Formula 1: The GOAT

“How is your hand?” Hauger asked immediately as they broke from their hug.

“It’s good enough to make beating you still easy,” Fatih said as he stretched his hand, making some movements to show it was fine. He stopped midway before lowering it, and though Hauger noticed, he acted as if he didn’t see it.

“Since I kept my promise, we are even,” he said, ignoring Fatih’s remarks about him still being easy to beat.

“It is good that you did so by winning the race, but couldn’t you have made it so that you finish P5 and he finishes in P6? That way, he wouldn’t have increased the gap more. Because he finished third, I’m now 63 points behind,” Fatih said as he put his arm over Hauger’s shoulder, leaning on him as they resumed their walk to their paddock. Alex, who had come with him, had already gone ahead to set things up.

“Well, I think that is what they are going to be doing this week,” Hauger said in response.

“What are you talking about?”

“I heard the team principal is also attending the initial team meeting, and you know how he hates them,” Hauger said, passing him the information he had gathered.

“Any guesses what it is going to be about?” Fatih asked. He was curious, as the team principal never attended any of them as far as he could remember, and his memory was quite good.

“It is just a guess, but it is related to the championship. Since you are still mathematically in contention, don’t you think they would do their best to make sure you win it? After all, why would they give up the opportunity to win both championships when one is all but guaranteed?”

“HOOOOOOO, I didn’t think of that,” Fatih said as if he had finally realized he had been ignoring something obvious that was right in front of him.

“…..” Hauger stopped for a moment, looking at Fatih with a surprised expression at what he had said and how it looked like he was not joking.

“What is wrong?”

“You’ve never received team support to win a championship? How can you say you never imagined it?”

“I always won all the races, so there was never a need for that,” he said as a matter of fact.

“I want to say stop lying, but I can’t really say that,” Hauger said as he hit his forehead, having a difficult time coming to terms with what he was hearing. “I may be wrong, so let’s not get our hopes up,” he added as they resumed their walk to the paddock.

“So, which one of you is going to crash into Jewiss?” Fatih asked before laughing at his own question.

…

“We currently find ourselves with an opportunity to take triple championships, depending on how we run this final round. We already have the rookie championship settled,” the team principal said, looking at Fatih for a moment before returning to face the rest of the people at the table as he continued his speech. “We also have the team championship already on hand if we, on average, finish within the top ten. But the drivers’ championship, on the other hand, needs everyone in this room and out there to give their very best to support Fatih in having the chance to win it. So I expect everyone to do their best. After all, he is the only one who still has a chance for the title, and I thank you ahead of time for everything you will be doing for the team.”

He paused for a moment before he added, “Each additional championship we win, the more our bonus pays,” as an attempt to increase the motivation of the team members.

And it worked, for the normal team members at least. As for the drivers, they weren’t really looking forward to it. It was not a good feeling having to drive when you know every action you will be making will be for the advantage of another driver on your team. After all, they were competitors for the Red Bull F1 seat first before being teammates, and the risk of what they had to do this weekend becoming the expectation in the future was small, but it was still there.

The only saving grace was that this was the final round of the championship. There would be a break until next year’s season, and that would most likely reset the situation, as other drivers would likely participate in other leagues without Fatih, giving them the opportunity to once again shine without him hogging all of the light.

Borris looked at the drivers before turning to James, Fatih’s engineer, and said, “Please take us through the plan,” giving him the stage to take over. He was the one who had the entire plan, as he knew Fatih the best, and because of that, would know what he needed most from the team for the support to be as effective as possible.

“The plan is a two-front one, and both sides need to work well in order for our target to be achieved. The first one is Fatih’s side, which requires him to secure the maximum points possible. That only requires Fatih to keep the same performance as usual, and at the moment, other drivers are not expected to do anything in support of this part of the plan. But if the situation calls for it, it will be used if the end result would be him achieving the targeted result. The second part of the plan, on the other hand, requires all of the drivers to give it their all and make…”

James went on and on, breaking down what they needed to achieve, why they needed to achieve it, and how they were going to achieve it, while providing as many details as possible and accounting for as many contingencies as realistically possible.

For the first time since he had started racing, Fatih was going to be on the receiving end of support from the other drivers on the team, and everyone present in the room, other than the drivers, wondered how that was going to end.