Formula 1: The GOAT

“What did you feel when you were informed about having entered the session with a practice license?”

Upon hearing the question, Fatih took a moment to digest it and think about his feelings during that day, a few seconds that were fully captured under the cinematic lighting inside the otherwise windowless and covered room.

It was time to shoot his first interview for the current season’s docuseries, and the director wanted to get his answer to one of the most talked-about matters in motorsports while it was still fresh on Fatih’s mind. They had been among those who had followed him even to the hearing but had kept their distance following Rümeysa’s request. In return, she had facilitated an earlier interview as compensation.

“I felt disappointed in myself,” he said after about twenty seconds of silence.

“Yourself? Why so? It’s not like you did it knowingly,” the interviewer asked, his questions rapid, as if he realized that he was on the verge of an interesting answer that would give them a golden interview.

“Because it was then that I realized that I hadn’t asked to see or even set my eyes on the license, trusting that the situation was handled without me checking on it,” Fatih said, speaking at a slow pace.

“But don’t drivers usually not even see their licenses in the first place?”

“It was the same for me even when they were being handled by my mother and my manager, but it seems that gave me a sense of security even when Red Bull was now responsible for handling the situation, because I never faced any problems regarding that matter before,” Fatih said in response, not so subtly pointing out that he was partially at fault for trusting Red Bull regarding that matter, which resulted in him seeing quite an interesting reaction from the interviewer and the rest of the crew in the room.

The response was very different from the expected answers from someone who is under a driver academy, as they would usually try to avoid pointing fingers at the purse-string holders as much as possible, since it risked destroying relationships and having them dropped. But Fatih didn’t have that worry, as this was his way of responding to the blatant silence that Red Bull had elected to take regarding this matter, leading to it heading in a very weird direction.

“Does that mean that starting now, you will make sure to look at your license?” the interviewer asked once again, trying to get further information and see if Fatih was really going to show distrust in Red Bull when it came to matters such as facilitating the licensing situation.

“My team will now be the one taking the lead in those matters from now on, with Red Bull supporting if there comes a need for that,” Fatih said, which was no different from him saying yes, but even worse, since his team had now taken over the license application situation entirely.

“What were your thoughts regarding the verdict? Do you think it was fair for you to be punished when you were not aware of the situation?” Seeing that Fatih was open and not hiding or beating around the bush, he immediately moved to the next interesting question, lest his manager decide to interrupt the interview and have a talk with Fatih regarding pulling his punches back.

“Being unaware of the law while breaking it does not make the law invalid or exempt you from being punished for breaking it. My not checking the license and illegally entering the track with an unqualified license does not make the twelve-race ban unfair. Rather, it was very lenient, considering that the recommended punishment was a two-year ban on earning Super License points.”

“How devastating would that verdict have been to you?”

“Depending on my performance, it could be offset so long as I dominate the F2 season once the ban is lifted to earn all of the required Super License points. But leaving everything back to a single season when it can be avoided is not a good thing. After all, we don’t know if I would suffer an injury that would keep me away from the track, like what happened when my lung was punctured and I was out for a few months. That would mean I would have to spend another additional season in F2 needlessly.”

“From your statements, it looks like you have no intention of repeating any formula ladder. And if we take the two-year ban that was discussed, it would mean your F4 and F3 would have been out, leaving F2 in 2020 as the only chance to earn the Super License points. Does that make sense, and is your intention to enter F1 in the 2021 season?” the reporter said, going through a breakdown using the information he received from the answer to his hypothetical question, his voice trailing with excitement as he kept hearing surprising information after surprising information.

“That is my intention.”

“Isn’t it unrealistic to have that much confidence in the timeline of achieving things?”

“I will do everything in my power to make it a reality.”

“Is that why you chose Red Bull?” the interviewer asked as if he had stumbled on another goldmine.

“Yes. After all, they are known to have the most aggressive promotion so long as the driver continues to perform, and that is a requirement I’m confident I can meet,” Fatih said with full confidence, not beating around the bush at all.

To the interviewer and the crew, it looked like he was just stating his conviction and dreams, but to Elena, who was silently listening and recording the audio of the interview with her phone, the answer carried a completely different meaning: advertisement. As a result of Red Bull’s silence, a slight dissatisfaction had grown from their side, and this was Fatih’s way of telling other teams who might still be interested in having him as their driver what his demands were.

If they could promise to keep them, then he had no qualms about leaving Red Bull’s side for their team. He had already made it very clear that the only reason he had joined them was their aggressive promotion, while at the same time setting a clear target of when he wanted that debut to take place.

He knew the interview would only be posted along with the docuseries next year, and that was exactly what his target was. He knew if it was released now, it would attract attention, but his karting dominance might not be enough to have them make the move immediately, as they would want to wait and see how he adapted to single-seaters consistently.

He was planning on using the F4 season upon his return as the largest proof of value that would be bundled along with his declaration that he was open to leaving if someone offered him something good and guaranteed, which should serve as enough motivation to have them move immediately under the fear that another team would make the move. It would also act as a fire under Red Bull as well, once they saw their rivals, Ferrari and Mercedes, showing massive interest in trying to recruit a talent that could be their own Verstappen.

For a team like Mercedes, Toto, who had been so bogged down for having missed recruiting Verstappen before Red Bull swiped him, to the point that they jumped to recruit Kimi and have him immediately join the main team, he knew that they were going to be the most aggressive. In return for this, either Red Bull would get their act together, or Fatih would receive an even better offer and move to another team.

“But won’t you face the same problem regarding the minimum age requirement being eighteen, and you will be seventeen at the start of the 2021 season? Have you already taken that into consideration?”

“Yes. If we look at the reasons for the implementation of the Super License system, experience is the largest one, as they needed to avoid inexperienced drivers being fast-tracked to F1, like Verstappen was.

But can that reason still stand if someone has more than the required minimum number of Super License points ahead of time and shows good driving and is not prone to accidents? Wouldn’t an exemption for a very talented individual be taken into consideration when it comes to the minimum age requirement if all other requirements are met?” He said this, too, being another requirement, which was for the teams to guarantee lobbying to the FIA for an exemption clause to be added to the licensing system.

He knew it wasn’t an absurd request for the three teams that he hoped to debut in, as Mercedes had done this for Kimi Antonelli in his past life, so he was confident that both Red Bull and Ferrari could achieve the same effect, albeit a few years earlier than it had been done in his past life. He also knew that all of these unbelievable demands were only going to be fulfilled if he showed appropriate performance.

Although he was confident he could do it well, he had used both this situation and the dissatisfaction he was feeling with Red Bull, and spent two of his four simulation hours practicing on the Croft Circuit, getting to know it intimately for his return, as he needed to make a statement from the get-go and not do it in a gradual form.

It was also the only reason Apollo agreed to give up two of the four hours of simulation time he had, after he had previously used both to teach Fatih about the car and to train his Invictus, which had already reached Limit Break.

The interview continued for the next two hours before it was finally completed.

“Thank you for the work, and although it is two days early, happy birthday,” the interviewer said as he shook hands with Fatih, who had just removed his microphone.

“Thank you for both,” Fatih said, acknowledging that he was soon going to be of legal age to finally get his license, as his team was already in contact with TOSFED to have the license issued as soon as he was eligible.