"How long have they been with you?" Max asked as he bumped fists with Fatih in the lobby near where the FIA press conference would be held, while pointing to the cameraman and boom operator who were walking behind him, wearing vests that had "Netflix: Drive to Survive" clearly printed on them.
"Since the car’s unveiling," Fatih said as both leaned their backs against the wall so as not to clog the corridor, conversing as if the camera crew were not there, already used to the constant presence of cameras everywhere they went.
"That long? Might be a blessing in disguise when we consider what you will be facing now that you are here," Max said before chuckling, knowing exactly how much attention he had gotten on his debut and how much the sport had grown in that period, which meant that Fatih would experience something a few magnitudes worse than he did.
"I hope so."
"And this weekend is not really one that I would have chosen for my debut," Max said as he pointed with his chin to the glass door showing the large number of people on the other end. Although Formula 1 had gotten very big, no race ever came close to getting the level of attention that the Monaco GP did, due to the number of rich people concentrated in a single location.
"I have you to thank for that, or I would have been on my fifth race and already acclimated to F1," he said sarcastically before both of them laughed, as they both knew clearly that the reason he was made to wait until he was eighteen was because of the rules put in place following Verstappen’s debut at the age of 17.
"You can take that complaint to Helmut..." Max answered as their light-hearted back-and-forth continued for about five minutes before finally Gasly arrived, looking rushed as he adjusted his hair before putting the team cap back on.
"Sorry, my interviews took too long," Gasly said as he fist-bumped both Fatih and Max.
"No problem at all," Fatih answered in French, as he was finally meeting Gasly since they last saw each other at the Bahrain testing weekend.
They talked for about a minute before they were ushered into the press conference room.
The moment Fatih set foot inside, he couldn’t help but take a deep breath at the number of reporters in the room. He took a few seconds to adjust himself before walking to the chair in the middle, as that was the only one left after Gasly and Max chose theirs.
He looked at the chair for a moment, remembering that he was already making his presence felt in the timeline, as this conference would normally not be held until after the qualifying session and the race. But due to his arrival, an additional one was added. After about a second, he just turned around and sat, looking at the microphone set to his right.
"You better get used to it," Max said, leaning toward Fatih before the FIA representative started the conference.
........
"The lineup is quite impressive due to the story the three of you carry and the way you all interconnect. Max, you are second in the championship and in a very competitive car. Pierre, you are on your best performance streak and in a car that is capable of fighting at the top of the ’best of the rest,’ and you are now getting a new teammate in only the fifth round of the season. Fatih, you are making your debut. Starting with Max and finishing with Fatih: what does this Monaco Grand Prix specifically mean to each of you at this precise moment in the season?" a reporter from Sky Sports F1 asked.
"For me, it’s simple. We have been the faster car at some circuits, and Mercedes has been quicker at others, and the championship is very close. Hamilton is ahead, and we need to close that gap. Monaco is a circuit where historically it hasn’t always gone perfectly for me, so I want to change that this weekend and take maximum points," Max answered for about thirty seconds before Gasly followed.
"For me, it is an opportunity for us to finally lodge ourselves between Ferrari and McLaren in the constructors’ championship..."
Finally, Fatih’s time came. "It is going to be my first race, and for it to be in such a historical place, it is as exciting as it is scary, but I’m happy that my first race is on such a historical track."
Since there was no order in which the questions would be asked, with the selection being left to the FIA representative, the reporters didn’t beat around the bush when they got the chance and immediately asked the questions they had prepared beforehand without any attempt to ease a newbie into it.
"Red Bull described Fatih publicly as a ’generational talent’ before he had started a single Formula 1 race. You were described in similar terms when you debuted at seventeen. Having now seen the Istanbul footage and the data from pre-season testing, what specifically impressed you or surprised you about what you saw?" a reporter from TRT asked in English with a heavy Turkish accent.
"Look, I try not to put too much into tests and one-off events because the real thing is always different. But the consistency across the long run he had shown was impressive. Anyone can do two or three fast laps. Doing fifty-seven at that level of consistency with those tire numbers is not something you see every day. As for why they say he is talented, I believe his single-seater career in itself is an answer to that."
Following Max, Gasly was also asked a question, which he answered with as much vagueness as possible before finally, Fatih was asked his.
"You are the youngest person at this table. You are making your debut at the most unforgiving circuit on the calendar. You are replacing a driver who has scored points in every race this season. What specifically gives you the confidence that this is the right moment and the right place?"
"I knew about where I would most likely make my debut since last year, and knowing the difficulty of this track, I started my preparations for it then in the simulator. So although I have yet to drive these cars for even a single lap, I’m confident that this is the right moment and place for me to make my start."
His answer caused a few murmurs before the next reporter directed their question to both Fatih and Gasly.
"Pierre, you have won a Formula 1 race. Fatih has not yet completed one. But your seat security is partly determined by how he performs relative to you. How do you define what success looks like for you this weekend? And Fatih, same question in reverse: how do you define success relative to your teammate?"
’Really?’ Fatih thought to himself when he heard the question. Although he knew what was being implied, if he were the one asking questions, he would have avoided it. But maybe that was why he was a driver and not a reporter, since he didn’t have the heart to ask such awkward questions.
Gasly was silent for a moment as the question hit exactly where he was hurting. Despite surviving the first elimination, having performed better than Tsunoda in the first four rounds, that didn’t mean his seat was guaranteed to the end of the year, as that was dependent on how Fatih performed relative to him. At the moment in AlphaTauri, the only one with a guaranteed seat to the end of the year was only Fatih, a rookie driver who had yet to drive even a single race, which made it very clear what the hierarchy within Red Bull was, with Fatih being placed quite high within it despite yet to race a single time.
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