#inchgetsweird

[inchidentally]

obv there was a lot that was just adorable about the latest McLaren reel - but I'm horrible and well

I found plenty of domscar :)

Oscar's hands may be small but Lando's waist is teeny tiny for a reason !

Oscar watching Lando's face during the first drop and making Lando so flustered he misses it (we've seen Lando with the lights game no way are his reflexes this bad)

no fr the blushy little smile Lando is struggling to hold in during that

the fact that they switched to the easier method of having Lando's hands either side of Oscar's rather than on top bc Lando was too rattled by the camera to catch it otherwise ;__; and then "that's enough" when his honor was finally restored alsgsaljgflsafg

Lando overJOYED at Oscar fumbling his very first catch oh my god he felt so vindicated and Oscar just laughing at himself

Oscar finally nailing his catch followed by staring at Lando's face while PUSHING the ball into Lando's fingers rather than just turning his hand over and giving it to him like a normal person ??? Lando going 'uh huh' all approvingly ??? the fangers ??

Oscar actually struggling more with the side by side so conveniently decides to return to barebacking their hands

oh Oscar absolutely bodying that last catch, Lando licking his lips while Oscar murmurs 'smooth' at him and then cockily chucking the ball at the camera holy FUCK somebody check Lando's basement for flood insurance

the fingers in this !! the fangers !!

[inchidentally]

the way Lando can bask in his own win right next to Oscar, who had a very different end to his own race, not because Lando is arrogant and careless (he isn't) but because Oscar will always bask in Lando's happiness with just as much joy

[inchidentally]

truly we've seen Oscar laugh so hard at other boys and at himself but never with that full body weakness and head thrown back that he does when is Lando doing anything slightly at all that is cute or funny or silly

we've seen Lando giggle and enjoy getting attention from people but never with that little smug smirk and lifted chin all proud bc he doesn't even need to look to know Oscar is watching and smiling and giving him all his attention

having Lando's beautiful chaos around makes Oscar's famous self-composure crumble into unrestrained joy and having Oscar's attention and quiet constant presence around makes Lando's famously hectic brain turn confident and calm

Oscar will always know what Lando needs and Lando will always get Oscar out of his shell

[inchidentally]

inch, i need your interpretation of lando saying what you see is what you get with oscar!!!

no fr it's so in line with his 'same Osc, just another year' and acting like he's been with Oscar for "years" bc inside Lando's head, the fixation he has with trying to figure Oscar out has gone through about a hundred permutations and it baffles him that one of Oscar's most consistent qualities is literally his constancy

and like, this has been the little conflict that's been happening inside Lando's head since they met tbh ??

it's oscillated from hmmmm Oscar is so tall and polite but ugh I dw to be the older teammate I want to be baby -> Oscar knows a lot about me and watches me a lot he's very tall with pretty hair and actually kinda funny -> Oscar is so quiet why does he like me so much but he won't take the lead like Carlos and Daniel did -> Oscar is so talented and fast and he won a sprint race ugh but he doesn't brag and he's so nice and respectful -> Oscar finds everything I say interesting and all my jokes are funny to him and his hair looks so cool but he doesn't post me enough on his sm ugh -> Oscar is such a great solid guy honestly and he's even taller and bigger now -> why does Oscar look at me so much but he won't pretend to be gay for fun (I like it) like Carlos and Daniel do -> why isn't Oscar even pretending to be mad that I hung out with Daniel and not him >:( why isn't Oscar ever jealous when I talk about Carlos or Daniel uggh -> remembered today how I invited Oscar to golf once and he turned it down yes I'm still mad -> dear reader it's 2024 and Oscar is still kind and respectful and still looks at me a lot and tries to be in my space even if it means waiting next to Carlos but he still won't make a move to hang out more -> oh I see Oscar will play padel with Alex and Logan but not me unless it's a stupid group thing yea miss me w that -> dear reader is Oscar just a rly sweet good guy and therefore respects my space and leaves me to initiate things so that I feel comfortable I hate thisssss

[inchidentally]

I feel like ship-wise about each other the dynamics are

Oscar watches // Lando stares

Oscar Moon // Lando Sun

Oscar sees // Lando feels

Oscar knows // Lando hopes

Oscar keeps // Lando holds

Oscar dares // Lando risks

Oscar suffers // Lando aches

Oscar cares // Lando heals

Oscar burns // Lando drowns

[inchidentally]

literally every single landoscar challenge even when they get excitable it’s just high pitched squeaking but otherwise they’re so incapable of getting aggressive or roughhousing each other the way they do with other Men and godddd their dynamic together is so gentle and quiet and silent communication how sinister and alluring must it feel for The Men watching them thinking what are they??

like Lando with Daniel and Carlos would’ve been body checked or scream laughing and Oscar w the Prema boys would’ve been roasting them alive for everything imaginable but then Lando and Oscar get together and it’s looking at each other and mind melding and Lando fussing at Oscar and Oscar caving immediately to him “why’d you go with Monday” “I should’ve said Wednesday” whattttt

[inchidentally]

please tell me your parasocial theory about the lando effect on his teammates i'll shrivel up like a raisin without it actually

god. I'm gonna try and keep this coherent and not TOO weird. obv this is completely without knowing any of these people personally and it's just me theorizing for fun without any actual private knowledge etc etc !

(I've had to edit the hell out of this bc I don't want to like outright offend anyone since this isn't meant to be super serious at all but I'm mortified at how long it is anyway lol)

so we all know that Lando has always had the whole main character fairytale prince/princess quality that started from taking so incredibly long to finally grow up right up to his version of grown up vacillating between devastating fuckboy to coquette fetish sweetheart. and we all know that Lando is fully aware of how he looks and how he's perceived bc of visible social media presence and interactions and also just being around mirrors. he's stunning and charismatic because he makes no effort to be and there is an aura of destiny and magic around him with whatever he does. but he's always seemed like someone who needs to know what exactly he means to his close friends, mainly guys. in a way that's almost like 'yeah you have a girlfriend but does she accept that I'm ✧Me✧ and not just a Normal Blokey Friend?' or 'will your friends accept that I'm ✧Me✧ or will I have to put up a front?'

the reason Lando's so magnetic to people is because he's a ✧Me✧ but also because he's a ✧Me✧ while being a guy which guys aren't usually secure enough to be ✧Me✧. a lot of guys dress up or play up acting like one but Lando's authentically a ✧Me✧ and not to be classed with guys who are Normal Bloke or Normal Friend. they are very very rare.

to expand on this further and because I have insomnia let's take a walk through our perceptions and occasional facts of fandom observation over the years...

I feel like somewhere in the process of his first few years of F1 Lando went from awkward paddock baby who was probably a fall risk to realizing how incredibly adorable he still was even as a pro racing driver. he was literally everybody's baby (and honestly still kinda is). he was thrown into F1 so young it's not surprising.

I am a diehard carlando fan here so please understand that I'm switching to speaking in real life and not fandom terms (and I prefer fandom terms lol) real life Carlos is 100% hetero to me. my family and friend group are sort of UN levels of diverse and what seems like fruityness in non-American or sometimes non-British men is completely standard for straight dudes outside those countries. straight euro guys in particular flirt and get physical with their bros one way and then have an entirely different type of flirting and physicality with women they're attracted to. I don't think this is the case with Carlos at all but a LOT of these euro dudes can even compartmentalize so well that they're actually homophobic while fully kissing and cuddling with their friends. like I say Carlos doesn't seem at all homophobic but there have definitely been tiny, subtle moments with other drivers or during social media challenges where he's been like 'okay that's far enough for me'. which imo is him drawing boundaries and is totally fair.

AND YET WITH LANDO? Carlos has had a verrrrry hard time classifying Lando up until recently I think. for a while after signing to McLaren it was clear he viewed himself as protector and big brother/uncle to a very skittish and weird child/toddler/pet. then when Lando started to build his F1 personality around Carlos and was able to do some give and take with him, Carlos started to see Lando as a fun little satellite buddy and we got some of their silliest most adorable moments (the squawk laughing and the horseplay etc). but Carlos very much still viewed himself as the superior and Lando was just happy to have someone patient and considerate of him rather than a serious competitor.

to me Carlos and everyone else in F1 shifted how he saw Lando around the time of Daniel showing up on the scene (and Carlos' shock at how upset Lando was when he went to Ferrari). Lando got a LOT more confidence on and off the track from here on and he absolutely saw Daniel as a competitor and gave as good as he got off track too (in a fun way). he was never a satellite of Daniel's like he was with Carlos. he also physically started to grow and appreciate his own beauty and sexuality (not as in his identity but his effect on others sexually). he started dressing more consciously and mixing flirting with cuteness to win people over and play the media. youtuber/streamer Lando began to merge with F1 paddock darling Lando into something new between having Carlos and Daniel as teammates.

I can just tell you right now that a dude like Carlos would have ABsolutely no idea how to classify what Lando was becoming at that point in terms of their friendship. Lando was too pretty and still too small to be considered a Dude and apart from on the race track Lando doesn't have the natural douche-ness of Dudes. but Lando also had an active sex life and women were already crazy for him so he wasn't a child anymore either. since F1 drivers literally for bodily safety reasons can only identify as straight Carlos couldn't even class Lando as a rainbow guy.

personally I think that's when Carlos elevated Lando to Hot Bitch/Great Dude status. Lando can still take roughhousing and stupid jokes but he's also got this intense genderfluid glow that poor straight man brain have a tough time with. so Lando's this still confusing hybrid but one that Carlos accepts and loves.

in such a short time Lando went from notice me senpai over Carlos as a teenager on twitter to showing off how they exclusively hang out outside race weekends and he can breeze into the Ferrari garage like he owns the place. one teammate down :)

obv this whole time Lando has had Max F in his life and I think they've known for a long time that they're the sort of best friends who are also common law married. their gfs have always seemed really good natured about it. (**this will be relevant when Oscar comes up later) before Carlos, Max was very clearly the stronger public personality Lando had latched onto as a kid and stayed that way until about 2020/2021. since then I feel like Max is watching Lando in a kind of proud wiping away a tear and claiming that it's raining way. he was down before he probably knew it :)

honestly I'm not a big fan of Daniel Ricciardo for specific reasons and I've chosen to just edit out what I'd written about him and Lando since I truly don't want to piss anyone off over this pointless post lol. it's enough to say that for all Daniel's cockiness making gay jokes etc I get a lot of joy from the fact that Lando has ended up combining Lewis Hamilton-gender norms are for losers attitude with his own genuine rising stature as a future WDC and basically blew Daniel out of the water in every way. they're absolutely still good buddies but damn, Hot Bitch Lando had Daniel stuttering and staring with how little effort it took for Lando to outshine him, on and off the track. Daniel is usually the one in charge of his F1 relationships but Lando got him fucked. up. and begging.

another teammate down :)

do I even need to go into detail about Oscar . we know so incredibly little about Oscar's real personality yet we fully know that he's been replying to Lando's tweets and watching Lando's content since boarding school in the UK. you can take a tour of just the McLaren youtube content from the 2023 unboxing onward and watch Oscar go from dazed and stumbling over himself to not look a tool in front of Lando to Prema-era humor Oscar being able to banter with Lando.

here's what's different with the Lando/Oscar friendship tho. Oscar came in weirdly grown up for his age bc he'd left home so young and went from boarding school to being set up in his own flat by Mahk Wibbah. he already had a long term girlfriend and after waiting a year for his driver's seat he'd made the extremely ballsy move to publicly decide his own fate in F1. Lando was probably expecting to have a typical rookie on his hands but instead he got someone who's already more emotionally mature and responsible than Lando's other two teammates combined. then Oscar is so incredibly talented that he's pushed Lando to such a massive new level that P3 and P2 and (currently) 4th in the WDC are already losing a bit of their shine. Lando wants the whole thing and in a way he never has up til now. Oscar is a not insignificant part of that.

Lando suddenly has an equal! their age difference is negligible and their competitive level is the same. the fact that Oscar's racing mentality is so vastly different to Lando's is perfect because there'll never be a Lewis/Nico situation. Lando needs to stay within his own head to a certain degree for race weekends and Oscar looks forward to his next opportunity as soon as he's done with one. Oscar even has a much more laid back Max F style sense of humor which means Lando doesn't have to play up and perform as much as he used to for social media shit.

then there was the awful start to the season followed by Lando definitely being shook up by how hot Oscar came in as a rookie. AND YET Oscar has always gone out of his way to celebrate Lando's successes literally no matter how his own performance went. he's never once opted to peace out until needed for media or pictures (or straight up left) after a DNF or finishing poorly. there's this moment from the Dutch GP that breaks my idiot fandom brain bc Lando had just qualified second and Oscar (Q8) is shaking his hand and congratulating him and. idk it feels like one of those 'oh!' moments where Lando realizes Oscar is rooting for him even when they're competing and it's not a one-off nice gesture or bare minimum effort

(which honestly that bare minimum is totally fair in racing and I don't judge drivers who need to lick their wounds, it can take a lot to come out of that adrenaline mindset and be happy for your teammate who is also your competitor).

and that's the thing, Oscar came in already won over by Lando. he simply expects them both to do their jobs well and whatever Lando has to offer outside that is cool with him because Lando is ✧Lando✧. if Lando wants to bring him more into his non-F1 life at some point that would probably be great but Oscar's also got his own stable non-F1 life so it's fine either way! if Lando has other commitments and Oscar needs to step up more with the team then that's fine! I know I've been superlative with this post but like, Lando never needed/needs to do anything at all for Oscar to like him and accept him and root for him. Oscar clearly doesn't feel the need to prove anything to Lando or force the relationship. everyone else is dazzled by Lando or watched him/helped him grow up but Oscar just really Finds Lando Neat and Wants to Be Around Him. he seems to like being bossed around by Lando but he also likes when Lando is being really cool and when Lando is quiet and moody he just waits until Lando wants to be around people again. he's like a cat that proves their devotion to you by remaining in proximity rather than meowing or shoving their face in yours.

so like, part of me feels like Lando saw his new teammate having this whole life(**girlfriend?? but does she accept me as ✧Me✧?) already before even meeting Lando and had no idea how they'd develop a relationship. both Carlos and Daniel had (and still have) very bachelor style lives where a relationship with the current teammate is top priority and everyone else in their life has to deal. work comes first, then work friends, then everything else until the babies are made.

but then Oscar just shows up all content with his grown up life and smiles at Lando all the time and doesn't take anything for granted and respects Lando's space within F1 and McLaren and never complains even about doing things he doesn't like and Lando's like oh! I've already got this one down for the count and I didn't even do anything! nice :)

anyway thank you for asking and I hope this was remotely worth reading aakfgsjgfjgafagla