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It was no surprise that Max didn’t have a good rookie season. Performance wise, he did very good, but aside from that, it wasn’t great. Between his dad’s expectations, the other driver’s reactions to him, and the car having issues, his rookie year hadn’t been great.
He was very glad for it years later, as it helped show him the truth in F1, specifically in the drivers. Even his closest friends now, both drivers and ex-drivers, weren’t kind to him at all. Alonso was probably the only driver who was explicitly friendly, but he was often discouraged from praising the boy’s performance, due to his father seeing it as weak to rely on praise. Alonso thankfully stayed close throughout the years, especially now that Jos wasn’t hovering nearly as much.
On the topic of drivers, basically everyone else had been rude or clearly unhappy with his presence. Even Daniel at the time wasn’t a fan of him, though he was now ironically one of Max’s best friends. He remembers the constant comments and insults made about him, mostly on his lack of social skills and sex. In his defense, he was still learning English, hadn’t really had friends growing up, and was still young. The worst comments were from older drivers, legends that Max had analyzed for tactics for years prior. No one (outside of Jos and Max’s doctors) knew if Max was an alpha or omega, which apparently was an issue in many driver’s eyes.
While a majority of said drivers were retired by now, he’d never forget how they treated him. He knew he was a handful going into F1, but he knew that a bunch of grown men had no excuse to basically bullly a 17 year old. Let alone one that everyone always knew went about everything differently.
He’d definitely gotten better throughout the years, his anger issues fading quite a bit due to better management and less exposure to his father. His overall demeanor towards other drivers had become softer, more willing to be nice, but definitely still staying blunt and competitive. Specifically, he’d been borderline adopting rookies. The earliest one was Oscar. The boy had been extremely withdrawn from everyone, though stayed overall rather polite. Max had the kid following him for advice and support after the 4th race of the season, confusing many as the why the Alpine boy was following someone like Max .
Everyone blurred together after that, rookies enjoying how he explained things, how he corrected them, basically anything he did. It was mostly subtle for years, just rookies looking towards champions for advice. He rather enjoyed watching the rookies finally find out their identity and watch them grow into it. But 2025 made it extremely clear how close he’d been to the younger drivers for years.
5 rookies was definitely something unique to see in F1, though given the retirements and team changes, the sport was due for a new wave of drivers. Max just hadn’t expected them all to immediately latch onto him. Both figuratively and literally. His first time being in a room with them all was before the season started, when all the drivers gathered to take the complete driver picture together. Before even getting the picture, all the rookies were huddled together, excited but definitely nervous. They were all quietly chatting while the other drivers talked amongst themselves in smaller groups.
Max didn’t even make it into the room, being the last one in, before the rookies swarmed him. They quite literally surrounded him, all happily saying how excited they were to race against him, and how they looked forward to it. Despite being a tad confused at the sudden welcome party, Max returned the affection, saying he was glad to watch so many rookies grow into phenomenal drivers.
They all returned to their original spot, the other drivers giving Max a confused look. Not even Lewis Hamilton himself had ever gotten rookies to react to his presence like that. The room had a faint milky scent that only came from pups, but faded as they got close to around 18, when they’d finally present.
About a week later in the first race of the season, Max found himself being watched before even making it into the paddock. All the rookies were staying close to the entrances of their garages, eerily watching Max. It wasn’t necessarily creepy to him, he was more curious than anything. He’d never had a little fan group end up being drivers he’d fight against.
It was certainly going to be an interesting season.