to how he did when Toto had suffered the same reaction.

"Uh, hi guys, it's nice to meet you both." Alexander smiled at the two of them, shaking the hand of the French man who he had heard so much about, having seen the career of him.

"Lar, why is he here? You're not joining IndyCar, are you?" Esteban frowned, confusion in his body.

"Oh god no." The Cohen girl grimaced. "Well, I wanted an American here so that the US crowd had to love me." Larissa giggled mischievously. "And Logan is too young to really give me an advantage of the home crowd, and Alex is the only other American that I know."

"Oh really? I'm just here so that you can use my American nationality to your advantage?" Alexander smirked, raising the both of his eyebrows up, which made the young girl laugh.

"Like you wouldn't use my nationality and my name to make people like you more." The Cohen girl rolled her eyes teasingly at the man. "And anyway, you still wanted to come and watch! That's on you!"

Larissa honestly found it so strange having Alexander Rossi at the race to support her.

Not only did it feel strange considering that she hadn't seen him since she was fifteen, it was also a little but painful to remember that the last time that they had seen each other, that Jules had been alive.

It was like she was a teenager again, having to negotiate the world of motorsport racing without her father, and the flood of emotions evident.

Another reason why it hurt, was because when she was fourteen, she had Anthoine.

"Well in that case, you better win to make it worthwhile." Alex laughed, having not noticed her sudden change of mood.

"Do you want a tour of the place whilst you're here?"

Esteban questioned the American man since he knew that he hadn't noticed, allowing his girlfriend to check on their best friend as he gave Alex a tour of the paddock.

Zahra Bailey shuffled up to her best friend and pulled her in to her chest, hugging and comforting the girl whose emotions had changed only within a matter of seconds.

But Zahra knew, that when somebody had grieved and lost like Larissa had, sudden mood changes were bound to happen.

But Larissa was her best friend, her lifeline, so she knew exactly how to help her.

"Double espresso?"

The Cohen girl cracked a smile at her best friend, nodding her head up and down multiple times, knowing that she couldn't drink alcohol before qualifying, so a double espresso would have to do.

"Double espresso."

____________________________________________________

"Não há nada melhor do que estar de volta em casa."

Larissa Cohen smiled as she sat on the passenger side of her best friends ride, the two of them travelling from the airport to head back to their houses, of which were next door to one another, ready for her home Grand Prix.

In Brazil.

"Eu amo esse lugar."

Zahra Bailey spoke with a smirk on her face as she drove her car, seeing her best friend shoot her head towards her, a look of shock upon her face.

"Since when did you know more than please, thank you and I love you, in Portuguese?" Larissa practically screamed in shock, hearing the giggles of the Bailey woman from beside her.

"Well, Charles has been helping Esteban and I learn Portuguese, you know, since your boyfriend learnt it so that he could impress you, which is still absolutely adorable every single time that I think about it." Zahra giggled as she drove, turning her head to face her best friend so that she could wiggle her eyebrows up and down in a teasing and mocking manner.

Esteban and Zahra had both decided that their limited knowledge of the Portuguese language was not good enough, especially since they were both now splitting their time between Monaco, Italy, Switzerland and Brazil.

But, they wanted to surprise Larissa with their improved language skills, so they enlisted the help of Charles... and Mick to learn the language and become fluent like they were.

Larissa rolled her eyes at the mention of her boyfriend, her cheeks flushing a slight shade of pink which she hoped that her best friend wouldn't notice.

She did.

"Oh my god, you're blushing! You're actually blushing!" Zahra squealed, leaning her head back for a mere moment so that she could release a very loud laugh.

"Hey! You can't talk! You've got Estie learning Farsi to try and impress you!" Larissa cackled, lifting one of her hands so that she could push the shoulder of her best friend.

"That's different!"

"How is that different?"

"Because I said so!"

Zahra grinned, her smile widening by the second, happiness flooding in to her body and her heart which was beating rapidly, not for any other reason other than that she was just happy to be with her best friend.

Larissa had given her everything that she had ever wanted and needed in her life and she really had absolutely no idea what she would do without the Brazilian in her life.

She had given her a friend, a best friend and a sister.

Her best friend was a Formula One World Champion.

And she couldn't be more proud.

____________________________________________________

"Since you kicked our ass' at the US Grand Prix, I just want you to know that we are looking forward to it happening again."

George Russell and Lando Norris smiled as they stood beside their best friend and her boyfriend with bright grins and cocky smirks upon their lips.

"Well, it is her home Grand Prix, so you really don't stand a chance against her."

Charles Leclerc chuckled to himself as he stood beside that of his girlfriend, his hand clutched in that of his beloveds, his thumb massaging her hand gently.

"Cohen's don't give wins away on their home Grand Prix's, so get fucked."

Larissa Cohen smirked teasingly as she stared at her friends, wiggling the both of her eyebrows whilst nudging the Norris boy with her elbow, making him stumble after losing his balance.

"I'll just have to make your championship winning party the Lando Norris party, then." Lando giggled with a large smile upon his youthful face.

"Who says you're invited?"

Charles mocked with a laugh, his smile growing as he heard the angelic laugher of his love from beside him, the sound being heaven to his ears and making butterflies erupt inside of his stomach.

"But Villeneuve is invited!"

Lando raised his voice as he whined, worried that he would not be invited to his best friends party, though he noticed the soft smile on the Brazilians face which immediately settled his nerves.

"I'll tell you what... if the both of you finish higher than fifteenth, then you're both invited." The Cohen girl raised one of her eyebrows as she watched her friends think about her proposal, before they both nodded their heads up and down.

"George, you're in a Williams so you better drive like your life depends on it because I need to go to this party." Lando scolded his tall friend who was standing beside him.

"No pressure then!"

____________________________________________________

"Seb is 17.2 seconds behind, this should be another easy win for you, Cohen. Keep it steady."

Her radio engineer spoke to the Brazilian Mercedes driver as she drove effortlessly in first place, her lead growing by the second.

Having won in the USA, with an incredibly large lead, Larissa had managed to do the same at her home Grand Prix.

Charles was in third place behind his team mate, her uncle Sebby, whereas Lando had managed to get in to eleventh place, with the British boy obviously trying to get an invite to her party for winning the championship.

George was also battling in his Williams, though he was desperately trying to hold on to fifteenth place so that he too would be able to get an invite.

It was funny to her, because she knew that even if they didn't, that she would still invite them, after all they were her best friends.

She just knew that it would make them even more determined to do well, and maybe get them their highest positions of the season.

And it did, because as she finished in first place at her home Grand Prix thirty seconds ahead of her Uncle who was in second, Lando finished in ninth  place.

And George finished in tenth, getting his first ever formula one point.

"I guess you're both invited, after all."

____________________________________________________

A/N

After this I've got Abu Dhabi and then the epilogue so there's 2 chapters left....

What do you think?

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 🇵🇸