Formula 1: The GOAT

“Coffee, juice, water, what would you like?” Rümeysa asked Elena, who had just arrived and was invited into the dining room, which also served as their meeting room due to its size and welcoming ambience, though the lack of a dedicated one was also a factor.

“Just water, or else it looks like he is going to swallow me whole if we waste any more time,” Elena teased, using her chin to point at Fatih, who was breathing heavily from the excitement of what he was about to hear, earning a chuckle from Rümeysa.

Rümeysa immediately prepared and brought water for Elena. She had already removed all the documents she had brought from her bag and placed them on the table. After receiving the glass, she downed it fully in a single go before placing the cup down and taking a deep breath.

“These are copies of the plan they have in mind and would like to have you start on for your move to single-seaters next season,” she said as she handed the documents to both Fatih and Rümeysa before opening her own, planning to start her briefing on the plan.

“Considering that it is going to be a huge shift from karting to single-seaters, they would like to have as much time as possible to prepare you both physically and mentally so that by the time you participate in the season, you are as ready as one can be,” Elena started, giving them the gist of why they were doing this before diving into how they would actually achieve their goal.

“To achieve that, they are planning to start your training in September, or at the latest, October of this year, all the way into next year, until you have the shakedown of your official F4 car a few days before the season officially starts. Although the KZ2 category you’re in has more Gs than you will experience in an F4 car, you need to undergo physical strengthening due to the required heavy brake pressure and the lack of power steering.

After that, they will move to training, where you will learn everything there is about the car, the rules of F4, and everything that will give you an advantage, before moving to the simulator to get used to everything about the car. Finally, you’ll move to practicing in the actual car that they will be renting from a team,” she paused for a moment to allow them to digest the information.

“The team that will be responsible for overseeing your real-car driving practice sessions across tracks all over Britain and Europe will also be the team that you will be driving for in F4, Arden Motorsport. This will allow you to get used to the team’s operations before the season starts, with Red Bull just overseeing the process to ensure it is done as per their plans,” Elena said, resuming her briefing as she moved to the next page.

…….

Fatih, who was both listening and reading the document in front of him, couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow when he saw the number of tracks he was going to be driving on as practice to get used to all situations.

The document showed that they intended for Fatih to have track time on at least ten different tracks so that by the end of the test, he would have driven at least five thousand kilometers in total before he drove a single free practice lap of the British F4.

That alone showed how much they were ready to invest in him, which made Fatih quite happy about the suggestion, since it meant he was going to be driving the car for days in the real world.

When he heard her mention that, due to the risk of him not being eligible for Super license points if he competed in F4 before he was of eligible age, he was going to miss the first two rounds of the British F4, meaning he would be starting the season six races behind in points, he smiled internally and said to Apollo, “Wanna bet how much of that was deliberate?”

“Why bet on something we both know the answer to?” Apollo asked back while chuckling as he floated around the room in his child-sized body.

Both of them knew the Red Bull junior team’s, or to be specific, Helmut Marko’s, behavior and mentality, which made it easy to reach the conclusion that this was intentional. Based on how much they were going to be spending for this training period, it was very obvious that money was not the reason they were keeping him in British F4, especially for the reason they actually gave. It would not be that much different from what he was currently experiencing when he traveled for his international karting competitions, and there had not been any complaints from his side, nor did his school results show any decrease, so there was no need for them to start caring about such things now.

“The system is going to take that into consideration, right?” Fatih asked, doing his best not to have a visible grin.

“I don’t really know, but most likely, yeah, if they don’t give you a similar mission to the ’All or Nothing’ one,” Apollo responded lazily as he still floated in circles.

“Yeah, it is better to do that, but only after upgrading all of my abilities with the SP that I have earned over the previous years,” Fatih said before turning to Elena, who had just finished going through the briefing, and asked, “Does that mean I will have to pull out of the karting competitions that I’m scheduled to participate in this year?”

“I would suggest doing that, but you should complete at least the FIA European Championship, which you’ve already started, and the World Championship, which will just be one race, as they will all be finished before the program’s starting period,” Elena answered.

“I agree, I should at least finish my streak before moving forward,” Fatih said with an attitude that made it seem normal.

“But isn’t that taking needless risks? What if you get injured again and cause delays in your training?” Rümeysa asked as she remembered how abrupt the previous accident was and how, as a result, it had led to him being out for more than three months.

“That was the only accident I’ve had in all the years I have been karting, and it was the result of a deliberate crash. Plus, if we are worried about accidents, tripping and breaking my ankle would result in the same thing,” Fatih said, trying to calm and reason with her to allow him to finish at least this current competition. He wanted to accumulate as much SP as possible before the “All or Nothing” mission came to a conclusion, and depending on the rewards he might get from the system, the more SP he had, the better it was going to be for him.

“I agree with him. It is better for him to finish with a few more championships, or he will just be resting and doing nothing. Besides, we would lose most of our budget from the cancellation fees we have already prepaid,” Elena said, remembering that she was going to need to have conversations with some of their sponsors, like Tony Kart, who provided karts for his competitions, RFM, who are his team, and many others who would all be affected by this move should they agree to go ahead with the plan Red Bull had.

Rümeysa didn’t argue much about it. Although she gave her suggestions, she knew that she was being overly cautious, as Fatih had never done anything that would deliberately injure him. She asked, “So are they expecting our decision, or are they open to changes in their plan?”

“They are open to adjustments in the plan, but any major changes you might want need to be delivered to them as early as possible before anything is set in stone and payments and scheduling are completed. As for minor things, they can be accommodated so long as it is not too disruptive to their schedule,” Elena said, as it was also something she had asked.

“What about accommodations during the period that he is out of the country?”

“They will be the ones responsible for arranging it.”

“Is there anything we need to plan on our side?”

“A healthy Fatih and for him to follow the program they prepared to the best of his abilities. Other than that, there is not much.”

“Then we will go through the timetable and see if there are parts we might need to adjust and get back to you in a few days, but our decision is definitely yes; we will go ahead with it,” Rümeysa said after taking a few minutes to think. She saw no negatives in accepting the plan. After all, it was her son who was benefiting the most from the deal at the moment, with Red Bull investing all of this in the hope of a return on investment in the future, though it didn’t look to be that far off since Fatih’s popularity would, of course, increase the moment he moved to the Formula ladder.

“Then I will deliver your response when I receive the needed changes,” Elena said, hinting that she was going to delay their acceptance until they went through the entire schedule.