making that gifset from last year's australian gp made me think back on all my favorite max and george interactions, especially since we're in a bit of a drought right now. here are five that always make happy to think about/rewatch:
las vegas 2024, max goes out of his way to congratulate george on his pole position. max is not in the top three, he's not part of the photos, the interviews, the conference. but he walks past george who doesn't see him, grabs him by the arm to get his attention, and shakes his hand with a grin. the rush of adrenaline of seeing this play out in real time on my tv was immense. that whole weekend solidified my love for formula 1, george, max and their whole relationship. that whole race weekend is peppered with sweet moments, from the literal hug they shared after george won the race and max won the championship, to all the little shoulder pats whenever they crossed paths.
monza 2022, george reaches out to pat max's arm when he gets booed on the podium, for winning over charles. there is absolutely no reason for george to do this. and yet he does it anyway. this absolute sweetheart.
baku 2024, george posts that iconic photo of him and max jumping in mid-air after winning in the european karting championships, to wish all the karters participating in the world championship good luck. he shows the photo to max in the paddock and they have a little giggle about it.
belgium 2021, post race joint interview, george talking about how eager he is to fight at the front with people like max and charles, and max, in the sweetest voice i've ever heard from him, saying "you will".
canada 2025 weekend, both setting their fastest laps on medium tires in qualifying, in a league of their own during the race, both complaining about each other on the radio during the last laps under the safety car, max spraying george with champagne grinning like crazy, max making excuses for george's actions on the last lap instead of bitching, george with the cheeky penalty points joke after qualifying, the handshakes and pats, the chatter in the cooldown room, all of it, every moment of it.
if you see this, tell me about your favorite gax moments! (asks or comments) there's so much negativity and doomerism in the main tags lately, i'm quite sick of it. let's talk about something happy! (before monaco unleashes its horrors upon us, haha)
I also love the grinning and spraying podium moment. I just love seeing both of them happy. 🥰
But I'm also a big fan of small things like Max touching George to get his attention and shake hands with him like here.
Or when Max defends him saying the walls move around at that track or that it's really easy to make mistakes so he shouldn't beat himself up for it.
There are so many good moments. ❤
little touches to get each other attention are the most underrated moments <3 because they're little gestures of familiarity, like you can see these people know each other.
i'm very fond of max sneaking behind george to congratulate him on his first pole position, i think he pinches him or pokes him affectionately here, and also of george poking max with his hans in abu dhabi 2023 to get his attention