Chapter Text
Kimi would describe himself as someone who made friends easily. He got along with most of the grid (well, with the ones who he'd had the opportunity to get to know better), but even then, he had 1 best friend. One of the most important people of his life, who he constantly thought about and who he texted every day, even if they were going to see each other anyway, because he wanted to know if he'd slept well, if he'd had breakfast yet, how he was feeling, or maybe just send a few memes. That best friend was called Ollie Bearman.
Even though Ollie always mocked Kimi for being shorter than him, Kimi couldn't imagine his life without him at this point.
They had been teammates in Formula 2 at Prema, something that Kimi had enjoyed a lot, and now they were both in Formula 1, different teams, but they had both made it, they had accomplished their dreams.
Kimi woke up in the morning, thanks to his annoying alarm going off as always. He stretched out in the hotel bed and stood up to get ready.
"Free practice 1 today," he thought, "oh, and Ollie must have texted me."
Kimi quickly checked his phone. He smiled when he discovered he was right, Ollie had texted him about 5 minutes ago.
ollie:
morning shortie
fp1 today
i'm tired af
:kimi
"shortie"? fuck you
don't even get me started on how tired i am
i don't wanna get uuuuupppppp
well i have to do it anyway so let's go
see u in the paddock
ollie:
see u :P
Ollie always replied to Kimi's messages quickly, something Kimi had always admired (mainly because he wasn't really a fast replier himself. He'd see the notification and make a mental note to answer to the message, then forget to do it. Of course, Ollie knew this, so he spammed Kimi with messages until he replied if he was online and wouldn't reply. Kimi found it funny, annoying as fuck, but funny at last. He couldn't be mad at Ollie even if he tried.
Kimi got changed into work clothes. Even though he'd be in the race suit anyway, he still had to put Mercedes clothes on because Toto said so. It didn't bother Kimi though, the Mercedes merch was comfortable, especially the hoodies.
Kimi finished getting ready and then went downstairs, finally in direction to the paddock.
As Kimi arrived at the paddock, he went to the Mercedes hospitality and greeted everyone: Toto, George, Bono, Lewis (why was Lewis there? who knows. all everyone knew was he still considered Mercedes his family and so he went to say hi occasionally)
"Hi, Kimi," the Brit said, "how are you doing?"
Kimi smiled as he shook Lewis's hand, "I'm great, you?" He asked.
"I'm great too, just wanted to come by and say hi to everyone," Lewis smiled back, "Nico said I have to do it every few races and to give his greetings to everyone too when I do. Oh, yeah, Nico says hi to you too I guess," he said.
Kimi chuckled, "So you're here to do what Nico told you to do."
"Basically, yes," Lewis said, "I do not recommend you dealing with a Nico who didn't get his way," he laughed. "Now that we're married I just gotta do what he says."
"Yeah, that's right," Kimi laughed.
They both continued talking for a bit before they bid their goodbyes and went their separate ways (Kimi to Toto, Lewis to the Ferrari hospitality).
"Okay, Kimi, we haven't done any major changes to the car so it should all feel the same. Just do what you do best, drive," Toto said.
Kimi nodded in understanding, "Yeah, yeah," he agreed.
"You're doing great for your first year, Kimi, continue to do so," Toto added.
"Yeah, thanks," Kimi said.
He was getting a bit tired of the "you're doing great, continue to do so." Especially since it was something Toto always told him. It was stressing him a little, because it seemed like everyone was expecting him to continue to perform how he was performing, and what if he couldn't do it? What if he failed to reach the heights they wanted him to reach? What if he wasn't enough? He had replaced Lewis Hamilton in Mercedes. THE Lewis Hamilton, seven time world champion, huge fanbase that supported him in every step he took, always had people cheering for him when he won. How was he supposed to be at that level? How was he supposed to please everyone when he had stepped into a completely new sport with much more competition and strong opponents, obviously he had driven in F2 and everything, but F1 was different. Much different. He had been adjusting well until now, very well, actually, but he still had that fear deep inside him.
Kimi went to his driver's room to do some things and then went out to put his race suit on. Free Practice was going to start in about an hour and he wanted to be ready, so he started to go in direction to his garage.
He happened to meet Ollie on the way, so they started walking together.
"How've you been doing today, Kimi?" The taller boy asked.
Kimi shrugged, "Good, I guess. Toto told me 'you're doing great, continue to do so' again, but other than that it's been great. I talked to Lewis for a bit, we laughed and all that."
Ollie nodded, "Look, don't pay much attention to what Toto says, he doesn't mean to stress you out. He's probably just trying to tell you that you're doing great."
"I get that," Kimi said, "it's probably my fault that I'm letting it stress me out so much. But I'll be okay."
Ollie looked concerned for a second before he returned to his usual neutral expression. "Listen, Kimi, it's okay, it'll all be okay. I believe you when you say you'll be okay, but if you're not, you call me. I don't care if I have to take a taxi to your hotel in the middle of the night, I'll do it."
Kimi was shocked for a second, but then he nodded and smiled. "Thanks, mate," he said, "you're great."
Ollie smiled back, "Of course, you're my best friend."
Kimi wanted to say something else to continue the conversation, but he noticed they had arrived to Ollie's garage.
"Well, see you later, I guess," Kimi said.
"Yeah, later," Ollie smiled and went in his garage.
Kimi continued walking towards his own garage, thinking about the conversation they'd just had. It was nice that Ollie would be willing to comfort him if he was too stressed and it had also helped that Ollie had reminded him Toto wasn't trying to put much pressure on him.
He arrived at his garage and chatted with different mechanics about the car, they too told him that no major changes had been done and that it should feel basically the same as last week.
"You're incredible, Kimi, you're going to accomplish great things someday," a mechanic told him with a smile.
Kimi smiled back, "Thanks, mate, it makes me happy that you think so."
The Free Practice session went on well, it ended with Oscar P1, Max P2, Lando P3.
Kimi ended in P7, which was great, and Ollie ended in P11, which was good too.
Everyone went back to their hotels for the night, the next day would be FP2.
Kimi arrived at his hotel room the night after FP2, it had gone… decent. He had finished P10, Ollie P14. Good thing was, Kimi wasn't stressing much over that, he was okay with his result. He then decided to text Ollie to see how he was doing.
:kimi
hey mate
wyd
i'm bored
ollie:
i'm just scrolling on tiktok
bored too
i could go to sleep probably
:kimi
?SLEEP
IT'S 9PM MATE
THAT WAS MY BEDTIME WHEN I WAS 8
ollie:
LMAO
i'm joking i'm not going to sleep right now
i just don't know what to do
:kimi
?call
ollie:
alright
kimi started a call that lasted 2 hours