Formula 1: The GOAT - Chapter 145

Chapter 145: The 2014 Schedule
(There was an election in my country, Tanzania, and a protest erupted so they shut down the internet)

After a short back-and-forth, Fatih agreed to receive the money from his mother, but in the form of a loan that would be repaid should the company start doing well or if it was sold.

“The remaining four million should be easy to cover through actual bank loans, and upon seeing success, we should be able to cover the majority of next year’s funding through sponsors and some of our earnings,” Rümeysa said with a satisfied look.

Although she was just having the meeting with Fatih now, the behind-the-scenes planning was pretty much complete. They had already finished hiring the team that would be traveling to these races and following the drivers they had an agreement with. This was one of the things they were still in the middle of negotiating, as a few of them wanted to be paid for the docuseries, both the joint and individual ones. They failed to see the benefits of the documentary as an advertisement for their drivers and considered it as something only the company would benefit from.

They were thinking of agreeing for this season in order to get them on board, but should it succeed, it would be the last time they did that. As for negotiations with the series owners for licensing rights, with some of them, they were already in the final stages, while with others, they were at the starting process.

“As for Max Verstappen’s docuseries contract, as you suggested, we agreed on a four-year individual docuseries with him, but we had to agree with his father’s request of a half-a-million payment for the four-year agreement in return for having as much access to Max as possible in all of the competitions he is in and thirty non-race days where we can have all of our interviews and recordings of his normal days,” Rümeysa updated him on the Max Verstappen side of the individual docuseries they would be starting this year.

It was one of the more difficult ones to negotiate, as, unlike the other drivers who would be included in both individual and joint docuseries, Max Verstappen was being contracted for only an individual one since he was not in the same category as the others.

“That is very expensive, but does that mean they are not going to receive residuals in return for the fee, or is that included in the agreement as well?” Fatih asked, wanting that part to be clearly agreed upon. He knew with certainty that Verstappen’s docuseries was going to succeed no matter what, since he was going to be moving to Formula 1 in 2015, the year they would be releasing the episodes, just when the hype about him was at its highest.

“Yes, that is what Jos said during the negotiations. It seems he believes the docuseries won’t have a large enough audience to guarantee good earnings through residuals. So what do you think? Should we go with it? After all, if it failed and we don’t resume the second season, the payment given to him will not be refunded.”

“Yes, let’s do that, and let’s pay all of it after the contract, since his docuseries will definitely succeed, just as much as or even more than mine.”

“Well, you are the one who knows more about motorsports than me, so I will trust you on that,” Rümeysa said, writing something on the paper in front of her. After all, all of the companies were still being propped up by the betting side of the business, which was fully dependent on Formula 1 betting information.

“The podcast team has already created. We are in the final stages of looking for the main host and preparing invitations for our first guests. We are trying to start small and gradually increase the quality from there, but it should be up and running by February, where we will start posting them weekly…”

After discussing a little bit more about the business side of things, she updated him on additional improvements the team had advised on his suggestions. He agreed with some of them and wanted more details for others.

“The subscription model is already in the middle of being created and should be ready before the first episode of the docuseries is posted in 2015. They quite liked the idea of the subscription not forcing everyone to pay to access the content but just giving them early access without ads, as it would allow us to maintain both paying and non-paying viewers while generating revenue.”

It was the idea he came up with when he thought about other ways to increase the company’s revenue. It was no different from the YouTube style, where fans who paid to support the creator were rewarded with early access.

“Now let’s move to this year’s competition schedule for you,” Rümeysa said as she slid all of the company-related things aside and picked up the competition schedule document.

“Elena finished preparing the schedule for this year’s competition to allow for constant competitions throughout the year with a few rests in between. Unlike last year, when we only went to Italy, this year we will truly be traveling internationally. We will be going to Italy, Spain, Sweden, here in England, and France.

“As for the competitions, we will be participating in the WSK Champions Cup in January and February, the WSK Super Master Series from March to May, then two competitions between May and August, which are the CIK-FIA European Championship and the WSK Euro Series. Then in September and October, it will be the CIK-FIA World Championship, and the last one will be the WSK Final Cup, which you already won, held in November. During the free breaks, you can also participate in some local competitions, but this should be more than four times the number of competitions you did in Turkey, so you need to get ready for it,” Rümeysa said as she slid him the schedule document.

As he looked at the timetable, he couldn’t help but smile at seeing his favorite track appearing four times across four different competitions, with it being the first international track where the WSK championship would be held in January. This should allow him to start the international season with a win.

“We have already registered your entry for the ones from January till May, but we are delaying the rest to see how you cope with the initial schedule and adjust it based on your condition. What do you think? Can you handle it?” Rümeysa asked, knowing that it was going to be a grueling year. Every month, they would be traveling somewhere right after the school week to spend a weekend competing, then returning to school the next day, where he would have to catch up on all the classes he missed.

“The more competition, the better,” Fatih said with a smile. He would finally get to be in the competitive stage far more frequently than he ever did, which also meant more SP for him for winning all of these competitions. This would then go through a multiplier at the end of his karting career, and he knew the more points he accumulated, the more he would be able to upgrade his abilities before moving to single-seaters, where the number of races would never match the amount in karting.

He couldn’t help but look forward to it, as he was confident that he would finally be able to upgrade his Invictus back to the level it would have been had he not had to downgrade it in return for the SP he used to buy the simulation and mentor program, which had all proven to him that he had made the right decision.

He knew it would also serve to create his image and make for a very interesting individual docuseries where he goes and dominates the entire KF Junior category. This should guarantee that those watching Verstappen’s series will also watch and like his, as they will start considering him someone who can match and even compete with Verstappen once they meet in the same category. Though their dreams of seeing them compete will most likely only be fulfilled once they both arrive in Formula 1 years from now, this was best for Fatih. It would let the narrative simmer and bake for longer, allowing for the biggest release once it actually happened and they met in F1.

“Okay then, I will inform her and have her start the preparations of buying the tickets and booking hotels ahead of time. The race suit that you will be using this year, featuring all of the sponsors, will be delivered next week for a fitting check, so keep that in mind. Other than that, there is really nothing new I have. I don’t know about you,” Rümeysa said as she dragged the two documents aside, having completed going through everything she had deemed important.

“I have one. Seraphina said she is wondering how it feels to drive a kart, so do you think it will be fine for her to try mine? It seems she has gained some interest after watching my videos and wants to try and see how it actually feels,” Fatih said, wanting to see her decision. After all, it was a moving vehicle, no matter how harmless it looked.

“I will talk with her mother and see what her decision is, as it should be for her benefit since she will finally have something to do besides you two just playing with each other,” Rümeysa said, having yet to tell Fatih of Seraphina’s situation, since it was nothing he should concern himself with. At the same time, she was taking it positively, since it meant it was one of the events that would allow her to be in a group of people, just what the doctor suggested their next move should be. A karting track was a very good representation of that, as there would be many people, but not many who could directly interact with her.