superstar

like !!

Lando desciribing younger Lando as a homebody and being a shy little thing and not having a ton of friends - and when you realize Max F has always been the more confident one and that he still sees himself as taller and responsible for Lando even now they're grown and Lando saying how when he's with certain close friends he prefers to keep it lowkey and off social media and when he wants to go unseen he absolutely can

and even to this day Lando getting overwhelmed by crowds at times and McLaren junior career and even first year F1 Lando was adorable but also shy and awkward and stumbled over his words and Carlos and Daniel being the ones to warm him up to media and PR duties bc they took the bulk of the work/focus on themselves and they were already so skilled at it so Lando just had to react and giggle while big brothers made jokes and grabbed him in headlocks and led the charge with all the socmed content

and then Lando saying on stream how he hates streaming on his own and hates silence and likes having other people on to speak so he doesn't feel he always has to

and then Oscar - who said he learned how to engage with social media and fans based off of Lando's example !! - then had the backlash of alpinegate and shut down all of his fun/cute posting and withdrew from sharing himself too much with media in general

and McLaren slowly got rid of a lot of their media/marketing dept and stopped Unboxed mid 2023

and then start of 2024 Andrea says the boys came to the team and asked if their PR commitments could be reduced or rearranged so they'd have more downtime to rest and stay focused on race weekends

which was also around when all the usual games/challenges videos were reduced as well or weren't made as elaborate

and Lando saying how he and Oscar like the same things about their job but they also hate the same things about their job

and that's also when they asked for their privacy door in the team hub and bc they wanted their drivers rooms to be just for the two of them - not even their trainers - and their individual doors face each other now so they see each other the second they walk out and could feasibly leave the doors open and chat without anyone hearing (and this is with Lando having blasted his music through Oscar's wall since day one)

and then all of landoscar social time/downtime together has always been kept off social media and only mentioned in passing by them - to the point that many fans don't even think they've so much as played padel together let alone their little padel tournament) and it also happening to sometimes involve childhood friends Max F or Ed who frequently keep time with Lando offline at his request anyway (and P interjecting specifically to say what a good guy Oscar is and we had no clue she'd even met him)

and that when you look at how Oscar was with all the extroverts in Prema and realize that's the same as Lando with extroverts Carlos and Daniel so it's not that they're naturally that good at media, it's that they react to extroverts extremely well

and then people deep in the team say Lando and Oscar are more alike than anyone realizes and their mind reading thing becomes A Thing and they rush to their little private debriefs together apart from their teams and they insist on open communication between their garages even at the height of the title fight

and Oscar stepping up to be more gregarious at Silverstone bc Lando is basking in all of it and them both strategically doing things or saying things to help the other after races with very polarizing results (or even just watching each other closely)

and Lando saying Oscar's his strongest teammate ever and them both saying they're the strongest teammate pairing on the grid and that they're both glad to witness silly season from the position of security they have with each other - Lando saying particularly how security and reliability in this career is the most important thing

and them repeatedly committing to each other and McLaren and grow old together/be together when we're gray etc

and goddddd I think for all that landoscar are the one pairing we get the least PR and behind the scenes content of, they've got this gentle warm very private level of complete understanding and comfort together that possibly it's precisely how easy and safe and secure their relationship is that makes them shy away from sharing it with the masses and the media - they're too much their real, natural non public facing selves together to feel comfortable having it turned into social media content

there's just smth about them both loving extroverts and letting them talk and lead while they can just react and laugh. but also finding in each other such a similar person who fully gets introversion and who will join with each other and say actually yes we need more quiet time and we need to be offline sometimes and we find sanctuary in the other person who wants all the same things and no we don't like having that turned into fan/media content.

and I say a lot of this from a Lando POV bc we've seen him in his pro career with two other teammates and very different amounts of socmed and PR work. and so when Oscar showed up and decided to just be himself and not try to win anyone over (bc for a long time everyone including Australia was ok to hate him) and McLaren marketing realized they weren't going to get another Carlos/Daniel type of teammate eventually leading to Lando going oh wait! you can do that?? I want to do that! and immediately we see his driving and his career skyrocket and idk is it so crazy to think that Lando getting more rest and being teammates with someone who values offline quiet time together and let's him realize it's ok everyone will love you just the same even if you don't give them as much of yourself... that that would have as positive an impact on him professionally as well as personally ??