Chapter 440: Azerbaijan Grand Prix | The Race III

Christian Horner, still in the garage watching the race, tightened his fist when he heard the cheers from the AlphaTauri mechanics a few garages down as he watched Fatih pull off an impressive double overtake. Had it not been a nightmare situation for him, he would have joined the mechanics in the garage who were clapping for their junior team driver’s impressive double-overtake move and late-brake bravery into turn one.

Jos Verstappen banged his head against the wall behind him in frustration because, despite knowing that Red Bull still had the pace, it didn’t mean the race lead at the moment was meaningless, since it opened many opportunities for Fatih to exploit, and he might even have a surprisingly good pace to keep the lead that they didn’t know about.

Helmut, on the other hand, had a very impressed smile on his face upon seeing the impressive drive from his rookie driver, momentarily forgetting the nightmare situation they might be in if the lead was kept.

But all their reactions combined paled in comparison to the chaos that had unfolded in Azerbaijan, Turkey, and many other countries. The Turkish commentator for the Turkish broadcast seemed to lose control and just thank God as the replay shown from Fatih’s roll hoop cam showed how impressive the overtake was.

Had he left the slipstream any earlier, he would not have gained the additional speed advantage against Hamilton, who was already out of the slipstream. And had he remained there longer, he would not have had the distance to pull the double overtake and might have had to remain content with overtaking Leclerc alone.

He had timed it perfectly, gaining the minimum additional speed advantage in the slipstream before coming out with enough distance to pull the double move.

.......

The AlphaTauri pitwall, on the other hand, seemed to have managed to suppress their excitement, as they knew the exact reason why Fatih had managed to pull the double overtake even against the Mercedes, which had a brand new engine that should have made the slight advantage from remaining in the slipstream a tad bit longer null.

It was fuel. Fatih, at the moment, was under-fueled by an extreme 15kg compared to the amount of fuel needed to go flat out for the entire race. The team expected to spend at least seven laps behind the safety car, as that is the number of laps they needed to go slow to have enough fuel to both finish the race and have enough left for the FIA to be able to collect a sample for inspection.

From the outside, without any knowledge, that would be seen as an extremely foolish gamble from the team, but the team took one anyway. Fatih had taken his time to convince the race strategist to take this gamble because they had two cars qualifying in P3 and P5, which meant they could take a risk on one of the cars for a better finishing position.

Fatih, who had brought up the idea and volunteered to be the one to be under-fueled, had made sure to remind them that if a safety car actually happened, then a podium or even a race win would be guaranteed, giving them the opportunity to win back-to-back, as the car under-fueled by 15kg was going to be half a second faster than anyone from the start.

However, as is the nature of gambling, if no safety car came out and he had to do extreme lift-and-coast, then there was a chance he was not going to even finish in the points at the end of the race.

Upon his nonstop requesting and the team running simulations based on the probability of a safety car in the Azerbaijan GP, the results came back showing that they had a 91% chance of winning the race if a safety car came out and stayed for a minimum of five laps. That was all they needed to know before they locked in the gamble.

But only a few people in the team knew that. As a result, those who knew couldn’t outwardly cheer for Fatih taking the lead, despite how impressive it looked, because they were now deep down praying for a safety car to come out. Part one of the plan had already worked; now only the luck element remained to complete the plan.

.....

"That’s weird," James Vowles said as he looked at the pace Fatih was carrying through the high-braking corner as he slowly but surely opened the gap to Hamilton, who should have been able to keep quite close to Yıldırım.

He just noted it and continued focusing on Fatih as the two of them finally arrived at the long straight where Hamilton tucked himself behind Fatih, gaining slipstream along the entirety of the straight before finally opening the DRS, reducing drag further and gaining more speed. But the gap only came down to four-tenths before they braked for turn one.

{Why is he so fast on the straight?} Hamilton complained to Bono on the radio.

{We are taking a look at it; keep pressuring him,} Bono said in response before he looked at James, wanting to know what the situation was in order to report it back to Hamilton. Vowles just nodded his head and connected to the race control at the home base for additional information.

He was not alone in seeing the abnormality, as Hannah Schmitz back at Red Bull HQ in Milton Keynes also discovered the anomaly while Max was still trying to overtake Charles and immediately started taking a look into this matter.

.......

LAP 4 +0.650s

LAP 5 +1.100s: Fatih finally broke the DRS to Hamilton, who once again complained about the pace of the AlphaTauri.

LAP 6 +1.550s: The gap widened further as Fatih detached from the group while Max finally caught up to Charles at the end of Lap 6.

AND THERE IS VERSTAPPEN, WHO HAD BEEN BUILDING UP TO THIS ATTACK FOR A FEW LAPS! HE OPENS THE DRS, WITH CHARLES AHEAD OF HIM NOT HAVING IT, AND HE IS PUT UNDER A MASSIVE AMOUNT OF PRESSURE. HE HAD TO WAIT A FEW LAPS TO GET PAST THE FERRARI, AND IT’S HAPPENING NOW AT THE BEGINNING OF LAP SEVEN! FATIH LEADS, FOLLOWED BY HAMILTON.

VERSTAPPEN FINALLY JOINS THE PODIUM POSITIONS IN P3 AS LECLERC IS TUMBLING DOWN THE POSITIONS. HAVING STARTED FROM POLE, HE IS NOW OUT OF THE PODIUM POSITIONS WHILE FATIH MAINTAINS HIS LEAD AND INCREASES THE GAP TO HAMILTON.

...

{Update on Fatih’s pace. We believe he is heavily under-fueled,} Bono updated Hamilton, who had been complaining about the lack of pace compared to Fatih.

{What? By how much?} Hamilton, surprised by the update, asked, wanting more details. Under-fueling the car was not a new thing, as they too practiced it, but to under-fuel the car to the point that its pace became blistering, to the point of Mercedes not catching it, meant that it was aggressive under-fueling.

{Estimated between 12 to 19kg less in his tank. He is half a second faster than normal pace,} Bono added, having had to wait until Hamilton was on the straight since he hated talking on the radio while in the middle of corners.

{Wow,} Hamilton couldn’t help but be impressed by the gamble, as it was aggressive to the point of surprise.

{Yeah, so keep pushing. They should start Lift and Coast very soon,} Bono added, giving him a strategy update from what James had told him to relay to Hamilton.

.......

"As the saying goes, great minds think alike, as both Mercedes and Red Bull seem to have discovered something interesting about AlphaTauri at the same time. Fatih seems to be under-fueled, and by a large margin. What do you think about the gamble, Martin?" David Croft asked when the radio conversation between the two teams and their drivers was played on the broadcast.

"It is as aggressive as can be, but at the moment it is already bearing fruit as Fatih increases the gap to more than two seconds. But if true, it is reliant on a safety car, or else they will tumble down like an avalanche," Martin said, and even he sounded surprised by the strategy.

"But what if a safety car comes?"

"Then this will become one of the best strategy calls in Formula 1," Martin said in a hopeful tone, since he hoped that would happen.

"I can’t help but agree with you on that, since it would guarantee a win, and one that they didn’t normally have the pace to achieve without pulling things like that. But they have tossed their die, and now it is time for fate to respond. Fatih adds another six-tenths to the gap, increasing it to three seconds at the end of lap 9, and the pit window has finally opened.

It is Yıldırım, a rookie in his second race, leading this race, then Hamilton, the current championship leader who seems to have no response to it, and the number two contender for the championship, Max Verstappen, completing the top three.

Perez is edging closer to Charles Leclerc, eyeing that P4 position, right where the team would need him to be to play the team game, while the number two at Mercedes is at the moment down in P9. As Lando Norris goes for the undercut targeting Bottas, he dashes into the pits along with Alonso, as the race leader once again renews his fastest lap."

LAP 9 +3.175s