Do you ever let your rpf brain overanalyze interactions or comments by the drivers? I don't think they are fucking or will ever do, honestly. But I always think that max has got a little crush on george. Might be my delusion but it helps me sleep at night.
all the time. specially with gax yup because while not outright attraction there is definitely something different in the way max specifically refers to george and views him in his mind. he does not rate him - far from it i'd say, but it's clear he just finds george more interesting than most other drivers. interesting to piss off or just to get riled up about. i don't think there are a lot of things that hold max's attention for long outside racing. i think he gets bored easily (with media, with pr duties, with social interactions, even with his family). but i have never seen him get bored with george. the reactions he has aren't always positive but they are reactions nonetheless - and i think for george it's also a thing where max gets under his skin far more easily than most other drivers. i think george knows he and max will never be friends but they are more alike than they both want to admit.
i think max is a very upfront person about what he likes and doesn't like and how he responds to outside stimuli. and george is the complete opposite. i think he is constantly struggling with what he should do and what he wants to do - and he almost never shows his instinctive response to things, but rather the learned behavior. which is where the "two faced/pr robot" conception comes from. it's not that he's faking things - he just has a need for control that makes him second guess and rationalize most things before letting himself feel them. so when max wants to push george pulls, and when max says hot george says cold. in action they are opposites but mentally they seem to operate in a more or less equal structure. max just doesn't like having to play games or second guess things and finds it very irritating when george forces his hand to actually stop and analyze things.
i don't think max thinks about george a lot as more than an abstract concept. a vaguely annoying blurry shape in his life that represents a lot of things max has been taught to dislike and find beneath him (emotional, insecure, dramatic, feminine, articulate, etc.) and as a result fixates on it, on him, and wants to dominate and destroy. so yes - sometimes max acts like he has a crush on george because he fills a role that benefits from having people like george around. he looks better and stronger in comparison. and in a sense, that means to be the provider - the caretaker, or the authority figure - for george. in formula 1 everything is a power dynamic and max is hardwired to get the upper hand in every single one.
meanwhile, george has grown up in a world where he's been told since he was a kid that max is the standard for what a good driver should be. he both admires and envies his skill but he doesn't care about max beyond that skill. george thinks about max far less than max thinks about george, but george is still hardwired (and actively fights against this instinct) to seek validation from people like max. logically he does not want or care to have this need met because george has learned to rely on no one but himself and races not for the glory or the acceptance but for a far simpler, baser thing: to fucking win. and yet here we have max, who not only wins and makes it look easy, but he is also loved and admired for it. while george accepted long ago he can't have it all, max gets to have both.
they both envy each other for different reasons - and they both think they have less need for the other than the other one does. they're an unstoppable force and an immovable object who both bet on the other one to move. but yeah i wouldn't say i let the rpf brainworms ever make me overanalyze them why are you asking
