Chapter 417: Qualifying in Monaco VIII

"GOOD JOB!" Lisa shouted as she clasped Fatih’s hand the moment he came to a stop in front of the garage. The mechanics inserted cooling fans into the sidepods to push cold air to the radiator and cool the car.

A few more mechanics, who had come with dry ice cooling fans, tapped him on the helmet as he took off his seatbelt. He then got up and stood on the monocoque in front of the Halo, shouting with his hands in the air.

He then moved and made Arnold Schwarzenegger’s most famous pose as photographers took photo after photo of his display before he jumped on Alex, who had finally arrived at where the car was. (Image here)

When he got down, he rushed to the garage, with the live feed cameraman chasing behind him, and jumped over the barrier into his stepfather’s arms, nearly causing him to fall but still managing to catch himself as they celebrated. A few seconds later, the mechanics who were cheering in the garage joined the two, who were in the middle of a hug, to celebrate the team’s first pole position in more than a decade.

The garage was in a mess as everyone seemed to be jumping up and down, cheering for the brilliant driver who delivered an unbelievable performance and result for the team on his first outing.

The feed changed from the one where the cameraman was in the middle of the chaos among the mechanics to one slightly out of it. Half of the screen was filled with the cheering garage, and from the angle, the other half showed Gasly standing out of his car, watching the celebration with a few mechanics putting cooling devices on his car as well, telegraphing exactly the two sides of the same garage.

His right hand was holding his two gloves tightly while he used his left hand to do something with his eyes through the open visor while watching the situation in the garage.

Although he was standing still, it was clear to anyone that the situation going on in his mind was more than what his body telegraphed, and they would be correct. At the moment, as he watched Fatih celebrate his first pole position in his first weekend in Formula One, he had just completed his 68th qualifying, and the highest he had ever qualified was P4.

It was not a good feeling at all, as whenever a matter related to Fatih and driving happened to him, nothing good happened.

This made his feelings regarding him not good at all, and to top it off, he remembered what he had said at the FIA press conference with full confidence: "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."

Those words didn’t even survive their first moment of being tested, and the best time he could muster was a 1:10.900, a full nine-tenths behind Fatih’s lap time, a much bigger gap than the one he usually had against Verstappen in equal machinery, and it was not a good feeling at all.

Unfortunately, he was not the only one feeling that way. Not only were he and his fans feeling down to be beaten by a rookie, but at the same time, Yuki Tsunoda and his fans were feeling even worse. They had expected that with this being the rookie’s first-ever experience with the car on the worst possible track for a beginner, he would not perform well and would prove that the decision made by Red Bull was a foolish one, only for the complete opposite to happen.

........

"Shit," Helmut said as he watched the celebration on the live feed from the Red Bull garage. He remembered the bonus structure that they had negotiated with Fatih’s side, and he couldn’t help but feel a brooding feeling that they would be shelling out the first million-dollar bonus if everything went well tomorrow.

But that feeling only lasted for a fleeting moment and was replaced by a huge amount of excitement and euphoria, as his philosophy had received the biggest sign of approval ever, with the top three qualifiers having two of the drivers he had picked and brought to the team.

He didn’t stop to even imagine what the Verstappens would be feeling, considering that Jos Verstappen had been wary of Fatih since he was a few years from reaching Formula 1, and the moment he arrived, he had made himself felt by everyone.

After all, they had lived up to their side of the deal to keep the Verstappens happy, and they weren’t yet aware of the promotional clauses in Fatih’s contract.

And the chances of Fatih meeting even one of them were still difficult, despite the performance he had just shown all of them. It had only been possible because it was Monaco, but on other tracks, the performance gap between the top two and the "best of the rest" was big enough that even a monstrous driver couldn’t bridge it unless the top drivers in the top four made mistakes.

.......

Max was very silent as he stood on top of the scale before he received his receipt and finally took off his helmet and started heading towards the interview area, not looking happy about P3 at all.

This had been his opportunity to qualify at the front and finally take the lead of the championship, but at the end of the session, the best he could do was the second row, being beaten by a rookie from their sister team on his first outing.

The situation was not exactly like that, but that was how he felt. After all, blaming other circumstances was nothing but excuses to him, and he wasn’t going to do that just because it benefited him.

He finally arrived at the interview area, finding Paul di Resta with his mask still on and a few meters away from him, while a microphone on a pole was extended towards him, ready to start the post-session interview.

"Congratulations, Max. This is your fifth time in a row, and for the entire 2021 season, you have qualified only within the top three positions. How are you feeling?" Paul di Resta said as he started his post-session podium finishers’ interview.

"Thanks for that. The session was very competitive, and the red flag couldn’t have come at a worse time. It is good that I had a banker lap set ahead of time, or it would have been a nightmare. And I would like to congratulate Fatih for his first pole position. I have yet to watch the lap, but it had to be an incredible one for him to get that time out of these cars."

"I’m sure he is excited to receive your congratulations. Now, had it not been for the red flag interrupting your lap, do you think you could have improved by three-tenths and taken pole position from him?" Paul immediately used Max’s celebration of Fatih’s achievement to ask something that everyone was currently curious about.

"Though I would like to believe I would have, that lap time was not even achievable in the simulation, and I was already down by half a tenth in Sector 1 before the red flag, and I don’t believe I could have made up four-tenths in the remaining two sectors alone. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

So, I don’t think with the lap I was driving, it could have beaten that time," Max said, being honest, as he knew the lap he was driving was not competitive enough to match or even beat his time, and he would need to go through Fatih’s telemetry to see for himself where that time had been gained and if he could have done the same.

"That’s interesting," Paul said, taking a moment to gather himself from the surprise before he asked the last question. "You have finally qualified in front of Hamilton, and with the difficulty of overtaking in Monaco, you have the opportunity to beat Hamilton and take the lead in the championship tomorrow. What do you feel about your chances?" bringing the topic back to the championship that had been very competitive for the previous four rounds.

"Tomorrow, my full focus is going to be on the start and not on if I will lead the championship at the end of it. That would just be a bonus, and with Fatih starting on mediums, it is going to be a very interesting start, as both Charles and I will have a better grip off the line," Max answered, immediately diverting the answer from focusing on Hamilton back to Fatih, as he wanted to pile up pressure for Fatih to increase the chances of him making mistakes at the start.

Although he was making it look like he was not focused on the championship, this was all part of the team’s mental game against Mercedes, which was not acknowledging their chances at the title in the first half of the season despite it being very obvious.

"Thank you and good luck tomorrow," Paul said as the feed changed to show Fatih standing with a small Pirelli tire that already had his signature on it as he took pictures with his pole position trophy in front of a board with a wide smile on his face.