Formula 1: The GOAT

Thursday, May 13.

Flight TK1986 carrying passengers from London, England, landed at Istanbul Airport at 10:15 PM.

As the door to the plane opened and the people from business class were free to leave the plane first, Fatih was among the first individuals to leave, donned in a mask while carrying a backpack, walking a few steps ahead of Burak, Alex, and Elena as they headed towards passport control.

It took all of them about ten minutes to get through passport control before they could finally head towards the exit. However, they had to make a short detour as airport security ushered them in a certain direction. Moments later, the reason was finally clear as they were covered in the constantly flashing white light from the cameras of a small group of reporters, who were legally allowed to be outside during the curfew hours amidst the heavy 17-day COVID lockdown being enforced.

Upon seeing the reporters, whom he had expected, Fatih just waved to the team behind him and rushed towards them, wanting to get through this as fast as possible.

....

”Hoş geldin (Welcome),” one of the reporters, carrying a pole with a mic that had a TRT cover on it, said when Fatih came to a stop on an X-marked spot.

”Thank you,” he answered, naturally speaking Turkish.

”A big day for you and for Turkey in motorsports is ahead. How do you feel about that, and what can people expect from the day?” the reporter immediately got to asking questions.

”It is something my family and I have been working for, and now that we are finally on the final steps, I’m excited and looking forward to it,” he answered calmly.

”What are your feelings on the lack of a crowd, despite the overwhelming number of applications from people wanting to attend the event?”

”It would have been great to have them there to witness us take the final step, but it is not important enough to risk people’s health for it, especially when they can watch from the comfort of their homes. I’m already thankful that the event was still allowed to go ahead,” he answered without missing a beat.

Although they had planned and prepared for a large crowd during the coordination period with the government, which looked to be planning to use the event as a test for a limited opening, the case numbers suddenly increased at the start of the month. As a result, the country entered a 17-day lockdown, killing any and all chances of people attending the event in person and leaving the broadcast as the only option.

It was also the reason his stepfather was the only one from his family attending. His mother and grandmother, who had supported him fully since his childhood, would have done everything in their power to be there for him in the most important moment of his career. Unfortunately, due to her pregnancy, his mother couldn’t risk attending and increasing the risk of contracting the disease. It was the same for his grandmother, since she is in a high-risk group. In the end, only his stepfather from his family could attend.

”I’m sure they will be supporting you from the other end of the TV. Now, moving to the event after that, the season has started very excitingly. Where do you see your performance for your debut season with AlphaTauri?” the reporter moved to the next topic immediately.

”The car has been performing very well, and if we overlook the disastrous performance in the first race, we have managed to finish in fourth position once and fifth position twice, making it very clear that we are very competitive among the best of the rest if we overlook Red Bull and Mercedes. I would hope to be able to match, if not exceed, the performance shown by Gasly and Tsunoda, who both have done a splendid job for the team.”

......

”He is as good at talking to the media as he is at driving,” Alex said, leaning towards Burak as they watched Fatih answer the questions easily.

”I don’t think he is as good at anything else to the same level as his driving,” Elena said, causing the three of them to chuckle.

The three of them knew that Fatih was quite good at many things; he was good at studying and much more, but when compared to his driving, all of those things paled in comparison.

”How long will this take? He needs to rest for tomorrow’s meeting with the TOSFED representatives,” Burak leaned and asked Elena.

”I’ll take him away if they keep it going past ten minutes,” Elena answered. As if they knew they couldn’t extend it much longer, they finally brought the long interview to an end by the ninth minute, having answered as many questions as they had. Fatih was finally escorted to their waiting vehicle, and they immediately started their journey to the hotel.

Although per the rules he would have been required to stay in quarantine for fourteen days, he was provided an exemption so long as he had a negative test twice a day for the next two days. Red Bull, on the other hand, had gone ahead and sent their team an entire three weeks ahead of time to make sure the session wasn’t cancelled just because one of the engineers had a positive test.

Upon arriving at the hotel, they all headed to get tested first before going to their rooms to rest once all of them had recorded negative results.

......

It didn’t take ten minutes for clips of his arrival and interview to be spread on social media, starting with Turkish social media, which, thanks to the lockdown, had its highest number of daily users. It took only a short period before the interview had subtitles and started spreading on the international side of social media.

People discussed his answers before moving on to what he could do, while some argued if it was a good decision to replace Tsunoda, who had gone on to earn points in every race since his debut, just so Fatih could drive. They debated if it would be better to bench him until next season, but more than anything, it was very clear that a large number of people were going to be watching the test taking place on Sunday.