Chapter 445: Azerbaijan Grand Prix | The Race VIII

{GOOD JOB OUT THERE! IT WAS A LONG SHOT, BUT WE MANAGED TO PULL IT OFF!} Franz Tost got on the radio and shouted in excitement as their win count had doubled within a period of two weeks.

{Thank you for going along with my unreasonable requests,} Fatih said, finally having the face to acknowledge that his requests were pretty wild and unreasonable.

{You can have as many of those requests as you want if these are the results we will be having,} Marco Perrone, the head of strategy, answered this time. He had been the one who had tried the most to change Fatih’s mind, but that seemed to have been completely forgotten, if the cheers captured by the microphone were any indication.

....

"I might be reading more into it, but it looks like Fatih had a hand in this strategy as well, or at least a portion of it. If that is true, then this is an even better victory for him than it already was," Martin Brundle said when the celebratory radio was replayed on the live feed.

"If you had told me at the start of this season or after the Bahrain Grand Prix that AlphaTauri was going to win back-to-back races with a rookie in his first and second race on pure merit and strategy, I would have called you a lunatic with too much imagination.

But lo and behold, before our eyes, we are witnessing that exact thing happening as a rookie creates a new record that will most likely never be beaten in the sport. Fatih is now the youngest driver to ever have back-to-back wins, the driver with the shortest amount of races to have back-to-back wins, and the only driver in the history of Formula One to ever win his first two races.

And not only that, he was last in the drivers’ championship when he arrived in Monaco, but as he enters the pit lane at the end of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, he is in P5 of the drivers’ championship, dropping Charles Leclerc down to P6 and beating him to it by two points. Fatih Y?ld?r?m now has 52 points to Charles’ 50.

That leaves only Sergio Perez in P4 with 60 points, Lando Norris in P3 with 61 points, and the two championship contenders, Max Verstappen in P2 with 98 points and Lewis Hamilton with 100 points," David Croft started going through the stats as a result of the achievement Fatih had managed to pull together.

"I would hate to be his teammate," Martin Brundle said before pausing as he chuckled at what he was insinuating, before adding, "But as a team principal, I would love to have him on my team any day of the week because, thanks to him, they now have more wins than the main Red Bull team. ℯℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

Fatih has more wins than Max Verstappen at the moment and is only one win behind Lewis Hamilton, while Max trails behind him with one race win, making many wonder what the championship would look like if he had been given the exemption and started racing from the beginning of the season."

"In what world does the sister team’s driver have more wins than the main team’s main driver? I believe the rookie has shown enough talent to warrant a promotion considering what he had managed to show us in the two race weekends.

Monaco might be argued to have been helped by the red flag, but you can’t say anything like that for Azerbaijan. The team and the driver executed a perfect race and are now trailing the main team in race wins.

AlphaTauri has now officially moved to third in the championship, beating McLaren and Ferrari and firmly establishing themselves in P3 in the championship with 99 points. Ferrari is in P4 with 89, and McLaren has 87 points. What an unbelievable shift from an almost perfect performance by a single driver. But the time for praise is over; it is time for celebration..."

The feed had remained on Fatih until he came to a stop in the parc fermé area in front of the P1 board before getting out and standing on top of his monocoque’s front section with his hands spread to the side while he looked to the sky. He remained like that for a few seconds before jumping down and rushing to where the cheering AlphaTauri mechanics were, jumping onto them as they caught and held him while those close to him patted his back to congratulate and celebrate the win. It was a historic one for them, and they made it known to everyone watching the celebration.

Christian Horner, who was there in support of Checo, who had finished P2, watched AlphaTauri cheering with a slight frown on his face. After all, each cheer felt like an explosion in his mind, making it nearly impossible to completely hide what was going on in his mind.

......

"I’m very happy with the outcome we managed to secure after the risk we took. We expected a safety car or more that would last a total of at least seven laps and under-fueled for that, and we had more than that, so the entire race we had a weight advantage against everyone. It was a risk we took, and the rewards are definitely living up to the level of risk," Fatih said as he answered the post-celebration interview for the top three winners.

"I heard Franz insinuate that this was your plan during the celebration after the race. Is it true, and what part of the plan were you an active participant in?" Paul di Resta said, moving to the following question.

"My part was on the tire side. I had requested to have a brand-new medium and soft for the race in the early part of the week, and they humored me. It ended up being very advantageous for us. As for the fuel thing, they had included it in the briefing, and I just requested we take an aggressive decision regarding that. With a race win as a possible reward, they went ahead with it," Fatih said, giving the team their flowers while also not shying away from highlighting that he was part of those who came up with the plan.

"You had pushed the team into a two-stopper after around twenty laps with the hards, complaining that the rear left might have a structural failure, and two drivers ended up crashing because of that same tire. How did you figure that out ahead of time, and do you think you would have faced a similar catastrophic failure?"

"Due to having to be frugal with the tires during the practice sessions, I ended up having to use the tires longer than any other driver, and the structural difference on the hards stuck out in contrast to the mediums and the softs I used, so that acted as an indicator for me in making that decision.

Thankfully, I was proven right, and the team indulged me with that decision because I believe if we had continued on that compound, I would have had to slow down my pace to try and preserve the tires, but thankfully I didn’t have to do that."

"That sounds like good teamwork to me. And for the last question, how does it feel to single-handedly double your team’s wins, becoming the driver with the most wins for the team and, at the moment, ahead of Max Verstappen and the sister team in wins?"

"I’m excited by the results we managed to achieve, but at the same time, I have to be realistic. Red Bull and Mercedes are going to keep taking wins, as our back-to-back wins were won under very specific circumstances: Monaco because I secured pole, and here in Baku because we took a gamble on the safety car and heavily under-fueled our car, which is something we cannot do at every track.

So, as long as I stay in AlphaTauri, there might be chances for more wins if strategy and car pace come together perfectly like they did today, but the chances of snatching a win from Red Bull and Mercedes are going to be very slim. But if my results are deemed to be satisfactory enough to trigger a promotion to the main team, then I can say that I might secure a few more additional wins in a Red Bull."

Paul di Resta, upon hearing the last words from Fatih, couldn’t help but become speechless because Fatih, without beating around the bush, immediately made it clear that he believed the performance he had shown was already good enough for a promotion, right with Perez, who was waiting to be interviewed having finished in P2, next to him, without even shying away from it.

In the current world of media-trained F1 drivers, this was as rare as a unicorn, but it seemed like Fatih wasn’t worried about saying it in front of the one who might be demoted for him to replace.

The TV director, ever the entertainment fisherman, ordered the cameraman capturing the interview to zoom out to show Checo and Vettel, who were previously talking to one another, just standing silent and looking at Fatih, who had just made an attempt for someone’s seat out in the open.

"Thank you very much and congratulations on the race win," Paul di Resta said after composing himself, bringing the interview to an end as Fatih turned around and just waved at Vettel and Perez, who were still looking at him speechlessly as he headed into the cooldown room to change his race suit and wait for the podium celebration.

........

Horner, who was still in the parc fermé, was speechless at how blatant Fatih had become regarding the matter of promotion. It was a situation where he might force a promotion, but seeing how brazen he was acting, Horner felt like there was a knot in his throat, and one that would get bigger if he gave in and decided to go ahead with Fatih’s promotion.

Fatih had just reinforced the worries that had made him have some reservations regarding the promotion: that he was going to be aiming for race wins, and that would mean for him to win, Verstappen would either be out of the race or have to finish behind him.

He kept looking at Perez, trying to put on a neutral face, as he had a camera near him recording everything happening on his face as he listened to Perez’s answers as the question regarding what Fatih said was finally asked.

"Look, he has done a fantastic job, no doubt about it. To come into Monaco and Baku and win both is very impressive, and it is great for the Red Bull family, but F1 is a very long season. Two races don’t make a championship, and at the moment, my focus is on maximizing my side of the garage and being as helpful to the team’s and Max’s championship fights as possible.

I believe the team knows what I bring to the table, but also, decisions about the future are up to Christian and Helmut, not me, so I can’t say anything with certainty," Perez answered, trying to make it clear that he was Red Bull’s number two and everything he was doing was in reflection of that position, or else he could have gone for a race win a few times.

He tried to remind Christian and Helmut of the reason they had brought him to the team and what demoting him would mean for the team, which would now have infighting, but also for the sponsorship funding that had followed him to Red Bull.

The two sides were finally placing some of their cards out in front of the public to test the waters but also to try and gain popular support from the fans. The war for the second Red Bull seat had finally gone public, and Red Bull now had two weeks to try and come to a decision that would antagonize at least one side.