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the man
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jules bianchi was a private man. he did not share a lot about his family or the people that surrounded him. if you paid attention to his interviews you could see his reserved persona and shyness.
this however was just on camera. outside it's field, he was an outgoing, kind and amazing young man if tali could say so. because of his privacy though, not a lot knew about his family.
jean bianchi had always been there to support his brother even if he lived in another continent with his now growing family. he would make time to bring his entire family over to france to make sure jules could see his nephew and niece whom he adored, action that was extremely reciprocal, especially by his niece natalia 'tali' bianchi.
the little girl absolutely loved being in jules arms and he wasn't one to reject the toddler's cuddles unlike her brother luca who would rather much tink with whatever was in his hands. the amount of pictures jules possessed of the two kids was insane but he wouldn't change it for anything.
as they grew, the kids learned about what their uncle did and got to meet his friends as well. daniel joseph ricciardo loved tali rodriguez even after she pulled his precious curls, only causing a loud laugh to erupt from the driver's mouth.
the two kids also met another of jules' pride and joy, charles and with him lorenzo and arthur. charles got obsessed with braiding thanks to tali's messy curls. lorenzo found luca's tinkering amusing and arthur loved to see the two mexican-french kids fight.
even as toddles their bickering was worrisome.
one day however, jules chose to take three-year-old tali and five-year-old luca along with the leclerc siblings to a karting track on the outskirts of nice expecting to have a nice evening and maybe pull his nephew into the motorsport world.
he failed.
luca bianchi rodriguez absolutely despised the small kart with all his might, throwing a tantrum to get pulled out of it.
what he did not expect however, was the 3-year-old to understand what each pedal did while he walked luca back to his brother who was chuckling amusingly at jule's defeated look which suddenly turned into a worried gaze towards the track where he saw his daughter, his princess squealing of joy while advancing down the teaching path which consisted of a small oval, progressively going faster earning laughter and joy from the girl.
let's just say this was when jules bianchi knew.
he knew natalia rodriguez would be a force to be reckoned with in the motorsport world.
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a few days later, a small race was held in the same karting track and after a lot of begging and pleading, karla rodriguez agreed for her daughter to race with the condition of her getting full permission to buzz jules hair if something went south.
it in fact did not go south, it went north if that makes any sense. so north, tali reached the north pole. it was crazy and nobody believed it but a three-year-old with a little more than a week of practice had won over twelve-year-olds and below.
that day she had competed under tali rodriguez to avoid bringing attention to her name not knowing it would be kept that way for years. she competed in karting skipping categories with ease, two months after her 'debut' she was going against seven to eight year olds.
the year after that, she went to nine to ten year olds, and so she advanced. no one knew she was related to jules. despite her young age (she was six) a lot of kids were mean to her and did not believe for one second she was really that good.
she got in her first fight there.
well it wasn't a fight, more like she pushed and slapped a boy for calling her mean things.
she got banned from a race for lack of sportsmanship and that's when she experienced what being a girl in a male dominated field was like for the first time.
he should have been banned too but he wasn't because of his parents or whatever.
jean asked jules not to intervene to avoid unwanted attention, knowing this would only make tali stronger and he was right. the week after her race ban she won and in second place, with a sour expression the boy got poured over a strawberry soda (which had a lot of coloring) from the step above him.
it was one of tali's favorite memories from her karting days, she even had pictures from that moment! after that, she would sometimes win and she would sometimes get podiums, but she also lost sometimes as well.
she built her knowledge in f1 while watching her uncle's debut as a driver for marussia, she even assisted the monaco gp. six-year-old tali was so happy to be there she did not care about noise and screams. she was watching her role model and favorite person in the world do what he loved the most.
seven year old her was over the moon when her uncle took her to japan for what would be his last race (not that anyone knew that). she heard the crash, and she heard no reply from jules, her jules.
her parents tried to keep her in the dark but she knew. her parents told her he was just napping like she did sometimes in the afternoon but she had none of it. she was smart, and she also knew about what could happen. jules had felt something was wrong so he had a talk with her before sending her to one of his friends who was there for the weekend. jules bianchi knew something was going to go wrong that day, and sadly, his niece understood that perfectly.
she was there holding charles hand at seven-years-old wearing an itchy dress that made her feel cold and crave her uncle's warm embrace. the young monegasque noticed this, picking her up and hugging her, his heart breaking after hearing her sobs, finding his embrace the closest to the man who was now no longer in pain and driving one race ahead.
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her parents expected her to leave karting. they even had speeches prepared to convince her not to leave it, because even though it scared them, they could see the passion and love their daughter held for that floor level seat with an engine in front and a steering wheel that had the number 17 drawn with blue glitter and glue.
losing jules cost her many sleepless nights to this day, but it also made her want to reach and achieve jules dream which had now become hers too.
at age twelve in january 2019, she sat inside a formula car for the first time. formula regional was a huge step and she was more than ready to take it. one season in formula regional only made her crave for more. prema racing offered her precisely what she was looking for. the team was surprised by her 2nd place and offered her to step up to f3.
she won her rookie season.
prema was holding her hand tightly.
2020 proved that she deserved to be where she was despite the comments she got.
2021 she signed with mercedes and got into f2. she was a junior driver for them now, and charles, despite being a little sad she wasn't in ferrari, he was insanely proud of her, hosting a massive party surely all monaco heard from his mom's backyard, to the point where no one knew what the party was about, just that the driver was over the moon.
she was key for oscar winning the 2021 formula 2 championship, a title she could have gotten but did not pursue due to fear. fear of not knowing what would come after winning. yes, she wanted to go to f1, but quite frankly, it wasn't until then that she noticed she moved so fast up the rankings she had no one who would receive her as something other than a reserve driver.
2022 was her favorite season so far. she competed against felipe drugovich for the championship and had so much fun, she won. halfway through the f1 summer break however, she saw the latest updates of the highest category.
george russell did no longer find the same passion as before in the sport he once loved his entire life, stating he wanted to focus on finding himself again before even thinking of getting in a simulator again.
fans started to think about mick schumacher on taking over his spot, along with nyck de vries, even tali thought about them before herself to take the seat alongside lewis hamilton. this however changed when tania, her trainer and manager forwarded her an e-mail from toto wolff himself asking for her presence for a meeting with him and only him along other directives.
tali thought about a contract cut before a formula one seat contract offer so when she nervously walked inside the small conference room where barely five people inside aside from her sat with warm cups in their hands.
when toto told her what he was thinking she almost fainted. almost. but she didn't, thankfully.
she said yes without hesitation. this wasn't it though. she wasn't just going to bring her contract home for her mom to sign. no. her case was meant to go on an audience to the fia's headquarters where multiple people (she didn't even want to think how many) were going to talk about her case.
she had everything for her to receive a super license. everything except for the age. she would turn sixteen by the end of 2022, but she had been granted a permit at the beginning of the year to participate in practices for williams racing and mercedes, which obviously brought an insane amount of haters towards her platforms, but she did not care. she never did. she was keeping her mantra in her mind 24/7. a mantra taught by jules bianchi himself when she was banned from that one race all those years ago.
"fuck 'em all".
let's just say karla wasn't very happy when she heard it coming out of her daughter's mouth but she had to agree.
after a very tense week, she received a call from toto.
"welcome to mercedes amg petronas formula 1 team"
she cried a lot that day.
her family was proud. she cried a lot. again.
after the award ceremony after abu dhabi, she flew to monaco with her favorite ferrari driver to spend some days training and spending time with the leclercs. during dinner the first day, she showed them a picture in her phone. she was standing next to lewis hamilton with the fireproof's sleeves wrapped around her waist standing back against back with the seven time world champion.
they got the hint quickly. then, she heard a sob coming from the hug. pulling away, she expected the leclerc woman to be guilty of said noise, but to her surprise, it was charles who could not and would not stop crying.
"i'm so proud of you, mon ange." mon ange. that's what he called her ever since that evening where she saw her uncle's casket be buried. she felt warm inside, knowing he said it because according to him, she was his angel that brought peace through the toughest of times.
she had been training insanely hard and the announcement was yet to come out.
nyck de vries had signed with alpha tauri.
mick schumacher was available and now, so was daniel ricciardo.
december 23rd 2022, the statement came out. as of 2023, natalia rodriguez would be driving in formula 1 for mercedes.
she did not know what the season would have in store for her, whatever it was, she was ready to give her all.
tali rodriguez would make a difference in the sport she was so passionate about, and she would not stop for anyone or anything.
nini speaks !
new story. i will not drop mine though. this was an impulsive decision and i'm in love with this plot.
yes, i know ther are a lot of things in this tory that make no sense like tali's age or her insane talent at age three, but it's wattpad so idgaf.
vote and comment pls!
check out my other stories
mine- pablo gavi
london boy- henry cavill (coming soon)
i'll be trying to find a writing/posting schedule this next few weeks. i can teel you one thin though. i will not update all three of them weekly. maybe each once a month at least. one per week, but idk. as the storylines progress i might temporarily find more attachment to one or another.
disclaimers !
english is not my first language
no adaptations allowed
this plot is mine and only mine, pls don't copy it.
love, nini