Meeting new friends
“Is this okay?” Oscar asked nervously when he came out of the walk-in the next evening, getting ready to go to Pierre and Kika. He was wearing dark pants and a cream-coloured button up shirt.
“Of course it is, it’s Kika and Pierre, they are friends, it’s not a business dinner. You could wear sweatshirt and dirty jeans and they would welcome you.” Lando calmed him. He was wearing a light blue shirt with dark pants.
“But she’s a model! I can’t look like a bum when I meet them for the first time! I saw all these cute couple videos they do and they always look awesome.” Oscar said.
“They are naturally pretty. Some people have that crazy privilege.” Lando smiled and gave him a quick kiss. “Come on, let’s go.” They grabbed the wine they promised and went on foot, the other’s appartement being only a couple hundred meters away.
In the end, Lando was right. Pierre and Kika welcomed Oscar with a hug and it only took him a couple of minutes to warm up to them. He helped Kika with the dessert in the kitchen and talked a little bit about the life as a racer’s mate, Kika calming his worries about the race weekends and how he would spend his time at them.
“Did you hear anything about the seat at Ferrari?” Pierre asked during dessert.
“No, Carlos says he doesn’t know anything either.” Lando answered him.
“Rumours are saying Seb is coming back.”
“Other rumours are saying Kimi is coming back.”
“What?” Oscar asked, not really getting it.
“Oh, well, you know every racing team has two drivers, at the end of this season, there was one team, Ferrari, who only has one driver announced for next year, Carlos Sainz. Normally the new drivers will be announced in the fall, November at the latest. Now it’s mid-December and they didn’t announce it yet, which is highly unusual.” Pierre explained.
“Or really Ferrari style. Didn’t get enough attention with their driving in the past years, now they need to get attention another way.” Lando said.
“Would be understandable, but they need really good publicity. Standing there and saying you are not announcing it yet doesn’t seem like a good marketing strategy.” Kika intervened.
“So, they already have one, they just don’t want to tell anyone, yet?” Oscar asked.
“That is what they are saying. They also have a new team boss next year, Fred Vasseur, really great guy, one of the shortest alphas you’ll ever see, except Yuki, of course.” Pierre said and Kika laughed.
“That’s the Japanese driver for RB, right?” Oscar asked.
“Yes, how do you know that team name?” Lando asked.
“I told you, I discovered google, so I googled important people on the grid.” Oscar said before taking the last sip of his wine.
“You got a good one there, Lando. You want to top up?” Pierre asked, holding up the wine bottle.
“No thank you, I’ll stay with the water for now.”
“Then Oscar, after googling all the important people, who do you think will get the seat?” Pierre asked.
“Well, Vettel and Räikkönen of course would come with a lot of potential, but Vettel voiced multiple times he won’t come back and Räikkönen had the chance to drive in NASCAR, but declined on short notice because his wife was pregnant. I don’t think he’d come back, especially with 24 races a season. If we go through others that recently left, we won’t mention Mazepin, Mick Schumacher is already tied up as reserve for Mercedes, as are all other reserve drivers from this year. Theo Pourchaire got a contract in WEC after winning Formula 2 this year, Ollie Bearman is contracted in F2 and a reserve driver in Ferrari, they already announced that. Lawson is staying in Super Formula. The rest of Formula 2 stays there or is contracted to other categories. The only ones left are drivers in the US from the Omega series or drivers that have been retired for longer.”
“Who of them would you take?” Pierre asked.
“I don’t know. There is not much published about the Omega series, the general public most likely thinks it’s not that important.”
“Truthfully, I never really searched up on them either.” Lando admitted, Pierre nodding with him.
Down at the marina, Max and Daniel sat at a table, just having finished their main course.
“You look tired as hell.” Daniel blurted out.
“Penelope is teething. I thought the front teeth were hard, but this is something else. I spent a couple of hours at Lando’s the other day, she’s calm as a lamb, no crying, no teething, simply playing on the floor. As soon as we’re home, hell breaks loose.” Max said, burying his face in his hands.
“You know I can babysit, right? I’m not new to it, you know that.”
“I do, I do and thank you, but at the same time I don’t want to leave her alone with it, you know. She is my daughter and I should be there for her for this.”
“Of course, but … no one will judge you if you take a night off, Max.” Daniel said with a little smile.
“I know.” Max said, just when a table not far from them erupted into cheers and clinked their glasses, pushing over the flowers on the table and erupting into laughter.
“Big celebrations?” yelled Daniel at them with a big smile.
“My son is a king!” the lady at the table yelled, apparently having one glass too much.
“I apologize, we just had really good news today.” a young man told them.
“Well then, celebrate all the good things in life, you never know how many you can get!” Max said loudly, lifting his glass towards them.
“Thank you!” a little boy said with a monegasque accent and lifted a glass of juice.
“Are you ok to get home?” he asked the young man after leaving the restaurant, waiting for the valet to bring his car around.
“Yes, we are waiting for the taxi, thank you.” He said with a little smile, showing his dimples.
“Okay, very good. Congratulations your majesty.” Max said with a smile and took the keys from the valet.
“You do know who that was, right Charles?” the little boy asked, jumping up and down.
“Arthur, yes, thank you, I know who Max Verstappen is. He’s going to hate me soon, anyway.”
“He won’t hate you.”
“They will all hate me, Arti. They will not say it to my face, but they will.” Charles said and followed his slightly drunk mother into the car.
“Oh, mon petit Charlie in Formula 1, if your papa could see this.” His mother said dreamily and pulled him into a tight hug.
“You can come inside if you want.” Daniel said when Max stopped in front of his building.
“No, Daniel.” Max said softly.
“We could open a bottle of wine, make ourselves comf-”
“Daniel!” Max said loudly “It’s over, please! I thought we were at a good place now.” Daniel stared at him for a moment before getting out of the car, slamming the door hard. Max looked at him once more, then drove off.
Max drove home quickly, paid the babysitter and got ready for bed. Kelly’s picture was stood on his nightstand, smiling softly. It made him think back to this evening. He had invited Daniel as a friend. What happened between them was years in the past, an adventure in his teenage years. After their managements found out, they had to make a decision, go public or go separate ways. Times were different back then. Daniel had decided. He had blurted out he would leave Redbull and go to Renault before Max was even able to open his mouth. It was weird at first. Still being on the same grid, but different teams and only friendship going on. It took Max a while to not have the urge to hug Daniel every time they saw each other or to cry when he was alone at night. Daniel never seemed to have a problem with that. He was his usual funny self. Daniel had been in France a lot during his years in Renault, unconsciously creating distance between them. He had fallen in love with Kelly and got married. She had known of their relationship. It was only last winter when they really became friends again, when Daniel spent more time in Monaco after moving to McLaren. There was one more time, three months after Kelly’s death. A rushed, rough hook-up in his hallway which he apologized for right after. Daniel had agreed and they never mentioned it again. When he thought about Daniel, he thought of him as a friend, felt for him as a friend. Not as a partner or mate.