Chapter Text

Charles groaned as his eyes fluttered open. His whole body felt sore from his last winter training or maybe it’s from the fact that he woke up on the cold hard wood floor at the foot of his hotel bed. How did he get here again ?  

Exhaustion had blurred the memories of the night before. He could recall a plane ride, a faint part of  dinner with most of the grid, a cramped elevator ride then…. nothing until now.

With a heavy sigh, he pressed his forehead against the cool glass of the coffee table next to him as the throbbing of his head dissipated along with sleep's grogginess. Fucking dehydration.  The Bahrain heat sure was unforgiving, he must have forgotten to drink before passing out. He couldn’t afford getting sick, not when testing was just a few days ahead.

After finally managing the pain and stretching his stiff muscles, he grabbed a fresh water bottle from the mini fridge. This whole time his phone has been vibrating in his back pocket. Who could be spamming him so early ?  

Landoooo invited you to Padel Tournament 🏸 group chat along with Mad Max🦁, Albono🐈 and 3 others…

Landoooo:

GUYS !!!! Did yall forget about our Padel Tournament  ??

GET YOUR LAZY ASSES OVER HERE

me and Osc are waiting

 

Princess George ✨:

We said 11 am

You’re 27 minutes early.

 

Landoooo:

Exactly so you better be on time !!!!

 

Princess George ✨: 

Also what are those names ?

 

Landoooo:

Hehehe as admin I have all the powers so you better behave 😈

@Lancey DONT FORGET THE EQUIPEMENTS !!!

 

Lancey:

On it 🫡

Ill ask Nando if he wants to join over breakfast

 

Osc:

Sure but youre banned from teaming up

 

Albono 🐈 :

Yeah at least give us a slight winning chance !

 

Lancey:

 You cowards 💔

 

Mad Max🦁:

Actually you need to team up with Charlie to make things fair

 

:Percival 🆑

 ?? EXCUSE YOU !! What are you implying by that

 

By the time he’d finished eating his room service breakfast and chugged down nearly a litter of water mixed with Liquid IV, he was up and ready to go… and was also late. Snatching his hotel card, water and phone he sprinted to the padel court on the 1st floor.

He was sweaty and out of breath by the time he arrived, only to find his friends lazily sprawled on the floor. Lando, Alex and George playing cards while Oscar and Max were animatedly debating about something related to sim setups.

“Aw, you guys didn’t have to wait for me, you know !”

Max shot him a smirk.“Believe me we would have gone without you if we could, but Lance seems to be taking his sweet time and he’s the one with most of our gear.”

“And here I thought you guys were thoughtful….” He said in mock disappointment as he sat next to George, who was frowning down at his watch. “Seriously, what is taking him so long ? It's been 10 minutes now”

Oscar next to him shrugged, idly playing with his racket. “Maybe he realized Fernando is a much more entertaining opponent than us…" 

Just then the Canadian stumbled into the court gaze hollow, staring at the void. 

“Oh there you are !” Lando started before snorting. “Woah ! Lancey, you look like you’ve seen a ghost !” 

But as he got closer the laughter died in his throat seeing exactly how pale Lance’s face was, almost livid.

“I… I think I did” 

Lance pointed towards a tennis court further ahead. Through the plexiglass Charles could see two men were playing. Squinting, he recognized  Fernando and Kimi Raikkonen. The Finn’s presence was odd as it is but it wasn’t what made their blood run cold. Something was wrong, very wrong.

They look young.

Not well rested or healthy, but at least a decade younger. Their face didn’t have the slight wrinkles it usually had, their stance was different and haircuts too. As if they had come straight from 2014. 

He must be going crazy, there’s no other explanation. 

Before he could process any of this, Alex’s voice cut through the silence. His gaze was trained on his phone, eyes wide. 

“Um guys ? You may want to see this…”

They all shuffled closer to glance at the article on the screen.

F1 IS BACK: THE GRID AND MAJOR STORYLINE AHEAD OF 2024

The 2023 silly season has been one of the craziest we’ve seen, the grid has known drastic changes, with plenty of exciting new stories to look forward to ahead of winter testing.

Red Bull Racing: Max VERSTAPPEN 33 & Sebastian VETTEL 1

Can Verstappen get the upper hand over the reigning World Champion ? After their exciting Championship battle in 2023, won by Vettel by barely 5 points, can the 24 years old Verstappen finally turn the tables over his now 2 times World Champion teammate ? How will the team handle the transition from one Golden boy to another ? Team advisor Helmut Marco is clear on the strategy to take… Read More

Ferrari: Charles LECLERC 16 & Kimi RAIKKONEN 7

Return of the King, can the prancing horse rebuild with this royal lineup ?

The last Ferrari Champion is back after an excellent F1 comeback stint at Renault. Can Raikkonen help reshape the team after disappointing seasons ? They had been under fire last year for their controversial team strategies with Alonso and Leclerc. Will that change this year ? When asked Leclerc sounds optimistic at the prospect of the Iceman’s return …Read More

McLaren: Lando NORRIS 4 & Jenson BUTTON 22

The Papaya team has had an impressive jump in performance at the end of 2023. Can their 2024 car replicate such right from the start ? “We have a really strong lineup and are both ready for a championship fight” Claims 2017 champion Jenson Button confident in his and his teammate’s abilities to challenge Red Bull and Ferrari. After the victory miss in Singapore, Lando Norris confides about his mentality on the season ahead… Read More 

Mercedes: George RUSSELL 63 & Nico ROSBERG 6

Can Russell prove worthy of the seat after years of waiting ? Ever since Nico Rosberg won the 2022 championship, the Silver Arrows team had been divided between him and 4 times World Champion Lewis Hamilton. Which culminated in the latter making the swap with George Russell at Williams. Golden opportunity for the young Brit who had been very impressive last season. Can he replicate it in the works team with Nico now fully leading it ?… Read More 

Aston Martin: Lance STROLL 18 & Fernando ALONSO 14

The beginnings of a new front runner ?

Another World Champion switching to a new project, after multiple near misses at Ferrari the 34 years old Spaniard is ready for a clean start. "The team had been slowly establishing themselves with Perez’s podium last year and is ready to take a jump to the front.” told us Team Principal Mike Krack. But is this endeavor not a way for Alonso to escape Leclerc who had been catching up to him back at the Italian team ? … Read More 

Williams: Alexander ALBON 23 & Lewis HAMILTON 44

Reconstruction under 4 times World Champion Lewis Hamilton’s supervision.

“This will not happen overnight but I’m confident and fully invested in the team ” After a public fallout with Mercedes. Lewis Hamilton decided to join James Vowles and Alexander Albon in their project to rebuild the historic Grove’s team ahead of the new 2026 regulations. Will the gamble pay ? Hear the analysis of former Williams Champion Daimon Hill… Read More 

Renault: Oscar PIASTRI 81 & Carlos SAINZ 55

Can Piastri take his mark in his first full season ? Sainz’s 2023 season has been cut short by a broken leg after a scary crash in the streets of Singapore. Thankfully, reserve driver Oscar Piastri quickly learned how to adapt to the car and delivered quite impressive results by Raikkonen’s side.  “I wouldn’t have been able to manage without Carlos’ mentoring” the pair has always been known to be close but now the fully healed Spanniard will be his biggest rival, how will the rookie fend off against him ?… Read More

Haas: Esteban OCON 31 & Nico HULKENBERG 27

The American team teams up with Esteban Ocon with a brand new team principal Ayao Komatsu in an effort to become a consistent Top 10 scorer… Read More

Alpha Tauri: Pierre GASLY 10 & Yuki TSUNODA 2

The Red bull sister team is ready to take it’s independence. Lauren Mekies talks about the future for the team… Read More

Sauber: Valteri BOTTAS 77 & Daniel RICCIARDO 3

As they build up for the Audi takeover in 2026 the team decide to opt for an experienced lineup with two great drivers who will help them with precise analysis… Read More

“And that’s not the only one…” Alex continued to scroll around and every picture, every article showed the same surreal lineups.

 “What in the world—”  Oscar's voice trailed off. Lando circled around them laughing in disbelief.  “This is all a joke… Right ?” 

 Charles ran a hand through his hair, frown deepening as dread started to settle in his guts. “This must be a dream. There’s no way— OW ! What the hell Max ??” He jerked back rubbing his stinging arm, Max stared back deadpan.

“Now you know you’re awake. This is… real” 

 A heavy silence ensued, all of them struck by utter incomprehension as their minds scrambled looking for a rational explanation. How could this even happen ?  

After what felt like an eternity George cleared his throat awkwardly trying to break some of the tension “So… What now ?  Winter testing starts in 4 days…”

This has been the most surreal two hours of Charles’ life, as they tried to retroactively piece out this world’s timeline through internet articles and media posts. As weird and fictional it sounded, they couldn’t deny the facts: They somehow ended up in another reality where their sport was completely different.

All seven of them ended up regrouped in George’s hotel room, as the brit was setting up his computer.

“Come on George ! You can't be serious about this whole powerpoint thing ! At a time like this ??”

Alex giggled, patting Lando's shoulder.

“Leave him be, this is the only control he still has over his life” The younger man groaned impatiently, sprawling on the bed 

After another minute of preparation, the Mercedes driver clapped loudly calling their attention as the TV switched to the presentation.

“Alright folks ! This is the summary of all our research on what we know so far and our course of action for the foreseeable future. Oscar you start”

‘CRASH COURSE: HOW TO SURVIVE AN ALTERNATE REALITY’

The Australian awkwardly got up from his seat on the couch, slightly hesitant as he spoke. “Right, first of all,  from what I’ve seen there seems to be no other major changes outside F1, not in our families, friends, staff, mainstream events. So that’s good at least”

George nodded switching the slide on the screen “So these right there are the main differences compared to our reality”

2024 Grid:

Red Bull: S.VETTEL

Ferrari: K.RÄIKKÖNEN

Mercedes: N.ROSBERG

McLaren: J.BUTTON

Aston Martin: F.ALONSO

Williams: L.HAMILTON

Renault: C.SAINZ Jr & O.PIASTRI

 Max raised his arm as if he was in class. “Excuse me, but I think your graphic is shit mate.”

“Yeah well sorry, I was in a time crunch.” The brit scoffed, glaring at the blond, before turning to the other person raising their hand.  “Yes Alex ?”

“Um, I was just wondering how Fernando being at Aston constituted a difference ?”

“Well I’m glad you asked this totally not prepalanned question !” He switches slides. “The differences don't reside only in the lineup, as we saw everybody is younger with different careers too.”

Careers:

NR6: 2022 Champion, Mercedes

SV1: 2018 & 2023 Champion , Red Bull

JB22 : 2017 Champion, McLaren

LH44 : 2016 2019 2020 & 2021 Champion, McLaren & Mercedes

KR7 : 2015 Champion, Ferrari

FA14 : 2014 & 2013 Champion, Renault

“So in truth we’re looking at 33 years old Fernando in is first year at Aston”

Silence settled in the room as they all stared at the slide. On it was displayed multiple pictures of said impossible events. This couldn’t feel more surreal yet the proofs had been undeniably in front of them earlier.  

After the brief pause, the presentation continued. “Meanwhile Carlos and Alex are said to be 26 yo. Me, Max and Charles 24yo, Lando and Lance 23 and our little Oscar 21. Yeah, we got a bit younger too it seems”  George looked far less unsettled than the rest of them as he spoke. Probably because he rehearsed this multiple times in his head, at least that was Charles' working theory.

“Our tactic will be very easy: Stay vague about events, try to gather more infos and refer to the relationship charts I’ve provided each of you before talking to someone. Now— Yes Oscar ?”

“I think there’s an issue with mine. It says ‘Great friends’ under Carlos’ name…?” The young Australian looked utterly distraught by the words displayed on his paper, as if that was the most unbelievable thing from today.

“That’s because you guys are in this reality. In past interviews ‘you’ referred to him as a ‘Big brother figure’, so you’ll have to play the part.”

“… I’m not exactly known for liking the guy you know”

“Well we’re going to need to work on that.”

“I can help !” Lando enthusiastically turned to his teammate, smiling “I always dreamed of you two getting along !”

“Thank you Lando. Well-”

Lance, who was also blankly staring at his chart, slowly raised his hand as well. “I can’t believe it took a whole multi dimensional travel for you guys to be invested in my powerpoints. Yes ?”

“Could you explain the big bold ‘AVOID’ next to Nando ?”

“Right, well Charles is going to explain this part.”

Charles stiffened from his place on the couch as everybody turned to him. “Me ?”

“Yes you Charlie, you’re the one who reported on that Ferrari stuff, right?”

“Right… So as said earlier, this is not the Fernando we know but the one from 10 years ago. When he was known to dislike and play mind games to direct competition such as teammates. And by the sound of it he didn’t really come to like me much from the years at Ferrari”

That was quite the understatement, the team seemed to have used some good old driver order tactics which caused a lot of internal tensions. Charles never thought he’d ever see a clip where the ‘Fernando is faster than you’ phrase was directed at him yet here we are.

“A lot of time the team asked him to let ‘me’ pass so he’s quite on the fence about all of this. He doesn’t seem to be wanting to change with the new team”

Lance brows furrowed in confusion. “There’s no way he thinks of me as direct competition tho.”

“Well um… he kinda does. Seeing your status as the son of the CEO and all... He said some blunt things about you in the past… Sorry mate.” The Canadian stiffed at that, lips tight as he tried to contain his disappointment and hurt, slowly sulking back against the bed.

“I see… Guess I’ll need to find another padel partner then” The rest of the group winced at the sight, it may be hard for Oscar to pretend to appreciate someone he dislikes but it was infinitely better than being hated by one you consider a close friend.

While Max awkwardly tried to pat Lance’s back for comfort, Alex clapped trying to dissipate the bleak atmosphere. 

“It’s okay guys ! This is all temporary, we will look for a solution ! Right George ?”

“Of course this is just a worst case scenario. Who says we will not wake up tomorrow with everything back to normal.”

“God, I sure hope so… I can’t believe I’m driving for Alpine. With Carlos of all people !”

“Renault actually please mind that, Oscar. About that you’re the only one not in his original team, think you can handle it ?”

“Yeah well, I’ll just act like a semi clueless rookie and stick around one of you guys” Max turned with a shit-eating grin towards the younger man.

“You may need to stick around your new best friend better”

“With all due respect, I’d rather not”

With the initial shock passing, they started to feel more comfortable as they sat down eating lunch in one of the hotel’s restaurants. The tension in the air slowly lifted with light jokes and giggles. After all they were still F1 drivers at the end of the day and a change of grid won’t affect their lifestyle or performances. Lando glanced at his friend beside him, raising an eyebrow. 

“You seem to be taking this pretty well Max. You’re not even the world Champion here.” The Dutchman shrugged, smiling. While it was a bit disappointing to not wear the number 1 after the impressive 2023 season he had, it didn’t weigh down on his optimism.

“Oh yeah, I’m more excited than anything. It’s not everyday you could share a grid with some of the best drivers in their prime. We may learn a lot from them” Even Oscar, who was in the most delicate position racing for the French team he resented, had relaxed a bit. He’s right, maybe this is a great learning opportunity 

That was until he felt someone sliding beside him, their arm wrapping around his shoulder with a distinct Spanish accent as they spoke.

“I see you made friends. You’re not ditching me are you Osc ?”

Forget what he just said, this is his personal nightmare right here.

Chapter Text

Saying Oscar hated Carlos would be overreaching, no he didn’t hate the guy. He just wishes to have the minimum amount of interactions possible with him. It’s not his fault that they always seem to end up making contact on track, nor that they end up in disagreement on each of the rare occasions they conversed.

Or maybe it was. Who cares, point is, the further he’s away from the man the better he is. 

So one can easily picture his uneasiness when Carlos casually leaned an elbow on his shoulder while talking to Lando. “So you invited all of these guys to padel and not me ? Eh Lando ?”

“Wha- I did !” Answered the Brit defensively “You never answered my text !”

“Calm down you muppet, just joking. I arrived at like 3am so I slept all morning.” Without warning, the Australian was yanked even closer as the man ruffled his hair with a playful grip. 

“Well, I hope you enjoyed this guy’s company because I’m stealing him for the evening.” Oscar froze blinking up at the Spaniard in confusion. Wait, what ?

“Don’t tell me you forgot ! We have sim work to do in like 15 minutes. ” Dread washed over him. God no , a hangout around other people that he could handle. But a reunion full of Alpine staff alone ? He wasn’t prepared for this. Not now. Not ever. “Oi, Carlito, don’t you have a meeting too ?”

“I do ?! Fuck !” The Monegasque quickly scrambled to his feet, already heading to the door. And before he could protest, Carlos had already started to lead—read drag— Oscar along, his feet following on autopilot too stunned to fight back.

Alex winced watching the panic of his departing friends with a worried frown. “Poor guys, didn’t even have time to get ready.” Max, nonchalant as usual, just shrugged. 

“They’ll get over it, Welp-” He pushed himself up, stretching lazily before flashing a grin. “How about that padel match ? ”

Lando immediately sprung up from his chair, knocking over his drink in the process. “Okay ! I call dibs on being Lance’s teammate !”

“I swear sometimes I feel like I’m just a prop for you guys to win…” The Canadian sighed, a small smile forming on his lips.  

George, who was now covered in the young brit’s soda, looked down at his shirt frowning. “You guys go without me. I too have a team meeting soon and it looks like I need to change”

.

.

They decided to not take a car as the hotel was really close to their motorhomes. So they just walked in silence, well Oscar was, Charles and Carlos were happily talking on each side of him. He wasn’t exactly in the mood knowing he was walking towards his demise.

“So Carlito, ready to face the Iceman ?” The Spaniard grinned, waving his fingers as if he talked about a ghost. Charles rolled his eyes, chuckling.

“Stop talking about him like he’s a demon. I heard he’s really nice actually !”

“Well, I mean after Fernando, I’m sure you can survive anything. The real question is-” Yet again Oscar was pulled by an arm around his shoulder. Jesus , and he thought Lando was too touchy-feely. “Can this poor little guy survive me ” Carlos had dropped his voice trying to sound intimidating which was more funny than anything. Charles theatrically gasped at that, pulling the younger man towards him.

“Hey don’t you dare hurt my son !” 

“Your son ?” That only made Carlos laugh harder, while Charles tried his best to keep his worried parent face for the bit. “When did you adopt him ?”

“Shhhhh ! He doesn’t know that yet !!” He answered with a very credible alarmed tone to his voice while trying to cover his ‘child’ 's ears. 

“Pfff” Oscar couldn’t hold back a chuckle, he had to admit, they sure knew how to lighten the atmosphere. He’s not even sure how the whole adoption joke came to be, maybe it was Charles’ keenness to help him as a rookie or just circumstances that made them close. But throughout time everyone in their friend group made a funny mention about it. Who knows maybe this year he could claim Monaco as his home race.

He almost ran into Carlos when the man halted, and all his joy was suddenly cut short, they arrived in front of the Renault hospitality. This was a literal nightmare. While he felt the anxiety slowly tightening his throat, the Spaniard turned around to Charles.

“You better run if you don’t want to be late.”

“SHIT !!” The Ferrari driver quickly bolted, pulling up his coach’s contact on his phone.

.

.

Charles managed to arrive right on time which was quite the feat as the facility ended up being completely on the other side. Only to realize two minutes into the presentation of the testing schedule that he forgot his precious notebook. Shit. Too late to go fetch it now. 

That didn’t help with his discomfort. Not only was he not mentally prepared for the minimum three hour long discussions the team usually had, now he couldn’t even write down the keyt parts. God he was sick of powerpoints. He took a glance at his new teammate across from him. Kimi was staring at D'Ambrosio, the deputy team principal, with laser focus, hands crossed seemingly in no mood to take any notes. 

With a light nudge of his foot under the table, Charles called his attention. When the icy blue eyes landed on him, he shyly gestured to the stack of paper next to the man. Can I borrow some ? To his surprise the Finn didn’t just slide one sheet towards him, but the entirety of the stack along with a pen, offering a curt nod before turning back to the screen. 

After two long hours, they were finally looking at the possible running lineups, discussing the pros and cons of each one of them. 

This is going to take another hour. If there’s one thing he hates at Ferrari it’s the length of their meetings.  As if reading his thoughts, Kimi stood up exasperated. “This is taking too long.” 

The whole room went silent, turning towards their older driver.  “I mean, it’s crucial to optimise-”

“It won’t change anything anyway. Look, the kid just came here yesterday, must be jet lagged. So I take the first day, him the second and we split the third, good ?” He turned to Charles, who quickly nodded in response.

“It’s settled then. We can end this now.” Without missing a beat the blond headed to the door.

“Wait ! Kimi we still need to figure out the order for-”

“Pick whatever, I don’t care” And on that note, he left, leaving everyone else in a daze, quickly concluding the meeting.  

If he knew it would work, Charles would’ve done that long ago… Well, no actually he would feel bad, but he was nonetheless thankful for the time saved. Maybe this situation wasn’t so bad after all ?

.

.

Oscar just wished the ground would open up and swallow him whole. It’s been hours. And he was sick of being overly tended to as the ‘rookie’. They made him run a lot of basic setups in the sim, give hundreds of feedback, try out his racing suit, test him for all the safety protocols… In short, very annoying tasks. Shouldn’t they have already done these if he raced for them last year anyway ?

Also, what made it worse is the fact that he didn’t know most of the people talking to him. After all, he had just been a reserve driver in Alpine for a year back in the normal reality, before the major restructuring the team had. 

It was extremely awkward to have staff be so friendly to him while all he remembers from them is the glares he got for leaving for McLaren. Thankfully— and he never thought he’d ever say that — Carlos was an immense help, whispering the names to him, giving him some better sim configurations and diverting the attention when the spotlight became too overwhelming. Don’t get him wrong, that still didn’t change his stance on the guy, but he could acknowledge the kind gesture. 

Speaking of the devil, Carlos had now pulled him aside after they finished sim work with a worried look on his face. “Are you ok Oscar ? You seemed out of it the whole evening”

“Huh ? Yeah yeah sorry just… tired I guess” The Spaniard frowned, not entirely convinced.

“Are you stressed about testing ?” Well… now that he thought about it, he kinda was. Being thrown out of his comfortable routine in McLaren where he’d taken his marks over the past year and be shoved in a brand new team without warning was indeed affecting his nerves quite a bit. This must have shown on his face as Carlos gripped his shoulder giving him a reassuring pat.

 “Listen I’ve already told you, you did fantastic replacing me last year. You’re going to do great. Behind me of course, but 2nd best.” 

That was… weirdly thoughtful . Nonetheless he can't wait for things to go back to normal, and it hasn’t even been a day.

.

.

Landoooo renamed the group chat as Surviving the multiverse 💥

Landoooo:

sooo turns out we were defeated

humiliated even

3v1 and the guy still won

Landoooo renamed Lancey as Padel Champ 🎾

Mad Max🦁:

Thats cause you suck at padel

Landoooo:

heyy ! not truue !!!

im better than you and you know it

im not the one who bodyslamed alex to the ground

 Mad Max🦁:

No but you kicked me a few time

Sorry about that @Albono 

 

 Albono 🐈 :

All fine it was fun ! 😊

We may need to work on our team work tho

Padel Champ 🎾:

Maybe if you guys actually practised youd have a chance

Landoooo:

naaaaah one day my talent will do

 Albono 🐈 :

@Osc @Percival  @Princess George 

How was your day ??

 

Osc:

Please get me out of here….

Im gonna die young

Princess George ✨: 

Nico is the devil incarnate.

I think he’s already plotting my downfall.

I miss Lewis.

 

Percival 🆑:

Was great !

Shortest meeting I ever had

Kimi was really nice

 

Osc:

Well at least one of us is having fun

 

Albono 🐈 :

Yeah you two really got the short straw here 🫡

Im glad to have the opportunity to work with Lewis :)

 

Landoooo:

im kinda excitd to work with jenson too !

sorry @Osc you may lose your place as my 2nd favorite teammate

 

Osc:

Oh nooo….

Not my precious 2nd out of 3 place

 

Mad Max🦁:

Im looking forward for it as well 

Finally someone will match my fighting on track

 

Princess George ✨: 

Now we’ll have to watch out for two terrorists on track. 

 

Mad Max🦁:

You wont watch anything 

Youll be too far behind 🫶

 

Princess George ✨: 

🖕

 

Padel Champ 🎾:

I dont think Im ready to face 2013 Fernando…

 

Albono 🐈 :

Don't worry Lancey !

He’s a bit younger but he's still another old man friend to your collection

Landoooo:

my condolences lance

myb you and osc can form a ‘victims of Spannish men’ club

 

Osc:

Actually Sainz is the least of my problem

French people are.

No offense Charles

Percival 🆑:

Im offended by your ‘no offense’ !

Don't associate me with those !!

I'm from Monaco for god sake

 

Princess George ✨: 

Anyways, goodnight everyone.

May this day just be a bad dream.

 

Osc:

Amen

 

.

.

Sadly, this wasn’t a dream and they all woke up to the same weird timeline.

When George first saw who his ‘new’ teammate was, he didn’t think about the ramification that came with it. After all, if he managed to establish himself in the team lead by the Lewis Hamilton, the man who made Mercedes, he could easily do it against Nico Rosberg. Right ?

Turns out Lewis had been extremely lenient on him, handing him a lot of opportunities to make his marks. Encouraging him even, knowing George was the future of the team. Something the German had no desire to do. 

During the whole meeting, yesterday, it was clear Nico was in control. Every question, every decision, every piece of feedback were addressed to him, while George’s opinions were quickly dismissed the moment it diverged from the blond’s. Nico was, after all, their first driver, first win, with the highest seniority. Unshakable.

George hated that, he hated being disregarded. How was he supposed to fight back when Nico practically built the team himself ? Plus the man keeps talking to him with this fake caring tone in his voice. What an infuriating hypocrite…

Now, here he was sitting down trying to set up the sim. When he was faced with all the data on screen, it struck him. This wasn't the car he was used to, not even close, it was unrecognizable. He tried to play a bit with the configurations by himself, not wanting to admit to the team that he had no clue of what he’s doing. But he couldn’t manage to find one that put him under the 1:31.6 and that was clearly not enough for a Q2. Frustrated, he decided to take a peek at Nico’s setups, who had used the sim right before him. To his disappointment, he could only see the last one but by looking at the lap time, 1:31.172, George figured it would be a pretty good starting point. With a bit of improvement it should be enough for Q3.

This was a mistake, the car was completely undrivable, it somehow managed to both oversteer and understeer in the same sector, the front wing made the car ultra unstable and it was draggy on the straights. And Nico drove this ? Even put in a great lap for what it’s worth. And for what ? Just to waste George’s time ? To not let him get a decent training ? He wasn’t even a main competition yet, and the blond is already fighting back. 

This is going to be a long season if things continue on the way they are.

.

Max had spent the last few days and nights streaming various games on Twitch. After all he had all the time in the world beside some light sim work as the team only had meetings on the day leading to testing. Max even went as far as participating in a 6 hours race in Iracing the night before, which, in hindsight, wasn’t his brightest idea. 

He woke up groggy, his brain foggy from the mere 4 hours of sleep. His alarm blaring at him. 

Fuck.

He overslept 45 minutes. Helmut is going to crucify him. Why he insisted on scheduling their driver meetings before 9am, despite knowing about Max’s chaotic sleep schedule, was beyond him. If he’s hoping that it would somehow encourage him to have an acceptable bedtime, then he was sorely mistaken. Now he was rushing through his morning routine desperately trying to not get anymore late.

His hair was still a mess, his jeans bore a suspicious, rather visible stain at the left thigh and he’s pretty sure his shirt is backward. Whatever, no time to fix any of it as he sped walked to the elevator. 

He really should have taken into account that right now he was the team leader anymore so he fears he won’t be so easily forgiven. The meeting must have ended by now and Sebastian will probably use his terrible lack of punctuality to justify a lack of commitment and make the team side even more with him. What a headache. Max had been genuine when saying that he looked forward to racing Vettel in the same machinery but, one thing he didn’t miss about having a competitive teammate was the mind games.

Thankfully, he didn’t have to worry about that for too long. The second he walked in the hotel lobby, he was met with Sebastian heading the same way towards the exit leading to the track, with his blond hair sticking out in every direction and his shirt slightly rumpled. Max grinned, now that solves the problem. 

Sebastian's face lit up in relief as he saw him, seemingly forgetting about their dire situation. “Well hello Max ! I see you’re behind schedule too. Glad to hear I won’t be the only one scolded !”

Max’s eyes sparkled with mischief as he realized what that meant. “I mean he can’t start the meeting if neither of us show up…” 

Sebastian perked up with a devilish smile at the comment. “You’re right ! Since we’re already screwed…” He pointed towards the hotel’s breakfast buffet. “How about we eat first ? That old fart deserves to wait a bit longer.” 

Now that’s someone who matches his energy. “Thought you’d never ask ” 

The two ate at the hotel’s breakfast buffet like there was no hurry. Happily discussing their winter break activities. 

Helmut glared at them waiting at the front door of the Red Bull motorhome. “Look who decided to show up . ”

“Hi Helmut !” Sebastian happily waved at the glaring man, with a joyful tone. “Sorry breakfast took a bit longer !” Max followed right behind with a proud smirk, truth is that the man had no grounds to scold them. First of all because this was far from a busy day for them as they had little else to do other than take some pictures and answer a few questions about testing ahead. Plus, the reunion was only between the three and as team advisor Helmut had plenty of duties to attend to while waiting for them so no one’s time was wasted.

Probably realizing that as well, the Austrian just sighed in defeat.

“You know what, this is all my fault. Shouldn’t have recruited two chaotic dutch (deutsche) blondes in the same team. Come on I’ll be quick with the debrief”

Chapter Text

TESTING DEBRIEF: HOW THE FIELD STACKS UP AFTER THE FINAL DAY OF PRE-SEASON RUNNING IN 2024

Formula 1 is back in action at the Bahrain International Circuit this week for pre-season testing. This is the opportunity for the teams and the fans to have a first taste of the season ahead. Here’s what we could conclude after the three days of running.

Red Bull: Is the RB20 even more dominant than the RB19 ?

Like most teams, Red Bull clearly sandbagged their cars to hide it’s true performances.

Yet even with that, in the long runs it was clear just how consistent and stable the car was. The results are extremely positive, with reigning World Champion Sebastian Vettel saying “the car is a drastic evolution from last year” and “more pace was unlocked that wasn’t here before”. 

His teammate Max Verstappen seems to be missing the few hundreds that makes the difference, but was still incredibly impressive as usual. “The car changed a lot, it’ll take a few races to get used to it. But there’s definitely potential here !”

READ MORE: Verstappen VS Vettel, the few mistakes and bad luck that cost Max the championship.

The timing sheet suggests they still have a 0.3s advantage per lap on Ferrari and Aston Martin in the long runs and they hold the same advantage over Ferrari on a single lap. 

Then, it’s going up to the drivers to make the difference !

Ferrari: The most solid start they had in a long time.

After multiple years of starting on the back foot, Ferrari seemed finally competitive from Day 1 of testing – and that feeling remained through the second day and into Friday.

Charles Leclerc reported that the car is “reacting the way that we wanted it to” and that the feeling is "way better than the base we started from last year”.

READ MORE: The impact on Raikkonen’s arrival on the Ferrari team during winter

Their long runs were once again looking very competitive, adding to the rumors of a drastic step up in performance that the Italian team promised. They were between second and third in the race pace rankings. 

We don’t know exactly each car's fuel load or sandbagging but they seem to close up on Red Bull and Aston Martin.  This solid base gives them the stability to improve performance through the season if they get their development and upgrades right.

Aston Martin: The surprise Front runners

Since the summer break last year, Aston Martin had been consistent with the great upgrades offering stability, managing their first podium with Perez. This time, they were able to keep the tyres alive longer than before and in a more consistent window across all of the stints during a race sim.

READ MORE: How did the brand new Aston Martin project convinced Fernando Alonso

Could this be the beginnings of a new top team amidst the struggles of Mercedes ? Our analysis suggests that they are as fast if not faster than the Ferrari and while they pace over one lap isn’t much convincing, it’s clear that the team found a lot of potential, if they could continue down this route, it is not unimaginable that they could have the best car for next year.

The rest of the pack is a bit harder to decipher

Mercedes and McLaren seem to be on almost equal footing, depending on the race weekend they could very much be in contention with the top 3. Although George seems to have started with his new team at clear disadvantage.

Meanwhile Renault is in a bit of a no man’s land, being clearly faster than the cars behind but still lacking enough pure pace to rivalize against the top 5, they’re going to have to fight for the points.

The rest of the midfield seems to be closer than last year, both between themselves and the teams in front. But with the multiple mechanical problems Williams were plagued by, it is hard to make a definitive conclusion on their situation.

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Oscar insisted on running the three days of testing, whether it was morning or evening didn’t matter, he just really needed to feel the evolution of their set ups. Even when he wasn’t running he made sure to talk to the engineers to understand everything he could about it. With the extensive training he did in these last days, he felt a bit more at ease with the car, he still dearly misses his McLaren of course, but this RS24 wasn’t as bad as he’d expected to be. He would argue it might be better than their early season 2023 car. 

Getting used to it wasn’t the problem, finding the little gains to improve was. His inexperience clearly showed in the time sheets. After his first day he was around 0.47secs behind Carlos at all time. The team were actually impressed and it would have been something to be proud of as a rookie. But he wasn’t one anymore and this wouldn’t satisfy him even a little. 

He did manage to get down to around 0.29secs by Day 3, still not ideal, but if the margin keeps dropping that quickly he could do it. He needed to improve and fast because being beaten by Sainz out of the grid was, for some reasons, more frustrating to him. The beginning of the season was going to be painfully humbling, he fears.

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Well, turns out that his “new” Aston Martin teammate wasn’t so bad in the end. Lance had seriously been expecting some cutting remarks or at very least some glares from Fernando after all the others said about him. Yet, all the man did was act cold towards him, and fully focus on last minute changes or upgrades they could add to the car after testing. 

Even cold sounded too much for what it actually was. The Spaniard actually listened and acknowledged a lot of Lance’s inputs after the first day, even commenting on how he didn’t even think of some of them. They clearly still made a really good team, professionally .

But Lance very much missed the joking around and complicity they had, and without it it kind of felt like Fernando was actively ignoring him. Multiple times he caught himself almost walking up to the older man simply to tell him a silly anecdote before he caught himself. 

Yet, at the end of the day, he was a racing driver first, this weird one sided friendship is something he could live with if it meant driving such a great car.

This AMR24 really exceeded Lance’s expectations, while it wasn’t necessarily faster, it was significantly more stable, not ragged steering needed for it to cooperate, nor did it constantly demand a change of set up. It also seemed to have toned down in the tyre shredding, which should help broaden their strategic options greatly. He was, albeit a bit anxiously, really looking forward to racing it.

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Alex quickly realized to his delight that his Williams car doesn’t differ from the one he knew, since, even in this timeline he’s been the undisputed team leader, as such the car was still tailored to his liking. 

Naturally he expected it to change a lot with the Lewis Hamilton coming, but he’d rather use it as a learning opportunity than try to fight the impossible. The man may only be known as a four time World Champion here but he was still as talented as ever. Speaking of his teammate, working with him was really pleasant. Lewis didn’t try to assert dominance or control as a multiple World Champion, he was simply honest and detailed in his feedback while still giving ample space for Alex to share his own vision. 

Hell, he wouldn’t even mind him becoming the team leader for the foreseeable future in the eventuality of them being stuck here for a while longer. 

Lewis brings so much knowledge and experience and helped to implement them so quickly that he could see this team be a front runner by 2026 after only a few days.

But he was getting ahead of himself, for now they were still working with the awful spreadsheet organization, the dire lack of spare parts and an awful lot of mechanical issues. Some things never change it seems….

.

His car was weird. That’s the only word Lando could come up with to describe it. It wasn’t necessarily slower per say but the weight distribution was slightly off, the setups way more focussed on the race than quali and it was weird. 

It wasn’t very visible at first, but at the double left hander in T9 the car simply refused to turn as he steered. It took him multiple trips to the run off era to understand. The car was… understeering ?

It made sense now that he thought about it, Jenson was notorious for having one of the smoothest driving styles, something that could never be achieved with an unstable rear end. 

Lando can’t say he was used to that, he always drove with slight oversteer, he’s pretty sure everyone on the grid was, but especially wasn’t used to smooth . In his rookie season he inherited a McLaren still tailored for Fernando and there wasn’t a more aggressive steering than that man. Seriously, how many micro corrections did a car need for a single corner ? So he started to drive all his cars around that.

However, Lando always prided himself as an extremely versatile driver, now was the time to prove it !

Smoother driving would mean better tyre management, and as such extracting the maximum of them, this could greatly help the team’s strategy. So this change wasn’t going to discourage him.

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Things did improve a little for George after the first days of testing, which actually wasn’t saying much. 

He did find some positive points to this foreign version of the W15. First thing he noticed to his absolute delight is that the proposing was almost entirely gone, at least no more back pain. The car also seemed to be less sensitive to temperature changes providing more consistent lap times. And lastly, to his surprise, it had quite a lot of pace in it, it was just extremely picky on the setup to achieve it. If he could just adapt to the core features to the car he could make something out of it. However, his biggest issue, opposite to Oscar, wasn’t the car or the team but the guy he shares the garages with. 

Every time he felt the car was close to a sweet spot, Rosberg would suggest a drastic change that would throw him off his fragile balance. What truly perplexes George is that would also impact Nico himself, was hiding his data not enough to guarantee a technical advantage ? He’s starting to think that’s simply how things were back when Lewis was there. 

No wonder the Lewis in his timeline looked so traumatized seeing George trying out a special edition white race suit. Must have bringed out some nasty memories of the German. 

He never thought someone else's friendship falling out would be the cause of so much of his misery.

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For the first time in what feels like forever, Charles actually felt optimistic about both his car and the evolution it will have throughout the season. 

As much of a tough time Alonso seemed to have given him he really managed to turn the team upside down. Something neither him nor Carlos had the charisma or experience to do. Adding to that the blunt honesty of Kimi and his unhesitating nature even when it came to harsh decisions, it really made the difference. He truly can’t believe it took a multiverse travel to achieve it, maybe it really was hopeless back in his reality.

Well, maybe he should start hoping to stay stuck here, sounds like his best chance for a true championship fight. 

Another detail that struck Charles was the lack of competitiveness of his teammate. Kimi was far from what he was used to. Whether it was Seb, Carlos or even Marcus they all fought with him tooth and nail. Anything he got they had to have better and on weekends the car was performing you could just forget about data sharing and post practice discussions. 

Meanwhile, the Iceman just did not care about these games. On the last day of testing, he quite literally gave Charles the best quali setup the car could have. For free ?!

The man had just shrugged it off saying that unlike Charles he wasn't a great qualifier and preferred making it up with a good race setup and that quote: “If I beat you, it should be at your best.”  But the fact remained the same, he helped him.

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This is going to drive Max mad, in the best way possible. Sebastian seemed to almost always find marginal gain over him in the most critical laps. 

Max still blames it on the change of car. The car was bad at all, but it was lacking the distinct pointy front end and oversteeriness he preferred, and with Vettel having equal number 1 status as him he couldn’t exactly ask for such drastic changes so he’ll have to find pace as it is. 

He’ll give himself 3 to 4 races and he’ll be back to his best form, and then he’ll be enjoying the best teammate battle he could dream of. This is going to be a season history will remember, he’ll make sure of it.

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Percival 🆑:

Ok guys we survived testing !!!

To celebrate me and Pierre are playing Fifa

Anyone wanna join ?

 

Mad Max🦁:

Always

 

Landoooo:

ooooh awsome im in !!!

 

Percival 🆑:

We’re in the Alpha Tauri motorhome 

Feel free to come

 

Princess George ✨: 

I feel like you guys brushed over the whole different timeline thing way too quickly.

 

Mad Max🦁:

Were F1 driver 

It’s our job to be adaptable

 

Albono 🐈 :

I mean im pretty good my car didn’t change at all

Im a bit disappointed actually

 

Landoooo:

ill get over the changes pretty quickly

 

Padel Champ 🎾:

I think mine’s better than originally !

 

Percival 🆑:

Same !!

I’m excited to race !!

 

Osc:

Lucky you…

I still hate it here

 

Princess George ✨: 

They can’t understand our pain.

It’s just the two of us, Oscar…

 

Mad Max🦁:

Oscar I could understand but thats just a skill issue on your part George

 

Princess George ✨: 

Excuse me ?!

You don't understand that man is out to GET me !

Just today he literally blocked the toilets so I’d be late for a meeting !

 

Mad Max🦁:

Then go piss somewhere else ? Idk what to tell you

 

Albono 🐈 :

All of this because of a heartbreak poor Nico…

Actually Lewis is really on the fence about the subject too

 

Landoooo:

oooooooh

maybe we been sent here from another dimension to help them make up !!

and when they do we ll go back home !!

 

Osc:

What are we ? Characters in a bad romcom ?

 

Padel Champ 🎾:

Plus if that’s the case then we might as well be stuck here forever

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Well looks like he had something to do now. Max finally looked up from the excruciatingly boring data report he barely skimmed, stretching his arms while getting up. 

“You’re done reading already ?” Sebastian looked at him amused, he too was clearly just pretending to focus on the stack of papers, preferring to listen to music while twirling in his chair instead.

“We both know neither of us are reading that. Charles invited me for a Fifa, wanna join ?”

“Charles ?” The German paused, looking extremely perplexed. OK  there definitely some context he was missing. George did insist on staying as vague as possible. Welp too late for that now.

“Yeah…?  Is that weird ?”

Now Sebastian fully turned to him, an unsettling degree of curiosity shining in his eyes as he tilted his head. “I thought he hated you ? You know… pushed him wide in Austria and all”

Ah. Max had almost forgotten about that… inchident. So that’s the stage they were at in this universe, huh. At least it’s not a major fuck up. He could deal with that.

 “Nah we’re past that. What happens on track stays on track now. We’re pretty good friends actually.”

“Friends enough that he invites you instead of me ?”

Well, he did get some new information out of it. Someone’s going to be happy about this.

“He probably just thought you were busy. So what do you say ?”

“Of course I’m in !”

Mad Max🦁:

Seb is joining

Also you two are great friends apparently @Percival

 

Percival 🆑:

Wait REALLYYY ??!

 

Landoooo:

lmaooo thats charles dream right here

 

Osc:

Wait I’m coming too

If this universe is going to give me anything it’s got to be Vettel playing Fifa

 

Padel Champ 🎾:

Could you guys film it ? 

Im stuck filming social media stuff :(

 

Princess George ✨: 

Is everyone just going to ignore the clear instructions I gave about avoiding unnecessary interactions with outsiders ??

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While Lando's team was getting obliterated by Max's on the screen with Pierre loudly mocking the defeat, Charles was sitting next to Seb cackling along knowing full well the same fate is awaiting them. The blond was leaning on him for support as he tried catching his breath from the laughter.

It was a bit weird seeing Sebastian like this, so friendly. He looked exactly how he remembered first meeting him. Back then Charles had just signed for the Ferrari academy for the next F2 season. Sebastian seemed to have caught wind of it because one evening he approached him in the paddock and casually plopping down next to him smiling.

“Hey just so you know I’m going to go easy on you when we’ll race together, so be prepared kid.” Then left as promptly as he came.

At the time, this was the first time someone in the sport had actively acknowledged the possibility of Charles reaching F1, not only that reaching Ferrari . That small gesture had meant immensely to him, and still does to this day.

And not for the first time in the few days they arrived here, Charles wondered if this world was so bad after all.

Chapter Text

George paced around his hotel room pointedly glaring at his six timeline shifting companions sitting on the couch across from him, who were way too calm for the situation at hand.

“I don’t think you realize how screwed we are.” The Brit’s voice was tight from frustration. “ You guys take this whole thing way too lightly it’s going to bite us in the arse ! ” 

Max groaned, rolling his eyes. “Mate, it’s not that deep ! We can wing it just fine” 

“You’re kidding, right ? Media day is coming and you guys know NOTHING about yourselves or the history of our sport !” George's eyes twitched, snatching a stack of papers from the TV stand behind him, waving them. “Did you guys even read the charts I gave you ??” 

“We know enough” Max shot back. “Worst case scenario we miserably fail Grill the Grid. Big deal. We’ll live.” 

George started to feel a headache throbbing behind his eyes. He exhaled sharply standing in front of the Dutchman. “Fine. If you know everything, who did you replace at Red Bull ?”

Max scoffed. “What type of question is that ?”

“Media pen simulation, answer the question.”

“Well Kvy-” SMACK !

Before Max could finish his sentence a stack of paper slapped him square in the face. 

“THE HELL- ?!”Max yelped, holding his stinging nose as Lando giggled next to him. 

“Wrong ! It was Daniel Ricciardo” George couldn’t help but smirk as he received a death glare from the man. God it felt good to finally do that. 

“See what I mean guys ! You underestimate how much this world is different from ours !”

Suddenly turning to Lando, George stretched into the sinister smile of a teacher interrogating a student they knew for a fact didn’t have the answer. “Since you find it so hilarious Norris ” His voice dropping into a false enthusiasm. “Why don’t you answer ? Who did you replace in McLaren ?”

The McLaren driver’s smile faltered at that. “Huuuh… Wait let me-” SMACK ! Lando yelped at that. “Too slow ! Magnussen.” 

“Kev was at McLaren here ???”

A beat passed as everyone looked at the youngest of the brit in silence before Oscar leaned from his seat on the arm chair to stare at him judgingly. “Lando, he made his debut at McLaren.”

“Oh… Really ?”

George sighed. “Ok maybe Lando is a lost cause to begin with, but I’ve got high hopes for you Charles !” The man in question gulped as the Brit walked up to him. 

“Raikkonen…? In 2019.”

“Right ! And what race did you collide with Alonso last year ?”

Charles' face paled.“What ?? How would I kn-” Thud !

This time George did not aim the face but just lightly hit the top of Charles’ head. “Since this question was harder I spared you. Monza for P3.”

“Ah… almost like with Carlos” 

Well it seems like his friends started to understand their mistake and were willing to hear him out. Still that doesn’t mean he won’t continue his little act to really drive the point home. Next he stepped in front of Lance who looked back at him with an unimpressed pout.

“Lance, who was your first teammate ?”

“Massa at Williams in 2019.” 

“Good. When were your podiums ?”

“Baku 2019. Monza 2021. And Bahrain 2021” 

The Mercedes driver could help but lift his eyebrow in surprise. He’d expect Charles to have studied the chart, but Lance… “Huh.. I see, someone actually took this seriously.”

The Canadian smirked in response. “You sound disappointed. Wanted an opportunity to hit me ?”

George glared at him, pointedly ignoring the remark. “Who did you share your first podium with ?”

“Easy. Seb was P2 and Nando-” Smack ! The sheer surprise made Lance recoil back against the couch.  

“Wha- But I’m right ! It’s even my lockscreen here !” As proof he held up his phone to the group, on it was in fact a picture of a laughing 18 year old Lance being sprayed with champagne by the two World Champions, one clad in a Red Bull race suit while the other sported the Rosso Corsa color.

George nodded, looking impressed. “Hmm, so you were…”

“Why did you hit me then ?!”

“You need to stop using nicknames for Fernando.” 

“Oh…”

George walked back in front of the couch, putting back down the papers, and falling back into presentation mode.“Now that you all understand how screwed-”

“Wait, wait wait” Interrupted Lando frowning “How about these two ?? You didn’t whack them ! ”

George squinted over at Alex and Oscar before shrugging. “Alex and I read through our charts earlier since we were teammates, and Oscar’s a rookie he only has to remember the races he replaced Carlos”

“Which were from Singapore to Abu Dhabi. Plus I crashed in Japan” Interjected the young man looking smug.

“See some of us actually take this seriously.”

Lando frowned, mumbling something about favoritism.

The rest of the afternoon was spent with George forcing them to binge watch as many interviews of themselves as possible to be sure to not miss details from this world, as well as running through what felt like hundreds of hypothetical media questions.

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Media day:

Thursday,

28 February 14h00

Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)

Max Verstappen (Red Bull)

Lewis Hamilton (Williams)

14h30

George Russell (Mercedes)

Kimi Räikkönen (Ferrari)

Oscar Piastri (Renault) 

It was clear from the media pen interviewees that it was going to be all about adapting to a new team and relationship with teammates. Max was grateful to be in group one as there were seemingly so many teammate dramas with Alonso and Hamilton that in comparison him and Vettel seemed idyllic. 

It was still extremely awkward to be sat in the middle of two brooding men being hit with extremely tough questions with a camera aimed at you. After a few surface level questions here and there, until one fateful question dropped.

“So Fernando, your departure to Aston Martin came as a complete surprise really late in the season. Was Perez’s retirement an opportunity for you to escape from a teammate who started to be a bit too much for you ?”

Seriously ?? Thought Max. We just started !

The Spaniard looked completely unimpressed regarding the journalist with an icy stare, his tone disdainful. “Escape ? Are you implying I was afraid ?” 

The interviewer, who was sitting in the front row, slightly flinched at the stare before responding. “N-not afraid. But it looked like you didn’t want to get beaten by Leclerc who was really performing last season.”

Fernando crossed his arms now fully glaring at the man. “That’s your opinion.” he retorted, with a harsh roll of ‘r’, his Spanish accent sharpening with his irritation.

“Is that not yours ?”

“No.” Fernando bringed the mic closer, firmly maintaining eye contact to make his point clear. “I just left for a better project”

“I see, last question for you. Last year you kept mentioning team favoritism towards Charles. Are you not worried it’s going to get worse in Aston Martin seeing your teammate’s….. status"

Max almost scoffed, quickly turning to tap Lewis on the back, who choked on the water he was sipping from stupor. They were seriously trying to rile the Spaniard up. Fernando's jaw visibly tightened, lips pressed in a thin line, looking like he was desperately searching for a nice way to word his thoughts and coming empty. 

Max knew he had to intervene before something went array, right as the Spaniard opened his mouth to speak, he grabbed his own microphone plastering an amused smile towards the journalist. “Do you have a dead wish or something ?” 

He said in a joking tone and a light chuckle trying to elevate some of the tension without sounding threatening. It seemed to be working when some reporters in the crowd cracked a smile. Even Fernando relaxed his shoulder a bit, nodding at Max and taking a deep breath before finally answering. “Me and Lance both want the best for the team, we’ll work together for that”

Ok, crisis avoided, for a few questions at least, until another god forsaken journalist turns towards Lewis and boldly asks. “We could ask the same thing to you Lewis, were there some personal reasons for you to leave Mercedes ?”

Jesus, these reporters are acting like starved wolves after a long winter, they’re just going for the kill with these questions.

“Personal reasons..?” Repeated the Brit sounding perplexed. Undoubtedly not expecting this kind of harshness. Max sighed internally, if the Lewis he knew wasn’t even willing to mention about his falling out with Rosberg 8 years after the fact there’s no way this one would be barely 3 months later. 

Keeping the same PR smile on his face turning to the man. “I think he’s asking you if you lost a bet or something.” If you don’t like a question just answer it ironically, that was Max’s motto. 

The William driver perked up at that immediately seizing the opportunity to deflect the subject, continuing in a light hearted tone. “Oh yeah… You know I really believe in the team trajectory for the future and all, but yeah man, it all started with a bet with Toto.” 

Max chimed in with his own jesting. “That’s how I ended up in Red Bull actually, lost a bet with Christian.”

“You lost ?” Lewis asked, laughing at the absurdity of the discussion.

“Yeah, terrible isn’t it. I suck at golf.” Grinned Max, proud of how startled the crowd in front of them were at this ridiculous obviously sarcastic conversation.

After those awkward questions, the interviews were quickly concluded with Max only reiterating his feelings on the new car and his trust in his team.

When all was wrapped up, and he was about to get up and leave, he received a tap on the back from his former championship rival. “Thanks a lot man, great improvisation skill you have there.” 

He simply chuckled. “Yeah, sarcasm is always the best answer” 

Group 2:

George hated it here, he knew he was screwed the second he saw who he shared the interview with. Oscar and Kimi ?! That was plain sabotage. 

One of these two alone is enough to make most journalists give up any hopes of obtaining meaningful answers, forcing them to turn towards the other guests. But with both of them here, George’s going to get bombarded with, according to Max, ruthless questions and boy was he not ready to talk about Nico. He's not even sure what the guy’s problem is.

“Question for all, the three of you all have met your new team and teammate, give us your thoughts.”

Kimi was the first one to speak up in his distinct soft detached voice. “Bwoah… Nice to come back to Ferrari, I think there’s great potential in the car.” And that’s it. This man must be a journalist's worst nightmare.

George could feel how the shorter response this man gives the longer his will have to be.  

Next Oscar held up the mic. “There’s no surprise, I mean since I signed with Renault me and Carlos really clicked. He’s been an immense support, really helped me get my footing.” 

God, he’ll have to do all the talking won’t he. Well at least thanks to yesterday's rehearsal the Australian didn’t look in pain each time he had to talk positively about his teammate.

George took a long deep breath remembering all his years of Mercedes PR training  before he in turn responded. “Yeah for me it’s been a bit harder, moving into a manufacturer team that’s higher on the grid is quite a change. I obviously have big shoes to fill…” 

He throwed in one of his ‘humble, charming the camera’ smiles before continuing. “Nico has been giving me the space I needed to adapt on my own. But still made sure I ran through various different set ups to fully understand the car, which has been…” awful and plain evil “ strict but thoughtful mentoring”

He tried his best to answer as thoroughly as possible to leave no space for any follow up questions. It seemed to be working for now as the questions stopped being directed to him.

“Kimi, isn't it weird to race with the guy who replaced you ? Do you think you deserved to stay in the seat ?”

There it is. It took a whopping 3 minutes for these sharks to move to the hard hitting questions.

The blond’s eyes narrowed, replying in a harsh tone. “It doesn’t matter, I'm here to race. Stop searching for drama. It’s annoying.”

“Right…” The journalist seemed to be taken aback by the bluntness of the answer, but really what did he expect ? Looking back at his notes he continued.  “Can you describe for us how the team has changed since you left in 2018 ?”

If Kimi wasn’t keen on answering interviews in general, after the last question he seemed even more closed. “A lot.” He simply said before putting down the mic clearly showing his unwillingness to be asked anything else .

There was an awkward silence in the room before someone else spoke up.

“Oscar, how do you feel in the car ?”

“Same as last year really, it’s more of an evolution than a full new car. I already had my marks from Abu Dhabi so it was easier to settle in for sure.” In the span of a single year, Oscar managed to master the art of checking all the talking points without adding anything else. Impressive really.

“How do you apprehend racing against Carlos ? Are you afraid the friendship might take a hit like we’ve seen many examples of it before ?” Directing this sort of question to Kimi or Fernando was already a bit scummy but asking it to, as far as they’re aware, a rookie ? That was crossing the line.

Thankfully the Australian wasn’t actually inexperienced in the topic and knew how to navigate answering this somewhat with ease.

“Me and Carlos always knew it was extremely likely that we’d end up teammates, even before becoming friends, I’m sure we’ll do just fine. Competitiveness is something that bring us closer actually”

As much as he tried to mask it, the Brit could see how unsettled Oscar was at repeating things he heard himself say in previous interviews. 

He knew he was right to push them to learn more about themselves. Even if it had involved a few hits.

Princess George ✨: 

Oh. My Lord.

They sure want to kill us with these questions.

 

Mad Max🦁:

And I thought the media back home were viscous

 

Osc:

I thought it was ok.

 

Landoooo:

easy for a newbi like you to say 🙄

ur life is too boring for them love

 

Albono 🐈 :

Really expected Alonso to storm out after that last one 😬

So insensitive of them to ask

 

Percival 🆑:

EXACTLY 

What kind of questions was that ??

They kept bringing me up like Im a villain or something

 

Padel Champ 🎾:

Note to self: avoid media at all cost

 

Princess George ✨: 

Yeah, you should particularly watch out Lance.

They really want to drive Fernando paranoid.

Anyway, I think we can acknowledge that it was the correct course of action to review the charts and questions ahead.

 

Mad Max🦁:

Yeah, yeah it kinda helped

 

Percival 🆑:

You know its bad when he admits George was right

I am screenshotting this

 

Mad Max🦁:

🖕

 

Percival 🆑:

🫶

Chapter Text

Friday wrap: Hear the drivers’ thoughts after the first practice sessions.

This is yet another learning phase for our drivers. With the sandbagging now gone, they have three hours to test the real limits of their cars and get familiarized with them before getting down to Qualifying.

Here’s the reports as well the reactions we collected from different drivers.

Practice was the first show of the true potential of the cars after testing. In the first session teams mostly focused on trying long runs on the hard compound with only the last minutes dedicated for shorter runs on a softer range. A lot of drivers complained about the grip during the C1 runs. Which suggests that most teams will not run on this tire for the race. 

Only two teams, Alpha Tauri and Renault, had chosen to focus on the yellow tire, pushing the French and Italian teams in the top of the charts with Carlos Sainz achieving P1. Oscar Piastri looks better adapted to the car with a respectable 6th. 

Even with the terrible grip the Red Bull still showed a lot of pace with Vettel 2nd and Max 5th.

FP2 was all about quali laps simulation, and it looked like the reigning Champion team was tweaking a lot with the set up, making it hard to pinpoint exactly the size of their advantage over their direct competition, finishing 4th and 5th. The Aston Martins and Ferraris still look like they could snatch pole this season with great pace on a single lap. 

To no one’s surprise Leclerc finished ahead in this exercise, followed by the other Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen and Lance Stroll. The latter has been heard multiple times on the team radio suggesting changes to accommodate his teammate who ended 6th.  

Video:

Max is the first one walking in the media pen, his face still flushed from the heat and adrenaline inside the cockpit.

Interviewer: “Hello Max ! It felt like you really gave your all today especially in those last quali runs, you had a few near misses there. What’s your feelings about your performance ?”

“I really pushed there didn’t I ? Yeah, it helps me to know the limits before the serious sessions later in the weekend. We tried a lot of things with the car today so we understand it better.” Max smiles adjusting his red bull cap, his number 33 cap he reminds himself. “I feel good driving it but Seb is my benchmark and I’m still not there yet, so gotta push even more !”

Interviewer: “Not too much though we don’t want to repeat last year’s errors, do we ?”

Max had to make a colossal effort to hold his tongue after that comment. It sounded extremely patronizing but he had to remind himself, here he’s a 24 year old who, he had to admit, did not have a clean last season, which probably cost him his chances at the title. 

He cleared his throat before getting back in his (semi) PR persona and recited the speech George and Charles helped come up with. “I think these mistakes came from being in championship contention for the first time. I admit the nerves got to me, but mistakes help us to learn. And now that I know what it’s like, I'm prepared to be even faster than you’d ever seen me.” 

Oh how he hates generic PR talks, but it works wonders as the reporter simply nodded taking notes.

Interviewer: “Well, I’m sure everyone is excited to see the title fight with this all new Verstappen.”

After the first Red Bull it was now the turn of Sebastian Vettel, who jogged towards the camera with a big smile on his face.

Interviewer: “Sebastian, I see you are in a very good mood. We can understand why, you really seemed at one with the car.”

“Yeah ! I’m really excited to race. The car is even better than last year, more stable and with far more potential unlockable !”

Interviewer: “Are you saying you will dominate even more than last year ?”

Sebastian beamed at the statement. “Well it’s just one circuit so we need to see it in different conditions but I sure hope so ! But I don’t know… The guys in green look like they mean business. Have you seen some of the laps this guy-

He suddenly turns around to grab Lance, who was innocently walking by, and drags him in front of the cameras, enthusiastically shaking the poor man by the shoulders.

“-has put in the end ?? Between him and Charles, I’m seriously starting to worry about our chances at a win on Sunday !”

The interviewer turned towards the Canadian nodding.

Interviewer: “Lance, congratulations, you truly made astonishing lap times”

Lance rubs his nape, sheepishly smiling as the German pats his back happily, still startled by the unexpected attention. “Yeah the car is really comfortable to drive, makes my job easier. But come on, if you have to worry about someone, it’s Fernando.”

“Oh I am very much am.” The blond shot back. “Especially if you keep suggesting set ups for him !”

Interviewer: “You did seem very keen on helping your teammate, we heard you on the radio multiple times suggesting modifications to suit Alonso better.”

The Canadian froze at that. Shit, it really took them 2 minutes to bring up team dynamics again, something he really should avoid as per George wise opinion.

“Well, you know, teamwork is dreamwork...”

Sebastian turns to him squinting incredulously. “Fernando, a team player ? That's going to be uncanny.”

The next people to walk in front of the journalists are Oscar and Lando, deeply invested in their own hushed conversation.

“Oscar.” interrupted the journalist, the Australian immediately turned his head smiling apologetically before walking to face the camera, his companion stepping outside the camera’s field.

Interviewer: “First of all, we have to highlight your performance, it was truly exceptional. You don’t even look anxious at all, almost feel like it’s not your first season.”

The young man stiffened a bit, right he still needed to act as a rookie from time to time. “I mean technically it’s not ? I’ve participated in what ? 7… 8 races ? That’s more than a quarter of one, so it’s no surprise.”

Interviewer: “I guess the experience of being thrown in mid season is indeed far more stressful than this soft beginning. I can see you have already made some friends. Watch out, Lando might try to get you to divulge confidential informations by asking technical questions.”

Oscar frowned, perplexed as the journalist chuckled. 

“I don’t see how I can divulge anything to my own teammate.” Immediately after saying that, dread washed over him. Lando wasn’t his teammate, not anymore, actually not ever as far as they knew. 

As he was scrambling for an explanation Lando interjected with a nervous laugh. “He means padel teammates ! We- we were talking about padel…” 

That seemed to be convincing enough, making the reporters go from a quizzical look to a light laughter.

Interviewer: “Oh I see, you two looked so serious we assumed it was about F1.”

“That padel tournament is serious.” The Australian quipped back in a flat tone, “Lando is determined to beat Max and Lance. We played with them last week.” Thank god he has a good poker face, decent improvisation skills and Lando frantically nodding behind him. 

They truly need to stick to the ‘avoid the media resolution’ for the time being or one of them might irreparably fuck up.

Qualifying: In a predictable turn of event, it’s a Red Bull front row lockout. 

This qualifying session is crucial as it has shown clearly the performance of each car and driver, over a Bahrain circuit which is known as a ‘standard track’, tending to show the overall capabilities of the vehicles rather than circuit specific performances.

After practice, it became pretty clear that the Softs will be an optimal racing tyre, as such the top teams, who were confident in their ability to go through, preferred to use mediums on their runs. For Renault the strategy was a bit risquier with a very close 14th and 15th place with Piastri only being 0.02secs off Hulkenberg behind. Williams and Alpha Tauri decided not to take the gamble and went through on the C3.

Eliminated :

P20: BOT  P19: OCO  P18: RIC  P17: TSU  P16: HUL

Q2:

The moment all the cars were put on equal tires, it became abundantly clear just how much the Top 5 teams were ahead from the rest of the pack. The Renaults, Williams and lone Alpha Tauri couldn’t do anything but fight within themselves as best of the rest, hoping for some drama in front tomorrow to collect some points. This is where we can see the difference that confidence in the car and experience makes.

Eliminated :

P15: PIA  P14: HAM  P13: GAS  P12: ALB  P11: SAI

Q3:

Ultimately, the Red Bull were still crushing their competitors, locking out the front row with Max Verstappen topping the charts with a 1:29.179 beating the reigning World champion by barely 5 hundreds. Leclerc completed the podium with another 8 hundreds behind Vettel. A really brilliant performance by Lance Stroll who slotted his Aston Martin in 4th lapping at a 1:29.435 with nearly a tenth ahead of two time World champion, Fernando Alonso in 5th. 

The Mercedes is a step behind but Nico Rosberg still managed to snatch the 6th place from Raikkonen with an all-in lap, after a botched warm up run from the red car, both of them around 7 tenths from pole. 

Norris is the first car in the 1:30s, another tenth behind, with Russell the last car that put an actual lap time as Button decided to not put-in any, only going out on used tyres to try and offer his fellow McLaren driver a tow, preferring to have a strategic advantage in the race with the additional tyre option.

Results:

VER: 1:29.179 

VET:+0.051

LEC:+0.134

STR:+0.256

ALO:+0.341

ROS:+0.592

RAI:+0.741

NOR:+0.831

RUS:+1.37

BUT:+3.501

“ And that’s P3, stellar job Charles”

“What’s the gap to Max ?”

“One tenth.”

“Oh ! That's good !” Charles released a breath he didn’t know he was holding. He knew the car was great from the second he tested it, yet there was still this anxiety in his guts convincing him something would go wrong. Because stuff always goes wrong with this team , but maybe not in this reality. 

He was about to celebrate when it hit him, Max wasn’t his only competition here, far from it, the man may not even be the poleman. 

“Wait- who’s the other in front ?”

“Vettel, 8 hundreds gap. Kimi missed his lap.” Ok that was more than good actually, maybe it’s the recency bias from 2023 but he’s used to insurmountable gaps, 1 tenth is attainable especially on tracks like Monaco or Baku. He can do this, he can have the best season in rosso corsa he’s ever had.

He parked the car, walking to weigh himself still in a bit of a daze. He was pulled back from his dissociation by a firm pat on the back from Max who was grinning at him before the blond walked up to the post-Quali interview.

Interviewer: “Max you’re our first pole man of the year and just wow. When Sebastian completed his lap we thought he’d extracted the maximum possible out of the car but then you came and managed to scrape 5 hundreds out of nowhere ! It was just marvelous ! Tell us what goes through your head when you’re thinking of beating your teammate.”

“Yeah well, when I started my lap, the provisional pole was Charles so I knew I had to give it my all anyways. For me he’s always the man to beat and it ended up being enough for pole… so yeah, didn’t really think much about my teammate. No offense Seb.” 

The German just laughed as he walked in the camera’s field stealing the mic from Max, smoothly forcing the interviewer to cut short the questions towards his teammate. 

This man was truly a media favorite. “Oh none taken, I’d be weirded out if you did Max.”

Interviewer: “You don’t think of the competition when you're driving, Sebastian ? 

“Hell no ! When I’m in the car especially in quali I’m in the zone focused on making the best of every corner, it’s a peace bubble, I’m not going to distract myself by thinking of another man !”

“Well maybe you should, it’s working wonders.” Retroqued Max now behind the camera next to Charles, the monegasque shook his head in disbelief. It seems no matter what timeline they’re in, the Red Bull duo will always be chaotic, one way or another. 

Interviewer: “Sebastian, how do you feel about getting beaten by your teammate ?”

“Meh, it’s bound to happen, I mean the guy is really fast. The only thing I have a real edge on is experience and he seems to have matured three years over the winter so, it’s going to be harder this year, but who doesn’t like a challenge ?”

Interviewer: “Thank you Sebastian, Charles-” 

Charles walked up in turn toward the cameras taking the microphone Sebastian was handing him.

Interviewer: “Amazing performances, but like Max said it’s no surprise you’re always a tough competition on Saturday, how do you feel ?”

“Yeah, my speciality has always been performance over one lap, that’s why I love quali. And now that the car has more potential I think I can be in the mix for the front more often this season, although I see the Astons aren’t so far behind… It’s going to vary from track to track I think.”

Interviewer: “Well, we’re glad to hear that. Frankly we’re all sick and tired of the Austrian anthem, so if you can do anything about it everybody would be grateful. Last little question, to come back to what Max said, you too seemed to focus on his lap more than anybody else, immediately asking the gap only after asking about, and I quote, ‘the other’...”

Next to the reporter, Sebastian burst out cackling. “You called me the other ?? Oh my God, Charlie how dare you !”

Charles felt himself growing embarrassed being exposed on live TV “Umm… well my engineer only told me about Max starting a lap… I was simply wondering how I lost second place..”

This was total bullshit, Xavi clearly said "Provisional pole, the Red Bulls are the last to run” he’s just not used to thinking of the second car as real competition. 

Good Lord, Twitter is going to have a field day with this. He can already picture all the tweets Arthur loves to send him just to annoy him… 

.

Lando was giving a generic interview about the session when Jenson walked up next to him to shake his hand.

“I’m sorry mate” The older brit started “If I had given you a better tow you could have been ahead of the Ferrari, I didn’t see there was a car in the way”

“All good ! We tried at least.” 

Interviewer: “Hello Jenson, good you’re here, we wanted to know what was that all about not putting down any lap ?”

“Yeah well, from free practice it had become evident that we are absolutely not performing in the quali exercise, compared to the top teams at least. And with it not being my forte either, we had agreed to not go out. So that tow strategy was very improvised”

Interviewer: “What made you change your plan ?”

“When we saw the Ferrari miss its lap, we decided to try our shot with Lando with the help of a tow for some extra gains. We didn't expect a car to be between us so… guess I helped a random driver, who was it even ?... I think it was an Aston. Welp to Fernando or Lance you’re welcome !”

Interviewer: “And will this extreme gap still be a worry for tomorrow’s race ?”

“No, thankfully not, in the long runs we’re pretty much in the fight with the Mercs so hopefully the additional tires I saved will give us the upper hand strategy wise.” 

.

4th in an Aston AND out qualifying his teammate was nothing to scoff at, especially with a car he wasn’t entirely familiar with. And while yes, there was a bit of luck at play here Lance was still really proud of his performance. 

He got back from the interviews with some time to spare before the debrief. Deciding that the trip to his driver’s room wasn’t worth it, he simply plopped down on a comfortable chair to rest his eyes for a while. 

The room was filled with the calm bustling sounds of staff rushing around the room, clatter of the mechanics’ tools and murmur of technicians. Among those, Lance could hear the distinct roaring of an engine coming from a speaker a little bit further in the room. 

This was a usual occurrence, most engineers would rewatch some competitors’ laps to gather information, what wasn’t so common was the number of times he heard the same clip repeat. The same exact 30 seconds replayed again and again. And again. 

After the fourth time, curiosity got the better of him, he got up and glanced at the other side of the garage. Mechanics were busy making the last inspections on the cars before park ferme and the rest of the staff were on their own debrief to analyze data for the race. The only person actively using a computer without headphones was Fernando. 

The Spaniard was hunched over the desk, a fierce stare burning at the screen in front of him while obsessively replaying the same first sector on board, Lance’s on board. 

What is that all about ?

The Canadian walked up to his teammate intrigued. “Is… there something wrong ?”

Fernando’s head immediately snapped towards Lance, startled. A beat passed as the man studied him with the same frustrated, almost ferocious stare. “You beat me, I want to understand.” 

“Oh…”  Fernando has always been an extremely determined and competitive driver, staying late in the sim or to discuss strategy with the team, but this younger version of him had an even bigger insatiable hunger in his gaze, so intense it startled him. 

So that was the man he was facing this year, he’s in for a wild ride.

“I… got a tow” Lance mumbled, suddenly nervous from the stare. “Jenson was trying to give it to Lando and I was in between so… benefited.”

Fernando’s frown deepened, his irritation now replaced by utter confusion, as if Lance just said the most inconceivable thing he’s ever heard. “First the setup help now this… You’re weird, shouldn’t tell me stuff like that.”  

Now Lance was the one perplexed. “Why not ?”

“Keeping me in the dark and doubting myself would have given you an advantage. That’s how you win against a teammate…”

Lance couldn’t help but chuckle at the absurdity of his words, shaking his head in disbelief. “Come on, I’m not naive. Win against you ?”

“You have the team by your side.” Oh so he was serious about this.

“I’m not here to fight you, Fernando. You said it yourself, we’ll work together to push the team to the top. And when we do, maybe I’ll try keeping up with you.”

Fernando looked completely taken aback at the statement, like he couldn’t fathom Lance’s words. “Right…”

Surviving the multiverse💥

Landoooo:

guys omg !! im SHOOK 

this universe is sooo weird

i just saw that lestappen was like nonexistent before todays interview ?!

criminal really

 

Percival 🆑:

What even is that ?

 

Albono 🐈 :

Don't act like you don’t know Charlie

 

Landoooo:

turns out the most popular ships here are 5581

not sure how to call it… 

oscarlos ?

piarlos ?

 

Osc:

Don’t even start

 

Princess George ✨: 

I mean it makes sense narratively speaking.

 

Osc:

Not you too…

Stop this right now.

You’re supposed to be the sensible one here

 

Landoooo:

ahead of carlando is unacceptable

 

Mad Max🦁:

Why are you so invested in this Lando ?

Landoooo:

its fun to know what people think of us !!

ooooooh galex is very liked here

 

Albono 🐈 :

Ayyyyyy

Get in there George ! We’re on top here 🎉 🎉

 

Mad Max🦁:

Weird flex but ok…

 

Landoooo:

but the fan favorite is brocedes

 

Albono 🐈 :

Always the doomed yaoi

People are allergic to wholesome stuff I swear

 

Percival 🆑:

You seem very well inform Alex

 

Albono 🐈 :

Bound to happen when you have 3 sisters

 

Padel Champ 🎾:

How did we even get to this topic

 

Osc:

Lando being a menace

 

Landoooo:

not my fault max and charles cant act normal on interviews to save their life

 

Padel Champ 🎾:

Well glad im not popular enough to have stuff like that 

 

Landoooo:

oh no you do

at least back in our og universe

with esteban and nando

not sure which one is more popular

 

Padel Champ 🎾:

⁉️

Chapter Text

J-7 hours: Driver’s parade

Charles was the first to arrive on the big sort of truck used for the drivers’ parade. Leaning against the railing, he lifted his head toward the mid-afternoon sun, soaking in the Bahrain’s afternoon warmth as he waited for the others. 

His phone buzzed lazily in his hand, the same chat that had become his main source of interaction these days, his eyes flickering down the screen.

Princess George ✨: 

Guys, the driver's parade is coming.

I can’t stress this enough, avoid being alone as much as possible.

Any conversation with the other guys might be dangerous.

Osc:

Easier said than done.

I just started media duties I’m going to be barely on time

But Carlos is safe I think

Padel Champ 🎾:

@Princess George are you still in the motorhome ?

Princess George ✨: 

Yep, I can wait for you there.

Landoooo:

aleeeeeex im out in like 10

wanna be my duo ?

Albono 🐈 :

Sure ! I’m gonna be done around the same time ✌️

Percival 🆑:

Shit Im already there

Alone

Princess George ✨: 

Try to act busy with your phone or something.

Avoid one on one talks.

Albono 🐈 :

Is it that bad ?

Princess George ✨: 

Yes ! You guys just keep ignoring me. 

We got really lucky with Seb and Carlos but please let’s not play with fire.

Percival 🆑:

Wait I’m seriously starting to worry now…

Mad Max🦁:

Dw Charlie I’m basically done

Im coming in a bit

Percival 🆑:

My hero !!

Well hopefully no one else comes before that

Padel Champ 🎾:

Yeah um about that…

.

Before he could even read the rest of the chat, a shadow fell across his phone. Someone had stopped in front of him. The figure was noticeably shorter than him, unmoving in silent intent. He looked up, and felt his blood running cold as he was faced with sharp, unreadable eyes. 

Et merde. 

Of course it had to be Fernando. Why would he want anything to do with him ?

“Hum… Hi ?” He started tentatively.

“Hello.” 

The Spaniard gave a curt nod as he leaned against the railing beside him. “Your car looks really fast. Congratulations.”

Charles instinctively tensed, not sure of the intent behind the words. “Yeah.. Yours too.”

“We still need to see how good it is in the race but I think we can give you a good fight.” Fernando conceded, gaze trained on the Bahrain desert ahead.

Forcing a light chuckle in an effort to alleviate the anxiety he was feeling, Charles added. “And now you have a far better teammate who won’t crash with you.” 

Fernando smirked, shaking his head. “It is great. But the tough competition was fun while it lasted.” He paused, his expression shifting back into a more serious one. “For the record, I don’t resent you.”

He blinked, stunned by the sincereness behind the words. Well that’s nice to know... Maybe they were worried for nothing- 

“Don’t get me wrong though” the man continued. “I do resent Ferrari. Very much. And I’ll do everything in my power to crush you guys. Just don’t take it personally when I do. That’s what they deserve.”

Nevermind this man has a vendetta against him and will run him into a wall given the chance. 

Charles couldn’t help but let out a nervous laugh before continuing the conversation with the diplomatic ‘ I’m going to ignore the  death threat’ approach. “I get it… The team sure drives me crazy sometimes.”

“You’re too loyal to them. One day it’ll burn you.”

“Maybe.” The monegasque acknowledged with a sigh.

“You should go to Red Bull the second you get the chance, heard they could be offering.”  It would have been a sensible decision indeed, especially with the RB19 being a rocketship. Yet when faced with the choice, Charles couldn’t bring himself to give up on his hopes in the Italian team. So when Christian offered to buy out his contract he refused and instead resigned a full 3 years contract.

“Anyway” Fernando straightened up. “Good luck, I hope we have a great on-track fight.” He nodded as Jenson appeared jogging towards them, waving, Max speed walking behind. 

“Nandooo, you ditched me mate !” The McLaren playfully punched his friend’s arm in mock resentment. “And for what ? Intimidating Charles alone ?”

“We had a civil conversation” The Spaniard deadpanned. “You just walk too slowly.”

Jenson threw an apologetical smile towards Charles. “Don’t worry, deep down Fer actually likes you.”

The man in question arched his brow regarding his companion incredulously.

“Well-” The Brit corrected “ Liking is a big word, more like appreciates you..”

After that the conversation slowly fizzled out, as the two older men started their own discussions. 

Charles felt relief wash up on him, Dieu merci, he survived. 

As he was spacing out, he felt a hand rubbing his back, as Max settled next to him, leaning closer, voice low. “You good ?”

“Yeah, I might get divebombed on track but it’s not as bad as I thought. Thanks for checking” He threw a warm smile at the blond. Glancing up just in time to see George and Lance arriving.

“Thank Goodness you’re fine.” George chimed in, whispering. “I was worried for you there. Fernando and Nico are the ones you really don’t want to be cornering you.”

Max rolled his eyes unimpressed. “I still think you’re being dramatic, George. Even back in 2016 and he was still a great guy. How bad could he be ?”

The Brit grew visibly exasperated, glaring at him. “You didn’t talk to him,” he scolded. “How would you know ?!”

“Speak of the devil.” Lance, who was settling in a corner of the bench pulling airpods from his pocket, tilted his chin towards the rear of the vehicle where Nico was climbing in. “If you want to test your theory Max, now’s the time.”

“Don’t you even dare-”

“With pleasure ! Just you watch George.” Before anyone could stop him, the Red Bull driver walked up to Nico with a big smile and waving.

“Britney ! Long time no see !”

 “Is he crazy ??” George choked in stupor.

But the other man simply smiled at the Dutchman’s antics “ Maxy . Congrats on beating Seb !”

“Thanks ! Congrats on terrorizing your new teammate.”

Nico chuckled, a glint of mischief in his eyes. “Did I ? And I’m not even started ! I might need some of your suggestions to get better at it.”

“Me ? I don’t do stuff like that” Max defended, playing innocent. 

“Bullshit, I’m sure you have plenty of wicked ideas in that brain of yours.”

“Ok, maybe” Max admitted, his smile growing sharp. “My personal favorite is in the case your teammate starts right behind you. You purposely stall the start so then bam he rams into you, terrible results for the team and it’s his fault. Never to be trusted again.”

Nico blinked in horror. “ Jesus, you scare me sometimes”

“Only sometimes ? Dang I’m not doing a good job then.” 

“Most times I’m fascinated more than anything to be honest.”

The two continued to chatter (visibly on the best terroism tactics) while George glared at them from afar.

Princess George ✨: 

The friend of my enemy is also my enemy.

Albono 🐈 :

Oh God he’s being dramatic again

What happened ?

Percival 🆑:

Max is friendly with Nico

Osc:

And we’re surprised because….?

Princess George ✨: 

You don’t get it !!

This is BETRAYAL

Percival 🆑:

From what I’ve seen the guy may be one of the less dangerous out there

The only one he’s targeting is you George so we’re fine

Padel Champ 🎾:

Maybe you could see it as “the friend of my friend is also my friend’ ? 

Princess George ✨: 

NEVER !!!

How DARE you ever suggest it ?!

Landoooo:

lancey your more like “i can fix my enemy into becoming my friend”

Padel Champ 🎾:

Fernando is already my friend

It just need more work to get back there

Princess George ✨: 

In all seriousness Lance please I urge you to be careful, he is not the man you know.

He’ll win by any means necessary.

Padel Champ 🎾:

Well Im not coming between him and that win any time soon 

So im good thanks

.

Lance closed his eyes, exhaling sharply. Okay maybe that was a bit too defensive ? 

He couldn’t help it though, he remembers how everybody was warning him when Fernando first joined Aston Martin. All the things about being cruel and mean and ‘look what he did to your friend’ and it all turned out to be exaggerations. 

The man was the best teammate he’d ever had, constantly discussing with him and even asking about him in the middle of races. He’s convinced it’s the same here, albeit to a lesser degree… Maybe. 

Hopefully.

Sitting in a corner of the ride waiting for the parade to start, with his earphones shoved in his ears, light music playing in an attempt to slightly dampen the loud noises all around. He tried to relax and ignore George’s last message along with the anxiety it stirred in his stomach. 

His denial was clearly starting to wear off…

Deep in thought, he didn’t sense Sebastian sliding next to him on the bench until the man spoke up with a big grin on his face.

“Great quali yesterday Lancey ! Are you fighting for a podium today ?”

Removing an ear piece Lance smiled. “I sure hope so ! Not sure we can pass one of you guys to make it a double podium though…”

“Yeah, good luck with that. We're even tougher than before.” Sebastian attested, still looking at him with dying curiosity. “Sooo how did you do it ?” 

“Wha- How did I do what ?” Silence settled between them for a few seconds as Sebastian studied his face. Deducing that his confusion was sincere, the German continued.

“I mean, you beat the Fernando Alonso in quali and the guy isn’t screaming about team favoritism in the media like he always does ? What type of witchcraft did you use ?”

“Um…. Being nice ?” Lance shrugged. “I don’t know….”

 “ Right , cause a ‘hello’ and a smile was all poor Charlie had to do to escape the team manipulation accusations.” Sebastian quipped back sarcastically. “You’re the son’s CEO for God sake, that's got to be an irrefutable argument ! What did you actually tell him to get him to change his tactics ?”

Lance tilted his head trying to recall his actions. “Well… I did tell him that I got a tow and that I couldn’t have beaten him otherwise.”

Sebastian just stared at him for a second before bursting out laughing, shaking the Canadian’s shoulder. “Pffff— No wonder he’s stunned ! The guy probably doesn’t know how to react to such honesty.”

Even back in their teammates days with the older version of the man, Sebastian’s enthusiasm was contagious, but somehow here it was even stronger, and Lance couldn’t help but crack a smile and the German’s antics.

“You’re acting like he’s a heartless supervillain.”

“Because he is !” Sebastian responded, shaking his head. “Which, okay, I admit I sometimes am too, but come on ! I can at least joke around while doing it.”

“Fernando does plenty joking around.” He immediately interjected. 

Lance just knew that deep down the Spaniard loved acting silly. Whether it was little victory celebrations, pranking staff, or just shooting funny one liners. Playfulness was basically the guy’s nature. There’s no way this world’s version of him was any different.

Sebastian stared at him in stupefaction. “Lancey, if you look me in the eyes right now and tell me he joked with you, I swear to God, I’ll either think you’re clinically insane or the nicest angel to ever grace this Earth.”

“Well I haven’t seen it… but he's known to act silly sometimes no ?”

“Oh... Yeah no, that was before 2015. His ego was completely shattered when rookie Hamilton almost beat him for the championship. And Ferrari only made it worse, now he's all somber, brooding and plain evil. I swear this team drives men to depression..”

He opted to ignore the terrible portrait the German was painting of his teammate, focussing instead on the last statement. “Don't you want to race in red Seb ?”

“But of course ! After I enjoy this rocketship enough I’ll go to Ferrari.” Sebastian scoffed as if doubting that statement was unfathomable “But my toxic trait is to believe I can change them.”

Remembering how the German was affected by his inability to get a Championship with the team, made his heart clench. But here everything seems different, so why not hope for it ? “If anyone can do it, it's you Seb.” 

“Thank you Lancey !” Sebastian ruffled Lance’s hair with a smile. “You’re too kind, I fear that someone-” (Obviously fake) cough. “Fernando” Cough.“-is going to take advantage of it.”

“It’s not kindness, I'm being nice. It’s just bare minimum. ”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m just worried you know… Don’t take shit from that guy.”

“I won’t.” Lance assured him.

.

J-3 hours: Last debriefs

Red Bull Racing:

“Ok now we move on the strategies in case of safety cars” Max and Sebastian groaned in unison. 

“Come on, it's been hours ! We get it, depending on how early the safety car we stay out or pit for softs and the one ahead gets priority. Done.”

“Yes but we need you to discuss how long do you think you can take those tires and-”

“We completely trust Hannah’s decisions on that.”

“I-” Christian paused glaring at his two drivers before sighing in defeat. “I swear out of the car you guys act like spoiled kids…”

“That’s what you get for recruiting us when we were 17.”

.

Ferrari:

Charles sat in the meeting room scribbling down in his precious notebook some notes for his team. He was currently sketching a front wing to point to the exact area he was mentioning earlier, making sure it was understandable.

“Hmmm, so Seb infected you with his scrapbooking hobby...” Startled, Charles turned his gaze to his teammate who sat down on a chair next to him. Frowning as he noticed the ice cream in the guy’s hand. This is going to melt and- 

Before he could even complete his thoughts the Finn had already taken out a third of it in a single bite. Nevermind then, that thing won’t have time to even warm up.

“Yeah, he shared a lot of techniques with me.” He said, recalling the days when he was teamed up with Sebastian, reviewing notes after a race. 

Kimi lifted his brow, taking another bite of his frozen snack while leaning to look at the page he was working on. “You should be the one giving him tips. Your notes are so neat and organized compared to his.” 

Charles winced, not really wanting his teammate to read his personal notes but not having the heart to voice it.  “Don’t worry” The Iceman added, noticing his discomfort. “I can’t read Italian. But the drawings are a nice touch.” 

“Even after 6 years at Ferrari ?”

"Too much work” Kimi shrugged, already finishing the last of his ice cream. “You should write down that they need to stick to the agreed plan. Knowing them, they'll probably try and put us on softs 10 laps too early for some reason or another.”

Aston Martin:

It was almost time to push the cars on the grid and Lance was anxiously reviewing the strategy debrief his side of the garage provided him. 

“I don’t know…” He said to his engineer. “I’m not convinced about putting on another pair of softs. The degradation is pretty high for us.” 

Fernando, who was also waiting in the back, walked up next to them interjecting. “I still think it’s the right thing to do. The hards weren’t good in FP1.”

The Spaniard had been the one advocating this strategy since yesterday, and that was the element that stopped Lance for outwardly rejecting the idea. “Are they sturdy enough for us to even make up for the time lost in the pit ? We were one of the less terrible teams on the hards… What’s your strategy ?”

“Same as you.”

“Well, If you’re so confident, I trust you…” Lance caved in, it must be his nerves from their first GP in here talking anyway…

“We’ll bring a podium as a team.” He received a tap on the back and a thumbs up which immediately cheered him up, and put a smile on his face.

“I hope so !”

.

Bahrain GP extended highlights.

Tyre start:

VER: S

VET: S

LEC: S

STR: S

ALO: S

RAI: S

ROS: S

NOR: S

RUS: S

BUT: S

SAI: S

ALB: S

GAS: S

HAM: H

PIA: S

HUL: H

TSU: S

RIC: H

OCO: H

BOT: H

The expected strategies are the following:

Softs: 10-13 laps - Hards: 44-47 laps

Or

Softs: 10-13 laps - Hards: 25-41 laps - Softs: 6-9 laps

Start: 

It’s light’s out and away we go ! 

Verstappen got a great start but Vettel got an even better one ! Last year's championship contenders are already fighting for the lead. Verstappen manages to keep his car ahead but will he be so lucky at the end of the first straight ?

Vettel is gaining considerably thanks to the slipstream, is he going to take the opportunity ? And he does ! What a move ! Max could do absolutely nothing about it !

-Here looking at the start replay we can see the terrible start Mercedes had, both cars lost places, Team Principal Toto Wolff did mention their worries about their difficulties in warming the tires. With cold wheels Russell could only be a passenger as Button sped through, the young Brit lost another place locking up his front left in turn 1.

Rosberg was a bit luckier only losing one place, being unable to fend off Raikkonen.

The cars in the back who began on hard had a complicated time on the start as well, Hamilton lost to Piastri and Tsunoda.

 Surprisingly Fernando Alonso opted to not dive at the drivers in front at the first given occasion.

- He's thinking of the long game, with all of the front runners on softs he'd only risk damaging his tires.

Well here the undercut is more highly effective, but if he managed to conserve more of the tire he could maybe put down a quali type lap while his teammate is on the warm up lap and gain some precious seconds out of it.

Inside Max’s cockpit: Lap 2-5

Max hasn’t been this fueled with determination to pass someone in a long long time. 

He could feel himself getting more and more riled up as he sees the Red Bull in front slowly pulling away. No way he’d let that happen. He threw every thought of ‘giving himself 3-4 races to adapt’ no, inside the car it felt like now or never.

Sadly for him, even after the hours of testing and practise he still was wired on his original car, and the more he pushed to the limit the more the car was behaving unexpectedly, which in turn made Seb pull away faster, which made him more reckless and the viscous cycle continued like that with micro mistakes.

But at turn 13 on the fifth lap he had a big lock up forced him off track as he joined back on the circuit to continue his chase he heard an all too familiar voice in his ears.

Radio: "Ok Max, that’s it for now, we need you to lift a bit. You're fighting Leclerc 1.4 secs behind"

Shit. With his big mistake the comfortable gap he had carved with the cars behind went up to flames, and as much he desperately wanted to win he was forced to play conservative not wanting to become vulnerable for any more overtakes.

Lap 6: 

-Now that's a clear message from the team, after that mistake, Max has officially lost his chance to fight his teammate.

Vettel is known to immediately breeze ahead after starting in front. This time though Verstappen did give him a tougher time staying in the DRS range for quite a while, but after that lock up the gap is now over 4 secs. He needs to focus on the threat behind. The fight for the lead will be difficult, the real competition is between Aston and Ferrari for the last step of the podium.

-Yes strategy will be crucial here let see how the Silverstone team will deal with the fight for big points.

1-VET: Interval

2-VER:+4.159

3-LEC:+1.403

4-STR:+0.811

5-ALO:+0.920

6-RAI:+1.258

7-ROS:+2.596

8-NOR:+1.513

9-BUT:+1.245

10-SAI:+3.406

11-RUS+2.927

12-ALB+1.223

13-GAS+1.172
14-PIA+2.586
15-TSU+1.435

Lap 9: 

Oscar Piastri is first in the pit, hoping on the hard compound followed by Yuki Tsunoda.

-Well it's no surprise, the Alpha Tauri has terrible tire deg and rookies tend to use quite a bit more of it, adding to the fact that the high degradation circuit. I'm actually surprised Oscar managed to resist until the C3 expected window. Shows the talent and adaptability of this young lad.

-Speaking of deg, Lando Norris just has been overtaken by his teammate for 8th. He's starting to struggle with this as well. The difference of style between the two is very apparent here. Button's tire looks laps younger already.

 I reckon he'll be next to stop for a change along with Russell who locked his front left twice in this lap.

-The Mercedes looks totally different in his hand compared to Nico Rosberg, but either way it doesn’t look more than the fourth fastest at best.

Lap 11: 

Vettel pits from the lead, let's see where he ends up... Behind Button, far in front of Sainz. We have a new race leader, Max Verstappen followed by Leclerc.

-That's good he avoided most of the traffic behind the Spaniard. Meanwhile, Lance Stroll just let his teammate pass. Team orders this early ?

It's a good strategy, Alonso is done playing conservative and they shouldn't let Leclerc get too far in front and with the gap from Stroll being around 2.3 and dropping they better try and see if their other driver can get by or at least stay within DRS.

After his change of tires Rosberg found himself behind his old friend turned rival, Albon and Sainz are in the pits as well.

Lap 12: 

Alonso is using all of the tire life he saved, now all over the back of his previous teammate but Leclerc is brilliantly defending.

-These two must be having the time of their life being finally able to truly battle without any team meddling. It's great to see. 

Oh there's activity in both Aston and Ferrari garages this third place battle will move to  the pit !

-No it is not ! What a surprise ! Charles Leclerc does not enter the pit ! Neither does Alonso ! The cars called in are Raikkonen and Stroll ! Very weird tactic to prioritize the one behind when the undercut is so effective here. For both teams to do so...

I think Ferrari are counting on Raikkonen collecting 5th place from Stroll and slowing down Alonso by attacking, maybe even overtaking him. Aston Martin probably anticipated that and pitted Lance in response, they both exited behind Hamilton.

Stroll Radio: “Box next lap, Box next lap.”

“Shouldn’t Fernando pit first for undercut ?”

“He needs to stay out for his strategy”

“Wait aren’t we on the same one ?”

“Negative.”

“What ?”

-Oh, is there some miscommunication in the Aston Martin team ?

Is it miscommunication or Alonso hiding his hand until the very last minute, I wonder.

Lap 13: 

Verstappen has put two fastest laps since he inherited the lead, and now lets see if it was enough as Leclerc follows him in the pit after being passed by Alonso earlier in the lap.

The ex-Ferrari driver is now leading, after only one race ! Button is 12 secs behind, going to get passed by Vettel any time now. 

-I'm surprised to see that both these cars still have pace after so much pushing.

Hamilton was just passed by Stroll and Raikkonen, the Finn managed to jump the Aston in the process.

1-ALO: Interval

2-BUT:+12.7

3-VET:+1.06

4-VER:+4.39

5-LEC:+1.06

6-RAI:+3.53

7-STR:+0.94

8-HAM:+6.45

9-ROS:+0.94

10-NOR:+2.01

11-SAI+2.37

12-HUL+9.51

13-GAS
14-ALB
15-PIA

Lap 14: 

Nico Rosberg passed Lewis Hamilton who is still on the hards he started on.

The last of our soft runners finally got in the pit. They've clearly been undercutted by everyone. It's not really a problem for Jenson who will only be able to fight the Mercedes pair anyway. Actually fresher tires are an advantage, but for Fernando three lap fresher hards will do nothing against the Ferraris or his teammate.

-Well good thing Alonso is not on hard, because unless our graphic is mistaken the car 14 is on mediums ?

No no there is no mistake there, he is in fact on the C2 while the rest of the guys who started on softs switched to the Hards. 

The estimated medium tire life is between 17 and 24 laps, so he will inevitably stop again. And with 43 laps remaining they cannot possibly put the softs back.

-It's pretty sure that they'll go for medium again if they wanted to use hard, might as well go twice on softs.

They are banking on the struggles the cars looked to have on Hards in practice, especially in the early part of the stints, to build themselves a comfortable gap that would be enough to survive the last laps.

In the pre race show we said that the winning strategy will be between Soft-Hard or Soft-Hard-Soft, but Fernando appears to have chosen Soft-Medium-Medium. 

-Let see if the gamble pays off.

1-VET: Interval

2-VER:+5.68

3-LEC:+1.23

4-RAI:+4.25

5-STR:+1.37

6-ALO:+1.19

7-ROS:+4.41

8-HAM:+2.73

9-NOR:+0.63

10-BUT:+2.09

11-SAI

12-GAS

13-ALB
14-HUL

15-PIA

Lap 19:

Fernando cleared his teammate after only two laps, a stark difference between the C1 and C2 handling as the Spaniard also passed Kimi Raikkonen with relative ease 3 laps later.

-It’s important for him to try and clear the maximum of cars before he pits again, let’s see how he’ll do against the other Ferrari of his previous teammate now only 3 secs in front.

Meanwhile the guys on new tires are slowly overtaking the ones on old, but Piastri is stuck behind Hulkenberg who’s defending brilliantly !

-Oh I feel like he’ll overcook these tires really soon if he stays behind too long…

Inside Charles’ cockpit: Lap 24-28

Radio: “Alonso now 0.9 behind, in the DRS”

Putain. Charles mentally cursed as he passed the second detection zone right before the double left hander. He has seen the British racing green blur getting bigger and bigger in his rear view mirrors for multiple laps now, looming near the DRS zone as the Ferrari’s hard tires were furiously losing grip. And if he wasn’t pumped to the max with adrenaline right now, he might have seriously started to worry.

Worst thing was that his pursuer seemed to predict his moves with alarming accuracy. The second Charles even considers defending the inside of the corner, Fernando is already moving in an attempt to lunge from the outside, in the zone his car would recharge its batteries, the Aston Martin would deploy its own getting drastically closer and in the corners that were trickier, the Spaniard was ready to divebomb. 

No doubt the man knew his driving and how his Ferrari behaves like his back pocket.

On the other hand, Charles barely knew anything about Alonso's style, in fact he barely raced against him in this fashion. When he reached Ferrari the Spaniard had left the sport already and when Aston Martin experienced a spectacular start in 2023, the SF23 was lacking.

Charles truly felt like a sitting duck not knowing what to expect while his opponent was inching closer and closer, with the green car having a clear tire advantage and the dirty air from Max’s car being not too far in front, he was forced to admit defeat a few laps later before the Spaniard runs him into the barriers in retaliation. 

Max won't be able to fight him for long either that’s for sure.

Lap 31:

Fernando Alonso is in a different league right now ! Only three laps after clearing Leclerc’s Ferrari there he is stealing 2nd place from Verstappen !

-Red Bull must be thankful that Sebastian built such a gap in front, there’s no way for Fernando to reach him as he’ll slowly start suffering from degradation. The question now is can he stay in front of Max in these conditions ?

1-VET: Interval

2-ALO:+6.20

3-VER:+1.45

4-LEC:+2.07

5-RAI:+1.93

6-STR:+0.94

7-ROS:+7.57

8-NOR:+1.66

9-HAM:+2.12

10-BUT:+1.37

11-SAI

12-ALB

13-GAS
14-HUL

15-PIA

Lap 34:

The C1 starters are beginning to enter their pit window, we can see them starting to greatly struggle as Hamilton was passed by Norris and now Button. While Piastri finally passed Hulkenberg, we can see on his onboard just how much blistering there is on the front.

-But they can’t pit quite yet with 23 laps remaining, the softs will not resist that long. That goes also for those on two stops.

No but we can see a team thought of keeping a set of mediums like Fernando Alonso, as Valtteri Bottas enters the pit to hope on the yellow striped compound. A lot of different strategies today ! It’s great to see.

Lap 37:

Double yellow flags are waved in sector 3 ! What happened ??

- Piastri went out into the barriers at turn 14 ! There’s debris everywhere.

Piastri Radio: “Oscar are you okay ?”

“I’m OK, sorry about that.”

It seems like his tires couldn’t take another lap. That’s the issue teams expose themselves to when sending their drivers in the middle of traffic. His inexperience surely didn’t help him.

-It was bound to happen, but let’s not forget he’s still getting his footing in the team even after a few GP as a replacement for Sainz.

The team should have called off the fight with Hulkenberg long ago. And it’s a Safety Car ! The team must now be scrambling wondering if changing to soft is worth it with 20 laps remaining.

-It would be madness to try when at the start they barely survived 14. But one who won’t hesitate is Fernando Alonso who will gracefully take his pit stop.

Alonso Radio: “Ok Fernando do you want to box next lap ?”

“No. There’s too much debris here. Let’s wait a bit.”

“Ok. Copy”

Oh are the drivers worried about eventual damage ?

-It would be a miracle if none of the guys behind didn’t collect some from all of these carbon scattered. 

Well some seem not to worry as much, Norris, Gasly and Tsunoda pit… all for new hard tires ?

-These are the cars suffering the most with deg, and with no medium saved they have no other choice.

Lap 40:

Leclerc Radio: “Box next laps for softs. Box next laps for softs.”

“What ?! No ! That’s too early !!”

“Only 16 laps on softs.”

“I won’t survive that long !”

“We’ll change engine config, box next lap, Safety Car is almost ending.”

Charles doesn’t sound too convinced with this plan, which is understandable seeing the team’s history. Is he right to refuse ?

-Well the problem is that he doesn’t see all the data the team does and I think this is an attempt to counter Fernando who will pit for mediums soon. 

Meanwhile the remaining who started on Hards are heading in the pit : Hamilton, Hulkenberg and Ricciardo. They are trying the gamble on softs, as well as the two Mclaren and the second Williams.

-Not like they have much choice there

Raikkonen Radio: “Ok Kimi, box for softs in two laps. Box for softs in two laps.”

“Softs ?! You’re crazy.”

“This is the best strategy. Charles is coming in first.”

“Yeah well do whatever you want I’m not coming in”

Oh, someone seems to be more firm on his stance. Kimi Raikkonen refuses to come for a tyre change plain and simple.

Lap 41:

Ocon Radio: “I think I have a puncture.”

“Can you get to the pit ?” 

“No, definitely not.”

As Fernando Alonso pits along with Charles and Verstappen. A Haas has stopped in a run off area ! That should extend the race neutralization for even longer ! The teams might just question their decision not to pit.

-I’m surprised there’s still debris big enough to damage the tires after 4 laps of sweeping.

Ocon probably collected some by running wide in turn 15. So Safety Car is coming in two laps and the VSC will be deployed for the Frenchman. What a mess !

-This will not play well for all the ones who pitted for softs early on

Lap 46:

Stroll Radio: “Lance, this is our last chance to pit, 11 laps should be good. This is what we agreed on.”

“Fine…” 

Stroll and Vettel are now putting on the softs, as the VSC will soon come to an end.

- 11 laps on softs is far more feasible for the compound that’s for sure.

They will have a big advantage in the start compared to those on cold ones from 9 to 5 laps ago.

-So the ones who stayed out fighting for the top 10 are Raikkonen, Rosberg and Sainz. Pretty much no one. Makes you question if it was a good idea.

Well we have 10 laps remaining to find out

1-RAI: VSC

2-ROS

3-VET

4-ALO

5-SAI

6-VER

7-LEC

8-STR

9-NOR

10-BUT

11-HAM

12-ALB

13-RUS

Lap 47:

The VSC is now gone and Raikkonen can restart anytime now, and he does right out of Turn 10 ! As expected the ones who haven’t pitted got caught in the start, Vettel almost immediately jumped the Mercedes and is now looming closer to the Ferrari.

Even those pitting earlier are suffering, Norris lost to Button, Leclerc was passed by Stroll, and Verstappen breezed past the first Spaniard in front.

-Alonso got lucky that Sainz was in between not sure he would have managed to stay in front of Max on his mediums.

But he'll have a clear advantage as the laps go on, same for the people on the hard compound, the degradation seems to have settled and the tires are even more sturdy, just gotta resist those first laps.

1-RAI

2-VET

3-ROS

4-ALO

5-VER

6-SAI

7-STR

8-LEC

9-BUT

10-NOR

11-HAM

12-ALB

13-RUS

Lap 48:

Leclerc managed to pass the Aston Martin back. And now they’re both overtaking Sainz. This is a sign of an exciting fight all season between these two teams. 

The classic Ferrari VS the brand new Aramco Aston Martin, truly the tradition VS modernity of motorsport. As Raikkonen could do nothing but hand back the lead to Vettel.

-Meanwhile Verstappen’s battle against Alonso for eventual 2nd or 3rd is interrupted by Rosberg in between them.

That’s terrible for Max as these first laps are crucial before everything fizzles out on the now 7 laps old soft compound. His best hopes are that the Ferrari in 2nd place slows him down enough.

-I would estimate that there’s still around 5 good racing laps for them before degradation starts to hit. Which clearly won’t be enough to keep up until the end of the race. 

Now the drivers have a choice to make between trying to pass the car in front as fast as possible then try to cling to the position or play the long game and use everything at the end.

Lap 52:

With the Mercedes now down in 7th, there’s an amazing fight for the last two places of the podium with Alonso, Raikkonen and Verstappen exchanging places multiple times in the last laps, all three on different compounds and strategies. For now the Red Bull prevailed but for how long ?

Behind them the battle for fifth seems to have settled down but Lance Stroll is still in the DRS zone of the Ferrari. Sainz is now down in 9th, wrestling against the McLaren number 4 for a second point in this race.

-Now are the decisive moments as the soft while drastically drop in performances.

1-VET Interval

2-VER +2.320

3-ALO +0.648

4-RAI +0.416

5-LEC+1.207

6-STR +0.944

7-ROS +3.591

8-BUT +1.106

9-SAI +1.996

10-NOR +1.340

Lap 54:

It’s really impressive to see just how much the softs started to lose on performance. Verstappen has dropped out of the podium, passed by both Alonso and Raikkonen !

Impressive overtake from Kimi, lunging from so far back in turn 1 !

-Not ideal for him when his teammate is far in front, that’s the positive of having no dirty air. I think the podium won’t change from now on. Fernando has the tires left to fend off the Ferrari but not enough to catch up to Vettel.

Same goes for everyone behind, most of them are either on the same strategy or too far behind to do anything.

Lap 57/57:

This race has been nothing but chaos yet the reigning World Champion coped brilliantly to bring home the first victory of the season. Sebastian Vettel WINS the Bahrain Grand Prix !! 

Alonso collects P2 for his first race at Aston Martin right in front of the man who replaced him. Brilliant comeback to the scuderia for Kimi Raikkonen with the last step of the podium.

Verstappen brings his car home in fourth clinging to the fastest lap, followed by Leclerc and Stroll. These three teams sure are promising us a great championship.

Standings :

Vettel: 25pts

Alonso: 18 pts 

Raikkonen: 15 pts 

Verstappen: 13 pts 

Leclerc: 10 pts 

Stroll: 8pts 

Rosberg: 6pts

Button: 4 pts

Sainz: 2 pts

Norris: 1 pts

.

Red Bull: 38 pts

Aston Martin: 26 pts

Ferrari: 25 pts

Mercedes: 6 pts

McLaren: 5 pts

Renault: 2 pts

.

Max just sat in his car for a while, catching his breath, his brain refusing to register or acknowledge what just happened. 

So this is what real Champion is in here huh ?

Don’t get him wrong it wasn’t insurmountable, nothing was to him when it came to racing but this was certainly harder than he thought. 

Next time maybe he should actually read the briefings… and listen in the meetings, and actually train on the sim instead of having fun… Ok he was partially to blame in this mess. If he were younger his father would have killed him for underestimating his opponents like that, opponents who were technically far better than him, and would have forced him to watch their best race until he caught on to their driving style.

 He closed his eyes trying to recall his battles, Sebastian and Fernando weren’t actually a surprise, just fiercer than what he recalled. No, the real one that caught him off guard was Kimi. When he dropped back to 3rd, Max was convinced he could manage the Finn behind, but he had never expected him to drive so fiercely. This is definitely not just a hobby for him. Kimi was as, if not more, reckless than Max was, except he somehow managed to keep the mistakes to the minimum. He fucking got divebomb for God sake ! On dying tires, this was suicide for both of them. 

Yet Max couldn’t actually feel disappointed, he hasn’t had such an exhilarating race in forever !

With a big smile on his face, he walked out of his car to the weigh in line next to Lando.

“ What in the World was that ?? We are royally fucked, man.” The Brit said breathlessly.

“Can’t wait for more” Max casually replied, glancing up at the men on the podium. He could almost feel the bitter taste of defeat in his mouth as the Austrian anthem started playing. Next time, he’ll be the one up there and prove himself, once and for all, as the best by beating legends of the sports in their best years.

“I think the heat got to you mate” Lando shook his head to show his alarm under the helmet. “We have all been completely crushed by our teammates ! Jenson is so good at preserving the tires. I mean nine laps in and he’s already built himself an advantage ?! While staying in the DRS, it could only be sorcery at this point.”

“Yeah his style is so gentle on the tires while remaining fast.”

“I’m sooo jealous, how does he even do that ??!”

“Well, actually it’s really close to how we drove in karting you know like-” Max launched himself in an in-depth Maxplaination on where this style stemmed from and how to (on paper) achieve it, quickly forgetting his grief over the results.

But not everyone could get over it so quickly.

.

Lance was fuming in frustration, heading straight to his garage after some curt media interviews. He had been really lucky with the extended VSC otherwise his strategy would have been a total disaster. Strategy that Fernando had never actually considered.

With the tyre allocation only providing three mediums there was no way of coming up with two shiny new sets in a last minute change. This was planned since FP1.  

Fernando must have barely touched the compound during the practices and used Lance’s data and suggestions to find the perfect set up for them. 

And he didn’t bother mentioning a single thing. Even worse, the man lied to his face about it.

…

Fuck. He could feel his eyes starting to sting. This shouldn’t hurt as bad as it did. 

He should have known better than to trust a guy he frankly didn’t know. But no matter how hard he tried or how different the Spaniard was here, Lance couldn’t help but still see Fernando as a dear friend. 

A dear friend that completely betrayed him.

Maybe he is naive, one pat in the back and three words of encouragement was all it took for him to forget about the danger.

If he had been put on a similar strategy he could have fought for fourth, maybe even a double podium, something they dreamed of back in their reality. 

Something he truly thought possible when Fernando advised him on the strategy.

Outside he could hear the muffled celebration of the team cheering getting closer as they were coming back for debrief. And Lance wished he could participate in this joy, but the second the Spaniard stepped in, all the anger, sadness and nerves coupled with the adrenaline still boiling in him, suddenly spilling over.

“Strategy like yours. My ass ” He spat walking towards his teammate.

“I’m not obliged to tell you the truth.” Is all he received as an answer, Fernando looked at him with a proud smirk, trophy still in his hand. 

“No you’re not !” Lance continued getting more and more heated, hurt by such cruelty. “But what did you have to gain by lying ? We could have beaten Ferrari for God Sake ! Instead you sabotage our chance of the team’s best ever results !”

He took a second to take in a ragged breath, the room falling silent, all looking at him in astonishment. But he wasn’t done. “Are you happy now ? I started in front of you only to end up 6th while you won it all. Is that what you wanted ? Proved your point ??”

Again the Spaniard had little reaction but to tilt his head  in amusement, as if looking at a five year old trying to pick a fight.“You said we’re a team, Fernando...”

“I lied”

“Oh don’t worry, I got that ! But I told you already I will never be your competition ! So why ? Grow up ! I swear you’re still so paranoid because one time   10 years ago, you almost lost to a rookie. Be real fucking grateful Raikkonen saved you from this humiliation.” 

Lance could feel the adrenaline suddenly drain out of his body along with the rage, leaving only the feeling of sadness and betrayal. 

Looking around the room, he felt shameful for his outburst as well, it wasn’t that deep, the team is second in the constructors and they just had a spectacular podium. Now he’s feeling like he made it all about him. Even Fernando looked stunned by his words, frozen in place. Fuck, and those stinging eyes again.

“I-” Lance blinked hard, trying to humiliate himself even more. “Sorry.”

Right after that he walked out of the garage, quickly grabbing his phone and running towards his room, still in his racesuit. 

.

George sat in a quiet corner behind the Mercedes garage biting his lips, shakingly inhaling the hot and dry Middle Eastern air around him. 

Being almost a second behind his teammate in quali, was embarrassing enough for him. But 13th in the fourth best car was utterly unacceptable, not for a driver of his caliber, and especially not when his teammate was 6th. He has been crushed plain and simple.

This car was nothing close to what he’s used to, and of course, Nico had made sure they would settle for one of the least comfortable set ups they tested, and George could do nothing about it.

He has never felt so powerless. And he hated the feeling more than anything. 

Deep down he knew this wasn’t important, they will get the fuck out of here soon, hopefully. Yet it still destroyed all his self esteem. God, and there he’d claimed he would have had two Championships if he had joined Mercedes a few years earlier. 

Never had he realized that raw pace was never the central point when it came to teammates' battles, but having the charisma and results to pull the team towards favoring you. Something Rosberg was 6 years ahead on.

Hamilton has been really kind to him, he never noticed.

He sat in silence for a while fighting the tears of frustration threatening to spill. After around 4 minutes he heard light, all too familiar footsteps next to him.

“There you are ! I knew I would find you spiraling in a corner. You haven’t changed much from when we were kids have you ?” Alex chuckled softly, plopping right beside him, as such as the entirety of his right side was in contact with his friend.

George gave him a soft smile. “Difference is you were usually the one who had beat me.

“Yeah… Only with us will you see the winner comforting the loser. I brought you fresh water because I know you forgot”

“Thanks”

Chapter Text

Charles sighed for the third time in the span of a minute, this debrief was excruciating.

They always were when the team fucked up their strategy calls, instead of acknowledging their mistake they would spend hours explaining why the strategy should have worked and find a roundabout way to blame it on anything else.

“We didn’t expect the degradation to be this bad.” Reiterated their head of strategy Ravin Jain. “The aggressiveness of tyre wear was completely different from practice, if it wasn’t like this we could have aimed for a double podium”— Read ‘ It’s the driver’s fault for driving too aggressively’. 

They were completely brushing off the feat that Kimi pulled by overtaking Max for P3, when they should be celebrating.

Readjusting himself on the uncomfortable office chair, Charles clenched his fists. It’s the same circus all over again. Seriously, what did they expect ? Even the Astons were superior to them, not only term deg but also in grip, he barely managed to survive in front of Lance. 

In a desperate attempt to hold his witty remarks the Monegasque looked away from the display of various graphics on screen, he really shouldn't let his nerves and frustration do the talking. His wandering gaze quickly caught the icy one of his teammate across from him, he too looked very frustrated by the team’s deflection. 

In a silent communication the Finn faintly tilted his chin in Jain’s direction before arching one brow. Should I call him on his bullshit ? 

Is what Charles felt the man tried to convey, and immediately pursed his lips in a worried frown, shaking his head as imperceptible but firm as possible. Please don’t. They'll add another hour of this torture.

Kimi leaned back against his chair to discreetly glance at the time on his phone before nodding, still looking determined.

Later.

Speaking of phones, Charles can feel his repeatedly buzzing in his backpocket. There’s no way the other guys are already done.

Actually there is, Ferrari is notorious for being the least efficient in terms of debriefs, and they were barely halfway through this. It’s not like he’s not already aware of the content of this debrief, this was more a show for engineers and Ferrari high ranked staff than anything. There’s no harm in him having a quick check and would help fight boredom for a while too. Being situated in the very back of the room no one would actually catch him except—he turned to Kimi who already looked half asleep on his chair— all good.

He discreetly pulled his phone under the table and to his surprise it wasn’t the usual chat this time, but a brand new one.

Seb invited you to Family Field Trip group chat along with Maxy, Lancey and one other…

Admin has enabled custom nicknames

 

Seb:

Now that all my grid kids get along I can finally do this !!

My very own family groupchat 🥹

Im your grid dad now 

 

Maxy:

Did you seriously go to the toilet in the middle of debrief just to text that ?

 

Seb:

:p

I was bored I’m waiting for the party

 

Lancey:

Couldn’t it wait ?

 

Seb:

Your answering could have waited as well 

 

Lancey:

I'm not in a debrief

 

Charlie:

Done already ??

 

Lancey:

Something like that…

 

Maxy:

@Seb Get back here and text under the table like a normal person !

 

Seb:

I'm not sneaky enough !

Sorry to abandon you

 

Maxy:

Some “father” you are…

 

Seb:

You wound me :((

Anyway, you are all invited to travel in my jet to Saudi !

Actually I already called your team/dad to cancel your flights so you have no choice but accept my offer 🔫

 

Lancey:

Cool !! Thanks Seb

 

Charlie:

Wait wait what ?!! I need time to mentally prepare !

 

Maxy:

You'll be fine

We will all gladly go 👍

 

Seb:

Great !!!

Flight is at 11am tomorrow 

So @Lancey we are not waiting for your last minute packing so start now !

 

Lancey:

You’re really taking this adoptive children thing seriously…

 

Seb:

Oh and if any of you can’t be trusted with your passports just give them to @Wifey

 

Charlie:

TO WHO ???

 

Lancey:

*way too seriously

 

Wifey 🩵: 

What is this ?

 

Seb:

You’re their parent too !

We’re a family <3

 

Wifey 🩵: 

I didn’t sign up for this 

But I'm not even arguing about that

I know it’s a lost cause

Just the name is embarrassing

 

Seb:

But I like it :(( 

 

Wifey 🩵: 

Sebastian. 

 

Seb:

Fiiiiine

Youre not fun </3

 

Seb renamed Wifey 🩵 to 2nd Dad 

 

2nd Dad :

Thank you

I can hold on your important things if any of you kids want

Im already storing Seb’s anyway

This guy can’t be trusted with his own stuff

 

Maxy:

Lol same

I give my passport to JP to not lose it

 

Charlie:

How many times did it happen to get to that point ?

 

Maxy:

Too many 

If I’m traveling with you can you keep it @2nd Dad ?

 

2nd Dad :

Sure

 

Maxy:

Thanks Kimi

 

Charlie:

WAIT WHAT

Charles lifted his head so fast he’s pretty sure his neck cracked. 

In front of him Kimi moved slightly from his position to smirk at him. That bastard wasn’t sleeping at all, he was looking at his phone !

Someone definitely didn’t focus in class….

Seb:

You guys are also invited to our party :) 

 

Maxy:

There's Gin Tonic !

And Vodka Red Bull

 

2nd Dad:

We’re in

 

Charlie:

We ?!

 

Lancey:

Sorry can’t come

It won’t be seen too well if I ditch Alonso’s party then show up to yours…

 

Seb:

Yeaaah…

Oscar spent the last 15 minutes zoning out of whatever was being said. He really didn’t want to stay on his own for too long and couldn’t wait to join the others.

But again life seems to hate him.

Having to sit through a whole debrief after such a terrible DNF sure was terrible for morale, and while yes, the team kept reassuring him that he did nothing wrong, the dotting was getting overwhelming.

The meeting had finally concluded and Oscar was ready to finally get out of here when two calloused hands abruptly fell on his shoulders, startling him.

“You’ve been really jumpy lately. Is your ‘cool detached facade’ finally cracking ?”

Carlos leaned over his shoulder playfully smirking at him, in response Oscar squinted at him judgingly. “I’ve had a lot to worry about lately…”

“I can see that, you stopped following a while ago huh…” To his absolute horror he felt Carlos’ thumbs starting to press on his shoulders’ muscles as if to drive his point home.  “You sure are tense.” 

Fucking. Hell. If it was someone else maybe this gesture wouldn't have felt so weird but right now it just caused him to stiffen even more, mortified. How could life be so cruel to him, things could truly not get worse-

“Well, good thing that I’m inviting you to eat out.”   The Spaniard announced ruffling Oscar’s hair, walking in front of him. “Come on, let’s go”

“What….” Oscar tries his best to hold his usual calm face, covering the dread settling in him. He could still feel his shoulders burning from the touch.

“Yeah ! I was serious about our deal, you know. I finished ahead so dinner's on me tonight. Come on, I’m driving.”

It seems there’s no negotiation possible as Carlos just firmly grabbed his arm and easily pulled him to the parking lot.

Jesus, this guy was stronger than he looked.

Osc:

Help I’m getting kidnapped

 

Albono 🐈 :

Haha

 

Osc:

Im serious !

Im getting dragged to an unknown restaurant without my consent

 

Princess George ✨: 

Wait, that sounds very worrying actually.

We need to steer clear of these types of situations.

Want me to call you so you can excuse yourself ?

 

Osc:

Please 

 

Landoooo:

wait 

hes making you pay ?

 

Osc:

Well no…

 

Landoooo:

then thats just free food you goof

dw carlos will treat you great 

 

Princess George ✨:

Oh Carlos.

It’s someone you’re supposed to be close to Oscar, it can’t be helped.

My apologies.

 

Osc : 

Traitor…

Wait how did you guess it’s him Lando ?

 

Landoooo:

cause he just send me a snap of u in his car

 

Osc:

Wait what ?? 

 

Landoooo:

yeah u were staring out the window

he captioned it ‘date night’ 

 

Mad Max🦁:

Lol

 

Osc:

….

Im going to kill myself

 

Landoooo:

WAIT IM KIDDING @Osc 

dont do that!!!

@Osc im sorryyyy !!!!

it was “cheering up this poor guy” or smt

 

Osc:

…

Change of plans I’m killing Lando instead

 

Princess George ✨:

I’ll gladly help you hide the body.

Padel Champ 🎾 :

I can be your alibi

 

Osc:

Count your hours Norris 🪓

 

Landoooo:

😰

“YOU SAID WHAT ?!” 

Alex, Lance, Lando and George were all sitting in the ladder’s room, as usual, each of them lamenting about their sad fate. 

And Lance should have known better than expecting no judgement from the trio of Brits when he confided about his regrettable actions. To his credit, Alex is trying his best (and failing) to conceal the mix of astonishment and amusement he was experiencing. But next to him, Lando howled with laughter, tears trailing down his cheeks while George looked at him horrified.

“Sorry..” He continued genuinely expressing guilty “I really didn’t mean-”

“That old fart got what he deserved !” Lando cut him, finally returning to his senses and patting the Canadian’s back, offering him a bright grin and a thumbs up. “If no one has called to scold you yet it shouldn’t be too bad. You’ll be fine ! Now let's eat these snacks I stole from the VIP lounge !”

The Brit unceremoniously dumped the content of his papaya colored backpack on the coffee table in front of them. Displaying a bunch of individually wrapped homemade cupcakes, fancy cereal bars, bottles of freshly pressed juices and various salty appetizers that definitely do not conform to their diet.

Between two bites of a protein bar, George turned to the Canadian. “Actually, I must thank you Lance. After what you just told us I feel much better about my own situation, I think I ’ve handled it pretty well.”

“Geez George, way to cheer up a guy…”

“When you say you ‘handled it’” Alex chimed in finishing a mini pizza. “You mean you crying ?”

George snapped his head to the side glaring at his friend, mortified. “I wasn’t crying !!”

The Williams’ driver rolled his eyes in mock annoyance, a smug expression plastered on his face. “Yeah, yeah whatever having teary eyes and sniffing is called these days.” 

“ ALEX ! WHY ?”

“Our new addition-” He patted Lance’s back “-needs to know how uncool you actually are !”

“Oh don’t worry Alex” Lance replied with a smirk. “I never thought he was cool in the first place.”

George dramatically gasped in exaggerated offence, but flipping them off as they snickered at him. “I hate you guys so much…” 

After that they just sat in content silence for a while, happily indulging in the food while idly watching whatever Youtube video Lando put on the TV. This was honestly comforting, Lance thought, usually after a bad race he just ends up locking himself in his room sulking so the company is a welcome change.

.

.

In the end, the promise of alcohol and partying prompted Kimi to keep his blunt remarks to himself, to Charles’ immense relief. As soon as the meeting concluded, the Finn grabbed him by the shoulders and dragged him towards the Red Bull motorhome.

“Don’t even try” He cut when Charles opened his mouth to protest about he wasn't really much of party guy except for wins or miracle podiums, but the Finn was not backing out. “You need this”

“I have nothing to celebrate”

“There's always something to party for. Stop being such a goodie two shoes and rebel a bit.”

Charles frowned at that, understanding the message behind those words. It’s not the first time someone implied he shouldn’t listen to the team irrevocably, especially when it comes the questionable last-minute strategy calls like they had today, and to that he always had the same reply.

“What if they were right to pit so early this time ?”

Kimi stopped in tracks to stare at him unimpressed.

“Then it’s their fault their initial call was shit. They can’t— shouldn’t blame you on anything related to strategy. It’s their job.” The blond gave him a firm tap on the back before continuing to guide him to the source of the loud house music. “Next time don’t enter the pit if you don’t feel like it, you can blame it on me after. Now, let’s go party and forget about this.”

Although he said that he didn’t sign to the whole ‘grid dad’ stuff, Kimi is definitely caring in his own way.

The moment they stepped inside, a roar of cheers greeted them. No one seemed fazed by their bright red team kit terribly standing out around the Red bull dark navy cladded crowd. They’d barely taken three steps in before Sebastian appeared in front of them with a big grin, cheeks appearing flushed even under the color changing neon lights.

“Took you long enough ! Here !” The German exclaimed over the blasting music, immediately shoving a Red Bull can into Kimi’s hand. It was surely mixed with some strong liquor if the wide smile the Finn had after taking a gulp was anything to go by. 

“You know me too well”

On the other hand, Charles was handed a glass of champagne.

“Max is setting up a beer pong, let’s go join him !” Seb told them, already pulling them further in the party. 

Charles had heard stories of the Red Bull parties from Pierre and Alex. It always sounded really fun but he never expected it to be this wild and cheerful. 

Before he knew it, they were dragged into rounds of various drinking games teaming up against the Red Bull drivers and mechanics. They were utterly defeated in most of them but that didn't matter as he laughed along the other's. In any case, Kimi has ended up downing most of Charles’ shots, otherwise his liver wouldn’t have survived.

Actually he’s starting to suspect the Finn is making them lose on purpose for an excuse to drink more. He might ask to be paired up with Seb or Max next time...

Next time.

.

Oscar awkwardly sat looking silently at the menu of the fancy Middle Eastern restaurant Carlos chose for them. He's not going to survive this. 

He cannot even recall having such a private dinner with any of the people in the sports, drivers, mechanics or team principals. So doing it with a guy he doesn’t have the best impression of, is not a comfortable situation to say the least. He’s not sure if the fact that Carlos looks so relaxed and laid back about it makes it worse or not. 

“I see you made a lot of friends on the grid huh… ”

Oscar slowly nodded, relieved that it started with some small talk he could be honest about. “Yeah, ever since Lando invited me to paddle with all the others, we’ve been quite close. It’s great” His lips stretch in a small smile, amongst all this chaos there's still some positives at least.

“Yeah… you’ve been hanging around them more than me.” Carlos looked at him in what can only be called an annoyed pout, which caused the Australian to blink in confusion.

“Wait… Are you jealous ?” He immediately regretted saying it, the words spilled out before he could even think about it. And to his dismay Carlos simply shrugged his shoulders as he casually replied. “Of course I am. I used to have you all to myself you know...”  

OK. Pause. Is that even something one says about a friend ? The man straight up admitted possessiveness and that's not… normal. Or is it ? Maybe it's some type of humor…. Shit. What if-

Thankfully a waiter approaching them to take their orders cut his spiraling thoughts short before they got too far. Still that left him with his mind completely blank, he hadn't even looked at the menu yet.

At the sight of his silence, Carlos simply chuckled and proceeded to order for him as well.

“I can’t believe you're still too shy to order for yourself.” The Spaniard shook his head amused as the waiter walked away. In response, Oscar pursed his lips, already feeling annoyed.

“It’s not shyness, I don’t like doing it but-”

“-if you’re alone you don't avoid it. Yeah, yeah you keep using the same excuses.” Carlos laughed at Oscar’s frown, lifting his arms defensively. “Hey ! I happily do it for you, so I’m allowed to make fun of it !”

The Australian glared at him a little bit longer for good measure, before mumbling.

“Well… thank you.”

“Anytime, cariño” Oscar froze. He may not be very well versed in Spanish— he preferred taking Japanese in high school— but he knew enough to guess what that nickname meant. 

Now, he knew it wasn’t uncommon for Carlos to throw affectionate nicknames around, he did frequently with other drivers, but with the overly touchiness on top of earlier’s blatant show of possessiveness he couldn’t help but feel paranoid. 

His mind immediately ran back to his initial fear, maybe they are closer than he and the others thought… Fucking Hell.   

Surely this is just how Carlos is as a friend. Not that he paid enough attention to know...

Yeah, no, that sounds more like it. He's just overthinking this, as the Spaniard happily talked to him about the new tricks he taught to his dog Piñón, coupled with videos. 

This is all Lando’s fault, putting that twisted seed of doubt in him with that stupid joke.

That British bastard is going to pay.

.

Their night ended up with Kimi rambling on and on about his last snowboarding outing, leaning heavily on Sebastian for balance as they staggered in the hotel’s hallway. The German himself wasn’t exactly sober either, giggling softly at every other word his friend slurred. Charles and Max trailed behind them, trying hard to suppress their laughs as they made sure they actually arrived at their respective rooms without any major injuries. 

Turns out the Finn was right, partying has definitely lifted all gloom from Charles' mood, especially after they witnessed two F1 legends ridiculing themselves right after crushing them.

“So this is the guy you trusted with your crucial flight documents ?” He whispered to Max as Kimi nearly tripped over his own feet, almost dragging a giggling Seb down with him. 

Max shrugged unfazed, his eyes still trained on their teammates. “Eh, still better than me”

“Kimi literally lost a bet because everyone could see his cards !” Charles insisted, appalled. “It can get worse than that !”

“I once lost my passport-” Max turned to look at him with a deadpan expression.  “- in line to customs…”

Charles' eyes went wide. The second of stunned silence was quickly broken by a loud cackle of disbelief. “How is that even possible ?!”

Max had a huge satisfied smile at Charles’ laughter shrugging his shoulders again, before walking up to Seb as they reached Kimi’s hotel room.

“Come on, Seb we need to go too. Remember about our trip tomorrow ?”

“Oh yeah ! Well, see you tomorrow Charliiie !” Sebastian chirped, waving as he was dragged to the elevator, meanwhile Charles supported Kimi’s half conscious body towards his bed as the man mumbled.

“Told you, you just needed to party…”

Charles just shook his head amused. "Yeah, yeah how are you even going to be good enough for our flight in 9 hours"

The Finn just groaned into his pillow making some vague dismissal moves with his arms. "Don't worry about it" He said, or at least what Charles guessed was the meaning of this attempt at speech.

Chapter Text

Jenson was starting to feel restless. It was so unlike the Spaniard to be this quiet during breakfast, it stirred his curiosity. It’s almost as if he’s… moping ? 

When he heard glimpses and pieces about the confrontation between the two Aston Martin drivers, he had expected this early morning to be filled with Fernando passionately complaining about the arrogance of the Canadian like he did so many times with his previous teammates. But it never came, the man stayed dead quiet instead. 

Their meal was unfolding in a heavy silence. Broken only by the distant clatters of forks and plates and the muffled discussions of the really few people who indulged in the hotel’s breakfast buffet at 7 in the morning. 

“Soooooo…” He tentatively started, trying to alleviate the tension with some jokes. “Heard you had a fight with your new beau.” This was a low blow and he knew it but ragebaiting was the best way to get the Spaniard to talk when he got like this.

“Joke like that again and you’re not flying with me." Fernando dryly retorted. Not even sparing a glance at Jenson before standing up with his plate, physically escaping the conversation, in favor of grabbing himself a fruit salad. 

The Brit couldn’t hold a chuckle at his friend’s evasion. “Yikes, you’re even grumpier than usual !”

Still not deterred, Jenson too stood up to follow him. “Don’t worry” he continued teasing. “I'm sure it’s nothing a bouquet of flowers and a card can’t fix.”

“Flowers ?”

“Yeah like DC used to apologize to Mika !” Fernando, not at all amused by his words, turned to glare at him so hard one could physically feel the weight of it. And if the McLaren driver wasn’t so used to his friend’s antics, he might have given up already, but  instead he smiled warmly as they reached the fruit salad display. 

“Plus, I know you won’t kick me out. I’m your only friend here !” He elbowed Fernando's tense shoulder playfully. Still no answer. The Spaniard silently selected some mango slices and various other fruits before turning back to their table, pointedly ignoring his companion.

Jenson started to feel a bit frustrated at his friend’s stoicness, loudly setting down his plate, brows knitted. “Come on, dude you gotta talk about it ! I can see it’s bothering you.” His tone lost the amusement it had replaced by sincere concern.

“I have nothing to say.” The answer was short and curt. And if Jenson wasn’t already convinced of the man’s emotional turmoil, the thickness of the Spanish accent in those words was a dead giveaway. There’s definitely something there.

“Do you ?” He continued, refusing to let it go. “Sounds to me like Lance was really hurt by your… tactics. Is it a stretch to say you maybe feel a tiny bit guilty ?”

“Yes.”

“Ah-ha !” Jenson snapped his fingers in triumph which quickly faltered at the still cold expression on Fernando’s face offering no sign of admission. “Wait- yes as in you feel guilty or as in it’s a stretch ?”

Silence again. The Spaniard simply started digging in his dessert, a clear sign that the conversation had ended. Jenson watched him for a few seconds before sighing in defeat.

“Fine. Have fun with your brooding then ! ”

The rest of the meal was laced in an uncomfortable silence, Jenson could almost see the gears vigorously turning in his friend's head in an internal war with his thoughts and emotions. He had almost given up on the matter entirely when, after long minutes, Fernando finally mumbled, sounding genuinely confused. 

“I don’t get it, he was so kind and determined to help me… He trusted me.” 

At last, he’s speaking.

“What’s wrong with that ?” Jenson took a sip of water to hide his proud grin behind the glass, afraid his smugness would push his friend back in his shell. “I mean sure you definitely don’t deserve it, but you didn’t have to break his trust like that. You could have talked about it.” He added in a half light tone.

“That’s not how I do things…”  The Spaniard really looked uncomfortable voicing this, awkwardly pushing some apple slices around his plate

“But you feel bad now.” Jenson offered, trying to nudge Fernando in the right direction, but he was met with silence. “Don’t you want to change your ways just this once ?” He continued. “I'm sure it’s not fun to compete with someone who won’t fight back.”

Fernando looked away towards a window, letting some silence seconds settle between them.“What’s done is done now.” He replied curtly, deflecting. 

Rolling his eyes, Jenson confidently replied. “Don’t be dramatic, I’m sure if you apologize he’ll forgive you no questions asked.”

“Maybe.” Fernando finally conceded with a sigh.

Well, that was an improvement. If he was still in Ferrari, the man would already have come up with five different plans to sabotage his teammate.

.

.

Family Field Trip:

Seb:

@All

Turns out we partied too long yesterday oops

Start to get up we’re heading to the airport in like an hour or so

Maxy:

I think 10am is very ambitious for the state Kimi was in

2nd Dad:

I’m ready

Maxy:

How

Even I still have a killer headache

What type of crazy effective painkiller do you take ?

2nd Dad:

None

All genetics

Maxy:

Life is unfair

Lancey:

I'm almost done

I just have one thing to deal with

Did any of you receive some unsolicited room delivery ?

 2nd Dad:

Nope

Seb:

No ?

Lancey:

Weird..

Seb:

Wait 

Why is Charles not answering

@Charlie

.

.

Splash !!

A wave of frigid water hit Charles’ across his face, violently pulling him out of his peaceful slumber and jolting him awake in a panicked gasp.

“Finally, took you long enough. Good morning.”

Charles’ vision was still foggy from sleep, he was notorious for being a heavy sleeper and as such was absolutely not used to being woken up by anything other than the soft sound of his alarm. 

As he sat up, he turned to glare at the blurry talking figure. It’s only after rubbing his eyes a few times and his eyes getting used to the sunlight that it came into focus to reveal Kimi standing in the middle of the room almost amused. 

The same Kimi who, just a few hours ago, had been absolutely hammered, requiring support to even walk straight. Now fully dressed and prepared, putting down the offending glass. 

“Time to get ready, kid. You don’t want to make Seb wait, do you ?”

The Finn continued to explain while casually walking to the suitcase situated in a corner of the room seemingly to pick an outfit for the younger man. Kimi frowned at some unique pair of jeans. “What are kids even wearing these days..” The man mumbled before throwing a white shirt and some cargo shorts at the Monegasque. “Here, now get ready we don’t have all day.”

Charles blinked in confusion, his brain refusing to process so much information at once. Wha- Oh right the flight, he must have forgotten to set up an alarm… Thankfully Kimi is here because otherwise- Wait, what ? 

Finally realising the weirdness of his situation, his head snapped towards his teammate. “How did you get in ?!”

Kimi smirked, lifting his hand to reveal a hotel card between his fingers like a magician making a card appear. “You left it in the motorhome yesterday, forgot to return it.” 

“You had it the whole time ?!” He groaned. “You could have saved me the 2am trip to the lobby for a duplicate”

“Sorry I guess.” The blond simply shrugged as he walked his way out of the room. “Be quick. We’re waiting for you.” 

.

.

Surviving the multiverse 💥:

Mad Max🦁 :

@Padel Champ What is this about room service

Padel Champ 🎾:

Ok so none of you is playing a prank on me ?

Osc:

@Landoooo

Landoooo:

why me ???!

ok no i see why

whatever it is im innocent

Princess George ✨:    

What happened ?

Padel Champ 🎾:

Someone sent me chocolates ?

It was delivered to my hotel room

There’s no note or anything

It’s some really nice brand too

Albono 🐈:

Maybe it’s a gift from the hotel ?

Doesn’t Aston have ties with Bahrain ?

Padel Champ 🎾:

Nah it’s with Saudi

Also a little late for that we’ve been here for weeks…

Landoooo:

ooooooh maybe you have a secret admirer !!! 👀

Osc:

Lando

For the love of God stop with these jokes

Princess George ✨: 

I’d be pretty worried if an admirer managed to get access to one of our room numbers.

Padel Champ 🎾:

Plus you need to have admirers in the first place…

Albono 🐈:

Stop with the self deprecating !

What makes you think they're not for you ?

Padel Champ 🎾:

Basic probabilities

Mad Max🦁 :

Surely they are for Fernando’s P2 and it’s just a mix up

You two are on the same floor right ?

Padel Champ 🎾:

Oh !

Yeah that’s probably it !

Princess George ✨:    

Great ! You should give them back then.

It could be a great opportunity to apologize while you’re at it.

And before you try, yes he’s still there, I just saw Jenson waiting for him in the lobby.

Padel Champ 🎾:

…

Fuck 

Osc:

Good luck mate

Padel Champ 🎾:

I should have kept my mouth shut and ate the chocolates alone

Landoooo:

thats the price of being too kind

Percival 🆑:

As they say ‘trop bon trop con’

Mad Max🦁 :

Oh sleeping beauty’s awake !

Percival 🆑:

Yeah well it was a rude awakening 

It shows that Kimi was in the army…

Landoooo :

next time maxy should wake you up with a morning kiss

Osc:

Lando istg I'm going to hunt you down

Landoooo :

?!

is it still about the carlos joke ?

Osc:

Yes

Stop with the shipping thing

Its weird

Landoooo :

but its fuuuuuun !!

dw if you dont like carcar theres still landoscar yk ;p 

Osc:

I’d rather kill myself

Landoooo :

rude

.

.

Lance took a deep breath as he stood in front of the Spaniard’s hotel room, rehearsing his apology speech in his head for the sixth time as he knocked. Almost immediately the door opened.

“Jen you’re only going to make us more late if you keep bothering me…” Fernando grumbled, not even looking behind him as he walked back in to seemingly pack his stuff. Lance couldn’t do anything but stand there anxiously, too shy to correct the man.

It's only after being met by a long silence that the Spaniard peered towards the entrance again, brows lifting in slight surprise at the sight of the young Canadian.

“Oh… hello ?” Fernando started, swiftly walking to the door in an attempt to hide the mess of clothes behind him.

“Hi… Um.. Someone accidentally sent your celebratory gift to me… Here.” Lance managed to mumble. His teammate looked down, silently glaring, for some reason, at the box that was being extended to him, seemingly unable to decide how to react. 

It’s now or never, Lance took a deep breath and met the man’s eyes.

“Also I’m so so sorry ! I shouldn’t have yelled at you like that. You’re right about not owing me anything… I just dream of sharing a podium with you-” Lance was painfully aware of how fast he was talking but he couldn’t help but be mortified from anxiety, Fernando sure was intimidating at times. 

“A-as in my teammate ! And it kinda felt like sabotage… But it’s mostly just me not being used to tough competition… Sorry.”

The older man’s eyes softened ever so slightly, shaking his head before finally speaking. 

“It’s alright, don’t worry” 

At the sound of those words Lance felt a heavy weight being lifted off his shoulders, making him smile brightly. “Oh thank God, I didn’t want to start on the wrong foot !”

He pushed the gift further towards the man, who reluctantly took it.

“It’s my fault too…” Fernando half muttered, as if he half hoped not to be heard. His eyes finally lifted from the chocolates he was now holding to look at the taller man with intent. “You didn’t deserve that.”

“I mean I don’t ‘deserve’ anything from you…” Lance responded, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly. “It’s all forgotten” 

Fernando frowned at the statement but said nothing, just stood studying the younger man’s face for a few seconds. “I have to finish packing… See you.” The man finally declared swiftly turning back inside and closing the door behind him.

Ok so it wasn’t that bad actually.

.

.

Alex doesn’t remember when it started, it feels like he and George always had shared every flight to races and even the multidimensional travel didn’t change that. 

Thank God for that, because there’s no telling if his friend would have survived a trip with the Mercedes staff, not when he was still feeling so shameful about his recent performances. Yet they weren’t alone here either, surprisingly, Lewis took the initiative to fly commercial with them.

Throughout the last two weeks, Alex has been stunned by the dedication of his new teammate, a stark contrast with how the 7 times Champion has been acting since 2021. Lewis’ has taken the time to get to know every member of the garage and that included Alex himself, but with all that happened he was forced to refuse all invites since they arrived, so when the guy asked to join them, he didn’t have the heart to say no, and George seemed contempt with that.

The conversation started light, some anecdotes and joking around a game of card. But after half an hour Lewis’ tone grew more serious as he shuffled the deck.

“So how are you faring George ?”

The man in question immediately stiffened, and Alex could almost hear the fake prepared speech being rehearsed in his head as George slipped back into his usual demeanor, clearing his throat. “Well, Nico is a bit strict but he made sure I got used to all the different set ups of the car. It’s been great mentoring.”

“And you think I believe that ?”

Lewis tilted his head to the side, an almost playful smile across his lips. “Come on, I know the man more than anyone, you can be honest. I’m sure you want to rant.”

A beat passed before George exhaled sharply, dropping his act, letting his head fall in his hands in distress. 

“I don’t think I’ll survive the season. He’s so cruel !” He lamented. “Why did you have to go to Williams Lewis…”

Alex isn’t sure if the last part was a slip up or not but weirdly enough, Lewis’ smile grew fonder hearing about the terrorising acts of the blond, though there was definitely something else hidden behind his demeanor. 

“Don’t take it to heart, he’s not doing it to be mean, quite the opposite.”

George slowly lifted his face, squinting at his original teammate with his unsettlingly blue eyes filled with confusion. “What is that supposed to mean ?”

“It means he wouldn’t do it if he didn’t think you could take it. So it’s a compliment.”

The other Brit stayed silent for a while, full of frustration. No one seems to take his struggle seriously. Everyone kept defending that evil man for God's sake. From Toto who keeps blissfully ignoring the psychological warfare tactics to Max being so friendly to the man, even the others who keep joking about his struggles and now even Lewis ? The guy who should be the most understanding of his position.

With all this frustration he should have kept his mouth shut, should have nodded swiftly and changed subject, but just like Lance said yesterday this whole situation was pushing them way more easily to their breaking point. So, against his better judgment, he refused to bite down on his petty remark.

“Then why did you leave ? If you could take it ?”

Almost immediately he felt Alex’s hand painfully grip him under the table, in a silence “what the hell are you doing ?!”. Well, that was definitely a huge mistake, to think he lectured the rest of them all week to not engage in dangerous conversations.

“You don’t have to answer that, my apologies.”

Alex apologized profusely, and to their surprise Lewis didn’t falter, his expression only grew more serious.

“Actually I could deal with that. That’s not what deterred me…”Both friends immediately looked at each other before looking back at Lewis expectantly. 

“Wait, are you actually going to tell us ?” George said miserably failing to concede his curiosity, the man simply sighed. 

“Well guess I’d have to talk about it eventually… I hope it can help you feel better George. And maybe make my new teammate trust me more.” Without missing a beat Alex nodded.

Lewis stayed silent for a few seconds to collect himself.“...The competition was great, mutual, and I was winning. The true issue came in 2022, Mercedes completely failed the regulations not in terms of pace but reliability. And that's where Nico made the difference.” For the degree of vulnerability he was expressing, the man looked pretty relaxed, with the only sign of discomfort being his repeated shuffling of the card deck still in his hands.  

“Being on top when the car is the best doesn't matter. I may be faster but he's fast enough. After 5 years at the team I thought I knew the car as much as him. But I was wrong. He knew all the problems that were solved by the time I came. Every issue we faced he had already experienced and knew how to deal with, while I was at a loss in a completely foreign car.”

He marked another pause looking out the window in a semi dramatic way, and George could feel Alex next to him patting his hand again, this time in astonishment, at what they were being told.

“I couldn’t stand seeing the team completely switch sides and trust Nico's opinions over my own everytime. So I left.”

“But then…” Started Alex after another stretched silence. “Why did you guys leave on such bad terms ?”

A cold, humourless laugh escaped Lewis’ throat as he slowly distributed the cards between them. “You must know how vile a driver can act when their pride is at stakes.”

“O-oh”

This time they were left speechless, and opted to play another round of cards in order to alleviate the tension.

Well… the more you know.

.

.

Oscar took a deep breath as he mentally braced himself for the 2 hours flight in Carlos’ company. He's been spending way too much time with the guy and it's starting to wear on him. It's really hard to find a balance between friendliness and distance.

It's not like he’s a bad guy, quite the opposite in fact, he's being too good of a friend. It's getting hard for Oscar to keep in mind the Spaniard's usual demeanor towards him. He really shouldn't get used to this or the return to reality is going to be brutal, how embarrassing would it be to harbor an unrequited friendship with a guy that hates his guts…. No offense to Lance.

He ended up spacing out yet again in the middle of the Vip lounge of the airport, when he felt two hands cover his eyes.

“Guess who ?” He heard from behind him from a voice with a distinct Spanish accent.

“You kind of spoiled the game by speaking you know…”

Carlos chuckled then walked up in front of him and patted the Australian’s shoulder, Oscar frowned as he grabbed the two hands still over his face, trying to identify their owner.

“It's not me, I brought a friend”

Slight panic started to grip his guts, is it a mutual friend he’s supposed to know ? Or a close acquaintance in the team whom he forgot the name again ?

But as he started to spiral he could feel the person behind him stifling their giggles in a very peculiar and familiar way-

Fucking hell.

“Lando, I know it’s you”

Finally the Brit burst in laughter, shaking his shoulders enthusiastically. 

“I knew you’d recognize me ! See, Carlos, told you ! We’re tooootally besties too !”

The Spaniard simply hummed unconvinced, soundlessly grabbing Oscar’s bag, walking away before adding with a proud tone.

“Yeah well, whatever I’m still his mom’s favorite so I win. Now stop whining we have a plane to catch”

The Australian frowned at their antics, and at his things disappearing ahead. I’m not surviving this flight. 

“Please don’t get my mother involved in this.” He sped walked toward his teammate tugging at his bag on the man's left shoulder. “I can hold my own stuff, you know…”

But Carlos only smirked, turning away from him. “I’ll give it back if you admit you like me best !”

Lando gasped theatrically behind them. “Carlos ! How dare you resort to blackmail ?!”

“Actually I hate both of you. Very much.” Concluded Oscar, skipping up further ahead on his own.

Surviving the multiverse 💥: 

Osc:

At least one of us is not surviving this flight

Ill either kill them or myself

Mad Max 🦁: 

Why not crash the whole plane while your at it

Maybe dying is the way out of there

Osc:

Tempting

Landoooo: 

😨

.

.

Jenson couldn’t stay sitting in the lobby anymore, and had already settled in the Spaniard’s jet, thankfully all the staff already knew him and saw no issue with it.

It’s been a good while now that he’s been doomscrolling on Tiktok waiting for Fernando to arrive. What was taking him so long ?

Finally hearing his friend’s distinct voice speaking to the cabin crew, he turned around enthusiastically.  “There you are, mate ! What happened ? ”

Fernando ignored the question and simply walked up to take the seat across from Jenson, unexpectedly shoving something into the Brit’s hands in passing. “Here, you can have this.”

“Wha-” Looking down stunned, Jenson examined the wrapped box he was holding.  “Wait, is that…”

Fernando simply hummed nonchalantly as he dropped down on the comfortable seat grabbing his laptop.“He said they were for me. We talked and said sorry, so all is good.”            

“See ! Told you it’ll be easy !” Jenson smirked proudly, popping a piece of sweet in his mouth. “Honestly you could have let him keep them though… These are really good.”

His friend shrugged. “They served their purpose. No need to be extra”

“I swear your inability to be kind is seriously worrying at times…” The Brit sighed, shaking his head as he grabbed another chocolate. “The purpose was for it to be a nice gesture, you know…. Such a waste of your own money.”

Chapter Text

When heard his phone ring, Lance knew he was extremely late. Who would have thought that it took him almost 15 minutes simply to give something back to a guy in the room across from him. For his defense, he had to mentally prepare for the worst.

Shoving the last of his clothes in his suitcase, he closed it and hastily stumbled his way to the lobby where the rest of his traveling companions were waiting, slouched on a fancy red couch. 

Only Kimi acknowledged his arrival with a quick nod, while Max and Charles were too busy leaning on each side of Sebastian, the three of them appearing way too captivated by what’s playing on the German’s screen to notice him. 

He sat down to Kimi’s left, speaking up to get their attention. “Hi guys ! So sorry, I swear I had everything packed, I just-”

“Lance !” Before he even finished his excuse, Sebastian turned to him a bit startled, a worried frown starting to crease his brow. “Why didn't you tell me about what happened yesterday ?”

Lance blinked at his friend in confusion. “Um… You mean the Grand Prix ?” He asked half jokingly. But glancing at the others, he could see that they too were looking at him for answers. 

After a few seconds of silence, a hand fell on his shoulder in a firm shake, as the Finn next to him spoke. “I'm glad you stood up for yourself, kid”

Finally it hit him. Right, it seemed like forever ago, now that the situation is all settled but his little fit of rage from last night must have spread to them somehow. Well that was fast. 

Too fast actually even with Lando’s tendency to run his mouth. “How do you guys know about that ?”

Max frowned. “Mate. It's been all over Twitter.”

....Shit. 

Lance had spent the whole night in the British trio’s company, completely forgetting to check social media. 

He exhaled, covering his face in defeat, already feeling a wave of anxiety gripping his guts. Not even 2 weeks in and there he is fucking up already. “Oh, people are going to hate me…” He mumbled in his hands.

“What are you talking about ? Why would they ?” Seb reassured him. 

To prove his point, he shoved his phone towards the younger man. It looks like only a few minutes after he stormed off the garage a blurry video of his outburst surfaced on social media. But to his immense surprise, people weren't criticising him for this fit of rage like he expected... Quite the opposite actually.  It seems like someone is even less liked than him here. So much that although the video clearly shows a one sided argument, people were ready to believe all of it was justified. 

Just how much of a villain was Fernando back at Ferrari ?!

“I told you you were too trusting... are you okay Lancey ?” Sebastian continued still wearing the same worry, scrutinizing the Canadian for any sign of distress. 

Lance firmly shook his head with a smile, in hope of reassuring them. If there was no tsunami of criticism coming his way then there's nothing to panic about. “Thank you guys, but it's all good we talked about this morning and apologized.”

“Fernando said ‘sorry’ to you ?” The German asked in disbelief.

“Well…” Lance rubbed his nape sheepishly. “He didn't say those words per say,  but the intentions were there.”

Kimi moved his hand to pat the younger man’s head, shaking his head in disapproval. “Don't forgive him so easily.”

 “Isn't he your friend ? I saw you two playing Padel.” He glanced at the man next to him arching an eyebrow.

The blond shrugged, smirking a bit at Sebastian's surprised expression. “Eh. He’s Ok tier. Doesn't mean you should trust him.”

“That's not the big issue here, you're in for thousands of questions from the media. What a nightmare." Max sympathized, practically wincing at the simple thought of it.

“I could answer some of them with you if that might help.” Charles offered. “I’m sure they are dying for some info from me as his previous teammate…”

“Nah, I think I’ll manage just fine. We have a PR meeting tomorrow to arrange stuff.” 

Squinting at him unconvinced, Sebastian asked again. “Are you sure ?”

“Yep.” He nodded again firmly.

The man stayed silent for a second before relaxing his features into a smile. “Great then ! Well, if we’re all set let’s go !” He chirped, switching back to his usual enthusiasm, springing up to his feet. “Oh, Kimi don’t forget the dare of last night !”

The Finn groaned, patting Lance’s head one last time as he stood up. “What was it again ?”

“We’re wearing matching outfits on media day.”

He frowned. “Don’t tell me it’s your old man checkered pants again. We already did that once.”

Seb smiled even more brightly. “It is ! If only as retaliation for hanging out with Fernando without me”

 “Sebastian. You dislike padel and the guy.” Kimi sighed. “Even matching with Charles’ horrible clothes is better”

“Excuse you ! My clothes are fashionable !” The Monegasque protested, “Also you owe me dinner.” 

“Just how many bets did I lose last night ? He sighed again, covering his face with his hands. “God, I need to check my wallet.”

“Does he actually ?” Max whispered to the younger Ferrari driver.

“No, but he doesn’t know that.”

.

.

After only a day of rest they were right back on the simulator on a Tuesday morning. And with his talk with Lewis still fresh in his mind, George was determined to fight back against Nico. 

Now that the element of surprise is gone, he realizes just how close his new teammate’s style is to his, more oversteery, relying on front end stability rather than the rear, and earlier braking. It’s almost weird that he is thrown off by this. 

Almost.

It turns out, Lewis was right, the terrible setups were not simply a psychological warfare strategy but genuinely part of Nico’s procedure. He’s just being more sneaky about it for the sake of the game.

Because contrary to his previous duo that would, just like him, rather adapt to a theoretically faster set up. The German focussed all his effort on fine tuning the car to an almost surgical level in order to find the delicate balance between comfort and speed that would make a difference. So making George drive through the different setups as well meant actually giving him more information about the right way to go. 

Nico simply wouldn’t share the last of his conclusions and the final result.

Yet this realization didn’t help George in the slightest. He wasn’t the type of driver to be in tune with every part of the car and so couldn't deduce anything from all that testing. His talent was long term adaptation to an efficient setup. And as long as the team didn’t trust him to do stuff on his own he was stuck. 

While unattended by his engineer, George had even tweaked some settings to his best recollection of last year’s and to his delight it wasn’t that bad, actually it was pretty fast. 

“Oh wow, good job George ! That’s actually a great one !” Nico said enthusiastically as he looked at the lap times. Right, if he can see Nico’s setup then he can see his. “We just need to find an engine mode where the tyre's grip isn’t so terrible at the start ! Bono, what was the one we found in testing ?”

“Actually, I think I’ll just continue with this one-” He tried to argue, but was immediately cut off by his own engineer.

“He’s right George, we need to focus on that. We can’t afford to be passed by the McLarens again” And there he is right back in the drastic setup changes circus again. 

He understands that it’s hard to trust the new guy when he hasn’t proved himself yet, but how is he to do so when nobody is listening to him ?!

Landoooo:

i have a question

why you keep lying ??

@Percival 

 

Percival 🆑: 

?

 

Landoooo:

when they ask ‘whos ur childhood hero’ you always say senna

but theres no way it is

 

Osc:

Why would it not be ?

 

Landoooo:

come on osc

what kid is fan of an old legend when there are so many still racing ?

 

Percival 🆑: 

Oh yeah obviously my role models were mostly Ferrari drivers 

Specifically Kimi being last champion and all…

But the team told me to say someone else since ‘we dont want to remind people of the controversial swap with you two’

Or something like that

 

Mad Max🦁:

What’s controversial is not you there in your rookie year

No other team would have hesitated even for a second

Percival 🆑: 

Well you know… 

Ferrari isn’t any other team

But thank you for the compliment

 

Albono 🐈 :

I fear Max is never beating the ‘Charles Leclerc n°1 fan’ allegations lmao

 

Mad Max🦁:

Im just saying the truth

 

Percival 🆑: 

Talking about this makes me realize how crazy this is 

Never thought I would be able to share a Ferrari garage with a guy who inspired me so much

 

Osc:

This world clearly had favorite when picking the timeline

Happy you're fulfilling a dream

 

Landoooo:

yeah thats cute

how about u lancey ?

why do you always say its schumi ?

 

Padel Champ 🎾:

Cause Ive always been a Schumacher fan ?

 

Princess George ✨: 

Liar.

Anyone who knows you from back then can tell you for a fact that’s a lie.

 

Padel Champ 🎾:

What makes you say that ?

 

Princess George ✨: 

You literally never showed me a single picture of you with Micheal from your numerous paddock visits.

 

Padel Champ 🎾:

That's cause I was in the Ferrari academy

So I only met with their drivers duh

 

Osc:

Sometimes I forget most of you guys are childhood friends…

 

Percival 🆑: 

More like acquaintances

We only got along coming in F1 for the most part

 

Mad Max🦁:

Not sure we go along half the time 

 

Albono 🐈 :  

I mean

It got better now

 

Mad Max🦁:

Stockholm syndrom…

 

Landoooo:

shush you guys are interupting the drama

 

Princess George ✨: 

Academy you just happened to join in 2010 and leave in 2014 ?

Exactly like a certain driver ?

 

Padel Champ 🎾:

Ok first of all it was 2015

Second I left because I signed with Williams

Correlation doesn’t mean causation

 

Princess George ✨: 

I didn’t know you could use such fancy words.

 

Osc:

Wow

Someone is in a bad mood after their team meeting…

 

Albono 🐈 :

Come on George

You dont think he'd make career defining decisions based on some guy he looks up to ?

 

Princess George ✨: 

I might do, actually.

 

Padel Champ 🎾:

This is outrageous

Im suing you for defamation

 

Princess George ✨: 

You can’t sue me for stating facts.

 

Albono 🐈 :

Please ignore him Lancey

Hes in his ragebaiting mood again

Dw Georgie Im coming to your room with comfort snacks 

You can vent instead of releasing your frustration on an innocent bystander

 

Princess George ✨: 

That would be appreciated.

Thank you Alex.

 

Albono 🐈 :

Of course 

But you have to apologize to Lance first

Or I wont come

 

Princess George ✨: 

…

I’m sorry for exposing you like that, Lance. 

That was uncalled for.

I had a terrible day but that is not an excuse.

 

Padel Champ 🎾:

Honestly thats the best apology I ever heard from you

So ill take it

 

Percival 🆑: 

Where did this even come from Lando ?

 

Landoooo:

lol 

i just wanted to tell you that in interviews they might mention this

answers are a bit different for some of us 👀

Landoooo shared a video: Meet The 2024 Formula 1 Drivers ! 

[The video link jumps directly to 2min15 with the woman's voice behind the camera reading the next question]

Interviewer: So who was your racing hero ?

[Lando was taping his chin with a pensive frown]

Lando: Uuum…

[Lance is closing one eye, with a contemplating frown. Several cuts to different drivers thinking. Cut to Kimi.]

Kimi: Mika Salo.

Interviewer: Who is he ?

Kimi: Finnish driver for Ferrari.

Interviewer: Oh so he really inspired you.

[He shrugs. Cut Sebastian grinning]

Sebastian: I mean there's only one answer. Micheal was my idol, the one who made me love F1 and my mentor so obviously it's him.

[Cut to Max]

Max: Yeah Micheal was the F1 driver… and I was lucky enough to grow up with him. So yeah. His driving style was really something else.

Interviewer: Some people say you kind of reinvented his style.

Max smiling: That’s a huge honor.

[Cut to Lewis.]

Lewis: Ayrton Senna was my biggest inspiration. I used to watch all his on board to try and understand his driving style, especially the braking. He really gave me the love for the sport.

[The screen split into four with Fernando, Hulk, Valtteri and Daniel]

All: Senna

[Cut to Jenson]

Jenson: Prost

Interviewer: Oh ? You’re the first.

Jenson: Well his smooth driving style had a huge influence on mine. I studied it quite a lot when I was younger.

[Switch to four more, George, Lando, Yuki and Esteban]

All: Schumacher

[Cut to Alex smiling brightly]

Alex: I think but I was the biggest Schumacher fan, I had posters of him, my outfits were Ferrari, even my bed !

[Some pictures appear showing a young Alex cladded in red Ferrari merch. Switch to Charles fiddling a bit with rings] 

Charles: My dad was a huge Senna fan so obviously I am too, but my biggest inspiration are all the Ferrari drivers I watched through the years. Especially the ones who won championships. They really made me dream… Oh that 2015 season was something else.

Interviewer: So especially Kimi, your future teammate ?

Charles with a small awkward smile: You could say that.

[Split screen showing Nico and Carlos]

Both: My dad.

Carlos laughing: Oh that's such a flex to say that.

[Cut to Pierre]

Pierre: I mean every kid in our generation was inspired by Schumacher. Only weirdos liked someone else.

[Back to Lance]

Lance: Well.

Interviewer: Not Schumacher ?

Lance: Um… I preferred someone else.

Interviewer: Could it be his last championship rival ?

[He nods, laughing nervously]

Lance: This is kind of embarrassing to admit.

Interviewer: Just so you know, we do need you to say the name on tape.

[He scratches the back of his neck awkwardly]

Lance: Alonso.

Interviewer: Thank you.

[Cut to Oscar]

Oscar: Well I really looked up to Mark Webber, you know fellow Aussie and all...

Interviewer: And he’s your manager now !

[Oscar nodding nonchalantly]

Oscar: Yeah, crazy how life is. 

Osc:

Oh Mark will have a field day with this…

 

Percival 🆑: 

My God I said that publicly knowing he was going to be my teammate ??

This is so embarrassing

 

Padel Champ 🎾:

Imagine how I feel…

I have a PR meeting this afternoon

I’ll just have to drop of the surface of the earth before that I guess

“Man” Max sighed as their social media team was finishing the last set ups before filming. “Turns out we’re the ones who ended up in PR jail…” He mumbled knowing full well he's fully mic up with cameras already running and that his every move is recorded.

“Come on don’t be such a downer Maxy, it’s not that bad.” Sebastian answered.

“Easy for you to say, you love the cameras”

“And the cameras love me !” The blond singsang winking towards the lenses with fingerguns.

“Yeah, you always know what to do… Even when you're at fault no one can hate you.” Max found himself surprised by how much honesty was behind his words. 

He has been called the new Red Bull golden boy for a while now, seen as Vettel’s successor and yet he never felt like it. Sebastian had this amazing ability of being endearing even when he was being the bad guy, ‘the smiling devil’ as the media called him, aggressive, fierce, unapologetic and yet never truly hated by fans. 

Meanwhile he was ‘Mad Max’ abrasive, hostile and straight up dangerous to be around on and off track. He would be lying if he didn’t admit he was a bit jealous of the German for that. 

“Yeah we're a bit of a good cop, bad cop duo, aren’t we ?” Sebastian smiled back, gaze softening, it seems that even without the full context the man realized the weight of those words. “But you know, most people prefer Batman over Superman.”

An amused expression crossed the Dutchman’s face. Was Seb… a nerd ? Well, it made sense actually, it's just unexpected.

“What I mean is, you're more… captivating ? Um no- polarizing !” The older man added in an attempt at an explanation, interpreting the silence as confusion, trying his best to lift the opinion his teammate had of himself. “You make people turn around and really look, and as much as they criticize you, you bring them the entertainment they want ! All that by just being unapologetically yourself, isn’t just as great ?” 

It was really touching to hear such thoughts from Sebastian, it almost lifted some weight off of his shoulders. But Max wanted to steer clear of too emotional conversations, his speciality is sarcasm and ‘well actually’s. “If you’re Superman in this allegory then wouldn’t Batman be Kimi ?”

The German eyes widened in realization, a bright smile forming. “Oh- you're right he is Batman ! Cold, brooding but secretly a really nice guy. Wait- would that make Charles Nightwing ? ”

“I don't know who that-”

“Ok guys, we’re all set” Announced their media producer “Today you guys are going to guess some arabic word related to racing, play a game of drawing the track blindfolded. Then answer some fan questions” Max had to use everything in him not to groan. For the most part this didn’t stray too far from the usual stuff, fun but he’d rather had stayed in bed, particularly when the Grand Prix was just two days ago.

Jenson (Admin) renamed the group chat as 2024 F1 Grid 🏎️:

Admin added Oscar to the groupchat

Jenson ☆: 

Oops I forgot to update the groupchat 

My bad folks

 

Britney ☆:

See you’re terrible at organization

I should have stayed the admin

Also how dare you change my name !

 

Jenson ☆: 

It was very confusing with the other Nico

Plus I gave you this nickname myself with love and care so accept it

 

Britney ☆:

It was literally your gf’s name…

If anything I should be weirded out

 

Max: 

It doesn’t come from Britney Spears ?!

Wait does that mean you think of her when you call Nico or the other way around ?

 

Daniel:

This question is probably the reason they broke up lol

 

Sebastian ☆☆:

You could have stayed admin Nico

If you didn’t involve us in your very public divorce

 

Britney ☆:

I told you guys it was an accident

 

Lewis ☆☆☆☆:

You kicked me out of groupchat and blocked me on everything ??

 

Britney ☆:

Mistakes happen

Just like you called it a mistake to give dirty air all quali that day

Right Lewis ?

 

Fernando ☆☆:

I should have been admin

Can’t believe you guys preferred voting for Jen

 

Sebastian ☆☆:

You used corruption !

You took Kimi’s phone to give his votes to you !

 

Fernando ☆☆:

He gave me the phone willingly

 

Daniel:

Crazy how we were so little votes away from falling into a dictatorship…

 

Fernando ☆☆:

Hey.

MBS presidency is a bigger dictatorship rn

 

Hulk:

We all know you don’t care about this or the driver’s association

You just want to make us rebel against the FIA

 

Fernando ☆☆:

*And burn their building down

 

Oscar:

Hi ?

 

Jenson ☆: 

Hi Oscar ! Sorry we didn’t add you last year but this is for fulltime drivers only.

Welcome to the official F1 groupchat :)

We use it to discuss about problems and news on the sports

We have votes for some stuff from time to time (for ex: the new admin)

Drivers get one bonus vote per championship they have 

 

Oscar:

The voting system doesn’t sound very democratic…

 

Jenson ☆: 

It was decided years ago and it became tradition now ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

Fernando ☆☆:

You should have seen when Micheal was still on the grid… 

With 8 votes it was impossible to go against him

That’s why I wanted it gone

 

Lewis ☆☆☆☆:

You wanted the British driver’s vote to count as half !

 

Fernando ☆☆:

You guys are advantaged enough

Also any non European would have double

To make it fair

 

Esteban:

So fair that Spanish drivers had quadruple votes…

 

Fernando ☆☆:

Yeah well next year I'll make it five

And French people will get no votes

 

Pierre:

What ?? Why am I getting punished too ?

 

Fernando ☆☆:

Life

Go manifest somewhere in Paris if you're so unhappy

And maybe start a fire in the building next to the Hotel Marine while you’re at it

 

Carlos:

Don’t worry Oscar I’ll give you the nationality

 

Oscar:

No thanks I’m good

 

Carlos:

Ouch

 

Lando:

Lmaooo

 

Daniel:

Cheer up Carlos plenty of people got their marriage proposal rejected in this chat

Including me </3

Im still heartbroken @Max

 

Max:

Sorry youre too old for me

 

Daniel:

Seriously age is the problem ?? 

Thats the least credible excuse coming from you

 

Jenson ☆: 

Surprisingly your not even the first Spaniard who got rejected by an Aussie either

 

Yuki:

???

 

Fernando ☆☆:

It was for a political allyship

 

Sebastian ☆☆:

Yeah to try to take me down !

It didn’t even work I got the bonus vote in the end 😛

 

Lance:

You make it sound like that was the only reason you wanted to become champion…

Aston Martin’s senior PR manager Joanne called for an emergency meeting the second they landed in Saudi. Lance and Fernando sat in an empty office across from her, trying to explain how they already made up. She simply listened to them with a grim expression. 

“You know I was half hoping you were still mad at each other so at least this whole disaster would have been worth it.” She exhaled eventually.

“Disaster is a strong word I think.” The Spaniard argued.

“Fernando. I know you are used to Ferrari’s prestige hiding most of the bad stuff, but our team doesn’t have that. All we can offer people is better results and line up. And with you two not exactly being the most popular on the grid.” She pointedly glared at Fernando, emphasizing her point. “The least you could do is not divide our fan base." 

Lance was completely taken aback by her stern attitude, she’s usually such a calm and cheerful person. But it made sense now, last year the Spaniard had called him his hero on the first race and posted some silly TikToks featuring him unprompted, they must have made her job really easy back then. Quite the opposite from here.

“My fans like me because I’m a villain, wouldn’t it hurt my public image to be nice and joking all of a sudden ?” Fernando continued almost smugly and Lance could see some of the familiar mischief in the man’s eyes.

The frown on Joanne’s face deepened, yet some amusement could be seen creeping on her face. “Stop trying to play smarty pants ! We’ll use the ‘Mean to everyone except him’ trope or something. Just-” She made some vague gestures with her hands towards them “Look like you get along !”

Her frustration still clear in her voice, the Canadian almost felt bad for the amount of stress and work they must have caused her. And if he was a better man, he would have kept quiet, sadly he’s not.“Sounds like you're writing a romcom…”

Fernando let out a surprised snort at the comment, which caused Lance to be the next target of Joanne’s glares.

“Honestly Silva might have been on to something” She mused, tapping her pen against the table. “Maybe the solution is to make you hold hands or kiss in public” 

Mentioning the DTS moment between Sebastian and Charles in a PR meeting, she sounded frighteningly sincere. Lance might have started to worry if he wasn’t sure a stunt like that would only make her job exponentially harder.

“No thank you.” Fernando answered nonchalantly, playing along with a light smirk and crossing his arms on the table. “PDA is not really my thing.”

Now, he recognises his friend, a man who loved to tease and mildly annoy his team to keep a good mood, and who is Lance not to play along. He put on a fake pout before mumbling loudly enough. “Willing to do it with Mark but not me…” 

All three of them chuckled at that, although Joanne really tried to hide it. These moments of complicity is what Lance probably missed the most from this whole thing. Finally Joanne looked at them with an eerily big mischievous smile, eyes burning with determination. An expression between amusement and annoyance that looked almost scarier than the frown. 

“I’m glad to see you get along now.” She said with an uncanny degree of sweetness to her voice. “But how about you save the funny banter for the dozen Tiktoks I’ll force you to make !”

Good Lord, she’s going to make them pay for it will she. He already dislikes social media duties, he can’t begin to imagine how much this version Spaniard must loathe them. 

“A dozen ?!” Fernando repeated in a surprised complaint, a contemplative scowl now replacing his earlier expression.

 “Fernando.”  Joanne cut through with what may be her hundredth sigh of the hour. “If you’re reconsidering my earlier proposition. The answer is no, you’ll have to film them regardless.”

“Tch.” Fernando clicked his tongue in mock displeasure, his earlier amusement back. 

Joanne shook her head in amused disbelief before shifting to a more serious tone and continued on with her speech. “Anyway, for now let's focus on your talking points I meticulously wrote for you, please read them.” 

She quietly handed them some stack of papers with Lance’s being at least 3 times bigger, he threw her a frown. “It’s obvious you’ll be called for the drivers interviews.” She replied. “Thankfully the driver presentation video can help us a lot. Please really lean on the fact that you said Fernando is your childhood hero.”

Lance felt his cheek warming up in embarrassment, he had forgotten about this. “I mean that was more than ten years ago..” He mumbled.

“Yes but it can be a great basis for a wholesome PR story.” He simply nodded as she continued on less important stuff. Keeping his eyes trained on the pages, ignoring the weird looks his teammate was sending him for the rest of the meeting and storming out as soon as it concluded. 

Thursday,

March 6        13h00

Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)

Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)

Esteban Ocon (Haas)

.

.

To the surprise of no one, Lance was called up to the media pen. He had managed to avoid most of the impromptu interviews all day thanks to Kimi staying by his side from the moment he walked in the paddock and silently glaring at any journalists coming his way.

But now sitting on the white couch between Charles and Esteban, he had no escape. 

The first questions were mostly directed to Esteban on him switching teams and his feelings on the car, Lance mostly tuned it out until he heard Charles whispering to him.

“They’re asking him about car performance when he DNFed the first race…”

The Canadian nodded, leaning towards his friend a bit to answer. “It’s clear they’re just buying time before firing us with the tough questions.”

“Charles” Only a few seconds after he said that one of the journalists turned to them. “We see you talking to Lance, did you give him any advice on how to deal with Fernando ?”

Here we go. The Monegasque laughed nervously as he lifted his mic. “Oh no, I have nothing. Fernando is the type to change his tactics anyway. But I think he’s coping well so far.”

“Even with the argument ?” 

At the journalist’s words, Charles’ expression shifted into a confused frown slowly turning to look at his friend then back at the crowd. “I’m not sure I’ve heard of that ?”

The acting was so convincing that even Lance started doubting for a second, regardless Charles is giving him the perfect opportunity to clarify things just like Joanne wanted. “It was nothing, just some teammates tough love. We’re all good.” He said looking solely at his friend. 

“Tough love, you say ?” The interviewer continued, Lance finally turned to them nodding. 

“Yes, he had promised we’d work as a team but you know as they say, old habits die hard, if you don’t kick them, they kick you.” 

“So the yelling in the video-” 

“It looks worse than it actually is.” He immediately countered. “Fernando just isn’t used to sharing his strategy and I thought I was deceived that is all. He’s actually a great teammate to have, strategic, smart and very fast.” Lance continued before remembering a line Joanne insisted on.  “Plus, it’s a bit of a childhood dream come true.” He finished, not without his voice getting quieter at the end. This was truly embarrassing.

But at least it was enough to shush the journalist who seemed to have no follow-up to this, instead he turned to the Ferrari driver again . “Speaking of childhood dreams, Charles, you said in the recent driver presentation that Kimi was a big inspiration to you. How is it like to work with him ?”

Charles’ smile tightened a bit from embarrassment before answering. “Y-Yeah, I mean, I never thought I’ll get this opportunity, Kimi has such a different approach to the car. It’s amazing and I learned a lot from him.”

“He seems a lot nicer compared to your previous colleague, at least.” There they were again with the sneaky questions, as if there wasn’t enough drama between drivers, they needed to instigate more of it. The Monegasque frowned, shaking his head.

“Come on, you can’t compare two teammates. It’s… different.” He said with his impeccable Ferrari PR speech. “But, what I can say is, he is a much better party companion.” He added chuckling, cleverly switching topics with a joke. Lance couldn’t help but be impressed.

The rest of the press conference had far lighter questions, and thanks to that they can all focus back on what truly mattered, racing.