Cigarette Daydreams

2022 part 7

Lewis arrives in the paddock on Thursday feeling the atmosphere is strange, it's not as hostile as he thought it would be, but it's still heavy, people still whisper around, but no one has the courage to speak out loud, and nor can they, on Wednesday Red Bull issued an official statement denying all the assumptions regarding Max's sexuality, but reinforcing that they are allies, all so that today things would be calmer.

Of course Lewis spent hours watching all the repercussions of the official statement, it wasn't so bad, of course that lot of conservative homophobes are still there making a fuss even if it's been denied, but, in general, Max's fans seemed to accept him, whatever the truth, and well, the truth is divided and many people are still suspicious, but respect is enough to calm things down.

From a distance he sees when Max arrives, it's like any other day, he's wearing skinny pants, an RBR shirt and cap, his face is confident but gentle, he doesn't let any worry show for a moment, not least because theoretically he shouldn't have any.

He's not scheduled for today's press conference, which leaves him a little disappointed because Max is, and he wanted to be there to serve as a silent support, but, looking on the bright side, Sebastian will be and Lewis knows that the German won't hesitate to defend Max if necessary, but that doesn't stop him from sending a message to his friend asking him to pay a little more attention to Max's signals.

What he didn't know was that Sebastian would take it very seriously. A few minutes before the press conference Lewis receives a notification, it's a message from the German saying that he's made an Instagram account, all this time the German driver has been resistant to social media, he doesn't understand the motivation, but happily joins the account anyway.

Sebastian will retire at the end of the year.

Sebastian Vettel, four-time world champion, his rival for years, his strange friend now, the person Lewis likes to talk to when he needs a light, is retiring.

He can't understand it, Seb is younger than him and hadn't given any hint that he was thinking about retirement, ever, and they're talking a lot, he tries to remember something he might have missed, but nothing comes to mind.

It's a bit confusing for him, he's witnessing another retirement, while he carries on, while he keeps up with this new generation of super-new and talented drivers, of course he's going to ignore Alonso's presence, he definitely prefers to be indifferent to the Spanish. He wonders why Seb has never spoken to him about it.

Although he's not at the press conference, he still has media work to do, so it takes up his time and he forgets, briefly, because soon he's questioned about Vettel's retirement and the scandal that Max has been involved in.

There's not much to say about Max, he tries to be indifferent but supportive. Most of the time he can't be too incisive because after all Max has denied everything, but he makes it clear how much the category needs to evolve so that drivers' sexuality isn't something controversial, but rather natural, and that everyone deserves support.

He feels a bit dirty as he talks about how they need to make the atmosphere pleasant so that no one has to hide, when he himself has been hiding his bisexuality for years, he thinks how important being transparent would be for the community, but he doesn't need another target on his back right now.

Talking about Sebastian is more difficult, mainly because he wasn't prepared, but he does well talking about their times as rivals and how today their friendship has blossomed, of course because of the German and he likes to make that clear, because Seb's selflessness needs to be recognized.

"I think he'll get bored and come back." Lewis jokes at some point, but he knows it won't happen, because when Lewis says it, he remembers that Vettel has someone to go back to, a house with his wife and children.