Formula 1: The GOAT

In his past life, the car he would most likely be driving in his debut season, if he did nothing, was the AlphaTauri. It was consistently in a position to fight against Ferrari and McLaren and was sometimes the fourth-quickest car in qualifying pace on average.

Gasly had regularly dragged the car to Q3 and even challenged for the second row at several circuits. The drivers who drove it all described it as one of the most drivable cars on the entire grid, well-connected from high-speed to low-speed corners with a very wide aerodynamic operating window, exactly what a team focused on developing young rookie drivers is supposed to build.

If he let things be, there were still a few races where, with perfect execution, he could fight for a win and even more where he could secure at least a podium.

However, Fatih was not planning on letting things be. Although he could meet the promotion condition with the car at its expected capabilities, the time it would take to achieve that was too long. He wanted to be in the main Red Bull car as fast as possible and have the best car to fight for a possible title in his debut season.

It was going to be a long shot, but to make that long shot possible, he needed to be in that Red Bull car as fast as possible. To make that happen, he needed to change the direction they were planning to go with the car.

He had to wait until now because their funds were tied up in investments, but also because the FIA had yet to make the decision to push the regulation changes planned for the 2021 season to the 2022 season, a topic currently under discussion with the teams. In his past life, the decision was made exactly two days from now, on March 19th. This would allow him to negotiate with a clear picture of what the 2021 car would be, before the team had made a single decision on its development, as everything would still be new and not yet set in stone.

”You want to sponsor them? Why?”

”Do you know the reason the top teams are top teams and the bottom teams remain that way?”

”Spending,” she said, answering his question.

”You are correct, but the FIA is planning to implement a cost cap for next season, so that gap will be reduced slightly. But that only starts next season, which also means next season’s cars are a window of opportunity.

If we invest ahead of time to be the name sponsor for the 2021 season and pay it upfront under the condition that it is used only for the development of the 2021 car, and invest the remainder next year to make sure they are spending on improving the car, along with a few more conditions, I can get into a more competitive car.

The better I perform, the more exposure Helios will have in return. So it’s not money spent for performance alone. We can even push for the following year for the team we sponsor to use our Helios program to run their simulation programs and get more out of it,” he said, trying to find another excuse other than a pure performance increase that would promote him to Red Bull.

He looked at it as something not worth it for his mother to spend such money on when the seat was guaranteed, and he himself had already told her that he was going to be eligible for promotion, albeit later in the season. He needed to give her other reasons to stack on top of it.

Although forty million over two years with thirty million dollars upfront might look like chump change for someone who has made billions, being frugal with money is how rich people get richer.

”What are the ring-fenced conditions you have in mind? How much could the sponsorship money even help the team?” she asked, wanting to know how much performance the money would extract and to see if he had a plan in mind or was just thinking of spending money without one, just hoping it would help.

”Good question,” Fatih said, walking to the printer that was still in the dining room with a laptop connected to it. He opened the laptop, found a document written just a few days ago, and pressed print. The printer came to life and started churning out papers.

”According to media reports, the FIA, in a bid to reduce spending for next season’s cars and stop teams with money from gaining too much advantage over the financially constrained ones, is going to freeze development in a few key, expensive areas.

Other than aerodynamic bodywork and cooling systems, which will remain free to develop, most of the remaining parts will require the use of a token that each team will have a max of two to develop them.

Those things include the survival cell, impact structures, gearbox casing and internals, inboard front and rear suspension, and electrical looms, which cost two tokens as they are considered major upgrades. The Drag Reduction System (DRS), clutch, hydraulic systems, and brakes require the use of one token if you want to upgrade them,” he said as he handed her the now fully printed document and started explaining what the ring-fencing was going to look like.

”This token system restricts teams from developing many of these parts, but customer teams are permitted to upgrade to the latest parts from their suppliers for the 2021 season without using a single token. For AlphaTauri, which is currently using 2019 parts even in 2020, this means they can upgrade to the latest 2020 redesigned compact gearbox to allow for tighter, more aggressively sculpted sidepods to improve airflow over the top of the diffuser, the rear suspension layout to clear...”

He started listing parts that they could include in the contract that AlphaTauri had to take the latest parts for because he knew if he let them make the decision on their own, they would make the same decision they did in his past life: decline both the compact gearbox casing and the rear suspension layout.

In this season, they would see that the rear of the Red Bull would be very twitchy and unstable for drivers like Albon, and they thought swapping would make their car’s excellent rear aerodynamics a mess, requiring them to redesign the rear floor and forcing them to fight two battles at once, which they didn’t have the manpower or funding for.

However, with the thirty million he would be injecting, it would remove all the short-term pain they would go through if they took the latest parts from Red Bull. They could run parallel design teams, with one focusing on integrating the new gearbox and rear suspension, while the other would spend their development tokens on the new slim nosecone and wouldn’t have to choose which side to upgrade.

When Fatih was done explaining what a portion of the money was going to be used for, he paused for a moment to see if his mother understood anything. From her expression, although she didn’t understand everything, she looked to have understood the general idea, so he continued.

”The second part will be spent on hiring an aerodynamicist while also requiring them to move to the 60% scale wind tunnel ahead of time from the 50% scale one they are using and are planning to leave next year. It should allow them to do more things at higher fidelity and push the allowed time in the wind tunnel to the limit, which they are currently incapable of reaching due to funding limitations, resulting in leaving some performance on the table. This move should also help them because the FIA is planning on cutting the floor to hurt rear downforce, which should allow them to find a solution to recover it.”

”If all of this works as intended and they live up to the agreed terms, the car will definitely improve the positions it will be fighting for,” he said. When he finished his explanation, he didn’t say it, but deep down, he knew that if they actually followed these steps, the car would be very competitive and should be able to beat McLaren and Ferrari to be the third-fastest car on the grid after they solved all the kinks from these changes early in the season. It’s not like he wasn’t going to be participating, since he could ask to be on the simulator, driving the test car for the 2021 season, and give his feedback for the improvement of the car, helping them solve many of the small problems that cumulatively lead to a loss of time.

Now that his seat was guaranteed for the 2021 season, he was greedy. He wanted to shoot for the title and beat what Hamilton failed to achieve by just one point: winning the driver’s championship in his debut season.