Chapter 468: RedBull’s Dilemma III

"Tomorrow?" Rümeysa, with her phone to her ear, repeated the word when she heard it from the other end, pausing for a moment before she added, "Isn’t that very inconsiderate to set a date for the meeting before hearing the other side’s availability?"

Christian Horner had directly reached out to her instead of leaving it to Mateschitz’s secretary because he needed to get a feel for the people on the other side of the phone, and if an opportunity presented itself, create a negative image indirectly to kill the chances of the two sides coming to an agreement and hopefully guarantee that they end up going blow-for-blow.

"Dietrich is not exactly fond of the little stunt your side pulled and would like to at least hear your excuse before he makes his decision," Horner said from the other end of the phone, his tone carrying a slight hint of belittlement, the same as his wording.

"Y..." Just as she was about to respond negatively, she caught herself before the second letter could be uttered, allowing the silence to linger for a few seconds as her eyebrows rose before she said, "Sure, we will be there tomorrow. I will have my secretary reach out to set the time," and immediately ended the call before waiting for a response.

She had caught on immediately that Horner was doing some very obvious and childish things, which, had she fallen for them, she would have overlooked amidst her anger. Knowing that she was in a position of power, she was thankful for the wealth she had helped her son amass by supporting him.

That wealth had allowed her to avoid a situation where she would have to be subservient to the other side because they had the upper hand and she needed to do everything in her power to make sure her son could keep his seat. Now she could talk with team principals or even team owners on equal ground and not worry about it.

Pairing that with the level at which her son had performed in the three races he had been in, she was already brought up to the level of being able to have an equal conversation even if they didn’t have the wealth, though having it was even better.

"Hannan, call Eden and Elena," she said, pressing the intercom on her table connected to her secretary.

She wasn’t planning on going herself, since immediately standing up and going because she was called was not something that she needed to do in the first place; she only needed representatives who knew the full objective to represent her in that meeting tomorrow, and she had three of them on their way to her, including her secretary.

.........

Horner looked at his phone while he used his left thumbnail, rubbing it horizontally on his forehead as he creased his eyebrows, his mind thinking about her weird reaction. He had thought that since she was egotistical enough to put billions of dollars on the line as a retaliatory measure, it meant she was not going to accept being looked down on by someone not even worth a percentage of that.

Quite the opposite, she didn’t react negatively to his jab attempts and just went ahead with the situation, making him feel as if he were missing something, because if he were on the other end, he knew this would have been the perfect moment to gloat or belittle him.

"Looks like she doesn’t know how to use her power," he said as he returned the phone to his pocket. He informed the secretary of the expected reservations for tomorrow’s meeting before bolting from the building, not wanting to stay even a minute longer lest he be called back into the office once again.

As he arrived at the garage, he got his phone out and called someone as he opened the door to his car, putting it on speakerphone.

"Hello, love," the call was answered as his wife, Geri Halliwell, a former Spice Girls member, was heard on the other end.

"How are you doing?" Horner asked as he started reversing out of the parking spot.

"Just the usual, trying to keep Monty alive," Geri said, referring to their son.

"He will be going to school starting in December, so he should enjoy the last embers of freedom," Horner said as he chuckled.

"And I have to deal with the consequences of that freedom," she teasingly complained on the other end.

The couple talked about random things for a few minutes until he joined the road and finally had the opportunity to explain the reason he called.

"I need to use some of your media contacts to release something to the public that can’t be traced back to us," he said, finally getting to the point.

"Don’t you have better channels to release this within the paddock?" Geri asked, as she knew very clearly that a team principal had many routes to release information to the F1 media without it being connected to them, so going all the way to her was a roundabout and difficult way, since her connection to the sport was through him and she didn’t have any media connections to speak of within the sport.

"This is better to be released in traditional media since it is not about the sport, but people in the sport escalating the fight outside the sport," Horner said, trying to explain why he was not planning to use the F1 media.

He knew the moment he went through the usual channels, Dietrich was going to know it was either him or the Y?ld?r?ms who leaked it, but he could remove himself from the list of suspicion if this matter was "accidentally" discovered by a reporter in, let’s say, Brazil, who learned about a company wanting to buy all the biggest distribution companies in Brazil and released it to the public, only for F1 reporters to discover this from the company’s name and connect it to the fight with Red Bull, realizing that this was a fight between the Y?ld?r?ms and Red Bull, which would be like dropping water in burning oil.

This should then divert Mateschitz’s attention into thinking that it was the Y?ld?r?ms themselves who released it, since it started in the traditional media before the people in F1 connected it, and since no one within Red Bull would know he did this, he would get out of it scot-free.

The Y?ld?r?ms using Fatih’s name and surname also played into his hands, since the reporters in F1 might discover it on their own before he even tipped anyone off about it, if they managed to grow the situation big enough.

"They only need to connect a few dots and highlight that these companies are all within the region where Red Bull is experiencing rapid and explosive growth and are contracted to distribute these drinks within this region, and the reporters in F1 will do the rest," he said as he finished his explanation.

"Oh, now I understand. Sure, I will start reaching out to people through my previous PR manager; it shouldn’t connect to me," she said, not bothering to even try to advise her husband against it since they were all-in on one another.

"Can we have it out in the media by the end of today?" Horner asked because he knew that if Rümeysa somehow remained calm tomorrow, then the situation might not even escalate, and he needed to remove that possibility.

Having it released by the end of the day would cause an uproar in the F1 circle, and when something is out in public, there are very limited options the two could take because neither side would want to look like they were defeated, backed out, or surrendered, since they would become a laughingstock.

"If we spend some money to speed things up, it should be done within eight hours at most," she said after a short moment to think about it.

"Cash," Horner said, already open to spending money since it would not be more than a few thousand dollars for someone to bribe people working in these companies to get the acquisition documents. Even one document would be enough to be used as evidence to back the claims of all the other companies receiving those offers, and the gains from it would be on the scale of millions and securing more grip on the Red Bull F1 team.

"Talk to you later, love," Geri said.

"Love you," Horner responded with a smile.

"Love you too," she said before ending the call while Horner continued driving back to his hotel.

He was very proud to have managed to learn about this situation before Dietrich could contact the other side to try and talk to them, since that would have left him in the blind spot of all of this mess, which would have been devastating to him and his position.

Now, all he had to do was wait to hear about how tomorrow’s meeting went before adjusting his next move.

..........

It only took her a few hours before she proved how much of a reach a Spice Girl had, because about an hour after the first article with evidence went out, it was immediately picked up by global media, and within the same time, the F1 media also seemed to have detonated. It dropped at the perfect time, as many were still remembering the incredible race win and were discussing why Red Bull was not promoting him despite the monstrous performance he was delivering.

And the articles dropped like rain.

[THE ULTIMATE UNDERCUT: How Fatih Y?ld?r?m is Quietly Boxing In Red Bull’s Billion-Dollar Markets!]

[Red Bull vs Y?ld?r?m: A Civil War Brewing within the Red Bull Umbrella?]

[RED BULL’S CRONOS: A son betrays and tries to overthrow the fatherland.]

Article after article, video after video flooded the space, and the F1 world found itself once again amidst a storm, one that had everything people loved talking about: infighting, betrayal, a driver rebelling against the team, and much more. Having started outside the F1 bubble, it was spreading through there as well.

A storm had arrived in F1.