Formula 1: The GOAT

”I will be back. Wait here until then,” Eve said before heading out, leaving Fatih alone in the room. He walked to his designated chair and sat down, his elbows resting on the table, holding his head.

”Fuck,” he said, replaying the sequence of how everything went. Although he had Invictus, which should have stopped such an outburst, he had used up most of his mental resilience capacity on that final lap, and he was still not back to full capacity mentally. Additionally, just because he could handle mental pressure, it didn’t mean he wasn’t going to get angry, but this outburst was even bigger than it would have normally been had his mental resilience been at maximum capacity.

After five minutes of him being left alone, the door finally opened, revealing Burak, Elena, and Eve on the other side. They entered the room and closed the door behind them.

Eve, having finally received the translation of what Fatih had said to the Turkish reporter, had gone pale, but despite that, she was still doing her best to resolve the matter, or at least come to an understanding with Fatih before he had to go to the FIA press conference.

”Are you okay? I just managed to watch the interview clip, and it is not good,” Burak said as he walked and sat next to Fatih, speaking in Turkish.

”Yeah, I had enough time to calm down and think things through,” Fatih said as he leaned back in his chair, looking towards the ceiling.

”Are things bad?” he asked, this time in English, having yet to receive his phone to check on how things were developing. But as a former die-hard fan of the sport, he knew how fast things of that sort spread because it would be seen as fresh air in the midst of media-trained drivers, making such outbursts very rare in the modern Formula 1 scene.

”You are already number one on Twitter in Turkey, and at the moment, you are in the middle of climbing the ranks on the international side. Articles about the accusation, together with your outburst, are already being posted every minute, and it is getting bigger with each passing minute.

Depending on where you look, there are those supporting you, and there are those who are not very friendly to you, and I’m sure you know which ones are on which side. There are also neutral parties, and although they are the majority, they are the silent majority, just watching things unfold,” Elena, his manager, finally spoke, giving him an update on the situation.

Thanks to having an entire professional team working hard back in England, she got a very detailed breakdown of how the situation was unfolding, and they were currently preparing for possible countermeasures or a response once it was decided.

”Well, we can say with full confidence that I will never be driving for Ferrari,” Fatih said, causing his father to chuckle at his response while Elena and Eve just stared at him.

What he was saying was not wrong, but Elena reminded him that it was far worse. ”Hostility in Italy would be the better term, and you seem to have forgotten, but AlphaTauri is based in Italy, so there is that mess as well,” she said as she massaged her forehead, feeling a headache from what they were going to have to deal with.

Upon hearing that, to the surprise of those in the room, Fatih, still looking at the ceiling, chuckled as if he found something funny. ”There are two religions in Italy. There’s the Catholic Church, and there’s Ferrari,” he said, parroting what Will Buxton would be saying in a future season of *Drive to Survive*.

And speaking about them, they were currently on cloud nine, as the entire conversation was being held in a room that still had their cameras open and recording, as those in the room had completely forgotten about them.

”Monaco as well,” Elena added, reminding Fatih that Monaco was essentially another branch of the Tifosi, thanks to their golden child, Charles Leclerc.

”So what is the next step to dealing with this?” Burak asked, bringing the discussion back to the main topic.

”We have to issue an apology before things get out of control and Ferrari retaliates,” Eve started, going into detail about what they needed to do.

”I’m not apologizing to them. They accused me of cheating to get pole position, which is no different than them saying that I don’t have the capability of driving that lap, and you want me to apologize to them?” Fatih said as he finally stopped looking at the ceiling and directly faced Eve, who had suggested that.

Eve became momentarily speechless as she looked at Fatih’s eyes, which showed no hint of him wavering or changing his mind.

”Fatih, please look at the bigger picture here,” Eve said, trying to reason with him. ”It is not about whether you are right or wrong. Of course, you are right, but calling Ferrari ’a pure pile of bullshit’ and not apologizing is not going to end well. F1 isn’t just a sport but also a political battlefield, and using those words on live television won’t end as a fight between you and Ferrari, but will involve the entirety of Italian national pride. Some of our mechanics are Italian, and they too will be brought into this matter.”

”Everything I said was pointed at Ferrari and their foolish decision to accuse me of blatantly cheating in front of everyone. So when they are proven wrong, will they apologize to me? No, because why the heck would they do that? I stand behind everything I said.

I have memorized the sporting regulations, and I know that off-track verbal misconduct will never result in an on-track penalty. The worst they can give me is a fine, and I’m fine with that, but I will not apologize to my accusers,” Fatih said, putting his foot down, not planning on changing his mind at all.

”I wouldn’t want it any other way either.” Those words were heard from the other end of the door before it opened and Helmut Marko finally entered the room.

The supreme leader of Red Bull, responsible for the drivers, had finally arrived.

”Let them cry in Maranello for however long they want. I don’t care, and frankly, I love that you called them out,” Helmut said with amusement in his voice before he paused for a moment and then resumed, but this time his tone was more serious. ”But listen to me very carefully, Fatih.

By keeping your pride and refusing to apologize, you have just planted a massive nuclear target on your back, which we are fully ready to deal with, but only under the condition that you go out there and win.

If you make a single rookie mistake, or if you crash into the barriers because your head is too busy being angry, I will no longer tolerate your behavior, and you will be punished internally as well.

Only those who deliver results have the freedom to behave however they want with the backing of the team. It applied to Max, and it will apply to you as well. Results!!!! That is the only thing that is going to be your security. So this is your final chance: will you hold onto your pride and prove yourself on the track, or will you go out there and apologize to the Italians?” his eyes locked on Fatih for the entirety of his speech.

Everyone other than the two in the room looked back and forth between them as different things went on in their minds.

”Unlike them, I do my talking on the track,” Fatih answered with full confidence.

”HAHAHAHAHAHAHA,” Helmut broke out into laughter when he heard the response, laughing for quite some time before turning to Franz Tost, who had entered the room behind Marko, and said, ”Now you know what to do,” before leaving the room and leaving everyone in it just watching his back as he left.

Fatih, on the other hand, seemed to be looking at something in front of him while in a daze over what had happened.

......

”I can’t let them kill my driver’s momentum when he has just started entertaining me,” Helmut said as he walked away, just loud enough for him to hear himself but no one else.

When he received the news of the accusation from Ferrari, he didn’t spend even a second considering if it was true or false, because that would have been a very foolish decision for AlphaTauri to make when the consequences would definitely have been more than their possible gains.

Deep down, he believed that Ferrari was only making this accusation in order to put Fatih in the wringer and prime him for mistakes tomorrow. But when he saw how Fatih responded upon hearing the accusations, he couldn’t help but feel happy, as he was unapologetically confident and made it clear that the accusations were nothing but bullshit. So, he had to make sure he received the backing he needed to support the confidence he had shown.

”Chains for revenge is a very good motivation, and he now finally has something to prove despite being in a slower car, and it reduces the options he has,” he added, as he knew that with his backup, Fatih was going to keep his foot down and he would be enemies with Ferrari, which was a good thing because their cars were at similar paces, giving him opponents he could face in the current machinery he had.

The other one was that it reduced the options for top teams Fatih could head to, as at the moment he was definitely blacklisted by Ferrari and would never race for them or any team using their engines, reducing competition.

The more he thought about the situation, the more excited he was on the inside as he looked forward to how this situation was going to escalate, ready to place his weight on the rising side of the scales.