In the winter of 2022, Jos Verstappen surprisingly passed away in a car crash. His son, the two-time Formula One World Champion Max Verstappen, now no longer under Jos' daily scrutiny, was freed to pursue the personality - and the desires - he suppr...
Monaco came and went, and so did the first half of the year. Apart from P2 in Austria and P3 in Belgium, Charles didn't have much to show in his Ferrari. On the other hand, Verstappen sweeped every single win in this period.
More often than not the Dutchman would have to face Leclerc's frustrated and sour face coming home from a race. The only thing exciting in Charles' life, and something he was grateful for, was their developing relationship. After a couple of months of having boxes laying around, the couple decided to buy some new furniture and Max finally settled in Leclerc's flat. They had come to develop a routine with each other when not travelling around to events, and often went out with Pierre and Kika.
There were, however, not many demonstrations of affection in public. At first Charles thought it was only Verstappen trying to hide their relationship, even though it had become an open secret in the F1 community, boosted by inumerous images of them together around Monaco and travelling to races. The Monegasque realized that, in the end of the day, Max's reserved personality out in the open was part of his culture. "It's hard dating a Dutch person", he frequently thought.
Yet, Leclerc's biggest struggle was still the fact his boyfriend was, coincidentally, the same person that he was trying to beat, weekend in, weekend out. On one side, Charles was overly joyful for Max's sucesses and uterly domination. On the other side, and this one prevailed more often than not, he felt frustrated, defeated, pressured. He had the chance in 2022, and now his dream of being a world champion with Ferrari seemed to drift further away with every race.
The Dutchman's insistence to not officialize their relationship didn't make it better, but after the Belgium Grand Prix, it seemed to be time.
4th of August, 2023 Sardinia, Italy
On the late morning, Instagram was on fire:
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@maxverstappen1 on Instagram: We are done hiding, and we hope the world understands it. This has been coming a long way ❤️
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@charles_leclerc on Instagram: 💞
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