Spot The Difference

serendipity (noun)

the phenomenon of finding something good you weren't explicitly looking for.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/60246181/chapters/153738448

i wrote this a while back, and finally got around to making a collage! i'd be very happy if some of you would check it out, i'm very proud of it :)

watching lando and oscar actively try to decipher how mad they are at each other while still high on adrenaline is actually hilarious

and i'm so here for it

being an artist with free will means i can spend an hour of my life making extremely stupid shit like this

lando v george is twink v lesbian but in race cars

I think Max has developed a new level of respect for Charles. Now that he finds himself in a situation that Charles has been in many times, namely a crappy car, an inconsistent team that makes mistakes. I think he has even more realized how talented Charles is to have managed to still be at the top, give good results and save his team despite all that.

Anon, given the amount of time Charles has already struggled with this in Ferrari, I don't think Max's respect for him is anything new. Not to mention the fact that Max also spent several years competing in a car that wasn't exactly performing all that well prior to winning his first WDC in 2021. Max made his F1 debut in 2014, after all, and it's not like he's been dominating since that day. Our favorite Dutchman is quite familiar with the struggles of subpar machinery himself prior to this season.

If there is one driver on the grid - and one person in the world in general - who has always been acutely aware of how exceptionally talented Charles is despite the dreadful machinery, and at times team, he's working with, and who has never once doubted Charles' ability as a driver regardless of results, it's Max. Hell, our boy has been praising Charles to the high heavens since his emotional support rival made it into F1, regardless of how Charles' car and team were performing. So I will have to disagree with you here, because that respect has always been there and I don't think it's anything new for Max at all.

What I do think Max has gained with the issues Red Bull has been experiencing this season, however, is a new level of realizing just how unhinged Charles Leclerc actually is. He has watched that man drag several versions of that red tractor to positions it has had no business being, year after year after year, while also dealing with a team who has lived on nothing but historic glory for 15+ years. He has watched Charles be fueled by but nothing but athletic insanity, rage, unparalleled stubbornness and the love of the Tifosi for years while his biggest (and most favorite, don't even try to fight me on this) rival has made F1 history repeatedly.

If anything, the only new thing Max has developed for Charles this season is that weird kind of fear you only feel towards someone who absolutely terrifies you, while still being the single most attractive and appealling person you have ever met.

sometimes i just have to sit and think abt charles, this kid who watched the red car all his life, called ferrari his "magnificent dream," who owes his career to jules whose death also literally saved his life when he was the first person to be saved by the halo (added to the cars bc of jules), who pulled himself up days after his father's death and didn't just win the race that earned him the f2 championship but won it from the back of the grid, who became rookie of the year & the youngest pole award winner (twice), who drove in monaco like he'd rather die in that wall than give up a millisecond and was the first from his country to win it, who got the longest f1 contract ever seen, the sun of maranello, the predestined one, the world champion's twin flame. you hear how the tifosi believe he is the one who will bring glory back to the scuderia and you can't deny their reasoning. he's a storybook. he's the hero. he's come this far for something.

still thinking of how charles cant do anything without dropping the world’s weight in whimsy and absolute cinema on the table like brother wins on pre-historic tyres and his engineer goes like you make me dream and he goes like the highs are so beautiful and of course it’s in the motorsport equivalent of a temple and its his cult ass teams home race and of fucking course he’s seen as like a crossover between holy mary mother of god and daenerys targaryen and everything just feels like you’re being seduced into a religion. also he has blowjob doe eyes and a dog he believes to be his biological child

Oh my-

hey btw charles refusing to drive the car until someone looked at it today was fantastic. i don't want to hear for a second that he was being whiney. 1) he was right and this allowed the problem to be solved but 2) THAT'S a driver who is taking control. people always ask why charles doesn't stand up to his team when given a shit strategy. this time he insisted on what he needed. 3) bryan's new to him and charles is setting a precedent to create a different relationship than he had with xavi. he wants his questions answered and he wants his opinion heard! and he made it heard! i was so proud of him today. and impressed with his ability to feel the issue that his engineers weren't seeing. any results he has this weekend will be derived from this moment.