Formula 1: The GOAT

“This is too foolish for it to be something Helmut would do, but at the same time, it is not something that would happen without someone either deliberately doing it or a level of incompetence that borders on unbelievable,” Fatih said to his mother and manager, who were listening to his side of things the moment he returned home.

He couldn’t even stay on the track for the remainder of the weekend due to how much attention this situation had attracted the moment it was leaked to the public. Since he didn’t have any remaining sessions he could participate in, he left as soon as he was cleared.

“I will have someone look into it and have them come up with possible theories of how such a thing could happen, but at the moment, the most important thing is how the situation is going to unfold,” Rümeysa said, making it clear that she had noted Fatih’s suspicion but it was not something they could solve at the moment, so they should focus on the most urgent situation.

Fatih wanted to argue that finding the one behind it, if there was one, was very important, as it would clear him of all possible punishments. But he knew finding and proving that it was them, if there was one in the first place, was going to take time, if it was even possible.

“I would like to first apologize for not being the one to inform you regarding the license situation since I thought the Red Bull side would update you. It is my oversight, and if you give me the opportunity, I will do my best to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” Elena Petrova, Fatih’s manager, said as she lowered her head slightly, making it clear that she was not planning on shifting the blame.

“So long as it serves as an example, I will accept the apology,” Fatih said, accepting it without dragging it at all, as he knew that it was a very busy period of time for Elena. She had been tied down with a mountain of work for the past two months as she had to oversee her and her team being absorbed into the family office structure while at the same time expanding the team to fill all of their increased responsibilities.

It had shifted from just her overseeing Fatih’s sports negotiations into a company that was fully responsible for everything Fatih-related in motorsports. He knew it was a mountain of work that she was doing perfectly, and during that period, she seemed to have placed more trust in the Red Bull side in expectation of their professionalism, but it seemed the same level of professionalism didn’t trickle down to the driver academy.

“Thank you,” Elena said, feeling grateful that Fatih wasn’t blinded by the situation and could still think and differentiate things clearly.

“So what are the possible outcomes for the situation as it is?” Fatih asked, very curious as to how the situation would be interpreted since three different entities were entwined and depending on who decided to oversee the case.

“The least likely to oversee the case is TOSFED, since they just issued the testing license and nothing more. The one with the highest likelihood is Motorsport UK, since they are the ones responsible for all day-to-day regulatory enforcement and judicial proceedings for national series. The last one is the FIA directly, and although they rarely interfere in small matters, they might decide to take this one in order to set an example of what happens when such things happen.

If TOSFED oversees it, it will be to our advantage since they are on our side. If Motorsport UK oversees it, it is still to our advantage, though it will not be due to our influence but Red Bull’s. The same would be true if the FIA takes the matter directly, and the risk in that is that Red Bull might not put the same amount of effort as we would have put if it had happened in Turkey under TOSFED.”

“If it had happened a few months from now, it would have been easier to deal with than now,” Rümeysa said as a response to what Elena said while she pinched her brows.

“Well, problems usually don’t wait until you are ready to deal with them. But why would it be easy to deal with it then?”

“Building direct connections with the regulatory bodies so that we can do something about matters like this or lobby for advantageous rule changes. For starters, we planned to use the shares you have on FOM to slowly build those connections, which should take a few months before we have any amount of actionable influence within them,” Elena explained.

“Ooh, then that leaves us with limited options, right?”

“Yes, we would need Red Bull’s help and muscle, but that puts them in the position of power, and they might demand things in return for the amount of support we request from them.”

“Even if they are the ones who made the mistake of not informing the team?”

“They can say it was a genuine mistake and argue about it, but not try to solve it at all costs, which would result in a reduced punishment but not to the maximum possible reduction they could have gotten if they had gotten fully involved.

But that is still just a theory, and they might go with their entire might from the get-go, and all of this will be a misunderstanding,” Elena said, making it clear that she was already looking at Red Bull as a possible adversary, not someone who would be on their side all the time.

It was a shift in outlook that Fatih welcomed, as it meant she was fully adjusting to his point of view and how they should look at anyone who was not completely on their side as a fully trusted individual.

“But since they reported it, it means it should reduce the punishment or end with just a warning, right?” Fatih asked, knowing that the moment they reported the incident, it went from continuing to be illegal to something that would be seen as a mistake from the start of the investigation.

“Yes, but they would also want to set an example out of it so it doesn’t happen again, so the punishment would be somewhere in between. Since the range is so wide, we don’t know where it would fall,” Elena said as she removed a piece of paper that had something printed on it before she added, “The legal team came up with possible punishments we can receive based on the regulations.

The harshest is you are banned from earning Super License points for two whole years, effectively killing your competitiveness for the next two years, as you will only have two years to earn the license points if you want to debut in F1 at 18. The least punishment is a reprimand, so the middle ground is the most likely outcome. You could get banned from the competition for a year, which we would consider to be a good compromise, but if we argue further, we can have it reduced further if possible, using the self-report as the base to stand on.”

“But how is the situation going to be overseen if Motorsport UK is the one to oversee it?”

“It starts with the championship stewards, who review the report and refer the breach of regulation to Motorsport UK since it exceeds their power. The Motorsport UK Disciplinary Officer will review if the breach warrants a hearing in the national court, which will look into the case and our arguments and issue a verdict.”

“How long would it take until a verdict is given?”

“Since the court is not a regular court and is only convened once a month, we will need to wait for a week. They gather on the fifteenth of this month. The hearing itself will take less than four hours, and we should receive the decision within twenty-four hours after that. That is the general route, though we can request an expedited hearing, which would happen in five days, but I advise against that since we need to use that time to influence individuals and have the punishment be as light as possible,” Elena explained.

“So we will know in a week,” Fatih said, nodding. He didn’t even question the topic of influencing people to reduce the punishment, as he knew this was the standard modus operandi in the world of motorsports.

Trying to deal with it “fairly” would be foolish when everyone else was using every available advantage to benefit themselves. Why should he tie his own hands just to feel a sense of moral superiority when that would only result in his own harm? Had it been on the track, then his principles would be different, but this was a matter outside of it. There was no system that was going to help him here, and neither was his talent useful in this aspect.

“Thank you for your hard work ahead of time,” Fatih said, thanking Elena. He knew her workload was going to increase for the upcoming week, as she would be the point of contact between their team and Red Bull until the verdict was reached and they decided whether to accept or appeal it.

“Hahahaha,” Elena laughed at Fatih’s words, which lightened the mood. They then returned to their conversation to discuss other matters at hand and how they would go about dealing with them.