Formula 1: The GOAT

”Good to see you here.”

”Good to see you here as well,” James said as he shook hands and gave Fatih a side hug when they arrived at the Silverstone track on Friday morning.

”How does AlphaTauri treat you?” Fatih asked as they separated.

”It is quite enjoyable, but the learning curve is quite large compared to F4 operations,” James said as they started walking into the garage.

Red Bull kept up with the tradition, and upon Fatih’s request, they had promoted two individuals who had been with him since his F4 days to AlphaTauri ahead of time, as they expected their request for an exemption to be allowed. So, when their request was denied, they still kept their positions to gain more experience for when he could finally legally get his super license. During that period, they would also be participating in all of his on-track sessions to keep that connection.

”Where is Lisa?” Fatih asked as he looked around the garage for the Chief Mechanic, who was the second individual to be promoted along with James.

”She was here a few seconds ago,” James said as he looked around before stopping a passing mechanic to ask him about her whereabouts.

”She went upstairs about a minute ago,” the mechanic said before nodding and continuing with his job.

Due to preparations for the season being hot and fully active, other than James and Lisa, everyone else was from Red Bull’s specialized Heritage Department. They were usually responsible for repairing and making sure all of the team’s previous cars were in drivable condition, but also for traveling for promotional runs, filming days, and Testing of Previous Cars sessions.

As they were walking towards the stairs to go to the upper floor, they met two people who were walking down towards them, catching Fatih by surprise. Although he expected one of them to be there, he was not at all expecting the second one: the one and only Christian Horner, the man who single-handedly built this team from day one.

”I can finally put a face to the name of our driver’s mother. Welcome, everyone,” Horner said as he extended his hand towards Rümeysa.

”I couldn’t agree more,” she said as she reciprocated the handshake before pointing to Burak and saying, ”This is my husband, Burak; this is my mother, Güldane; and this is Elena, whom you already know,” introducing the rest of the family.

”Nice to meet you, Burak and Güldane,” Horner said as he shook hands with the two of them, butchering Fatih’s grandmother’s name, which the three of them were already used to.

”They are waiting for you to start today’s briefing, so you can go ahead,” Helmut said, pointing Fatih to the stairs, as he was needed there more than here.

”See you later,” Fatih said to his family and Elena before leaving them there to talk with the two titans of motorsports as he walked with Alex.

....

”The weather is not cooperating, but it is still drivable at the moment, so we will be going ahead with the sessions and will adapt based on the situation. So let’s not waste time and immediately get to the point and start the sessions as early as possible before the rain gets heavier,” Michael said while sitting in the head position of the meeting room, starting the pre-session briefing.

James immediately took over as he started going through the plan, ”The three-day test will be divided into twelve different sessions, split into about four sessions a day, though there can be additional sessions or cuts depending on the situation. For Friday, we will be...”

James went through all the plans in basic detail, leaving the in-depth discussion of each session for the briefing meetings before the start of those sessions.

Fatih silently went through the stack of paper in front of him, in tandem with what James was talking about, as he saw with his own eyes how meticulous the plan was, planning to keep everything in mind.

The meeting took half an hour before it was finally done, and Fatih was allowed to leave to go and do his warm-up and preparation for the first session.

He immediately headed to his assigned driver’s room and changed into his racing overalls, but left the top half hanging at his waist as he started warming up his neck and body before Alex came knocking on his door ten minutes later.

”They are ready and waiting for you,” he said when Fatih opened the door.

”Finally,” Fatih said as he picked up his helmet and HANS device along with a balaclava before they started heading downstairs into the garage.

.......

”Are you ready?” Lisa said as Fatih placed his helmet on the table in the garage and started finishing putting on his half-worn racing suit, leaving the collar still open.

”I was never not,” Fatih said as he put on his molded earphones after wetting them with saliva, followed by his balaclava, then his HANS device, and finally his helmet, which he immediately connected to the HANS device before getting into the RB14-H, a car that in its current specification had never officially raced.

It was a special vehicle modified at the end of the 2018 season to remove the Renault engine and, in its place, put the 2018 Honda engine that was previously used in that season’s Toro Rosso, as a way to allow their junior drivers to log thousands of miles of Honda driving experience without having to wait for the 2019 cars to be eligible.

{Radio check?} James asked over the radio as Lisa was tightening Fatih’s seat belt, making sure he was strapped in tightly.

{Loud and Clear,} he answered, after hearing the same voice he was already used to hearing for his past two single-seater careers.

{Okay, just reminding you. This session is just a single system check lap, so we will not be going higher than 100 mph,} James said, knowing how excited a young driver would be to finally be in an F1 car and might go ahead and just push it.

{I know, I know,} Fatih said in a tone that made it clear to anyone that he was rolling his eyes.

{Okay, we will go soon,} James said, chuckling, before doing final checks with those on the pit wall and those at home, waiting to be given a go sign.

It didn’t take too long for those signs to be given, which was immediately reciprocated by James to Lisa, who was standing in front of the garage exit showing Fatih a stop sign with her hands. This immediately changed into a thumbs-up as she moved back to leave an opening for him to leave the garage.

VRRRROOOOOOOOOOM

The moment he saw the thumbs-up, he immediately hit the throttle, and the car responded as he left the pit lane with the tires sliding, leaving marks on the white garage surface.