Legado | 𝑫.𝑹

Part 32

If there was one thing about Emilia Senna it was that she would always attend the Brazilian Grand Prix even though F1 racing had been the thing that killed her father.

Ayrton Senna had never been afraid to show his Brazilian heritage and that was something he had always held close to his heart. From the moment she could understand words, Ayrton had always told his daughter that she should never be ashamed of it either.

That was why Emilia always carried a Brazilian flag onto the podium with her.

She was honouring her father in the only way she knew how.

By not being ashamed.

May 31st 1996 - Brazilian Grand Prix:

Seven-year-old Emilia grinned brightly as she spun on her heels in the Formula One paddock.

She loved the chaos, the smell of fuel and rubber that hung in the air, seeing everyone rocking around in their team wear chatting with other people wearing the same or pushing trollies of different car parts from point A to point B.

"Don't get lost." Bruno Senna's voice echoes from centimetres behind her.

"I won't." Emilia replies, looking up at her cousin.

"Okay." Bruno nods. "Remember our plan?"

"If I get lost, find Mika or Michael." Emilia nods. "I remember."

Bruno fists bumps his younger cousin, laughing slightly at her as she goes back to looking about the paddock in awe. His mother had left him in charge of his seven-year-old cousin because she didn't like coming back into the paddock knowing that her brother was no longer one of the men driving the cars so she agreed that after Emilia had done what she wanted to do then they would return to her side to watch the race.

The older Brazilian had one eye on his cousin until suddenly he didn't. He didn't want to immediately panic because Emilia did have a thing for disappearing off when she saw something she liked without telling anyone and he also knew that if he couldn't find her, to find Mika Hakkinen or Michael Schumacher, if she wasn't with either of them, then it was time to start panicking.

Emilia however, was ducking through the small crowd calling out the name of her favourite driver (don't tell Michael she said that) and the Finnish driver had heard her small voice and thick accent from a mile away. Immediately stopping what he was doing and searching for the young girl within the crowd until he spotted her poke her way out from behind someone's legs.

"Mika!" Emilia shouts, rushing straight over to the blonde man.

"Emmy!" Mika chuckles, catching her body when she threw herself at him. "Ah, my lucky charm."

"I'm not your lucky charm!" Emilia gasps, sitting back slightly.

Mika Hakkinen stands up, holding Emilia around the waist as she held onto him by the shoulders. The blonde Fin couldn't help but laugh at the pure offence that sat on her face when he referred to her as his lucky charm.

"Sure your not." He replies. "Is Bruno here?"

"Oh yeah." Emilia looks around. "I left him."

"We talked about this, Emmy." Mika sighs. "You can't just keep running off."

"I can, Bruno knows that if I get lost I'll be with you or Michael." Emilia replies.

"Okay and that's fine for inside the paddock, but outside in the real world you can't do that."

"Aunty Vi keeps telling me off for that."

Mika shakes his head, placing her down on the floor and taking her hand before ducking through the crowd to try and find the little girls older cousin. Bruno Senna hadn't moved from his spot but when he saw the driver emerging from the crowd holding Emilia's hand, he placed his hands on his hips and raised his eyebrows at her.