Chapter Text
It had been a few years since George's retirement now. The end of 2026 was when he had come out with an unsigned contract, the other teams not being that quick to offer him a seat.
That's when he knew that his F1 season was finally over for him, he rarely moved to watch the races after his retirement for a good few years, falling out of contact with a lot of people on the grid.
Of course, he didn't lose contact with his closest friends, Alex and Lando — plus he still kept in contact with Charles and Lewis. And, well, of course he was still in contact with Max. He lived with the man after all.
Since retirement, George had become a model. It wasn't surprising, he was a very good looking man. And, it hadn't taken long for his career to start doing well in that world. In the span of two years, he had become a world famous model — but, that was obviously helped by the fact that he had previously been a rather famous F1 driver.
Deciding that it had been long enough since he had visited the paddock, he made the choice to arrive as Max's partner. They had been out to the public for a year now, not that it had come as a surprise to any of the other drivers — they had definitely kissed in dark corners of many paddocks quite a few times.
"You ready to go princess?" Max was leant in the bathroom doorway, watching his fiancé do his skin care. They were planning on announcing the proposal this weekend — hoping that people would begin speculating from any media photos that showed the beautiful ring on George's finger.
"Ten more minutes?"
"Sure, I don't care about being late as long as you're ready." George simply smiled softly at the other man, almost finished with his skincare.
"I'm almost done, just need to figure out what shirt I am going to wear." He was currently just in a pair of, rather small, shorts. He wasn't sure if he should wear his white button up shirt, as it was supposed to be hot, or steal one of Max's RedBull shirts.
"Personally, I think you should wear one of my shirts. Show everyone who you belong to."
"Well, I think the ring shows that quite clearly." He moves closer to max, wrapping his arms around the man's neck, whilst Max's arms came to George's waist.
"Yeah, but we could make it more obvious."
"You're acting like we're not out to the world."
Max kissed along George's jaw softly, then began littering kisses all over the taller man's face — kissing his cheeks, nose, forehead, before ending with his lips. George swatted him away, he was messing up his carefully planned skincare and makeup after all. They did not need to wait another hour for George to get ready, although max would gladly do so. He would do anything for the younger man.
"Fine. I'll wear your stupid RedBull shirt, but I want to wear one of you caps too."
"You won't here any disagreement there from me Schat, the more clothes the happier it makes me." He grins, pulling away from George to go and grab the items for him.
George was careful pulling the shirt on, he probably should have sorted out his makeup last, but it was too late to ponder on that now. Pulling the cap onto his head, he made his way to the front door, pulling on a nice pair of trainers and waiting for max, car keys in hand.
"You were quick." Max slipped his own shoes on, picking up his bag from the floor and throwing it over his back. Then, he leant forward and opened the front door, holding it for George like the gentle man he is.
"Thank you." George kissed Max on the cheek, making his way out of the flat — and down the stairs to the garage. He got straight into the car, waiting for his partner to arrive. Soon enough, max slipped into the passenger seat.
"You nervous at all for today?"
"I mean .. I haven't attended a single race in like two years or something.."
"A lot of the drivers will probably come speak to you, and the media will obviously be tracking you down."
"As long as I don't have to see Toto, then it'll be fine."
"I'll make sure he stays away if he knows what's good for him." George smiled softly in response, he could never get over just how protective max could be toward him — it was very hot.
The car fell into comfortable silence, the two of them not needing conversation to feel at ease with one another. Tapping his fingers against the wheel, George gnawed on his bottom lip.
Slowly, Max’s hand moved to land on his partner’s thigh, rubbing his thumb up and down in order to comfort George. He knew that even though George had raced with these same people on the grid for several years; knew almost all the drivers at a personal level.
But, it was still a stressful experience. He hadn’t seen most of them in person since his retirement. The only ones he had seen recently, were Alex, (and obviously Lily, but he sees a lot more of her now that he’s a model, they often go out with brunch — he does that with a lot of the driver’s girlfriends, and his ex-girlfriend, turned close friend Carmen) Oscar and Lando when they came over for dinner a few weeks back.
Charles was supposed to be there with Lewis, but they couldn’t make it.
“I don’t think they will care that much that you’re there, there might be a bit of shock at first, as it has been a few years since you’ve even been near anything related to the sport. Other than me of course, but they won’t think it’s weird or anything Schat.”
“Well, I know. I’m more anticipating what stupid crap the media is going to spread about me, like I am back to play mind games with Kimi or some stupid shit.”
“The kid asks about you a lot.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
George just turned his attention to the road, not sure how to respond to that. It’s not like him and Kimi didn’t get along, they had been close friends and race partners for two whole years. But, Toto placed his focus on the younger driver, and ignored George. Plus, the media made it out like George was trying to mess with Kimi during the fight for the championship.
Soon enough, they were in the car park. George was hesitant to get out of the car, he hadn’t realised how nervous he would feel when he had actually gotten there. Luckily, Max was fine to wait for him. He was always so patient with him.
“We can wait for as long as you need.”
————————————————————————
George finally, after five minutes, got out of the car, Max coming around to his side, an arm slipping around his waist. A soft smile presenting itself on George’s face.
The couple made their way through the entrance, Max scanning his driver pass; George his guest pass. Almost instantly, they were surrounded by people — camera’s flashing, and fans asking for both of their signatures.
George was a little surprised, yes he was now a big model, but he still didn’t expect to get asked for signatures whilst at the F1. He hadn’t experienced this in a long while, it was nice.
“You better be ready for a lot of questions to be sent your way.”
“I know. It’s going to be a long day..”
The two of them made their way to the RedBull area, going inside — where it was much cooler, George was very grateful to be out of the heat. Though, Max is meant to go and film instagram reels, whilst George will just have to loiter.
“I might go visit Lando or Alex while you film your videos.”
“Okay, I’ll text you when I’m done, yeah?”
“Sounds good.” George pecked max on the lips softly, before heading back outside and making his way towards the McLaren area. It was closer, so he might as well go see Lando and Oscar first.
Pushing the door open, he was met with the two McLaren drivers sat on one of the sofa’s. The sound of the door opening alerted the pair, both of them looking up to see who had entered.
“George! You didn’t say you were coming today?” Lando jumped up from where he was sat, pulling his friend into a hug, a small grin on his face. Even though it hadn’t been long so be there last seen each other, it was still unexpected to see the other man at an F1 race.
“I assume you’re here all weekend?” Oscar piped up, slowly walking up behind the pair, also giving George a hug once Lando was done.
“Yeah, gotta vouch for my fiancé, don’t I?”
“Wait, what?” Lando looked shocked. Oh yeah, George hadn’t even told his closest friends yet. Alex would be so annoyed that he wasn’t the first to know, it’s his own fault he’s in Williams which is like half way across the paddock.
“Yeah… max and I are engaged.” His cheeks flushed slightly as he put his hand out to show the duo his large ring.
“Am I this first to know or have you already told Alex?”
“I was planning on telling Alex first.. but..”
“Yes!! Finally, I’m the first to know something.” The shot eating grin on the other man’s face made George realise that Lando was going to hold this over Alex for a long time.
“Congrats George.” Oscar smiled softly, observing the ring on George’s finger — it was such a beautiful ring too.
“Thank you.”
The three of them spoke about it for a long period of time, among other things too — it was nice to catch up with them. Even if they spoke a lot, they still didn’t see each other frequently in person.
A lot of time must have passed, as max came into the room. He must have finished his media duties a few minutes ago; had probably messaged him. Yet, George was so focused on his chat, that he hadn’t even bothered to check his phone.
“You’ve been here the whole time then baby?” Max stood behind George’s chair, his hand on the younger’s shoulder, placing a soft kiss against the top of his head.
“Congrats mate, both of you.”
“Still can’t believe I found out before Alex.”
Max just smiled, nodding in thanks. The two of them would probably leave soon enough, George still had to go visit Alex after all, and he wanted to go before the morning got too busy. Max would also probably have to go film more content when it got closer to the afternoon.
—————————————————————————
The Williams area was bustling by the time they got there, the two drivers obviously filming content upstairs — which meant the two of them would have to loiter around and wait.
“Would you like anything to eat?”
“Hm? No thank you, I’m okay.” George leant against Max, the older man wrapping his arm around the taller’s waist. Standing there, they watched as Williams workers were making their way around, sorting stuff out for the rest of the weekend.
Eventually, Alex and Carlos came back downstairs, Alex’s mood almost instantly brightened even further when he saw his best friend.
“Georgie! What are you doing here??” Alex pulled the man into a tight hug, leaving Max stood by himself.
“I’m watching the race this weekend.” George hugged him back, grinning widely at the other man. They remained hugging each other for a few moments longer, glad to be able to see each other in person again.
“Oh, I have something I need to show you..” stepping back, George held his hand out, showing the ring on his finger in plain sight — others in the area casting their eyes over too.
“Oh. My. God!? George William Russell!! You’re engaged!?” George nodded, just laughing at his best friends reaction.
He was glad he had been able to tell his two close friends before they had found out through the media; he couldn’t wait to spend the rest of the day with Alex either. They had a bit to catch up on, especially with the engagement — Alex would definitely be heavily curious towards how the engagement went, when it happened, and when they were planning to actually get married.
George was willing to answer all his questions, he loved to talk about max after all. Carlos spoke up, he had been speaking to max whilst the two friends yapped away.
“Congrats George, I’m not surprised the two of you are engaged, not with the way Max always seems to speak about you.”
Cheeks flushing, George smiled softly. He wasn’t too surprised by the fact that max spoke of him, but it was still a little unexpected that he seemed to do it so frequently.