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Liam Lawson is concerned. About having to race in f1 for the first time? Of course, but that's not the point. Liam can't stand it when people don't get along. He needs some love in his life. And in the f1 paddock? NO ONE gets along.
"I'm sure it's not too bad. You only think that because you don't pay attention." Hannah tells him, playing with his hair.
Liam just sighs. He doubts it.
-
The next morning Liam enters the Alphatauri garage. Yuki is sitting in his drivers room with the door opened.
"Good morning Yuki." Liam greets him
Yuki scoffs and shakes his head.
"Excuse me?"
"Oh sorry Liam, I didn't see you! Good morning."
"Nice way to be greeted. What's up?"
"Oh nothing, Pierre is just being an annoying fuck." Yuki gives Liam a light smile, while Liams smile immediately fades.
See, exactly what Liam was afraid of. Pierre and Yuki are already hating eachother.
Yuki gives him a confused look.
"Well, good luck then." Liam tells him, and walks away. He doesn't want this negativity.
When he bumps into Franz Tost, his smile comes back. Franz is lovely.
"Liam! Christian Horner wanted to see you for a moment. You should go over to the red bull motorhome." Franz tells him.
"Oh, thank you!"
He starts his walk across the paddock, passing pretty much all other motorhomes. To the side of the alpine motorhome he sees Esteban and Lance.
"Oh, uhm, hi Liam." Lance says.
"Uhm. Good luck today?" Esteban adds.
What the fuck?
"Hi? Thank you?" Liam replies.
He notices Lance and Esteban are both red as beets. Holy fuck, they muat be incredibly mad at eachother.
-
Liam is just saying bye to Christian when Toto walks by.
"Hey fucker!" Christian shouts to him.
"Change your fucking car!" Toto shouts back.
Not them aswell. Upset Liam stomps away, Christian stares at him with a confused face.
-
After FP3 Liam is walking past the garages. One of them happening to be the Mercedes garage, where George is standing. Alex is walking the opposite direction as Liam, facing George. He shoots George a weird kind of look.
Straight after he happily greets Liam. More people hating eachother, Liam guesses. He simply continues on his way. He is going to tell Hannah he is so right.
-
Last in qualifying. But that's okay, a first race in f1, in zandvoort and in the rain for fucks sake. It isn't bothering Liam too much.
What is bothering him is the angry look on Max' face. Why is he so upset? He got pole, and is soon to win his 9th grand prix in a row, at his home race.
The only explanation Liam can think of is that it must be Charles' fault. Max was just talking to Charles, Charles was laughing even! He must have upset Max in some way, because as soon as his pr manager tapped his shoulder and told him they had to go, he turned around and Liam saw his furious face.
Liam will just go. He isnt intrested in talking to Max in any way at the moment. He is walking back to his motorhome when he hears yelling. It's Logan.
"No Oscar! You don't get it! This fucking sucks." Oscar opens his mouth to say something but gets cut off. "No don't say anything! I don't believe you! Fuck off!!"
"LOGAN! You shouldn't say anything! Come on now." Oscar shoots back.
Liam really can't escape everyone hating eachother here can he. He quickly continues walking.
-
Liam is about to leave the paddock when he sees Daniel leaving the red bull motorhome.
"Bye Daniel!" Max shouts. Daniel has a sour look on his face.
"Hi Liam." Daniel greets him with a grimace. Do even Daniel and Max hate eachother?
Walking past the Ferrari motorhome he sees Lando and Carlos fighting! Lando even pushes Carlos into the wall. He is about to interfere when they see him and quickly move away from eachother.
"Hey Liam! Too bad of your quali today." Lando greets him.
"Yea, it's okay. I'm sure everyone understands. You congrats on pretty much getting pole! Not counting Verstappen of course."
"Thank you!"
As Liam walks away he sees Carlos whisper something and Lando hitting him in the ribs. Physical violence? Really? Liam didnt expect it to be this bad. And why would Lando have to attack Carlos like that now?
-
The next morning Liam hits the jackpot straight away again. On his way to the alphatauri motorhome he sees Checo and Fernando, agressivly yelling at eachother in Spanish. He has no idea what they are saying, lacking the Spanish skills for that. At some point Fernando even lets out an evil laugh.
Maybe at Alfa Romeo there is no hate. They seem like a very nice team. Passing the motorhome Liam looks inside. He sees Valtteri quietly sitting at a table while Zhou talks. Wow. Not even nice enough to reply to Zhou. He really expected better of Valtteri.
-
At the drivers parade everyone finally seems to cool down. They are acting normally around eachother, but maybe that is because there are so many camera's around.
Max finds Mclarens videocamera, and starts filming everyone. He interviews Lando, and they laugh together. Finally people that don't hate eachother! Soon Charles approaches with a huge grin on his face. He joins in on the interview.
"Oh I thought you were checking your phone!"
"I'm recording for Mclaren."
"Just press the red button. Oh for Mclaren"
"Did you press the red button?"
Max interviews Oscar, asks George to join in who has a "Dutch special" haircut apparently, Alex is laughing, Nico also joins in taking his chance to speak dutch, and of course Nico's hair is also a topic.
Then he turns the camera to Liam.
"So how are we feeling today? Are you ready? Not too nervous?"
Liam starts laughing. He wasn't prepared to be interviewed by the world champion.
"Uhm, definitely felt more prepared for other races." He laughs. Maybe the drivers aren't all bad with eachother. Lance still looks pissed at the Alfa Romeo boys though.
-
The race went well. And Max did end up winning. Just as Liam predicted. But everything that happens after the race is what throws Liam off.
Yuki drags Liam to go watch the podium with him for some reason. He is looking up there with literal star eyes. What is going on?
After the press Liam doesn't know what to do, so he decides to ask Yuki about why he wanted to watch the podium so badly, but he is nowhere to be found. Franz points him to the Alpine motorhome. What is he doing there?
Hesitantly Liam steps inside, and finds Yuki in Pierres lap.
"What the fuck?" Is the only thing he can say.
"Hey Liam, what's up? Congrats on your race!" Pierre says.
"No you congratulations! Third place! That's incredible. But Yuki, what are you doing there? I thought Pierre annoyed the hell out of you."
"He does, but dont you like to tease Hannah and annoy her too?" Yuki replies.
"That is completely different. She is my girlfriend."
"How is that different?" Yuki asks.
Liam just gives them a confused look.
"Wait, he doesn't know?" Pierre asks Yuki. But Yuki is too busy laughing his ass of to reply.
"Apparently not!!!" He says between his laughs.
"Liam, Pierre is my boyfriend."
"No way. I don't believe you."
Yuki starts a full make out session with Pierre, to prove it or something.
"Okay okay enough I believe you. I thought you hated him! You looked so pissed yesterday morning. What's next, you're going to tell me Max and Charles are dating too?"
"You might want to have a better look around the paddock mate." Pierre says.
No. He's not serious right? Liam steps outside.
Esteban and Lance walk past holding hands.
Christian and Toto dab eachother up.
George gives Alex a kiss on the cheek.
Oscar and Logan are cuddling on the couch.
Lando pushes Carlos into the wall AGAIN, only for Carlos to start kissing him.
Checo and Fernando give eachother a good hug.
Valtteri puts his arm around Zhou's shoulders.
And worst of all: Max and Charles are making out in the rain.
Liam goes back to Alphatauri, in shock, where he finds Yuki and Daniel.
"Holy fuck. I thought everyone hated eachother!" He exclaims.
"Why?" Daniel asks him.
"Everyone was acting so weird around eachother. Like why was Logan yelling at Oscar? And Max was very angry after talking to Charles!"
Daniel laughs.
"Mate, he was angry he had to stop talking to Charles."
"And Logan was probably just mad at himself, he copes by yelling at his boyfriend, who accepts it. Yuki is laughing aswell.
"But Daniel, why were you so mad after leaving Red Bull saturday?"
"I accidentally moved my hand a little. That shit hurts so much!!"
Daniel is still laughing.
"I can't believe you actually thought we all hated eachother. Many of us have very good friendships, half the paddock is even in a relationship!"
"Ugh, I can't believe it either." Liam says.
As they watch Lewis grab Nico Rosbergs hand leaving the paddock, Daniel smiles and says:
"If you look for it, I've got a sneaky feeling you will find that love actually, is, all around.