#stly

Deaken Bluman as... Matteo Lombardi.

📱matteolombardi

LOLO . . . 22yo : 5 de February '02. aquarius.

🇮🇹📍sicilian boy, english-italian driver ; 🐎 Ferrari Academy ; 🏎🏁Prema Powerteam.

 ┈─ Just stay with me. Lean on me today. In my warm arms, take a break. I want you to. ─┈

Arthur Leclerc as... Arthur Leclerc.

📱arthurleclerc

LELEC . . . 24yo : 14 de October '00. libra.

🇲🇨🧾 monegasque ("french") driver ; 🐎 Ferrari Academy ; 🏎🏁 Prema Powerteam.

          STLY     •                                     Introduction.

[ 💻 ] Google News. 2020.

Matteo Lombardi joins the Ferrari Driver Academy.

Lombardi takes another step towards Formula 1. The British-Italian driver was selected by Maranello to join the Ferrari Driver Academy.

FDA | Arthur Leclerc, Dino Beganovic, and Matteo Lombardi for the Scuderia’s young driver program.

Ferrari Driver Academy is pleased to announce three new talents joining the group of students in the company's driver training program. These are Arthur Leclerc, Dino Beganovic, and Matteo Lombardi, three young drivers who demonstrated during 2019 that they have the qualities to participate in the Scuderia training school.

[ 💻 ] Google News. 2021.

F3 | Prema Powerteam announce 2021 line-up.

The Prema Powerteam will feature Dennis Hauger, Arthur Leclerc, and Matteo Lombardi.

[ 💻 ] Google News. 2023.

BREAKING. Matteo Lombardi to race for Ferrari in 2024.

[ 💻 ] Google News. 2024.

Scuderia Ferrari HP: @/Charles_leclerc and @/arthur_leclerc7 will be taking part in Friday's FP1 session as team-mates. You won't want to miss this 🤩

          It's finally happening. «We made it.» He thought, as he went back to bed, hiding under all his blankets.

[ 🗺; 🇮🇹 ] Maranello.

          With Giancarlo Girotti as his trainer, Matteo had become one of the most feared and hated drivers on the karting grid. He was only eight years old, competing with other little kids but also many other older drivers. Age wasn't an impediment to having resentment towards the Italian.

          When the news of his joining the Ferrari Academy was published, none of the drivers who knew him could be surprised. If it wasn't Ferrari, it would be the academy of some other big team.

          Most still remember him as a little kid, shorter than the rest and who could barely manage a mix of Italian and English that only a few could understand. Neither his age, size, nor the language were an impediment for him to lead in more than one race, placing himself comfortably within the top positions of the championship.

          His professional career was successful from the beginning, but complicated. Money was a big problem for the teams, just as his isolation was for him.

          "He is a talented child, what the teams want" without friends, Matteo learned at an early age to hate the press. "Beginner's luck, right?"

          Luck? An innate talent? Talent would have been getting into a karting and winning races without training; lucky to win a championship that way. Spending months training from the morning to the night was not talent, or even luck. He hadn't spent years working hard on his training for them to classify his achievements as random, detracting from him.

          —Never give them the pleasure of seeing you angry, Pupo. —His coach told him, noticing on his face that feeling that was beginning to brew deep inside him. —That's what they want, for you to react, for you to lower yourself to their level. —With curious eyes, the dark-haired boy saw the gray-haired man next to him, listening to him attentively. —Are you going to stoop to their level? —

          —No. —he quickly denied. The old man almost let out a half smile.

          —Things are shown on the track, Pupo, and you have already proven to be better than him. Than all of them. —Matteo nodded. He had to be better than the others, show that it wasn't luck, that he tried harder than anyone there.

          He wanted to scream at them, to explode, but he knew it wouldn't be necessary. Hitting another driver wouldn't help, it wasn't good for him either. Beating them on the track would be more rewarding, when he can see them from the top step of the podium, smiling at the camera in interviews, posing with a brighter medal or a bigger trophy.

          He is better than them on the track. He had to be better, and he trained to be the best. He didn't need to talk in interviews, brag with words, if the results made it clear who is on top.

          —What do I have to say? —he asked his coach, knowing that he was next for the post-race interview.

          —You know what to say. —Simply, but it seemed to be enough for the boy, who nodded and start walking towards the journalist waiting for the champion of the race.

          «Last question, are you worried about any of your rivals?» The boy didn't have to think, before denying:

          —My only rival is myself. —