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The facts being spit here!!!

Sainz would be employed by RB, and three races in he tries one move like the several he does on Charles on Max…unemployed again.

RB and Sainz is like a fuckboy and a girl they know they can’t handle. They’ll chase a little, but they don’t want to catch.

what about sainz to red bull?

a few reasons why it doesn’t look likely now:

1) redbull wants to wait as long as possible before signing their 2nd driver, mainly because it incentivises checo to do well. they’ve said they won’t discuss contracts until the summer break & it’s in carlos’ interests to sign as early as possible. he could wait, but that means that his chances of being seatless next season grows.

also! there’s no guarantee that he can keep up his current form over the season, particularly with the imola updates which are rumoured to make the car focused more on the front end—which favours charles. already (china) charles is qualifying and finishing above him. if charles goes back to beating him comfortably that makes his bargaining power smaller. right now fresh off the aus win is the best time for him actually

2) helmet marko has basically said they have no interest in matching audi’s offer for carlos

3) the redbull seat is the most 2nd driver seat in the whole of f1 😭 history says that’s not what carlos wants, though he could settle for it

but redbull may also not want him as a 2nd driver because he comes with a very messy entourage & has shown that he isn’t a good team player. he just attacked charles at the restart last week losing them position to russell. considering the circumstances at redbull now, it is decidedly in their best interests to not sign someone who may make max unhappy. can you imagine losing max verstappen because you signed carlos sainz?? (among other reasons ofc) plus their fathers have butted heads before in toro rosso. can’t imagine jos will be very happy to see sainz sr again

from redbull’s point of view, checo is currently a better option than carlos. he won’t challenge max, he brings in sponsors & viewership from a huge country (whereas spain already has alonso), he can get those 1-2s for the team. ‘checo will fall off’ so will carlos if we’re going by past trends (e.g. post-suzuka to AD in 2023) i think if checo keeps up his current form he’ll get an extension

he will also have a really terrible time at redbull. i’m afraid max will curbstomp him

there are negotiations but i doubt redbull are offering him terms he’ll be happy with (more than a year, assurances he won’t be sacrificed for max at times etc etc) if he does go there he’ll have to accept being second to max because if he tries as hard to beat max as he at beating charles right now—it would be very funny to me, but bad for the team (i don’t think he will be able to get close enough to max to do this but yk that’s also a very bad look for him)

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But again, Michael Schumacher came with his own team of people who knew how to do things. And they came because they were inspired to work for him. The same way that if Max goes to Merc you can bet he will be bringing people with him. /

I mean, it seems like vasseur came to ferrari because of charles since it was a either binotto or charles leaves situation and he and vasseur were close. And now Vasseur is bringing more great people.

So isn't charles also doing that?

My understanding, from what I have read/understood of the situation (meaning I could be misinterpreting this or missing information) is that Charles didn’t want Binotto, and Fred was picked up by Ferrari because they knew he had a good relationship with Charles and a long standing relationship with Ferrari through Sauber. I don’t know that Charles asked for Fred specifically. That being the case, that says something about how much Ferrari want to keep Charles, is markedly different from the Schumacher example.

As for personnel, Fred has been able to attract new engineers, and has even attracted Lewis, which is a feather in Fred’s cap that I don’t think can be attributed to Charles. (How Fred was able to secure carte blanche to do such a drastic reshuffle would be interesting to know) Now, to a certain extent this is circumstantial because Charles doesn’t have a lot of experience in another team, he doesn’t know engineers outside of Ferrari (maybe some from his Sauber days but then those too are still Fred’s hires and Charles was young and unlikely to have really had a gauge of whether they were top people to poach), nor does he have experience with knowing how to build a winning team or who he would have in it because he hasn’t experienced one. Though overall I would confidently say that Fred is the one bringing the people, as opposed to Charles.

And look, that’s not anything against Charles. In an ideal world, someone as talented as him would be able to just drive the car and make the difference on track, that’s kind of the deal you sign as a driver. It’s kind of unfair that you also be expected to bring your own small army of people to the table to make a formula one team half competent. That being said, as I understand what I’ve read, Charles hasn’t been building a team around himself in the way Schumacher did, Lewis did (and I say this with a slight grain of salt because while I always believed that to be the case, the data of the last couple of years has not borne that out, nor does it seem right now that he will be taking a lot of people from Merc to Ferrari), or Max has.

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https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6V-BzNNML9/?igsh=MTZhZnpneWFoMG9qaA==

Where was this until now? Lando and P is probably the cutes thing ever.

They’re so cute. I remember that video of him and her at the airport when she was younger it’s so sweet. And he was at her birthday party like…how did he become uncle Lando I need to know 😭😭😭

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god but i hate sprints😭😭😭 free me, i beg

Totally forgot about the spring omfg whyyyyy

Free the teams. Sprint weekends are literally cruel. That’s slave labour atp

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controversial: Antonelli is overrated and nowhere near as good as Max is. everyone keeps sayin "yo, he's Verstappen re-born"... guys. this boy was held by hand by Toto Wolff since karting and his way to Formulas was cleaned from any stick or stone so he wouldn't God forbid stumble. Max had to fight it hard way, plus his dad obviously didn't make it any easier (not saying I hate Jos for that, I just don't agree with his parenting style). if Antonelli comes the next year to Merc because TW is so desperate to show everyone that he no longer cares he lost Max cause he made his own, the performance expectations from Antonelli will be so high that him being freshly eighteen, growing up in the pressure of social media... it will destroy him. this is the example of not rushing things otherwise you can damage them before they could show their full potential.

Well. WELL.

He is obviously nowhere near the level Max is now, but when Max entered F1? Idk, probably not, but also, you don’t have to drive like Max to be a phenom. Max was 1 in a million and maybe this kid isn’t as immediately polished, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have the stuff to be an incredible driver.

I don’t know about Kimi’s karting record but by all accounts is extraordinary. No, he’s not setting the world alight in f2 but having watched some f2 this year I’m not about to base all my opinions on that.

It depends what you mean by Max didn’t have it easy. He didn’t have barriers to entry to the sport, he didn’t have parents who wanted anything different for him, he didn’t have parents who weren’t committed enough to drive him around Europe. He had a team of people around him from day 1 who grafted like hell for him and made sure he was not a victim of snake oil salesmen and people who wanted to make money off him or would have pushed him around. So no I’m not saying he had it easy from a personal development side but he did get to make racing his whole life from a very young age, and he had people around him who only had his best interests at heart. Not everyone has that. I can only hope Kimi has the same strong unit around him.

From what I understand, Max advanced as quickly as he did because however much he needed to do to win, Jos was pushing him ten steps further. Max learnt to ignore the noise because Jos was making most of it. It seems that Kimi has grown up differently. But let’s not forget that Kimi’s dad is also a racer, it’s not like he’s just been catapulted into the sport straight from Toto’s laboratory.

I don’t think having had Toto’s support and not having been forged in hellfire means his success or talent isn’t valid.

That being said, I do hope he has a good support network and they insulate him from the media chatter as much as possible. Because yes that will ruin him very quickly.

I think more than anything what will ruin him is not going to F1 too early, but going to the wrong team. I think those with talent will swim, because at the end of the day with enough testing you can learn how to drive the car and if you’re talented and you’re fast you’ll be fine. But what you don’t want is an 18 year old kid being pushed and pulled from pillar to post by a TP who expects a well rounded driver from day 1, and who will allow the kid to be brow beat by overzealous stewards and bullied by other drivers in track. Imo Toto will not stand up for a young driver in the way he will need to and that is what will damage a kid’s confidence and career prospects. So yeah, there’s an argument for leaving him in F2 until he’s had long enough to not make the mistakes that come with being an inexperienced driver. But I’m not sure if any amount of F2 can really prepare you, look at Logan (I could go on because my beef with f2 is REAL).

All this to say, I don’t know if he’s overrated. I think the comparison to Max is not helping him but it also doesn’t invalidate his potential. Max has really fucked the curve for young drivers I think. But I do think that the worry about ruining him is a bit uncharitable the way it’s often presented, especially in a climate where the fear around young drivers is really causing a bottleneck getting into F1. I think the right team wouldn’t ruin a real talent. I don’t think Merc is the right team but that’s just me.

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all of these discussions around wags lately has intrigued me. as a korean born and raised in france (pray for alpine svp 😔) i have seen how toxic the kpop fandoms have become over time, especially around their biased and daring rumours. people will literally tear apart girl groups or women in general if they come too close to their ult biases. and as someone who has been involved in both f1 and kpop for most of my teenage and now adult life, i hate to say it but i think that the f1 fandom have increasingly become close to the kpop ones in terms of how people think of the drivers and people that interact with them.

mais, vraiment, please pray for alpine my little french heart cannot handle it

I actually saw a tweet today about how a lot of f1 fans are former Kpop fans and how they’ve brought the toxic fan culture.

I am not deep into the kpop fandom so I don’t know but the f1 fans remind me of one direction fans back in the day. Very very sad.

I’ll pray for alpine when they get new drivers haha. Worst vibes on the grid both of them. But the team deserves far better than what’s going on right now like where is Ryan Reynolds?????

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I know. But also…you know?

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"The planned upgrade is Max Verstappen but they don’t know if he will sign 😂"

There is a simple solution, once he crosses the finish line in the RB he goes back to the pits, gets into the Mercedes, and still places better than what they could manage on their own

Yeah that’s true because Merc will still be racing by the time he’s out of the car, pointed to the number one on his car, and been weighed 😂😂😂

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The planned upgrade is Max Verstappen but they don’t know if he will sign 😂

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What's lando done now

Flew to Miami yesterday which is when y/n was seeing Freddie except she and Lando were meant to fly to Miami together can this man just let me know before he does stuff omgggg

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Lando being uncooperative with this fic is sending me. We did not realise the gem we had in Max 😭

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Omg now we need to know what happened on christmas eve in 2020 😂😂

Alcohol. Nostalgia. Quarantine was HARD on ya girl, she was very frustrated. And Max was relatively newly single and it was just them and his mum and his sister there…

Girl was thinking… 😏😏😏

And Max was too busy playing halo and not being able to pour water on a show if instructions were on the heel 🥲

CLASSIC.

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re-listening TTPD, and I have a theory that imgonnagetyouback is a hint not to Alonso, but to Stroll 😂

LISTEN

he steers Aston Martin to the ditch much more often than Alonso, okay? AND! imgonnagetyouback is 18th song on the playlist! and who races under number 18? LANCE EFIN STROLL! 😂

here you have it (sorry, I'm tired and talking bullshit 😂)

Taylor Swift hooking up with Lance Stroll would be the plot twist we ALL need this 2024 season 😂😂

Fr he has such Joe energy please never let them in the same room

But omg it would be HILARIOUS

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If Newey actually leaves it'll be quite some time before anyone will get a car that is properly his under them. Idk know when he's allowed to leave, if he can give a two week notice now or if he has to finish up the season. Let's go with the latter. The whole 2025 season then would be his gardening leave, he then could start (let's say at Ferrari) in 2026, right as the new regs come in. The 2026 car for his new team will be mostly finished by the time he joins, so he'll spend the season working on smaller upgrades and tweaks to someone else's car design. The first car that will truly be 'his' again will be the 2027 car. (Then again most teams don't fundamentally redesign their car concepts within one regulation cycle so he'll also heavily have to work with someone else's interpretation of these new regulations and won't be the person to build that idea up from the ground up.)

So if he were to go to Ferrari, LH with his 2+1 deal might not even get any perks from them louring Newey in like some people hope/fear.

It depends. His current contract ends in 2025 and apparently has 1 year of gardening leave stipulated. So 2027 is the first time he would able to work on a car so 2028 would be the first Newey led car, as it stands.

However, contracts can be amended and bought out if both parties are amenable. Given that Newey has apparently not been as involved in the latest iteration of RB cars, and given the reg change coming, RB might let him out of contract early for the right amount, because there’s not much for him to steal and take with him in terms of car secrets.

But You’re right, even if they let him out from the end of this year it’ll be midway through 2026 before he is making the difference at the absolute earliest when, as you say, he will working with someone else’s concept. There could be a stipulation that he gets free reign and they just have to pony up the money, but who knows.

All of this is what makes me wonder what Newey has to gain. But the time he’s back at the head of car design he’ll be over 70. Does this man not want to retire like he’s been saying? I honestly don’t get it.

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on the opposite side: are there any plot points that weren’t planned but real life events made them happen and you’re super happy with them?

All of Max’s wins 😂

He was a real MVP last year in a million little ways, like his redline streams and real life interviews that gave really good tidbits that I could twist for the fic. Because the pilot was almost entirely dependent on real life goings on I kept things very loose and wasn’t necessarily hoping for certain things to happen, except in vegas where nothing happened at the right time 😂 but yeah Max actually cooperated with the fic really well, there were so many moments when content would drop and I was excited to use it.

I would say my two favourite things that came together for that one were Helmut Marko making a joke about Mick Schumacher right when Mick was a big plot point and it just fit so well with the narrative, I was so happy to be able to use Helmut’s real quote. And the second one is Max’s whole real life beef with podcasts, because it was so fitting considering Emilia had a podcast, and that then led to the Talking Bull episode which was really fun to use in the fic.

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I obviously want Max and Newey to stay in Red Bull, but if they would both leave to Mercedes, that would be iconic to be honest 🤣

It would be iconic. Also because we know Max is taking Helmut and probably GP. It’s Schumacher levels.

He would be THAT BITCH.

But also if all that happens Ferrari look like proper mugs I’m sorry 😂

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Jealous Emilia after they get together plss I am beggingggg cook this for us plssssss 🙏🙏🙏

Not me rewriting this no less than four times and still hating it 😂 but it’s not going to get any better haha. This was hard to write because I actually don’t see Emilia as the jealous type. I kind of drew off a lot of her known insecurities and alluded to her kind of struggling with the “wag” role a bit so it’s not just her reacting poorly to Max being fawned over by a girl because I don’t think that would be true to her character. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it!

✨Set in Jeddah 2024✨

And I’m highly suspicious that everyone who sees you wants you

If there’s one thing to be said for the Jeddah paddock, it’s pretty at sunset. You watch people moving through the paddock bathed in golden light. The ground looks like the yellow brick road. Even though it’s getting cooler now as it gets closer to qualifying, you still choose to sit inside Red Bull hospitality. You’re also sitting inside because Max said he wanted to hang out before quail. Even though he’s spent the last forty-five minutes talking to one of the hospitality guests.

Amy, something or other. She races GT cars in some series you’ve never heard of. You’re not sure what connections got her the invite to the garage but Max had been herded away by one of the media reps to take pictures with her so she must be someone’s daughter. They seem to have hit it off, you note. He’s in full maxplaining mode, bending down to the line of his own hand as he illustrates what looks like an apex. Amy isn’t even watching his hands, she’s watching Max. Hazel eyes just sparkling as she memorises every inch of him. Yeah, you know that look well enough.

And it’s not that you mind. He likes to talk racing, he likes racers. It’s not like you know what it feels like to driver a car at top speed, and more importantly you don’t want to know. The hot laps with Max were more than enough. You can’t be everything to him and you don’t need to be. You tell yourself you don’t want to be. It’s good he has other people to talk to, because it’s not like you can ever really understand his competitive streak. The man who knows nothing except how to win will not always be able to relate to the girl who has always been too afraid to lose.

No, it’s not bothering you that Max is talking to her. It’s bothering you that she has the most obvious crush on him since…no, actually, this is the most obvious crush ever. She’s played with her hair so many times you just know karma is going to make her bald someday. You hope you’re there somehow.

“Hey,”

You jump at the sound of Checo’s voice. He sits down at the end of the table, brandishing Kitkat, which he slides over to you.

“Max has made a new friend,” he says, nodding in Max’s direction.

You tear open the wrapper with far too much aggression. “So I see,” you say, trying to sound nonchalant.

“She races, right?”

You nod, biting into the chocolate. “GT, apparently,”

“Lots in common,” Checo says with a wiggle of his eyebrows. “You have to watch your back,”

You know he’s joking. You know that in no universe are you in competition with her. And yet, his words sink under your skin under your blood is curdling at the sight of Max laughing at something Amy says.

“I don’t have to watch anything,” you say with shrug, turning towards Checo. “If she can take him she can have him.” You push your hair over one shoulder and run your tongue over your teeth.

“Whoa,” Checo chuckles, throwing his hands up like he’s being faced with a hungry lion. You suppose since he has a wife, he knows the look well enough. “I was joking.” When you don’t react, he shakes his head. “It’s Max,”

You know what he means. It’s Max, not Chuck Leclerc. It’s Max, not Danny Ric. It’s Max, not Checo. But it’s Max. You don’t have to worry he’s going to lose his mind over the actresses or supermodels, but he sure seems to be respectfully admiring his female alter ego.

It’s like he can sense you thinking about him, it’s uncanny, really. Out of the corner of your eye you can see him walking towards your table with Amy in tow.

Fake smile, it’s fine, she’s just a fan.

Max introduces you, and you smile and shake her hand and ask her if she having a nice day, because you’re Max’s girlfriend, so you owe it to him to be polite. She has no such obligation, although you might be imagining her flinch when Max says the word girlfriend.

“I think it’s the best day of my life,” she says in answer to your question. The telltale flicker of her eyes in Max’s direction as they sit down almost making you roll yours.

Max doesn’t notice, he’s more interested in taking your Kitkat out of your hand and taking a bite. He bites it so that all four sticks have the end missing and you wear you’ve never been so disgusted by this man. For a second, you think Amy can have him.

“Amy races GT cars, like the ones we tested in Portugal,” he says to you now, his hand disappearing under the table to rest on your thigh and trace circles with his thumb like it’s a habit. “We are just talking about setting up a test for her with Verstappen com,”

Oh, great. So not only is she utterly bewitched by the ocean eyes, you’re making her dreams come true. Fan-fucking-tastic.

“Ah,” is all you say, sharing a look with a smirking Checo.

“That would really be such a dream come true,” Amy says, and you almost laugh. “I’m a big fan of yours, I think it’s so cool that you’re involved with things outside formula one. You should come to a race sometime. I owe you paddock passes,”

You met him three hours ago, and he isn’t even the one who invited you. Do you owe him a blowjob as well, Amy?

“Yeah. Our schedule is a bit hectic but yeah, it would be good to fit that in soon,” Max says, turning to you. “Right?”

What am I? The secretary? Because in case you didn’t notice, she didn’t fucking invite me.

You just shrug.

“GT racing doesn’t exactly draw the influencer crowd,” you are definitely not imagining the way her eyes slide over to you before she looks back at Max to say, “it’s really good racing,”

You zone out right then and there. It’s like your brain short circuits from the energy it’s taking not to reach over, grab this girl by her stringy extensions, and rip. If she and Max keep talking, you don’t hear it. You don’t want to hear it. You notice Checo noticing your discomfort, even as he engages the other two in conversation. For all his quirks, Checo reads human behaviour much better than Max. Though you don’t need to be a body language expert to see how much this girl likes him.

She looking at him like she wants to eat him, hanging on unspoken words, fingers twitching on the table like she’s desperate to touch him. And he’s nodding along, because they’re so aligned that whatever she says he agrees with, and the maxplaining is one-handed now but no less enthusiastic, and you’re about to dig your nails into his skin because he is not going to have one hand almost up your skirt while another woman is flirting with him.

All these thoughts are interrupted by the appearance of one of the Red Bull media managers.

“Amy, we were hoping to get some pictures of you with the car, if you’re free?”

“Yeah, sure, one second,” she says, turning to Max. “Which way is the garage again?” Like she doesn’t have someone who clearly just came from the garage standing right next to her.

“Just through there, keep going straight,” Max says, pointing to the corridor with engineers walking in and out. You give the girl the benefit of the doubt that she’s not that stupid, just desperate.

Reluctantly, she gets to her feet. “So, I’ll give you a call to set up the test?”

“Yeah, sure,” Max says. “Or you can call Raymond. He’ll put your team in touch with the right people,”

“Okay, awesome,” she says, leaning down enough that you can see right down her shirt. “It was really great to meet you. And I meant it about the GT race,” and then, as if remembering she can’t be rude, she glances at Checo. “You guys, too,”

You wave her off, and your smile doesn’t even fall. Because it’s funny. It’s funny that a grown woman would behave like that in front of a man’s girlfriend. It’s funny that a woman gunning for sponsorship would behave like you does regular shifts in something called the “Champagne Room”.

And it’s absolutely hilarious that Max turns to you, without a care in the world, and says, “I’ve got such a headache. I stood up into the cupboard in the garage, it hurt so bad,”

You give him tight smile and pull out your phone to text Lily to see if she’s still with Alex or if she’s free for a catch up.

“What?” You hear Max say above you. You ignore him. “What? She the-“ You look up just in time to see that Checo is mouthing something to Max. “Jealous?”

“I’m not jealous,” you snap, leaning back in the your chair to glare at both of them. They give each a mocking grin. “Yeah, very funny,” this sets them off snickering like school kids. “Fuck both of you.”

You get up and stalk through the room and back towards the garage. You don’t even know what you’ll do when you get there since being Max’s girlfriend had put an end to you just wandering down the pitlane and allowed in any garage. Maybe you’ll just try and find GP. If Max doesn’t catch up to you first. You can hear him calling you.

“Leibling, wait,” he’s right behind you now, and you hear him almost stumbling as he leans forward to catch you by the wrist.

You shrug him off, but stop at the door to his driver room and push it open, jerking your head to order him inside. He may be a dick, but he still deserve for the whole team to know his business. He steps into the room, reaching for your waist but you move out of his way and leave him to close the door while you lean against the physio table on the other side of the room.

He sighs when he sees how you’re looking at him. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to laugh. I mean, I did. Not at you. I didn’t think Checo was being serious,” he defends, and by the end of his sentence he’s fighting an incredulous smile and you squeeze the edge of the physio bench to stop yourself pulling your hair. Or his.

How can this guy understand complex tyre strategy but not basic human interaction?

“You didn’t think he was serious that I was annoyed by someone flirting with you in front of me?” You ask him, raising an eyebrow. “And that I wouldn’t be annoyed at you making fun of me for it?”

Max scoffs. “She wasn’t flirting with me,”

“Oh, please.” You let out a scoff of your own. “You didn’t notice me flirting with you for three years, do not pretend you’re an expert,”

“I noticed,” Max argues, “I just didn’t take it seriously,”

“Which is why you have no leg to stand on,”

“Right, because I was just supposed to believe that you suddenly-“

“It wasn’t exactly sudden-“

“For God’s sake,” Max groans, an expression of abject confusion twisting his face. “What are we even fighting about?”

“You enjoying Lella Lombardi over there slobber all over you, and enjoying it,” the exasperation gets worse when Max’s eyes widen like this is the first he’s hearing of this entire discussion.

“I’m- she- what?” He splutters, his head shaking in disbelief. “Is this one of those Tiktok pranks?”

“I get that she’s a pilot and that makes her automatically interesting, but until I hear otherwise, you’re still in a relationship,”

Max looks at you like you’ve grown a second head; shock, concern, and a good amount of unadulterated disgust. “You can’t think I was looking at her…like that,”

The way he says it, like he’s afraid to catch cooties, like it’s it’s inconceivable, like you didn’t still have bruises of your hips in the shape of his fingertips, takes all the fight out of you. Checo was right; it’s Max. It’s feels like someone’s let all the air out of a balloon. Your shoulders slump and you sigh.

“Because that would be crazy?” You lift yourself onto the physio bench as you speak. You’re not even really sure what you’re asking. “Max Verstappen, who likes only one thing on earth, that one thing being racing, attracted to another driver rather than his influencer accessory girlfriend?”

“Actually, I like two things,” he says with that boyish smirk that has been making your stomach do backflips for longer than you care to admit.

“Stop laughing at me,” you whine, fighting the urge to smile.

“I’m not. I’m sorry. I’m sorry that she upset you. I’m sorry that I upset you,” he says, taking a careful step closer to you, but he stops there. “Even if I don’t know what I did,”

He really has no idea. He is painfully, adorably clueless.

“Nothing,” you say, because you don’t know either. Sometimes it’s just inexplicably overwhelming being Max Verstappen’s girlfriend. “Just you being you, I guess,”

Max frowns at that. “I didn’t know being myself was so offensive,” he mumbles, and you instantly feel guilty. You of all people shouldn’t make him feel bad for how much space he takes up. You of all people know how much that bothers him.

“No, it’s not that. It’s not-“ you struggle for a way to explain it. Max takes the opportunity to cross the rest of the room and stand in front of you, his expression telling you he’s waiting for you to finish. “It’s not about who you are, but sometimes the way people act around you is just…and you’re so used to it, you don’t even…you just forget who you are sometimes, Max,”

He nods soberly. “Yeah. I do, and I’m sorry,” he says. He hooks his hands under your knees and pulls your legs apart and slots between them as he drags you to the edge of the bench so that you’re pressed against him, leaning back to look up at him. “But I never forget who you are, which is the most important bit,”

You can’t help but smile at him. He’s so simple. And not because he’s unintelligent, but because he’s guileless, because who he is has never scared him. He smiles back, and it’s unguarded and unbridled and you almost forgive that girl because you’ll be damned if you don’t have a crush on him, too.

“Was she really flirting with me?” He asks curiously, looking down as his hands find your and entwine your fingers.

“Oh, yeah,” you say, and he frowns, the wheels working in head as he tries to figure out how he didn’t notice. “Like me at your mum’s on Christmas Eve in 2020 level of obvious,”

“Well,” he says with a huff. “She just blew her chance at a test,”

“You don’t have to-“

“Wait, you were flirting with me at Christmas at my mum’s?”