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Japan was, as always, one of the most magical places in the world…
Suzuka carried something different in the air this year. It was the last race of the 1999 season full of colours, cameras and noise, but also the beginning of a story that would shape the next 25 years of Formula 1.
And once again, one colour ruled the paddock.
Red.
The colour of blood… The colour of danger…
Precisely, Ferrari red.
The kind of red that is stitched into jackets, caps and tiny little shoes running through the garage floors.
The tiny, tiny little shoes belonging, in this case, to the one and only Max Verstappen.
At barely two years old, the whole garage looked gigantic to Max. The tyres were almost his size, the Ferrari cars were his favourite places to hide, and even the cameras looked enormous… but still, the kid had somehow become the unofficial prince of the Ferrari garage ever since Michael Schumacher had returned in Malaysia the weekend before.. Mechanics waved at him every morning and engineers carried him around between meetings.
Max liked that very much.
Which was exactly why he did not appreciate hearing that another child was visiting.
One could think the problem would be Mick, but that baby was at home, very far away.
The real menace was another blond German child named Sebastian… Uncle Ralf had laughed while explaining it earlier… “He’s little too” Ralf had said. “Not as little as you, but still little.”
Max did not like the sound of that at all.
He already had to share attention with Gina and Mick. Another child sounded completely unnecessary.
SO when Friday come… Max had his cute little red shoes and a cute red Ferrari shirt. He looked cute. Very cute…So… Max was ready. He waited while Uncle Ralf was arriving with the new danger.
“Down! Down!” Max asked immediately when he saw a medium person dressed in red. Max didn’t wait for anyone to answer. He had a mission.
“Maxy! Come here” Uncle Michael called from behind him, already laughing.
Sebastian, the 12-year-old dressed in oversized merch, was pretending to look busy whil
e actually trying very (very) hard not to draw attention to himself. But when he recognised the voice behind him, he turned around only to find an 85 cm cute child staring at him with huge blue eyes.
Max, meanwhile, was trying very hard to make an angry face.
“Who are you?” Max asks without waiting.
Seb blinked.
Once…
Twice…
Seconds felt like minutes…
Then looked behind himself, almost as if he expected the question to be directed to another person.
There was nobody there. Just Ralf at his side… And one very small angry blonde child.
Ralf almost choked trying not to laugh.
“Careful…” Ralf whispered dramatically. “He is interrogating you.”
Michael was already smiling a few metres behind them, arms crossed while Max continued staring at the Vettel suspiciously.
Sebastian straightened immediately, trying very hard to look older and cooler than his real age.
“I am Sebastian” he answered smoothly.
Max narrowed his eyes…That was not enough information.
“What you doing here?”
Seb opened his mouth and blinked.
Once…
Twice…
Then looked helplessly towards Ralf, who very clearly was not going to save him.
“He talks a lot” Ralf informed him helpfully.
“You didn’t warn me about this.”
Max gasped softly.
Rude!
The toddler placed both tiny hands on his hips trying to look menacing, but the little red shoes squeaking against the garage floor were destroying any try…
“This my garage.”
That finally broke Ralf completely. The younger Schumacher doubled over laughing while nearby mechanics tried and failed not to smile at the tiny declaration.
Sebastian looked around the giant ferrari garage full of engineers and tyres, finding some tiny caps and toys around, before looking back down at the 85 cm of confidence standing in front of him.
“I can see that...”
Max studied him carefully.
The blond hair… The oversized cap…The awkward posture...The fact that he looked nervous instead of mean.
Then Max decided something very important. Maybe… maybe this Sebastian could stay.
Temporarily…
“Okay…” Max announced seriously.
Seb blinked again.
“Okay?”
“You can stay.”
Seb blinked one more time.
This time was the turn of Michael physically turned away trying to hide his laughter. Sebastian, meanwhile, looked like he had just received permission to enter a secret kingdom.
“Thank you?”
Max nodded graciously… He was very generous.
Then, without warning, the toddler grabbed Seb hand.
Seb froze instantly.
Tiny fingers.
Warm.
Trusting.
“Come”
The weekend passed with Max practically attached to Michael and Sebastian. If Michael was holding him, Max was still reaching for Seb with one tiny hand. If Sebastian disappeared for more than five minutes, Max immediately started searching the paddock, or at least the areas where is allowed to go alone, like a detective.
Sebastian pretended not to feel ridiculously important because of it.
But eventually Suzuka ended.
And when they separated, Seb was almost sure that had been the last time he would ever see the tiny Dutch boy again.
He was so wrong.
Because barely two months later, Sebastian Vettel found himself invited to the Schumacher New Year party in Switzerland.
Which made absolutely no sense to him. Why would he be invited? He was just a kid… A karting kid Michael happened to be helping.
So when Seb arrived at the Schumacher house, nervous and awkward in clothes that suddenly felt too tight, he fully expected to spend the night alone somewhere near the snacks.
He in fact did not
Because there was another blond menace already there.
Nico Rosberg.
“You also got kidnapped by the Schumachers?” Nico asked immediately.
Seb blinked once... He really needed to learn not to freeze every time somebody spoke unexpectedly.
“What…?”
Nico shrugged. “One day you are visiting the paddock with your dad. Next thing you know, Michael is asking about school.”
Seb considered this carefully “Fair, expect the father part… but fair”
And just like that, the two boys became inseparable for the rest of the evening. The two rivals on track were keeping each other alive in a party that was not made for them.
They were alone against the party…
Well… Almost alone.
Because apparently, they had adquired a shadow… Half-shadow? Neither of them were entirely sure if an 87cm shadow counted as a full shadow.
“Why is little Maxy following us?” Nico whispered at some point while the two boys sat on the floor near the living room fireplace.
Seb looked up from his hot chocolate…
“What?”
Nico pointed dramatically behind him. So Seb turned…
There, half-hidden behind a significantly big plant, was Max Verstappen.
Silent…Watching…Blue eyes wide.
The second Max realised he had been spotted, he gasped dramatically and threw himself further behind the plant.
“You know we can still see you… right?” Nico asked.
A tiny voice immediately answered… “Maxie not here”
Seb had to physically stop himself from laughing.
“Max…”
“No Maxie… just plant”
Nico looked delighted. Seb looked everywhere expect the plant…
“So…” Nico said loudly, clearly deciding to become a problem for the 2 years-old kid “if Max isn’t here, then he definitely can’t hear all the secrets we say about him.”
“Nico!” Seb warned immediately.
“What?” Nico grinned “He is a menace? A spying menace”
“No spying!” the `plant´ argued.
“That sounds exactly like something a spy would say” Nico replied.
Tiny, offended silence… Then a simple grasp “…No.”
Leaning closer Nico decided the next course of action so with his voice dropping dramatically he added “You know…” he whispered “Michael says Max is actually evil.”
A horrified gasp came from the plant.
“No!”
“He bites people.”
“I NO BITE!”
“You did bite Ralf.”
“…Uncle Ralf annoying.”
Seb fully laughed this time.
“Max isn’t evil, he is sweet,” Seb defended immediately, though he was also losing the battle against laughter.
Nico looked horrified… “How many times do you meet him?”
“Just in Japan…?”
“Yeah, exactly. This little shit has been following me since he learned how to walk in the paddock. Trust me, he’s a menace. He once tried to make me fall 3 times in 10 minutes by running into my legs.”
And that was the exact moment things got worse.
Because the tiny voice repeated immediately from behind the plant:
“Shit”
Both boys froze. Seb slowly turned toward Nico.
“Nico…”
“What?” Nico whispered aggressively. “He learned it from Michael...”
“Shit” the baby voice said once more.
“What?... What? He doesn’t even know what it means…he just knows that is a bad word and wants to be fuck anno…” Then Nico froze halfway through the word…
Then…Absolute silence.
Then even quieter silence
“Fuck.”
“Maxie…”
“…Fuck, fuck, fuck…” the baby voice sang happily from behind the plant.
“We’re dead,” Nico whispered.
And as a vision, Michael Schumacher voice echoed from somewhere deeper in the house...
“Why is my son swearing?”
The two boys looked at each other in horror.
The plant betrayed them all.