Formula 1: The GOAT

“Fatih, we are twenty minutes to the meeting time. We’d better head there early,” Alex said the moment Fatih opened the door.

“Good afternoon to you, too,” Fatih said sarcastically as he opened the door wider while moving to the side for Alex to enter his accommodations.

“Ah, forgot about that, good afternoon,” Alex said as he scratched his head and entered the apartment-esque accommodation, heading directly to the living room as Fatih closed the door behind him.

“I only need to change clothes, so I should be ready in minutes,” Fatih said as he headed to the bedroom.

“So long as we leave with more than ten minutes, it’s fine,” Alex, who was getting comfortable on the couch, said as he moved aside when he felt that he had sat on a hard surface instead of the expected softness of the sofa.

When he removed the object that he had accidentally sat on, and when he saw what it was, he paused for a moment in surprise.

He read the title of the book twice, then turned to the small bookshelf on his left that was right beside the wall-mounted flat screen, and in there as well found similar types of books placed on it, making him wonder in his mind.

As the wondering continued, he decided to see what was on it and if he could see the reason why he was reading it, and opened the book. From the first page, he found himself having to reread the sentences on it, trying to fully understand what exactly it meant, but despite that, he still didn’t fully understand, and before long, he decided to give up and placed the book next to him on the sofa.

And as if it was coordinated, Fatih came out of the room wearing more presentable clothes than the pajamas he was wearing and said, “I’m ready, we can go now.”

“Are you thinking of quitting motorsports and becoming an investor or something?” Alex asked as he stood from the sofa and adjusted his clothes.

Fatih paused for a moment, wondering where this question was coming from, but it only took him seeing the book that was on the sofa to understand what he was asking, as it was a book about economics called “Mastering ’Metrics” by Joshua Angrist and Jörn-Steffen Pischke.

It was one of the many economic books that he had been reading over the past two or more years, having started with the bigger books and increasing the level of them every time he upgraded his Sponge Brain, as it allowed him to digest more complex information and with the latest upgrade, he was finally moving to intermediate and advanced books about economics and investments.

As someone who had memories of the future, he had the privilege of being able to exploit that information to earn large amounts of money that would make his life in both motorsport and out of motorsport easier and give him control of his future. Unfortunately for him, he was not an economist or investor in his previous life, meaning he had no idea how to exploit his future knowledge, but at the same time, his future knowledge was not really economically oriented, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t fully aware of the major events since they were widespread, so he was aware of them and he knew he could exploit them and benefit.

But since he didn’t know all of the details of the situations during those events, he needed to have enough knowledge about economics and investment so that he could use his memories as a guide on what was going to happen as the basic foundation for him to come up with ways to exploit those situations.

If he manages to do it, he would earn boatloads of money, but it would require him to understand economics to the level where a memory about a controversy can be used as a basis for him to create an investment plan that would be set ahead of time to exploit the controversy that would come later and on a larger scale use the COVID pandemic and all other major things that happened starting in 2019 onwards, a period of people overnight becoming billionaires.

Knowing the importance of it, he had planned to use the free year away from school he had on hand to find a tutor who would accelerate his learning on the economic aspect of learning, since he needed to start taking actions now so that he could be fully ready and prepared by the time the chaos period arrived as he deemed being unprepared to be a betrayal of the opportunity he had been given.

“Just because I’m good at motorsports doesn’t mean I can’t have a backup plan,” Fatih said, chuckling as he picked his backpack from the coat stand and started walking to the door.

“If even you are trying to hedge your bets, what about the rest of us?” Alex, understanding that the answer Fatih gave wasn’t the real answer but just a means of answering without actually answering the question, followed suit, as there was no need to focus on it.

“I mean, injuries don’t discriminate, and who is to say I won’t have a career-ending accident? What will I do then?” Fatih followed, still in a lighter tone, but ended up pausing at the door when he didn’t receive an answer from his banter. When he turned around, he found Alex amidst recovery from being frozen for a moment, which he immediately connected to his short explanation of how he was an athlete before moving to engineering, making him understand that an accident was most likely the reason for that shift.

“Is there something on my face?” Alex asked when he saw Fatih looking at him as he tried to act as if nothing had happened.

“As the house owner, temporarily at least, shouldn’t I be the last so that I can lock it?” Fatih asked, deliberately avoiding the topic as he knew Alex didn’t really want to talk about it yet, at least not now when they had a meeting in ten minutes.

“Ah, where are my manners?” Alex said, forcing a smile as he rushed out of the door.

After Alex left the house, Fatih locked the door before they started heading to the meeting room with still fifteen minutes on the clock before the meeting started.

……

The meeting room provided only the privacy of sound, as anyone outside could see everything on the inside due to one side of it being fully covered by glass. The other side was a wide wall that had a large picture of many of the famous Red Bull Athletes across different fields, with Max Verstappen’s and Daniel Ricciardo’s pictures sitting side by side.

The table was square-shaped, made of wood, with the chairs being generic conference chairs. At the moment, other than five seats, all of them were filled with people who had arrived earlier than Fatih and Alex.

They greeted everyone, getting mixed reactions as they took their seats, which were on the opposite end, taking two of the five remaining spots.

“Why are they reacting this way?” Fatih leaned towards Alex on his left and whispered.

“I think they don’t like that they had to come all the way to Austria for the introduction when it wasn’t needed,” Alex, more knowledgeable about these matters, answered.

“I also wondered that. Why did Helmut make them come here when we could have met in Milton Keynes?”

“I think to show his position on this matter, or it might be something else,” Alex said, trying to present possible scenarios.

“Then why are they taking it out on us?”

“It is more about you,” Alex said while chuckling before having to stop for a moment since his chuckling attracted attention from some of those in the room. “Look around,” he added, while making sure no one heard their conversation.

“Me?” Fatih asked when everyone returned to what they were doing.

“The act of calling them here when the only thing they will be doing is the introduction and taking relevant data about you, when all of those could be done virtually or at Milton Keynes. Although it is to show his power and position, it also shows the level of importance Red Bull places on you to prevent some of them from slacking or having other thoughts,” Alex explained.

“He really is dedicated,” Fatih said as he rubbed his eyes.

“What do you mean?” Alex asked, wondering what he meant.

“Nothing,” Fatih said, not bothering to explain that Helmut was trying to create the toxic atmosphere many Red Bull drivers would eventually face, placing him under pressure from both the inside and the outside before he even started the F4 season. He finally understood the reason Helmut had gone all the way to call people who would be doing nothing other than a meeting that could have waited until he returned to Milton Keynes, so that he could put them at slight odds and dissatisfaction with Fatih, increasing the volatility and mixture of possible problems to occur, to watch how Fatih would deal with it.

Before Alex or Fatih could talk anymore, Helmut finally entered the room with three people walking with him, causing everyone in the room to stand until the three finally took their seats.

Helmut, having gotten comfortable in his chair, looked around and, when he found Fatih, smiled for a moment before he said, “Okay, let’s begin with the introductions so that everyone knows everyone. For starters, how about you start, as everyone here had to come here to meet you,” while pointing at Fatih with his chin.