Brazilian journalist, Mari Becker, posted these pictures of Gabi Bortoleto and Ollie Bearman on her instagram.
I will leave my translation of her caption here:
Ollie and Gabriel like each other, and this is not a recent thing. At different moments, the Brit came to me and spoke highly of the Brazilian, and without him knowing about this, I heard the same from Gabriel about Bearman. I was watching the two of them before the press conference and wondering if, actually, hoping that this [feeling] continues. It’s not easy in this line of work, but if they don’t find themselves in an intense duel, it might be possible. Russell and Albon. Stroll and Ocon. Gasly and Leclerc. It’s not always the kind of friendship we’re used to seeing. It’s like that initial affinity. Like a promise of what it could have been if they didn’t have to rip each other’s heads off on the track. But that beginning is still there. The joy of being together. Lando and Carlos. Sometimes it’s pure admiration, a certain kind of identification, like Alonso and Max, Vettel and Hamilton. These are relationships that hardly reach the complex level of a friendship, because the kind of life they have won’t allow it. Nonetheless, these are partnerships, long-term empathies, and they bear the indelible mark of the most extreme phase of their lives. Possibly. Years and years, side by side, on the knife’s edge between success and failure, even between life and death. Different relationships, these are. Superficial? Maybe. Just as superficial as a scar.
