charles asking for an ipad so he can watch monaco-rain races ten minutes before the race today is both the most unhinged and admirable thing ever. like on one hand, i can imagine him going through videos like a mad man, trying to do anything he possibly can to overcome the curse. on the other hand it’s like .....hes trying so hard ??? monaco please just love him back ???
This whole Monaco 2022 crashgate makes me think back to Monaco 2021. Where a certain other driver also crashed, thereby securing his own pole and ensuring that Max could not improve his time. I’m not talking about the eventual heartbreaking DNS that followed 24 hours later. But before that, there were a whole lot of tongues wagging, of speculation, of suspicion.
Of course, Max wasn’t happy back then either; he made that loud and clear on the radio. But when they asked him - right after that whole ordeal, no telemetry or analysis available to him yet, in the height of his disappointment - whether he thought Charles had crashed deliberately, he said:
But Max didn’t stop there. He defended Charles further:
You know… Monaco, the track where quali is everything and where it’s impossible to overtake, where he was clawing for every point in the championship, while others were snarking and questioning Charles’ motives, where a year later he had clear suspicions about his own teammate immediately (May 29, 2022):
When it came to Checo, he also didn’t hold back advocating for quali rule changes for drivers who cause a red flag (May 29, 2022):
And yet, not for a single fucking second did Max Verstappen even consider questioning Charles Leclerc’s integrity, and he basically called you stupid if you did. This was the same angsty, red-faced teenager who raged “he’s just not fair!” on a rainy day 10 years ago. But here he is, 10 years later, defending that same boy with the stupid floppy hair because he knows him, what kind of competitor he is, what kind of person he is. He cannot even entertain the idea that Charles is capable of cheating. And this - this - is exactly why their rivalry will always remain unparalleled for me.
When Max and Charles talk about the fairness and respect between them, they really fucking mean it.