Lance looks at the stark white paper with small black inked letters, the edge of the paper cuts into his skin as he blinks. Lance had hoped that this was just a letter about the rules around the covid-19 shit that was going on around the world. But no, the FIA hasn't come with a solution for the season. But they seem to have come to a solution about the loneliness of the drivers.
Dear Lance stroll,
We would like to apologize about cancelling the season until further notice, with covid-19 taking over the world. We can't do anything else then cancel 2021 until we have found a safe way to bring everyone to the track and have the races start again. like we had announced in Bahrain a few days prior everyone has to stay home and make the most of their time.
Now seeing as of some drivers had told their team bosses the last couple of days, that they are getting really lonely in their houses and some have trouble going through the day because they have no one living with them. We had decided that every driver should get the choice to live in the big house we have bought for the drivers to cure their loneliness and maybe reduce their contacts with other people to just the racing drivers.
We have left our number on the bottom of the letter so that you can call us if you would like this offer. We give you until the end of the week to decide if you would like to spend time in a warm place with a in- and outdoor pool, a private gym and a few other things. If we don't get a call from you we know you don't want to take up this offer and it's all up to you if you want to go.
We hope you are in good health as of right now and that you are not too lonely like some of the other drivers but we hope that you take up the offer to spend some time with your fellow drivers. The list of the invited is on the back.
Kind regards,
The FIA.
Lance sighs, he would really want to take the FIA up on their offer but the way almost no driver other then Esteban and Seb talks to him, makes him doubt that it would be a good idea. He turns the page of the listed drivers who are coming.
Drivers list.
Mercedes: Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas.
Red Bull Racing: Max Verstappen, Sergio Perez and Alex Albon (reserve).
Ferrari: Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz.
McLaren: Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris.
Aston Martin: Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll.
Alpine: Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon.
Alpha Tauri: Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda.
Willems Racing: George Russell and Nicolas Latifi.
Alfa Romeo: Kimi Raikkonen, Antonio Giovinazzi and callum Ilott (reserve)
Haas: Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin.
These are the drivers plus one reserve driver some of the drivers were missing too much not to see him in the house. The four oldest drivers who decide to go there are in charge of the house.
If you do decide to take us up on the offer you will get another letter with some small rules and the address of the house. We can tell you it's somewhere in the south of Europe. There will also be a list of things we advise you to take with you as that might come in handy.
He looks at the letter and decides to see if maybe Sebastian is going or see what his opinion is as he is some kind of the person almost every driver goes to for comfort and advice. He dials in the number of his new team mate and waits for him to pick up.
"hey Lance, what's up?" Seb greets the Canadian.
Seb sounds like he just woke up and looks at his phone to see that it's 9 p.m. in Canada and it must be something around 3 a.m. where the German is.
"I'm so sorry for waking you up." Lance says.
"nah...don't worry." Seb tells the younger driver.
Lance bites his lip, debating if he should tell Seb that he would call him in the morning again or if he just should ask now. his hands shake as he feel like he just showed Seb that he is a bad team mate to have and that he would call him in the middle of the night.
"I just read the letter from the FIA and I don't know if I should take up the offer." Lance says.
"it's your decision Lance, but I'm going to spend some time with my friends and maybe we can become closer as a grid and team mates." Seb tells the anxious boy.
Lance nods and tells Seb that he is going to take the offer up too. He hangs up the phone and smiles, this can either go terribly wrong or he is going to make so many more friends. Maybe he should think about that they like and see if he enjoys those things too. But for now he is going to tell the FIA and start packing his stuff.
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Lando looks up at the big Mansion in the south coast of Spain, he had been super excited to go to this house and to be close to his friends again and mostly with Carlos, the man he has had a crush on since the day they met. He takes a deep breath and looks at the front door. There is not a single car in the driveway he could pin point to any of the drivers. Only because there is no driver with a Suzuki as car on the grid.
Lando walks up the porch and knocks on the door, his hands have two suitcases and on his back is his backpack and around both arms he has big duffle bags so that he has everything he could need. Or more like emptied his closet in the two duffle bags and one suitcase. He brought his pc and some other gaming stuff with him in his other suitcase with some of his racing shit in his back pack and the bag on his shoulder which is just an open bag he borrowed from his mother.
The door opens and he frowns. Did he go to the wrong house? In front of him is a man he never met before, dark hair with grey streaks between his hairs. Big square glasses on his nose and a grey beard as he wears a polo.
"ah! Lando! You're the first to arrive." The man says.
He grabs the suitcases from the young brit and walks inside, Lando can't do but follow the man inside. He thought he had been at the wrong house but the logo on the man's black pants show that he is from the FIA.
"yeah...I uhm thought I was at the wrong place." Lando says.
The man puts the suitcases by the big white marble stairs and turns to the young brit with a smile. Lando puts his bags by the suitcases and sighs as his arms feel weightless after carrying all those bags. That he could ignore the fact that they were aging just seconds before.
"well, now that you're here. I'm going to go as I have lots of things to do, seeing that you're the first one, you can go and pick out a room." The man says before he grabs his keys from a bowl.
"okay! Good luck!" Lando says as the man leaves the house.
He looks around and decides to find the best and biggest room and claim it as his. He leaves his stuff down stairs and looks around the house and opens all the doors to see that they all are the same size but some have a view over the ocean and Lando chooses the one with the balcony.
For an hour he is all alone in this house, he found the indoor pool, the gym and the game room where he has set up his pc and his streaming stuff. He hums to the radio he has found in the corner of the room.
Lando's head shoots up at the sound of the doorbell. He runs up the stairs out of the basement. He was feeling a little lonely again after he had been so alone in his own home in Woking. He opens the front door to see a grinning Max, the dutchman had just as many stuff with him as he had himself.
"hi!" Max says.
"hey! If I were you, I would pick my room now before the rest of the drivers arrive." Lando tells max.
Who nods and goes up the stairs to put away his stuff. He goes through all the rooms and picks out the room next to Lando with they can share the balcony. They can both look out over the sea in front of them. Max starts to unpack his stuff, his clothing in the closet and when he gets to his gaming stuff. He goes text Lando to see if he knows where to put that stuff.
Max takes his PlayStation 5 to the living room so that they all can play some games on it as he brings it everywhere. As the time progresses Max and Lando are in a fierce battle of FIFA, Max obviously winning the game for the tenth time that day as Lando doesn't play FIFA as much as Max does.
The door bell rings, the two pause the game and Lando runs to the front door. He opens the door and smiles when he sees Kimi and Seb standing in front of him. the two are standing in front of him with less luggage but still two suitcases each and two bags of what could be their racing stuff.
"come in!" Lando lets them in.
They walk into the house and see Max standing in the door opening to the living room. A smile on his face as Max had been one of the drivers who got too lonely in his apartment. He was super happy to have gotten a letter which said that the drivers were going to live together.
"hey guys!" Max says. "you can still pick out which room you want."
"will do." Seb tells the dutchman.
The two head up the stairs to claim their room, in the end they choose the room looking over the driveway, so that they can keep an eye out for the young drivers who would want to sneak out in the dead of the night.
They unpack their stuff, Seb and Kimi had been dating for the last five years in secret and they are sure that at some point the drivers are going to find out with not having separate rooms but they don't care if the drivers know. As long as the public doesn't they are fine.
After they have unpacked, they find the two young drivers on the couch playing FIFA again. Lando is shouting how Max is cheating and Max is just laughing as he wins the game again. the door bell rings again and Seb says he will open the door.
He moves to the front door and opens the door to an anxious looking Lance stroll, who is looking around and shifting on his heels. Seb smiles as his team mate looks really scared to be here.
"come in, Lance." Seb tells him.
"thanks." Lance says, looking at his feet.
Lance walks into the house and hears two pairs of shouting and laughing as he walks into the hall to the stairs, he can see into the living room and see Max and Lando shout at how they are playing FIFA. Kimi just sits next to them, having found the vodka already.
"go pick a room and put your stuff away, then come join us." Seb tells him.
He nods his head and goes up the stairs to pick out a room, after a few minutes deciding which room he wants. He puts his stuff away and grabs his switch, having some fun games on it that they can do together. He grabs the box with switch games, he heads down stairs. Saying how Max and Lando are still playing FIFA, Seb is reading a book while Kimi is watching the two boys play the game with some vodka.
"I got a game we can all do?" Lance says softly.
Max pauses the football game and turns to the Canadian, casting his eyes to the other's hands and smiles. He's heard of the switch and what games you can play on them but he never bought it for himself.
"sure, what you suggest?" Lando says.
"Mario kart?" Lance says.
"then set it up." Max smiles.
Lance nods his head, he moves over to the tv. Max turns off his PlayStation 5 and let Lance do his thing while he gets the three of them a Heineken. Lando picks up his phone and looks to see if he got any messages from Carlos. The Spaniard had promised the brit he would text when he was leaving to the f1 house.
Lance was quickly done with setting up the game and was now waiting for Max to return. Once Max had returned with the beer, they picked out which track and their characters. Once the race had begun, Lance was in front with Max behind him. Lando had spun a few times or fell off the track, being too busy laughing and seeing how serious Max and Lance took the race.
They go for a couple more rounds as the door bell rings again, this time Kimi opens the door. The two Ferrari drivers are on the other side of the door and Kimi tells them to come in and put their stuff in the room they want to pick out. Before they come join the others in the living room.
"hey guys." Carlos says once he is done putting his stuff in the room next to Lando.
Lando's head shoots to the Spaniard and abandons his game to run to the older one, he jumps into the other's arms. Lando almost hugs Carlos to death with how happy he is to see him. the other guys are laughing at how cute Lando is with the others.
Lance ends the game and adds two more players for Charles and Carlos. The two pick their characters after Lando had been done hugging his best friend to death. They start the race and Carlos is this time in the lead and Lando is quick to catch up. Max and Charles are trying everything in their power to push the other of the track.
The next two drivers to arrive are the two last brits. George and Lewis. They pick their rooms before the two brits join the others in the room. Lewis for the fun decides to play with the younger ones the racing game.
"take that!" Lando yells, when he wins the game.
Everyone laughs at the boy who is doing his victory dance, Carlos tackles the boy and tickles him. Kimi smiles as this might either be what it's like for now or it might turn out to be one big hell and they won't ever stop shouting.
Max went to get the rest also some beer, once he is back. They had started a race without him and his character is still sitting on the start finish. He chuckles, opening the beer, he watch how they race.
Sergio and Alex arrived half an hour later and put their stuff away, Max had gotten the two beer as Checo went to chat with Lewis, Kimi and Seb as the younger ones went to do the 2021 just dance game. Alex, Charles and Lance were always winning but the rest had very bad dance moves but they were having fun.
Daniel arrived after Alex and Checo, he had brought the biggest sound box with him so that they could have the loudest parties in the house. Daniel was quick to attach himself to max like a leech. And when max went to grab more beer, dan would follow the dutchman like a lost puppy.
After dan came Valtteri and Antonio. They like every person before them picked out their rooms the first ten people could pick out rooms on the first floor the other eleven had to pick the second floor. Val sat with Kimi, seb and Lewis drinking beer while the two fins drink vodka from the bottle.
Max stole some sips of the vodka too, getting drunk while the rest was drinking beer. It was still too cold to stay outside for long periods. When it was nearing dinner time. Seb and lance were the first to cook. Agreeing upon the teams making dinner. So with red bull Alex would join them as he is a red bull reserve driver.
Fernando and Esteban followed soon after just in time for dinner that would be according to Seb be served in twenty minutes. Nikita Mazepin had texted that his flight in Russia had been delayed and wouldn't make it before dinner. So Seb had texted that they would leave a plate in the Microwave for him.
Mick arrived a few minutes after Esteban and Fernando, Mick was quick to go to Seb as he was the only guy that he really knows right now. but Max is quick to pull the German into their group and have him join their game of just dance.
Pierre, Yuki and Nicholas arrive all at the same time just in time for dinner. Once dinner is ready everyone sits around the table. The two Aston Martin drivers had made some spaghetti as that was the only meal they had ingredients for.
Max shoots some of his food with his spoon at the Australian, laughing as his hits him scare in the face. Lando laughs as Daniel shoots a meatball back at Max who barely dodges but it still smears into his hair. Max brushes his hand through his hair and starts laughing.
"bwoah, the food's good, guys." Kimi says.
"Thanks." Lance says, smiling at the compliment.
After dinner the younger guys went down to the basement, to play some games on the simulators that is down there. Racing against each other on the track of Bahrain. The older ones are up stairs watching a stupid love movie, Daniel had wants to watch.
Almost an hour into the movie, the door bell rings over the movie and the shouting of the younger drivers, more Lando, Alex and Max who shout loudly. Seb moves over to open the door, knowing that it has to be Nikita. On the other side of the door is definitely Nikita Mazepin. Seb lets him in and tells him that there is an empty room on the second floor. The only open door. While he will warm up the food for Nikita.
Once he is downstairs and his food is ready, he sits with the older guys on the couch and watches the movie they are watching. It feels weird for the Russian as he has never had any other driver other then Mick socialize with him.
After a few hours of screaming and shouting coming from the basement. The younger ones come up the stairs to join the older drivers with a horror movie. Before one by one they fill out of the living room to go to sleep. Kimi finds a text on his phone from Callum who would be arriving in the morning.
(A/N) if you liked this chapter, it's part of my F1 house book. so you can find it on my profiel. enjoy.