#and we’re lestappen

[rhaenella]

Look how happy they are to finally be reunited :’)

[formulanni]

“Ya Know It Could Be Like This, Just Like This, Always."

Taglist: @st-leclerc @rubywingsracing @saviour-of-lord @three-days-time @emmasallowart

Sorry to everyone that follows that doesn’t fuck with ship art LOL

[valyrfia]

we were all so worried over winter break that lestappen would be more distant with each other but before we even get a race we got charles trying to get max's attention in a press conference, max accidentally following then quickly unfollowing a charles stan account on twitter, and an inchident mention. we're so back and i fear they're worse than they've ever been

[reigningmax]

Max’s instagram like on Norman Nato’s post

[reput7tion]

going insane!!

[vastappenen]

the idea that tumblr isn’t where shipping belongs is ABSURD. this is our CULTURE, know your history‼️

[leclercmybeloved]

these journalists really need to choose their words more wisely lol

but also

never beating the allegations

[slythereen]

rbr admin in love with charles, fork found in kitchen

[cupidskissx]

Since the Las Vegas GP Charles has been in the top 4 of every race which is an achievement no other driver can put their name to.

That’s 7 races in a row (8 if you include the Sprint) and 3 of those races he finished in 2nd place.

The start to Charles’ season has been anything but easy, yet despite it all he has put in some incredible recovery drives!

If we want to take this stat further, discounting his DNS (Brazil), DSQ (United States) and DNF (Netherlands) we have to go all the way back to Hungary in July 2023 for Charles to successfully see the chequered flag below 5th. That’s 13 races.

The only other driver to achieve such a feat, also discounting the same factors (DNF), is Max, whose last classification below 5th was Silverstone 2022!

[p6to]

Lestappengate 2024 when?

[aquamarinemoonlit]

WE ARE SO BACK LETS GOOOO

[demisexual-eddie-diaz]

Is it too early to sing “war is over”

[valyrfia]

george russell the first lestappen third wheel victim of 2024

[lestappenwins]

we became a proper country again 🙏🏻

[presdestigatto]

I doubt Charles and Max ever could be friends. Both are too competitive and I feel like Max would stop being too nice to Charles once things doesn’t go his way. I know everyone believes it’s Charles who would hate Max again if they start to fight for Championship again but for me it’s Max, he already showed annoyance toward Charles in those moments.

Hey anon! Thanks for sending something in, but damn, prickly topic. I have some time on my hands now so I’m going to go extra in depth with my thoughts on this

It’s quite difficult to speculate on the future state of their relationship, because we’re dealing with a lot of hypotheticals and we quite literally only know what they decide to show us, publicly. For all we know, they could secretly be besties who text every night. Though, I do agree with you (or what you implied) that they aren’t friends on a personal level right now. Honestly, I think they don’t have much in common beyond racing, if you look at their friends and their passions outside of motorsport. But then again, racing is and has always been a huge part of who they are, it is pretty much the core of who they are right now, and as drivers, Max&Charles are very similar. So outside of racing I don’t think they interact much, but within racing I see their relationship as two people who vibrate on the same wavelength. And that produces, yk, the Maxsplaining and Leclerifying.

As for whether there will be hatred between them if they have a tense title fight, I tend towards not at all, or not to a level that destroys their relationship as friendly colleagues. First, the stakes going into 2024 are simply not equal. If this were Charles and Max fighting for their first title, and only one of them could get it, I would place my bets on a Lestappen downfall. I do agree with you that both of them are crazily competitive, but Max has already won… trice. I’m not saying that this means he doesn’t want to win anymore, but he quite literally doesn’t have much to prove left. He’s just had the most dominant season in the history of the sport, the next step up would be like a complete win whitewash and I’d actually quit watching f1 forever if that happens. I don’t feel that Max is the sort of driver who’s aiming to break records for WDCs held, and I’m basing this off his comments about retirement and being bored at the front this season. From what I’ve seen, Max is a racing nerd. To him, the thrills are just as important as the accolades and that’s significant because he’s already collected a bucketload of accolades. And so I don’t think a 3 time WDC Max would resent Charles for giving him a close title fight. I also feel that from his comments in interviews about acknowledging that “everyone can be stopped”, his ego isn’t as large as some people make it out to be. But I also can’t really think of any recent instances of Max showing irritation towards Charles apart from on the radio in Vegas 23, and the overall race proved that Max does enjoy Charles taking the challenge to him. It’s probably because I don’t follow Max too closely, so feel free to update me haha.

As for whether Max would U-turn on his love-peace-Charles agenda if Charles presented a real title fight to him, ignoring my somewhat shallow Max knowledge, I’d point to Bahrain 2022 as an example that Max isn’t that insecure. It was the first race of the season, the Red Bulls DNFed, Charles won, but they were still all smiles and Max even took the initiative to come up to Charles to chat (on live tv). This ties back to the point above, that the stakes for Max aren’t as high anymore so we see less Mad Max. I’d also add that Max has been very consistent in showing that he sincerely admires Charles’ skill as a driver, I’d go as far as to say that Max respects Charles the most in the current grid. I’m pretty sure you can pick any year from 2018-2023 and Max has done at least one interview in which he praises Charles’ talent. And this brings me to what Max said in 2018 predicting that he and Charles will be “like Hamilton and Vettel, fighting for titles in the future”, which aptly illustrates how Max&Charles are, in my opinion, the most prepared to have a tense title fight without developing personal grudges. People like calling them the reverse Brocedes, I can certainly see it. Circling back to the very first point about them not being friends, they have always been rivals first. They’ve had over a decade of experience going into races and championships and seeing the other as “Max/Charles, who I have to beat”. They’re competitors with a healthy amount of hard-earned respect for each other, and I do believe them when they say that they’ve matured beyond petty rivalries. That is basically the tl;dr of this very long thing.

I don’t see why Charles, who is going into 2024 with the awareness that he’ll have to beat Max to win the WDC, would become resentful of Max in the process. Likewise, I don’t think Max, who has already proven himself, would be mad that his childhood rival who he rates very highly, beat him to a title. I think it’s important that they aren’t friends, as you said, because then there are no expectations or trust to betray and their professional relationship can be maintained.

The only scenarios I see happening where they fall out because of the title fight are if 1) either one of them decides to drive dirty and the FIA turns a blind eye (haha.) 2) they magically regress into their 15 year old selves and Charles shoves Max into the marina in Abu Dhabi in Val D’Argenton 2.0

[cxrnlia]

HELLOOO?? charles posted it himself?? 😭