hater

Kimi’s looking at his phone, his unforgotten airpods in his ears, bouncing a knee.

“What are you looking at?” George asks, bored. When Kimi doesn’t respond, George asks again, louder.

This time Kimi looks up. “Oh, nothing,” he says.

George thinks he’ll have to go back to contenting himself with the view out the window and his own thoughts, but then Kimi continues, “Mercedes don’t do many of these, do they?”

“Many of what?”

“These activations.” Kimi’s mouth curls around the letters, tees activazhons.

“Not really.” George thinks a moment. “No, I haven’t done many of these.”

“It’s Red Bull-esque,” Kimi says, not looking away.

“I suppose,” George says, and pointedly turns toward the window, suddenly no longer interested in this conversation.

“Isn’t it?” Kimi asks, not taking the hint. “They did a lot of this before. In the past. When Daniel Ritchie-ardo was there.”

“That was before my time,” George says. He wonders if Kimi has ever met Daniel Ricciardo. He must have; everyone knows everyone in motorsport. Then again, Daniel disappeared from the Formula series before Kimi got called up to F1. Well, nice guy, Daniel, but too easygoing sometimes. And now saying stuff like he lost the ability to drive well or whatever. George likes Daniel, but it makes him cringe.

“They stopped doing them when Daniel left Red Bull?”

George bites back a sigh. “I don’t know exactly, but I think so. Maybe Max decided he didn’t want to do them anymore.”

“Max only wanted to do them with Daniel?”

“I’m not sure,” George repeats.

“Okay.” Kimi settles back in his seat and turns his head to face out the window.

The car pulls over on the side of the road behind another car. People are already on the grass next to the road setting up cameras.

“Okay, guys, we’re here!” Olivia says, peppy. She steps out of the car. The driver already has a cigarette in his mouth.

George gets out of the car and rounds the back of it to stand with Kimi on the grass.

“So we’ll be doing a little hike today,” Olivia says. “You won’t have to go far, just down the path, through the first gate, up the small hill behind it, then back. While you’re doing that, just chat a bit, show your personalities.” She puts a big smile on her face and gestures to the guys with cameras. “And this is Jon and Rob, they’ll be with us and getting all the good footage for you.”

After Jon and Rob are ready, George and Kimi stand next to each other, facing the cars, so it looks like the wilderness behind them.

“I’m George Russell,” George says.

“And I’m Kimi Antonelli,” says Kimi.

“And today we will be going for a little hike. Do much hiking, Kimi?”

Kimi chuckles. “No.”

“No?”

“Never.”

“So this will be an experience for you.”

“Yeah. And you?”

George purses his lips. “A little bit—not too much.”

“Ah, okay.”

“Okay guys,” Olivia says, clapping. “I think we can get moving now.”

They turn to walk the path.

“Oh, it’s muddy,” Kimi says, just as George steps in a spot of mud and gets his sneakers all dirty.

“Ugh!” George cries. Kimi has the temerity to laugh.

Somewhere on the walk, Kimi finds a stick and picks it up. As they walk, he waves it around, brushing it through the grass.

“Having fun there?” George asks.

“What’s wrong with my stick?” Kimi asks, apparently picking up on the judgment George tried not to let show.

“Nothing,” George responds.

“Can we get a little more fun banter?” Olivia says from behind them.

Beyond the fence is a field of grazing cows.

“Oh, they’re so cute!” Kimi cries as he tries to push open the gate. It doesn’t move and Kimi takes a few seconds too long to figure out the latch.

“Let me,” George finally interrupts, and lifts the latch to let Kimi through.

“Aren’t they cute?”

“They are cute,” George agrees, lifting his phone to take a picture.

“I heard lots of people on walks in the country in England get gored by cows,” Kimi supplies.

Behind the pasture is the hill, and Kimi clambers up it, lanky teenage body taking long strides up to the top. George follows at a more sedate pace. When he gets to the top, Kimi is hanging from a tree branch.

“Look at the view,” he says, and George turns to gaze back from where they came. To the left he can see the cars parked on the side of the road. To the right is a village. Straight ahead are the cows.

“Wow, it’s gorgeous,” George says.

One of the cows lifts its tail and pees.

On the way back to the cars Kimi seems much more excited, even jumping around to avoid the mud, though he doesn’t do a good enough job once and some mud splashes the ends of George’s trousers. “Kimi!” he exclaims.

“Sorry,” Kimi says, smiling so his teeth poke out. He and George both know it makes him look cute and the audience will love it.

“Okay!” Olivia says when they get back to the cars. “Did you have fun?”

“Yeah,” Kimi says mildly.

“I had fun,” says George.

They pile back in the cars for the three hour drive back to Silverstone. George feels like a nap, but Kimi wants to chat.

“So is that like how they used to do it at Red Bull?” he asks.

“Kimi, for the last time, I have no idea what they do at Red Bull, least of all what they did ten years ago when Daniel Ricciardo drove for them.”

“Okay,” Kimi says. “I guess Max and Daniel must have really got along then, if they were doing a lot of this stuff.”

“I guess so.”

Kimi is staring at him. It’s beginning to be unnerving. “Max has good relationships with lots of his teammates.”

George lifts his head, torn between being touched and being worried by Kimi’s words. Kimi wanting a closer relationship with George is sweet. But George has no interest in cuddling up with Kimi any more than he already has. He’s a nice guy, but they’re rivals at the end of the day. Then again, if Kimi lets his hero worship of Max turn into him doing nice things for George like letting him past on track, maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad thing.

It’s not really a question but George responds anyway. “Yeah, pretty good relationships I suppose. I have too.”

“Hmm,” Kimi hums, not taking his eyes off George. “That’s good.”