layla castelló is an italian-american born in rural illinois. her paternal grandparents were born in abruzzo, italy. they moved to america in the early eighties after having their son, layla’s father. her mother was born and raised in chicago, illinois. her parents would meet in the late nineties, moving out to the country in the early 2000s.

her route to the red bull racing was a bit stranger than normal. since she grew up in america, her desire to race was focused on nascar. she spent her childhood karting and dirt track racing. the flip from nascar to formula one happened in her early-teens when her family spent a summer in italy. she started f4 racing at sixteen and would be racing in f1 only three years later at nineteen.

born november fifteenth 2005 — she is 19 during the 2025 racing season.

she uses the american flag when racing. & the number 44.

she only speaks a little italian. bits & pieces she learned from her grandmother. her accent is the classic midwestern—you wouldn’t be able to tell her italian heritage from the way she speaks.

jason todd is an italian-american born in naples, italy to his italian mother, carmela de luca, and his american father, joseph todd. he would spend his half of his life in milan, italy and the other half in manhattan, new york.

he began karting as a young boy under the influence of his maternal grandfather. he would then follow the usual route to his own f1 seat at age eighteen in 2021. during his four years in f1 he has not budged from his mercedes seat, much to his grandfather's dismay. the old man had hoped jason would follow in his footsteps and align his loyalties to ferrari.

born august sixteenth 2002 — he is 22 during the 2025 racing season.

he uses the italian flag when racing. & the number 4.

he speaks fluent english & italian. his accent is surprisingly more akin to those from new york than those born in the heart of italy.

expectation vs reality lmao. hayley williams really kicked me in the nuts with ego death at a bachelorette party…

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

in the f1 summer break in 2022, i flew down to teahupo'o for the outerknown tahiti pro. i'd planned to compete there as a wildcard entry for six months, and had literally dreamed of that wave for years. it just so happened that my life completely blew up right before i got there—everything i'd envisioned for that moment needed a little modification. 

for starters, i was alone. fresh from a breakup, with my ex as the number one pick to win the event on the men's side. not only that, but all my friends in surfing were also his; every connection i had was tainted by him, and i didn't want to overstep any further than i already had.

no guidance? no support? Fine! so be it.

next? the wave at teahupo'o is no joke. it's Mean. it scares the professionals, and while i was a passionate competitor, i'd never surfed anything like it before. it required a factory reset of my mind, body, and technique. 

i got there two weeks before the competition began and spent every day beyond the reef—relentlessly pushing myself in pursuit of perfection. it was exhausting and lonely work. every wipe out hit harder than the last and at times i found myself wanting to go home and quit while i was ahead. 

but, when i finally made it through a barrel, it was a high like nothing i'd ever experienced. when you're in the wave, the only thing that matters is making it out. there is no other noise except the sound of rushing water, waiting to suck you into its grasp and spit you back out. no space for doubts or external pressure. 

tape 1: maybe they're all right, but it doesn't matter

by the time competition rolled around, i was confident in myself for the first time in months. it wasn't loud or prideful, but a quiet assurance that i carried through each round of heats and finals, until a miracle happened. i won the whole event, against the best surfers in the world.

against my better instincts, i celebrated the achievement. part of me still felt guilty, especially knowing that i'd invaded my ex's space and likely added insult to injury—but even that failed to dampen my mood after receiving a perfect 10 on my final wave. surfing had always been mine, too, and now i'd claimed a little bit of it back.

when i surfaced back in my world—the one of burnt rubber and flashing cameras—i felt like i'd finally found the answers i was looking for; in terms of my future, my career, and what i valued in life. not to get corny, but that's what it meant to me. i'd already fucked up so much. beyond belief, actually. i'd betrayed people and everything i supposedly held dear, but in return i got clarity. 

the jury's still out on whether the exchange was worth it. whatever the decision is, teahupo'o 2022 is one of my proudest victories. i can close my eyes and still taste the air, feel the weight of the wave behind me. some day i'll go back.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

© ninekaiiz 2026

why are you letting the 3d decide what shifting means? you're giving 3d the power to decide when you shift. and maybe that's why nothing's working. the 3d is not alive, has no consciousness, is not a powerful creator like you are. the 3d is fully stagnant. all that is changing and is alive is YOU. all that has the power of decision is YOU. you are surrendering your power and giving it to an inanimate object, so don't act surprised when the object doesn't get up and change your life for you. nothing will happen because it's not alive. you are.