Formula 1: The GOAT

”I believe we have a very competitive car, and in Monaco, where the pace spread is very limited, a fight for the podium is within our expectations, and I believe we can do that. I am not going to sit here and say my target is to finish ahead of my teammate, as that is expected considering the gap in our experience with the car, where I have four rounds and a pre-season test, and he has none. It would rather be a problem if I qualify or finish the race behind him, barring force majeure.”

Gasly answered while avoiding the seat guarantee part of the question entirely.

”I have yet to drive the car for even a single lap for me to go out and say what success relative to Gasly is. He is a very talented driver and one with experience on the circuit, while for me, the experience on this circuit is limited to an F3 round. I have yet to experience the car or the track to define what success is going to be. I am approaching this weekend with the intention of learning everything I possibly can while also extracting everything the car has to offer. If those two things align on Sunday, the result will take care of itself.”

There was a short lull of a few seconds before the next reporter asked his questions, and this time, pointed to Max and Fatih.

”Max, if Fatih qualifies ahead of you at some point this weekend, does that genuinely surprise you? And Fatih, is qualifying ahead of Max Verstappen something you have considered as a realistic possibility this weekend?”

His question caused quite a few people to chuckle in the room due to how unbelievable the possibility of it becoming a reality was.

”He is in a different car, so it is not really the same comparison. If AlphaTauri suddenly qualifies ahead of Red Bull, that means something has gone very wrong for us, not that something extraordinary has happened for them. Within his own context, within the midfield, based on what I have seen, I would not be shocked by anything he does this weekend.

But qualifying ahead of me? Let’s not put too much pressure on our new driver so that when he fails, you can tear him apart and question Red Bull’s decision.” At Max’s answer, there was a momentary laughter in the room, as they hadn’t expected him to point out so clearly what the reporter was trying to do.

”I am not going to publicly set a target that involves another driver’s name because that is not respectful and it is not useful,” Fatih said, answering very clearly, with his answer also giving Eve a sigh of relief because the question was a minefield.

The questions went on for the next ten minutes, targeting the most awkward parts of the drivers’ situations or trying to get someone to say something that they would plaster on their articles. Thankfully, it came to an end after about twenty minutes, and Fatih finally returned to the Energy Station along with the three drivers, as they talked amongst themselves, leaving the awkwardness caused by the questions back in the meeting room.

For Fatih, however, his day was not over, as he had a print press conference at the Energy Station. But that wasn’t any different from what he experienced in the FIA press conference, finishing it quite peacefully and completing all the remaining schedule for the day before he finally headed to the garage to greet the mechanics and engineers who were there. Finally, he returned to the hotel to rest for the rest of the day in preparation for his big day tomorrow.

All the tedious parts were largely completed for him, and now he was finally getting to the interesting part of being an F1 driver: the driving.

....

”For the weekend, Gasly is going to be gathering the majority of the data, so his run is going to follow the current plan. As for Fatih, FP1 is going to be about building confidence and familiarization with the track, the car, the procedures, and everything else, so his runs will be entirely dependent on how his on-track situation evolves,” Franz Tost said once the plan for FP1 was explained.

With the plan now clear, the meeting moved to going through the baseline telemetry that was driven overnight by Albon and Buemi, who had spent the day in the simulator. The briefing went on for forty-five minutes before it finally came to an end, and Fatih and Gasly left to go and get into their racing suits.

.......

”We have tomorrow to do that, so why take time from his schedule to see him before that?” Helmut said to Horner, who looked surprised that he hadn’t called Fatih for a talk, despite him being there since Tuesday.

”I might have been hallucinating, because who is the one who did everything to put him under pressure at every opportunity?” Horner asked, remembering how far Helmut went trying to see how Fatih would perform under pressure, only to not use such an open opportunity.

”He is already experiencing it with his first race being here. We need to know how to do something in moderation; too much pressure might destroy a good driver,” Helmut said while giving Horner a side-eye, as even he knew he was being hypocritical.

Horner didn’t bother correcting him, since Jos Verstappen walked towards them. In his presence, they tried to avoid talking about Fatih as much as possible, as they knew Jos was not really a fan of the driver, seeing him as a possible challenge to his son.

.......

”We have currently gone ahead and put you on the same setup as Gasly for now so that we have a baseline of your performance under the same conditions. But don’t worry about that, because after a few laps, you can come back into the pit lane to make the changes you want, and we will implement them as rapidly as we can,” Lisa said once Fatih was done going around the garage, fist-bumping the mechanics.

As someone who had been his chief mechanic since he moved to single-seaters, she knew exactly how Fatih operated, along with how sensitive he was to how the car was behaving, to a scary level of accuracy.

She also knew that this year it was going to be even more different because, despite the increase in complexity on the car’s side, Fatih had managed to offset that by joining the team as an intern engineer, giving him access to more information about the car than ever.

”Thanks ahead of time,” Fatih said before receiving the helmet from Alex as he adjusted his balaclava and finally got into the car.

Lisa immediately started tightening and putting on the seatbelt for him, as there were only a few minutes before FP1 was to start.