Tycoon Actor C539 (Patreon)

Lucas had figured it would take a while before anything came close to matching the World Cup offer. He hadn't expected it to happen this fast. And he definitely hadn't expected it to come from a sport he barely knew anything about.

"I'm not that familiar with the scheduling," Lucas said. "You said six or seven race weekends across the year — explain that more. Because it might conflict with what I already have lined up."

"It will conflict, honestly." Neil didn't dance around it. "The season runs from early March through late November. If you're starting The Brutalist around mid-March, you're already losing the first chunk of the calendar. Australia, Monaco, Canada — all of that falls right in the middle of filming. You'd realistically only be available from September onward."

Lucas shook his head. "So you already knew it would conflict with my schedule, and you're still bringing it to me?"

"Of course I am." Neil leaned forward. "Lucas, you might not fully appreciate what this is. They're not just offering you an ambassador deal. You would be the first ever official Global Ambassador in Formula 1 history. That's never existed before. You'd be the first."

Lucas raised his eyebrows. "They've never had one?"

"Never." Neil's eyes were lit up. "That's why the hundred million is on the table. They want their first Global Ambassador to mean something — to be someone that makes the whole world pay attention. This isn't just a sponsorship. This is F1 deciding to put a face on the entire sport for the first time."

Lucas sat back.

'My appearance at the World Cup somehow reached Formula 1 and now here we are.' He hadn't thought much about the ripple effects of Qatar beyond football. Apparently the ripples had traveled further than he'd expected.

"Even so," Lucas said. "I can't commit to this right now. Not this year. You know my schedule — The Brutalist, everything else. Maybe next year, but definitely not now."

Neil, to his surprise, didn't look disappointed at all. "That's actually fine. F1 already anticipated that. They're willing to wait for 2024."

Lucas looked at him. "They're that set on securing me."

Neil chuckled. "You're Lucas Knight. You did a World Tour that broke every record, then performed at the World Cup opening ceremony in front of half the planet. This is just the natural consequence of your own actions, I'm afraid."

"My fault, then."

"Entirely."

Lucas smiled despite himself. "Alright. Tell them 2024."

"Perfect." Neil looked satisfied. Then he added, almost casually, "There's one more thing. Apple is producing a film this year. It's called F1. And since you won't be committing to the ambassador role this year —" he paused meaningfully — "they want you for the lead."

Lucas laughed quietly. "Of course they do."

"F1 actually had a hand in this. Their plan was — if you couldn't commit as Global Ambassador this year, they'd ask Apple to hold the project. If you agreed to the ambassador role immediately, they'd cast someone else for the film. But if you were available —" Neil spread his hands — "they wanted you for it. Both things feeding into each other."

"They really went that far," Lucas muttered. He wasn't sure whether to be flattered or mildly alarmed.

"The production starts later this year, so The Brutalist comes first. You'd have time for both if the scheduling works." Neil paused. "That is, if you want the role."

Lucas stroked his chin.

'Mind Workshop. If I commit to a racing driver character properly — really commit — I walk away with whatever that character knows. Racing instincts. Technique. The physical understanding of it.'

He looked up. "Get me the script."

"I actually have the PDF right here." Neil produced his phone with the speed of someone who had been waiting for exactly this moment.

Lucas looked at him for a second. Neil had come in here with the Brady update as the opening, walked him through the Super Bowl in under a minute, and then spent the rest of the conversation very carefully steering him toward Formula 1 from every possible angle — the ambassador deal, the film, the timing, all of it arranged to make yes feel like the obvious conclusion.

His manager had set this whole thing up.

"You really wanted me to take this, didn't you," Lucas said.

Neil smiled without any guilt whatsoever. "I just presented the information."

Lucas took the phone and scrolled through the PDF. Neil left him to it and turned back to the TV.

The story followed two drivers — Sonny Hayes, a fallen legend trying to make one last comeback, and Joshua Pearce, a young rising star still finding his footing. The past and future of the sport, sharing the same garage. The theme was familiar — Lucas had seen this shape in plenty of films before. It wasn't bad. Just well-worn.

Ten minutes later he had enough of a read on it.

"The lead here is Sonny Hayes, and I don't really think I fit him," Lucas said honestly. "If anything, Joshua fits me better."

Neil didn't argue. "Yeah, you're right. Joshua is the co-lead right now, with Sonny getting the majority of the screentime. But they're willing to shift the whole focus to Joshua if it means you're in."

Lucas gave him a look. "They'd actually flip the lead. Just like that."

"Just like that." Neil grinned. "And the reason Sonny was written as the lead in the first place — Brad Pitt is playing him."

Lucas paused. "Brad Pitt is in this?"

"Already attached, yeah."

"And they'd make him the co-lead for my sake." Lucas said it slowly, still processing it.

"Well--" Neil smiled. "You're more famous globally than him right now. Not in terms of legacy, obviously. But in terms of where the world's eyes are pointed at this moment — you've surpassed him."

Lucas was quiet for a second. "Is Pitt actually willing to go along with that though?" That was the part that didn't quite sit right. Brad Pitt stepping back from a lead role he was already attached to, because someone else came in — that was a significant ask regardless of who was doing the asking.

"They said he's fine with it," Neil said. "Honestly? My guess is he just wants to work with you."

Lucas thought about it.

'Brad Pitt. Thirty-plus years at the top of this industry. And he's apparently okay with stepping back.' He turned it over. 'Maybe Neil's right. Maybe he's just curious. Or maybe at that point in a career, the billing matters less than the company you keep.'

After thinking it over, Lucas finally said, "Alright, I'll consider it. Maybe I'll audition myself later to get a feel for it."

Neil looked like he'd just won something. "That's all I needed to hear. We'll keep the lines open with Apple and F1 — whenever you're ready."

They talked a bit more before Jennifer walked in from the hallway, Seraphina toddling beside her, tiny hand wrapped around Jennifer's finger, steps unsteady but determined.

Neil's expression immediately softened. "Oh, there's little Sera." He leaned forward. "She got even more adorable, oh my god."

He moved to get closer, but Seraphina caught sight of the unfamiliar face and immediately pressed herself against Jennifer's leg. Jennifer scooped her up without missing a beat.

"She doesn't really know you yet," Jennifer said simply.

Neil looked genuinely wounded. "I just saw her two months ago..."

"She's fourteen months old," Lucas said, amused. "Two months is a long time at that age."

Neil sighed and accepted his fate.

They talked a while longer before Neil eventually said his goodbyes. Before he left, Jennifer had asked what he'd come for this time, and Lucas gave her the short version — F1 Global Ambassador offer, and the film on top of it.

Jennifer looked at him and laughed. "Looks like you're going to be busy this year."

"And probably next year too," Lucas said.

Jennifer narrowed her eyes at him with exaggerated irritation. "I've been sitting at home with this baby while you keep collecting projects. I'm itching to get back myself, you know. Don't think I've forgotten what it feels like to actually work."

"You'll get your turn," Lucas said.

"I better."

---

After that, Lucas found himself wanting to actually understand what he'd just agreed to get involved in. He started looking into Formula 1 properly — reading, watching highlights, going down whatever rabbit holes presented themselves.

The more he read, the more he understood why F1 considered this a significant moment. There was no Global Ambassador in the sport's history. Not one. For over seventy years the championship had operated without ever putting a single face on the entire enterprise — it had always been about the teams, the constructors, the drivers themselves.

Creating the role at all was a departure from everything the sport had traditionally been, which was exactly why they wanted the person filling it to be impossible to ignore.

The current grid had its own constellation of names. Lewis Hamilton, already a seven-time world champion and one of the most decorated drivers in the sport's history.

Max Verstappen, younger, aggressive, already a champion himself and clearly not finished. Fernando Alonso, a two-time champion who had been around long enough to have raced against people who had since retired and come back again. Charles Leclerc, Lando Norris — the next generation already pushing through.

Lucas sat back.

'This sport has been running since 1950 and they've never had a Global Ambassador. And their first one is going to be an actor who didn't know a single driver's name a few days ago.'

He almost found it funny.

But the more he read about the teams — the constructors, the ownership structures, the economics of it — the more something else started forming in the back of his mind.

An F1 team of his own.

He looked into what that actually meant. It wasn't cheap — not remotely. Buying into an existing team ran anywhere from several hundred million to well over a billion depending on the constructor. And that was just the entry point — operating costs for a competitive team ran around $300 to $500 million per season on top of that. The kind of figures that made most investors think twice.

For most people, that was the end of the conversation.

Lucas pulled up his financials and sat with them for a while.

Forbes had him listed in the top ten richest people in the world, somewhere between seventy-five and eighty billion. The primary reason was Tesla — his stake had appreciated so dramatically through 2020 and beyond that even Forbes couldn't ignore it anymore. That was what had pushed him into the top ten publicly.

But Forbes didn't have the full picture. They rarely did with him.

What they knew about was Tesla, and the more visible stuff — his stakes in Uber and Airbnb, both well-documented. What they didn't fully account for were the AI investments he'd been quietly building for years, nothing producing significant returns yet but the trajectory already looking promising.

His blockchain ventures.

The mobile apps that had grown into something genuinely substantial.

And then there was the Bitcoin — the stack he'd accumulated all the way back in 2011 when he was just starting out as an actor and nobody was taking it seriously. That alone, at current prices, was worth a number that would make most people's heads swim.

The actual figure was closer to ninety, maybe a hundred billion. He'd genuinely stopped trying to track it precisely, which was its own strange thing to sit with.

And then there was NVIDIA.

He'd taken a position in NVIDIA around two years ago, quietly, without drawing much attention to it. If his memory from his previous life held — and it had held on everything else — 2023 was the year that stock was going to move in a way that would make people's heads spin. The AI boom was coming, and NVIDIA was sitting directly underneath it.

He hadn't touched those shares.

With everything taken into account, owning an F1 team was well within reach. But there was no urgency to it. If anything, becoming the Global Ambassador first made the path smoother — the relationships, the access, the inside feel of how the sport actually ran.

As for why he actually wanted to own one — after spending days reading about the sport, he'd simply gotten hooked. The engineering, the competition, the scale of it. The profits were a reasonable bonus, and whatever came out of it would find its way somewhere useful eventually.

That was just how he operated.

"I'll set that aside for now," Lucas said, glancing at the calendar. "My meeting with Brady is coming up."

He had plenty of time.