“rpf is fine” – tom hanks

“This has been probably the first season I can remember for 10 plus years that I have struggled a bit with performance at a couple of races, and that’s difficult to keep the confidence sometimes”. Russell said the last race, in Barcelona, was “probably the most important weekend of my year.”

“It was maybe a race where it was the least amount of confidence I’ve had going into practice. And I was quickest every single lap of the weekend on Friday and Saturday. That made me very proud knowing I can switch it on, and I need to just find that click. I just need to get everything in that right window. And I know my driving will take me to where it needs to go”

“And that was a really great reminder. I hadn’t just forgotten how to drive in a tough Monaco and a tough Miami. But sometimes you feel like you have. And then you come back and you’re like, ‘No, I’ve not forgotten how to drive.’”

A sheep in the role of Cordelia in “King Lear With Sheep.”Credit” Nick Morris.

it’s actually so interesting when he abstractly refers to what he definitely can’t actually say, which is that red bull was his favorite team as a kid. like. huh. was that the truest dream? how different did it look in his head to want that compared to what he is now, setting aside what he didn’t know? him working so hard to shape himself into mr mercedes. who did you think you were, before you knew what any of it meant?

young george who clearly had a favourite, seeing alex get picked up as a red bull junior and then seeing how harshly he was dropped. what’s the timeline on that. is george in the toto ecosystem yet when that happens. dear god. anyway I vote seb as the truest george inspiration (golden haired, causing problems, uncomfortable rage) though I do wonder if the current george persona isn’t a little webber pilled in a way that will make me crazy if I map it onto mercedes now, the looming professional buzzkill and the trickster child.

i’m like the meme of the girl who thinks taylor swift is coming out for one more song. this narrative isn’t doomed. rbr act of god can still happen

hello my love sorry i didn't reply to this last night! you have truly started a movement of rbr!george and i hope you're very proud <3

"was red bull the truest dream" i mean!!! he wore the jacket!!!! he was a seb fan!!! shoutout this insight on that last ask from @oceanscaped

i really love how in that video mercedes posted george DOES have to avoid saying that rbr was his fave team... like obviously he can't for contractual purposes and just appearances too but like. we see you georgie. and i think seb was perfectly poised to be the kind of driver he looked up to! young, a little arrogant, bullish, hideously successful! the mark / george parallels now are interesting but yeah. little seb fan through and through was georgie i bet.

bc then we come to the alex of it all!!! shoutout insight from @fishandshesmygills that you also mention

i've looked it up and alex was signed to the red bull junior team in 2008 - meaning he was already part of them when little george wore that jacket to silverstone in 2009! was maybe that signing even the impetus for george becoming more of a red bull fan?? bc his friend who he admires so much and wants to emulate is following a certain career trajectory and george wants that too...!

then yeah, alex was dropped in 2012. now george wasn't signed to the merc driver academy until 2016 but one could imagine that between those years just as red bull dominance passed into mercedes dominance that his love for red bull transitioned into devotion to mercedes. and how that might have changed not just his vision for his racing career but also himself as a person - at least how he presents himself. bc for a kid who admired seb so much, he certainly is nothing like him in front of the cameras (at least the rbr menace seb). you've really hit the nail on the head: "how different did it look in his head to want that compared to what he is now, setting aside what he didn’t know? him working so hard to shape himself into mr mercedes. who did you think you were, before you knew what any of it meant?" LIKE!!!

"Absolutely not," Lando says when George walks out of the bedroom in a frilly top, an a-line blue miniskirt and grey compression shorts long enough that they stick out well past the hem. Alex, who has seen George leave the house in worse than this, keeps her mouth closed and stretches on the couch, acknowledging that it's going to be a while before they can leave for the bar.

"Why not?" George asks, offended.

"It looks stupid," Lando says.

"If I don't wear them, then I'm going to stick to the barstools," George says, crossing her arms.

"And the layer of skin is the price you pay."

"Well, that's stupid," George says. Alex reassures herself that 'looks stupid' and 'is stupid' is still a slightly more mature argument than 'you're stupid - no you.' They're adults.

"I hate you," Lando says. Alex takes it back, they're at primary school level. "I can't believe you're making me enforce the rules of girliness. We're supposed to be enforcing them together, that's also one of the rules."

"You don't have to," George says and Alex stirs. They are now in the danger zone of a George rapture on the gender prison and it's just as annoying as her previous feminist rants, with less space for Alex to push back.

"I do, I won't be seen with you like that. Go change," Lando says. George puffs up. "And put some stickers on your nipples jesus christ."

George tries to look down like she can see them. Which maybe she could, she's got quite a pair of headlights on her. Her breasts haven't grown much, per se, probably the fault of their diet, but there have been some enhanced visibilities, as it were.

"What if you wore a longer skirt," Alex decides to get involved because she's tired and ready to go, and because she's all of those things she uses her power move. "That black one you have that's just like Susie's would go well."

It seems to work because George turns around peaceably and goes back into the bedroom.

Lando throws herself down on the couch, her own patterned skirt attempting to turn into a belt. "I'm going to kill her."

Alex pats her thigh. She hadn't anticipated how much George's experiences would bump and scrape her against all of the parts of her own experience of feminity that most made her feel trapped. It's like she's been living in a box with knives and had found a couple of positions where they didn't poke her and then George would get super frustrated trying to make her eyeliner match and whining to Alex; she wants it to look good and she wants it to be easy and she wants to do it herself and that's one of those time-money-quality triangles that George doesn't seem to have the patience for. She literally stomped her foot like a toddler and Alex imagined the 5 red lights in her mind until her brain went quiet. Attachment is the root of suffering. Like Lando said, she doesn't want to be the enforcer of all these stupid rules, just because she knows them. It's not like they were easy for her to learn; everything George is trying took Alex three times as long to master. George doesn't know she isn't supposed to complain about it.

Alex changes the subject, she's tired of running that hamster wheel. "You know what's worse? George was right about me." Lando hums an agreeing noise, hears the second clause and switches to a hiss. Alex barrels on. "I am a lesbian." She's dating a woman; she's been fixated on her for years, George had her number and she didn't even know.

Lando cackles. "Actually, yes, that's incredible, I'm going to tell Max." She pulls out her phone, and she's still typing when George comes out, barely sparing her a glance at her more reasonable outfit. She only puts her phone away to bend over to clip her feet into her shoes, at which point she sees the trainers George has put on. "Absolutely not. Change. Your. Fucking. Shoes."