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1233 🥰 the distance between them and others
[Image description: a landscape picture gotten from Getty images, or at least, that’s what the credits tell us. It’s shot in the paddock; a little unclear when and where exactly.
Anyone who doesn’t necessarily know the story behind these three drivers might just see the picture as it is. Max is on the left side, wearing his blue Red Bull cap and windbreaker, his hand gesturing, and a red bull in his right hand. He’s not quite smiling but looks happy enough while talking to Lando, who is on the right side of the picture. He’s in the orange-black McLaren hoodie and cap, a jacket slung over his shoulder, his Monster Energy-sponsored water bottle in his right hand. Lando is fully looking to the side, so he has eye contact with Max. In between the two of them stands Kimi, closer to Max than he is to Lando, wearing a black Mercedes hoodie and holding an empty cup, which might have held either coffee, a shake, or some other drink that might sponsor them.
That’s all anyone who doesn’t really know the lore sees.]
For anyone who does know these three and how they interact, it’s a bit different.
Take, for example, George. George might not know the full story, but he knows each driver well enough to show what the outside world misses when they see pictures like these.
Something else you need to know is that George hasn’t been having a good time so far this season, especially if you want to understand why George and his actions.
Not that this season has been very long. With the war being reason enough to cancel two races and another gap in between two others, there haven’t been a lot of laps completed yet. On paper, there shouldn’t have been enough material for George to decide his season is doomed, at least not yet.
Reality is a little different.
All that time in between races has given many opportunities. Other teams have managed to figure out some of their mistakes, and at least a few of them have started to catch up to Mercedes in terms of development and setup of the car.
Some drivers took the chance to enjoy Coachella with their rumoured girlfriends, while others have been working on their own race craft. One of them is George, who tried to figure out where he’s going wrong so he can finally catch up to and beat his much younger, much less experienced teammate on track.
Kimi has been the source of much of George’s recent headaches, even though he has been trying to keep it under wraps. He doesn’t need a PR team to explain to him that it looks bad when a man his age gets caught talking badly about the teenage teammate he can’t beat.
Still, it’s difficult, having started the season with a win, a silver trophy to follow it up, and then not being able to reach the podium twice when Kimi has managed three back-to-back wins. It’s hard to keep up his own PR image, to keep playing the team game, and not to lash out when people keep making dumb jokes or give unrequested advice.
That means he has started avoiding certain settings, questions, and people.
And, to keep a long story short, that is the reason he ducks into a little alley when he hears Max and Lando talking to each other, their voices echoing off the walls, announcing them. Look, he likes the two champions. But he liked them more when Lando was just George’s friend, and Max was just a driver George could occasionally fight on track.
It’s harder to like them now.
Lando has a championship title, many friends gained and lost, and doesn’t really know how to act because of it all. It drives George crazy at times, because he debates between the urge to tell his old friend to think before he speaks just once, or to give him a number to a certified psychologist to talk about all those insecurities.
Max lost battles but doesn’t seem to lose sleep over it, only love for the sport. And any love the sport has lost is now given to Kimi, who seems to cling to the older driver any time Max isn’t already inclined to take Kimi along with him. It means George can’t ever complain to Max about his situation, not that he really wanted to.
Really.
This should be enough to make you understand that with his mood so dark, he’s not willing to deal with either of them.
So when he peers around the corner and sees Kimi walking with them, silently, he’s even happier with his choice. He makes sure he stays against the wall, not making any sounds. He’s not willing to risk being caught like this, a situation bad enough in itself, but especially not by Kimi.
And he prays luck is on his side, because Kimi always seems to notice the things no one else does. Other than the exact time the right lights go out and announce the start of the race, because that’s one thing George clearly is better at. Not something to be proud of when you lose at every other aspect, but still. He needs to keep his head high.
As he stays hidden, managing to catch half-sentences here and there, he realizes this isn’t exactly a new sight. Especially when it becomes obvious that with every few steps, Kimi moves a little closer to Max, widening the gap between himself and Lando.
Now, there is a lot you can say about Kimi, but he’s not afraid of drivers more experienced than him. This isn’t an act out of self-preservation, or to make himself smaller to not hinder the conversation between Lando and Max.
No, George doesn’t need to partake in this conversation to know that this is Kimi’s subtle way of claiming Max.
It happens more often than the fans think, even though George has seen tweets about pictures and video clips. Really, those don’t even show half of it.
Whenever Kimi finds Max in conversation with others, he never rudely interrupts it or demands attention. No, he’s polite about it, but he always finds ways to insert himself and get close to Max. And inevitably, Max ends up giving him attention. It has been going along now for such a time that Kimi has even become brave about it, pulling Max into a hug when the older didn’t give him one.
Kimi, technically, doesn’t do anything wrong.
Max lets him get away with it, which also protects Kimi because it means others don’t have the right to comment on it, but George knows for a fact that he’s not the only one who’s at least slightly annoyed by it.
Really, he has found Charles cursing more than once about Kimi, even ranting to him about the lack of manners. And Lando might be tolerating it now, but even he has let out a drunken comment or two about it.
It shows here, too, because Lando seems to have noticed the gap by the way George can see him look, but with the way Max keeps talking and gesturing, Lando can hardly say anything about it.
George might be hiding here, but he’s almost feeling sympathetic for Lando.
He actually does feel so when the conversation seems to end, the three are now at the end of the hall, where it goes into two opposite directions. George comes out a little from his hiding spots, now looking at the backs of the three drivers and less afraid to be spotted. He can just hear the goodbyes and sees how Lando waves a little awkwardly before he walks away.
Kimi immediately turns so he can face Max, and George isn’t surprised to see the two of them go on in the same direction.
What does surprise him, though, is the way Kimi looks around and manages to make perfect eye contact with him before disappearing from view.
Fuck.
If any rumors go around that he’s following his teammate for whatever racing or non-racing-related reason at all, he might as well say goodbye to anyone taking him seriously ever again.
George sighs and rests his head against the wall, the cool material a relief for his headache, but doing nothing to remedy the source of it all.
This season is going to be a nightmare, and he’s not sure what’s going to make it harder: having to watch Kimi on the podium while not standing there too, or having to stay silent as Kimi does his weird little mating ritual with Max.