Chapter 449: Angry Rümeysa

Rümeysa silently looked at her son, who was just staring ahead, looking zoned out, as if another round of threads were connecting in his mind.

And she wouldn’t be wrong. Until she had explained everything that happened during the meeting, he had thought two different groups had attacked him for two different, unconnected reasons. It was the only reason he was still looking forward to debuting for Red Bull.

To him, the Red Bull collaboration with the Verstappens and Jos’s attacks were two separate things. He thought Red Bull would have cooperated on the first one in a bid to retain both their performing driver while also being able to keep him, a maneuver to have their cake and eat it too.

The Azerbaijan situation, he thought, was Jos trying to put pressure on him to underperform while also trying to kill his relationship with Red Bull and bring friction between the two sides to hinder the promotion. But it seemed like Red Bull could have very well been the ones who did that, because it didn’t matter if they did.

Their attempt to bog him down in AlphaTauri until the end of the season was a clear sign they were trying to avoid their end of the bargain, despite him living up to his.

She couldn’t clearly see what was going on in his mind, but she knew that a portion of his innocence and optimistic outlook on people and things had just died.

Knowing her son’s love for and reliance on additional information when it came to any matter that troubled him, with his investment breakdowns being a reference, she just placed her hand on top of his before she continued talking.

"We have a few options on the table at the moment. We can force the promotion, and if that is what you want, I can find a way to force it. We can terminate the contract with them if Mercedes agrees to terminate their contract with Bottas within that same period and immediately hand you the seat. We can go to the end of the season with this team and then make a move to another team, or we can terminate the contract with them and wait for the next season." These were the actionable options she had managed to reduce all the chaos down to.

Fatih remained silent after she said that, and she wasn’t in a rush for him to answer, so she just stayed there with him, patting the back of his hand again and again to try and reassure him as he digested the bomb she had to drop on him.

They stayed like that for a few minutes until Fatih’s phone rang. He monotonously reached into his pocket, removed the phone, and accepted the call.

"I will be there in five minutes," he said monotonously before ending the call and returning the phone to his pocket.

"I will be heading to the track," Fatih said as he turned to her.

"Seraphina is there?"

"Yes."

"Want me to drive you there?" she asked, knowing it might be dangerous for Fatih to drive under the current conditions.

"Of all the problems I have, driving has never been one of them," Fatih said in a self-deprecating tone as he dragged his fingers through the hair on the back of his head.

When Rümeysa saw how he said it and the look on his face, the anger inside her that had been simmering just spiked up again, and Red Bull was on the receiving end of that spike.

She just had a closed smile on her face as she watched Fatih pick up a car key and head to the garage, not planning on stopping him because she knew that either driving karts or spending time with Seraphina might be just what he needed to get through the current situation, while she was fully ready to support whatever option Fatih would choose.

A few minutes after Fatih had left, she finally did as well, taking her car and heading to the office to check on the files her secretariat had managed to collect for the day. She planned to go through them and find a way to make into reality any option Fatih ended up choosing.

........

"Their estimated net worth is between 20 and 25 billion dollars, but because they are a private company, it is nearly impossible to get their internal financial data to gauge what their true valuation is accurately.

As for who owns what, there are three different individuals who own shares in the company.

There is Dietrich Mateschitz, who owns 49% of the company through his personal holding company and is the one who holds operational command of everything from global marketing and its F1 teams all the way to the extreme events and stunts.

The other 51% is held by the Yoovidhya family, divided into two pieces: 49% is held by their holding company, TC Pharmaceuticals, and 2% is held as a personal stake by Chalerm Yoovidhya, the eldest son of the family.

Regarding their assets, they have a football empire spanning five clubs on different continents and leagues, then their motorsports empire and infrastructure, owning two teams, a newly established powertrains company, the Red Bull Ring, and their driver academy and junior team.

They also have ice hockey and other professional sports franchises, a media house which is their global content engine, like their broadcast TV, film production, print & publishing, along with music and audio, all under different company names but under this banner.

Lastly, there is their fashion, aviation, and luxury real estate," her secretary, Hannan, said as she delivered the results of the secretariat’s investigation. She began briefing her while handing her a more detailed document relating to every different part she was mentioning during the presentation so that she could take from her summary and get a more detailed understanding of anything that might have piqued her interest.

"It might look and sound like a diversified and complicated network of unrelated things, but all of that can be boiled down to selling more Red Bull cans. Everything else is in pursuit of that and can even be considered a marketing budget for their ultra-high-margin beverage," she said as she handed her the modeled sales gathered from different avenues at the secretariat’s disposal.

"Everything just to sell cans?" she asked, quite surprised by the revelation. Although she knew they sold drinks, she considered it from the point of view of the companies she previously worked in, like ülker, where all of their different brands were just means of diversifying their revenue streams, but it didn’t seem like that.

"We estimate that around 90%, if not more, of their annual revenue comes directly from selling those silver cans, so it makes it easy to understand their actions because every decision can be filtered as a means of attracting, retaining, and owning the attention of people in pursuit of selling more Red Bull cans," the secretary said as a passing remark from what she had managed to gather at the rudimentary level of investigation, given the short time she and her team had to gather the initial data.

For Rümeysa, however, this explained something that had been nagging her. She had wondered what made Red Bull so inclined to win the world championship to the point of holding back Fatih if they could gain more championships on both sides in the future by promoting him as they agreed and keeping him longer.

However, she knew there was no guarantee they would be competitive in the 2022 season with the changes in regulations, so she knew whatever it was had been worth killing the relationship, and she seemed to have found it.

Just to be sure, she asked, "If it is brand identity and promotion that doesn’t feel like advertisement they want, what would winning a world drivers’ championship this season be worth if they tried to buy that level of global exposure through traditional advertising?"

Hannan took a moment to think about it before she answered.

"If the current season continues with the back-and-forth between the two teams and goes all the way to the final round and they end up winning, they should get at least between a billion and a billion and a half in advertising equivalent."

"A billion or more?" she asked, quite surprised by the answer.

Hannan, however, continued with her answer, "But even the advertising equivalent ignores something: people hate advertisements and skip about 80% of direct ads, but they love sports and competitive rivalry, which this season is giving them.

So, it should be even higher since they would feel like they are just enjoying the sport but subconsciously relate the drink to the team and increase purchases to an even higher level than if they spent the actual billion dollars or more on direct advertising."

"One feels like coercion, as they are forced to watch their ads again and again and might even make people hate the brand, but the other feels natural, which is the result every company wants from advertising," Rümeysa said as she naturally reached that conclusion from all the things Hannan had highlighted for her.

However, Hannan wasn’t done, as she continued, "We would also have to take into consideration the increase in brand value, which also increases the amount of money sponsors would need to pay to be placed on the car.

This should allow the advertisement machine to keep operating through sponsorship funds while the main company spends as little money on team operations as possible and sometimes even earns millions in profit from these teams.

But the secretariat will need to look into it further to be sure, as this is just speculation at the moment," Hannan said, making it clear that she would need to verify what she said and that Rümeysa should take it with a grain of salt.

That explanation just clarified everything and removed all the questions she had in her mind as she felt her understanding of the situation upgrade to another level.

Hannan, upon seeing that Rümeysa was in deep thought, paused her presentation, letting her think without interruption. This went on for about ten minutes before Rümeysa finally said something.

"If everything is in pursuit of selling more Red Bull, then doesn’t that mean that is also their weakness?" she said, as if she had a eureka moment.

"Yeeeees!!!!?" Hannan dragged out her yes as she answered, not sure what exactly Rümeysa was implying, as if they were about to go to war with or attack Red Bull.

"Good. Then you have a week to look into everything related to their drink. And I mean everything," she said with a smile on her face, as if she had found a way amidst the anger-filled fog she found herself in.