CHAPTER 128: THE DECISION

"From my view, I think we should go with these suggestions," Fatih said, sliding two documents forward.

"Red Bull and Tony Kart? I expected it, but you really went with the ones that have the most aggressive demands to match the support they will be offering," Rümeysa said when she looked at the names on the two documents.

They were the only ones who offered complete packages, unlike the others who still wanted the driver or a sponsor to fill some parts of the equation. Red Bull would be sponsoring him to cover everything from travel to coach training if needed, while Tony Kart was going to provide him with the latest equipment in all competitions he participated in and even send an engineer. But what both expected from him was a performance worthy of those investments and to have his name at the top of the boards, since that is where Tony Kart’s name would be next to Fatih’s as his kart provider, and for Red Bull, that is where they needed him to be before they made their decision.

"When achieving high demands is a possibility, going for the worst but safer option is not a good thing to do, as it shows your level of confidence," Fatih said, rubbing his non-existent beard as if he were a sage.

"Haha," Burak chuckled at the answer for a moment before he asked, "But why both? You aren’t thinking of accepting both, are you?"

"Yes, they are in two different areas, and it allows for a perfect mixture without anyone missing out on something. It’s like two people wanting something from an orange and getting a hundred percent of what they want: one gets the juice, which here stands for Red Bull, as they sponsor me to get their first refusal right as I race, while the other gets the pulp, which for Tony Kart will be an advertisement for their karts. This means so long as I’m on the podium, I will be serving both of their agendas equally. If it’s like that, then why not do it, instead of choosing only one?" Fatih answered, explaining his reasoning to Burak, as he was sure that his mother had most likely already considered that.

"I agree with him, and I don’t see any negatives in trying to have both of them," she said, proving him right.

"But won’t they see us as being greedy for wanting to have our cake and eat it too?" Burak asked, looking at things from how he would have reacted if he were one of the sponsors.

"This is motorsport, where money is everything. I don’t think people who know that will see it as greed, but just maximizing opportunities. Plus, us going on both avenues doesn’t infringe on any of their expectations from their side of the agreement, so there is no need to inform them. We are only doing so out of courtesy so they don’t come to learn of it from somewhere else," Rümeysa answered, having considered the potential responses as well.

"What about management? Are you not considering anything?" Burak asked, wondering if he was waiting for his first decision to be discussed.

"Mom is the one who should decide that, since you know it better than me," Fatih said, sliding the documents relating to management back to his mother without any input, as she was the one who managed everything through his trust-owned companies and would know better what he needed on the management aspect of his career.

"I was thinking of headhunting one of these people and having them work at Yıldırım Racing so that we can have total control of how these contracts and other things are agreed upon, in order to not have a conflict of interest with the management company, where they might end up pushing us to take a worse deal due to the pay being better, which in return would also mean their cut will be bigger," she said, tapping at the documents in front of her in a rhythm as she considered who to choose.

"Can’t argue with that reasoning. Plus, we have a month until the next race to make a decision, so we can take our time," Fatih said, considering the matter a done deal.

"If that is the timeline, then the time is not enough. But thankfully it is not, and we can even delay it until after the WSK Cup to make sure the agreements are rock solid as we take our time to consider the clauses, since they will only enter into effect next season," Rümeysa said, reminding him that for this year, TOSFED had already covered all of his RFM costs and was still covering his traveling expenses until the end of the season.

If the contracts with the two teams went as expected, then TOSFED would reduce their monetary support but still retain their political support and leverage for Fatih and be ready to cover any additional expenses that arose and were not covered by the new sponsors. They could now redirect those funds to further invest in the network surrounding him, like increasing opportunities for Burak to gain additional experience by having him participate in as many competitions as possible in higher categories, to make sure that by the time Fatih reached there, he was already qualified to rise with him and not have to be replaced.

"Okay then, since we have an agreement on what to do and there are no objections, we can start working in the direction of achieving them as soon as possible. I will inform the two sides of our decisions and move on from there based on their response," Rümeysa said, bringing the meeting to an end. After spending another hour catching up and answering more questions about his experience in the three days he had attended his new school, Fatih was finally able to return to his room to prepare for sleep.

..............

Inside Simulation.

"How have you been?" Fatih asked the moment he entered the simulation after his real body went to sleep.

"No different, but since you chose not to practice in the real world today, I’m going to teach you something new," Apollo said as they teleported onto the track that the WSK Final was going to take place at, the International Circuit 7 Laghi, having already moved all of their practices to this track for the remainder of the month until the competition was over.

"What is the new situation for today?" Fatih said as he jumped into the kart, Apollo having already changed his clothes into full racing gear, looking forward to finally learning something new.

"Driving while having a puncture and not losing too much time while returning to the pits," Apollo said as he appeared in an identical kart to Fatih’s.

"I don’t think anyone else learns this," Fatih teased as he closed his visor.

"That is because it would be foolish to practice something like that in the real world, as you are pushing the frame and all of the equipment to work in conditions they were not optimized for. Plus, simulating it in the real world is quite dangerous because there is no safe way of inducing a puncture while at high speed, just to train a driver in a scenario that is almost a race-killer. But in here, there is nothing to worry about, and we can do whatever we want without much consequence, so it is a no-brainer for us to do what many would consider a foolish endeavor in the real world.

In return, it should reduce the number of situations you have no experience in to only the most improbable ones that require several coincidences to align at a single moment. But even then, we might still have practiced those situations by then," Apollo said, pointing back to the brokenness of the simulation and how it is even more of a cheat than a place where you can just practice on a track again and again, as it also allowed for a driver to practice foolish possibilities to increase his advantage even more.

"Now, let’s get on with it," Apollo said after finishing his explanation, as he started driving ahead of Fatih so that he could follow and monitor how he reacted during situations like these.