#also! forgot george was in williams in 2021. i feel like he's been with merc for much longer than just three seasons (counting this one)

[jensonsbuttons]

gonna watch turkey 2020 to feel something

[russilton]

Shoutout to you for the way you treat Alex and George’s relationship when you talk about George in context of gewis. So many people in cases like this with less popular ships turn vitriolic towards anyone who they think could pose a threat to their ship and just… don’t. Your approach of they’re besties your honor is great and sparks a ton of joy

Wow, thank you!

I have to say this message surprised me a bit because it’s something I’ve really had to work on, to the point I used to get some very angry anons about the way I generally ignored or forgot about Alex. Basically the opposite of this one hahaha! but I’ve also started to warm more to Alex this year than I did last year, though I still wouldn’t call myself a real fan, it’s nice when he does well.

I have… a complicated relationship with Alex as a driver and person. On one hand, he’s George’s best friend, I couldn’t change that even if I wanted to, and it’s a truly sibling like relationship I suspect George needed given how much older his actual siblings were. They support each other and that’s a thing they both need.

On the other, I’ve been watching since 2020, and Alex WAS a Red Bull driver, and he spent the entire first year of when I was watching the sport, getting into incidents with my favourite driver while being generally being very… accusatory. His role in RB during 2021 didn’t help either, and it just generally left me very mistrustful of the guy, probably unfairly, but with 20 drivers to focus on you don’t tend to get past first impressions unless you really stick about.

When he moved to Williams it was all under the fan fair of Horner crying that Toto didn’t approve of the move because he thought Alex was going to spy for them, and at the time it was hard not to sit there and go “well… are you?” Because post AD Redbull had more than proven they were willing to do anything to win, even if it was George’s influence that got Alex the Williams seat. It now truly delights me to see how that has in fact backfired on Christian as he lost a genuinely talented young driver to another team who will better respect his skill if he’s willing to be patient, though you won’t catch me calling for Alex to Merc…ever, or at least, any time soon.

I also struggled with the way he did talk about George a lot! It’s banter between brothers but it often felt like at the time the only way I saw Alex referring to their relationship was to poke or complain about George- especially showing off his body. Every single post George made showing even a little skin- the comments would be full of people waiting for Alex to show up and say something mean, and slowly the content from George dropped off, a coincidence probably given the ramp up with his duties at Merc, but it was hard not to link those things y’know, especially with my OWN, not Alex’s problem, views on body image.

So yeah, it was a tough grind, NONE of it helped by the prevalence of Galex as a popular ship and the tendency of popular ships to get very… expectant, of you to like them. I had the exact same issue with Sewis, though I will always adore Sebastian, because for a while it really did feel like it was being shoved in my face every which way and I couldn’t escape them, and no one enjoys having to wade through things they don’t like. Lots of posts with a general vibe of “what do you MEAN you like gewis when galex exists and clearly has more evidence” that just didn’t sit right for what I felt or what I was seeing. There was also the fic that will not be named that gave me a slightly… traumatic response to Galex and Sewis in relation to Gewis, and I all but stopped mentioning Alex at all if I could avoid it. Which as mentioned at the start… some anons sure took issue with!

I spose what changed my relationship with Alex was reframing his relationship to George (and by proxy redbull), when then things he started saying became less about George’s body and more about what a pain in the ass best friend he was. That’s a relationship I understand, the best friend who you love beyond all belief, would defend from wolves, would kill for, but if you had to date you’d kill each other in a couple days. A psuedo sibling bond I have with a lot of my own friends, people I would say I love you too knowing I have 0 intention on dating them.

Then it became easier to see all the ship stuff because I could go, cool I get it, but to me that’s his brother, that’s the guy who watches George pine and makes faux gagging noises, but would also go behind George’s back to tell Lewis how George felt if he thought it would make George happy. That’s the guy who George complains to when he’s struggling with balancing his feelings with his job as a teammate, and who hugs him when he’s feeling lost.

I have to credit Niamh for saying it one of her fics- but Alex is George’s Valtteri. The guy who has his back even when they’re fighting, and who’s bond goes a little deeper than skin, different to romance but no less strong.

So yeah, I will still always probably grit my teeth when it comes to getting galex shoved in my face, (no I haven’t forgotten synths poll, so many of you were v annoying to me ((this is a JOKE)), I’ve certainly started to completely detach that from Alex as a driver, and short of a nuclear melt down, I hope that relationship just slowly improves. Not that any of that matters to him of course. But this is the blog where I talk about myself.

Sorry for the ramble! That was useful to get off my chest I think hahah, cheers for the offload, now I can move on from it.