you still crave lemonade

fanfic that I like

WE! WANT! YOU! FOR THE LESTAPPEN INCHIDENT FEST 2026!

are you sick of the ai fics in our tags on ao3? do you miss the amount of fanfic created between 2021 and 2023? do you crave a specific prompt that nobody has written yet?

fear not, for here is our official lestappen prompt fic fest 2026!

key dates: prompting is open now, fics need to be submitted by September 30th and will be revealed on October 8th - right between Max's and Charles' birthdays!

rules:

this is a prompt based fic fest - prompts will be randomly chosen by authors

all prompts/prompt fills should center around lestappen - everything is fine as long as they are the main ship

all other drivers and background ships are welcome, but the main focus is max and charles!

AI generated fics are NOT allowed!

all media (fics, art, etc.) is permittedworks will be shared ONLY on tumblr/ao3! (since this is focused on lestappen and not necessarily on just one half of the pair, fanart may not be driver-centric, so we hope you understand the reticence for other platforms to be involved)

(minimum word count for fics should be 1.500 words)

multi-chapter fics are allowed as long as you have the first chapter ready for the posting date on october 8th

who can participate: anyone can prompt and write for the fest!

have fun! this is a casual, fun event that isn't meant to stress you out.

prompting and sign-up is open now on ao3

important reminder: if you post the fic early to the collection, you will have to change the posting date once the collection goes live. we will send out reminders when the fics are uploaded.

MONTRÉAL 2026:

qualified sixth! started on softs: grid didn't agree on tyre strategy, every tyre but hards and full wets represented. got a difficult launch on the tyres because there's three formation laps.

held position at the start, improved to p5 when piastri pitted lap one and p4 when norris did the same a lap later.

cars on inters swapped to mediums, majority of the field is now on softs w/mclaren alpine bottas and lawson on mediums. everyone's one-stopping, including us.

sets fastest lap on lap three and five.

overtook hamilton for p3, hamilton reporting energy issue on the radio right after. he stays close behind, chasing.

gap to antonelli, ahead, is 3.5, by lap twelve it's 4.5: merc pace does merc pace things. antonelli and russell are in a battle of their own at the front, alternating lead, while we try to catch.

yellow flag for laps thirteen-fourteen. hamilton gaining time on us during; max reports on radio. after yellow lifts we're steadily dropping a tenth or so every lap in what seems to be the same issue plaguing our energy deployment that struck during the sprint too.

at lap twenty-three, antonelli 7 ahead. merc position swapping gets increasingly edgy across laps twenty-four-ish to thirty. a crash seems likely but instead on lap thirty something in russell's car gives out and he's forced to retire.

vsc called while russell's car is dragged off; nearly everyone dives into the pit lane. we take a 2.7s stop, coming out in p2 with medium tyres that we'll ultimately take to the end. vsc ends on lap thirty-three.

hamilton overtakes eventually &starts putting in fastest laps, behind us again in p3 on lap fourty-two

second vsc called on lap fourty-six and the pit entry closed while a marshall sprints across track to clear a broken piece of car, and then the vsc ends on that same lap.

gap to antonelli, ahead, is 5, and hamilton, behind, 2.2, on lap fourty-nine.

third vsc called on lap fifty-three for more debris recovery, lifted one lap later.

hamilton one second behind and closing. lap fifty-six nipping at our heels, both cars dancing on the limit of grip. nearly into the wall of champions: saved. next corner, lewis lunges: fended off. gap is less than a second, max holding hamilton JUST out of range.

insane sicko 3344 magic across laps fifty-seven, fifty-eight, fifty-nine... hamilton, struggling with power again, drops to 1.1 behind on lap sixty in order to charge battery but remains within threatening range. seven laps to go.

second yellow flag that lasts half a blink.

hamilton overtakes for p2, passing neatly on the straight. and okay guys i'll toneswap suddenly and say the conclusion of this battle was such a ruined orgasm bc the overtake happened after max's car took a cue from hamilton's and stopped deploying power. the onboard looks like his motor isn't even on. really frustrating artificial end to a genuinely great w2w fight.

gap to hamilton 0.5 with four laps left in the race; max hurls himself at it. nearly overtakes again on lap sixty-seven, just too far back in the corner to make it stick, and then the car locks up on the straight and goes wide into t10, giving hamilton a few tenths of breathing room. right untl the last second max is clawing for it, but at the checkered flag—

finished p3! first podium of the year!!!! 💫⭐️✨️🏆🌷

teammate: qualified p7, finished p5. sprint result: qualified p7, finished p7 - teammate: qualified p8, finished p21.

I personally hate any kind morality thought policing. I'm not Catholic or religious and I do not feel guilty over my thoughts. You are not an inherently evil person because you saw two athletes in an interview and went "Hmmm...... what if...." The Feds are not going to come banging down your door because you wrote about one band member dicking down the other and sent it to your friend.

Wondering about other people's lives is very human. Being nosy about their personal lives is very normal. People have been writing fiction about other people's lives since the dawn of time. Some people even manage to write New York Times Bestselling Books that are "historical fiction" or "alternate reality." It does not make you inherently bad to be curious about the details of someone's personal life. That's being human. Being nosy is kind of fun.

The problem, however, comes with the ways in which people engage with it, and involve the real people in this. Harassing an musician's real girlfriend because it doesn't fit into the RPF ship. Showing up at real sporting events holding signs about how certain teammates should kiss. Trying to get actors to sign art of them fucking their coworker. Flooding social media with comments using the celebrity's full name and speculation. There's a line, there's a fourth wall, and there's fandom etiquette.

I hate the question of "Is RPF ethical" because it feels like morality thought policing. Post your fics on locked accounts, censor someone's name when you tweet about it, blow up your groupchat with hundreds of "DID YOU SEE THE WAY THEY LOOKED AT EACH OTHER??" texts. It's not inherently evil to wonder what other people are doing when they're out of the spotlight. Kill the cop in your mind.