"Nice to meet you," Fatih said when he arrived in Salzburg, Austria, and finally got to meet his teammates, Yuki Tsunoda and Pierre Gasly. Unfortunately, due to their relative heights, he towered over them as he was on the verge of breaking the 185 cm mark.

The two fist-bumped him with smiles on their faces, or at least that was what could be interpreted as a smile, since they were all still wearing masks to keep up with the COVID restrictions, and they immediately started making small talk.

Fatih, who was worried that his position to replace one of them was going to make the mood awkward, breathed a sigh of relief as he contributed to the back-and-forth conversation.

To his surprise, the other two drivers hadn’t met each other much, just like him. Each driver’s schedule had been designed around the previous COVID restrictions, making meeting beforehand very difficult, though they had seen one another in the team-wide Zoom meetings.

They talked for about ten minutes before they were called to be given the final briefing before the shooting could happen, which was also going to be quite tame compared to the 2020 unveiling, which was preceded by a fashion show.

After the short briefing, the drivers headed to the changing rooms to change into their racing overalls. Gasly donned his, which had his racing number, nationality, and name on his waist, which was the same for Yuki. But for Fatih, it looked the same, with the only exception being the driver number, which didn’t exist yet as he had yet to choose one and have it approved, which could only happen after he had a super license.

With a few passes of makeup to make everyone look presentable, they finally started the driver photoshoot in their racing overalls, which carried a hint of yellow where a deep navy blue had been in his previous life, due to the title sponsor.

Once they were done with individual shoots, they did group photos, with the drivers changing positions with one another. Then they moved to photos with pairings of drivers, taking three different rounds of pictures with each driver pair to ensure that if any of them were dropped to a reserve driver, they had a picture of the two who would be the main drivers.

...

"When I count to three, the three of you will walk out onto the stage. Yuki, you will move to the right side pod, Gasly to the left one, and Fatih, you will stand at the rear wing to lift it first before the three of you pull it to the rear, understood?" the director shouted on the microphone, repeating the instructions for the second time as each driver gave him a thumbs-up.

"One... two... three... Action!" The moment the director said "action," the three drivers did as instructed, walking onto the stage. Fatih lifted the rear cover, followed by the two other drivers, before they pulled it backward, revealing the new livery, which was a variation of last season’s, as cameras from three different angles captured the unveiling of the AT02.

"CUT, perfect, now let’s do that again," the director said as the stage was then rotated in order to have another angle to cut through in the edit of the unveiling video.

The three of them spent two hours straight walking back and forth to unveil the new livery in as many different ways as someone could imagine before they finally finished and moved to interviews.

........

"We have a completely new front wing, and the rear end is updated to the latest Red Bull parts, so I’m looking forward to how it is going to be compared to last season’s car that had a very nice operating window..." Gasly answered.

"It will be my first F1 car, so I’m looking forward to how it will feel to drive an F1 car..." Tsunoda answered when it was his time.

"I will be watching from the sidelines for the first four races and studying it as much as possible...." Fatih answered.

"Their answers are too corporate," the director said, standing behind the editor as he looked at the edit.

"..." The editor just turned back to look at the director, and although he didn’t verbalize it, his eyes asked what he meant by that when the video was for a corporate release.

"Well, we can’t do much. Just send them the final version," he said, giving up. In his mind, he had this elaborate introduction planned, but due to COVID restrictions, he couldn’t do much, so he left it as bland as it could be before it was forwarded to corporate. A few days later, the video was online, and for the race-starved F1 fans who could only pray for time to go faster, the video itself became a talking point due to Fatih’s appearance.

.......

@raceduck: They are going to Kvyat one of them by the Monaco GP.

@coloco: If I were Gasly, I would have left the team, man. Why is he always being threatened for his seat by some rookie when he has already been replaced by one?

@Nmustra: @coloco The one you call a rookie would have been the driver in that car already if it were not for the rules, and don’t disrespect him.

@pangota: @Nmustra If every rookie prospect that won the lower series did the same in F1, the grid would be more competitive, but they all end up crashing.

@Tosun: Don’t disrespect our driver. Your best driver isn’t as fast as his worst race.

And with everyone hungry for something, they immediately started devouring one another on social media. Fans of the drivers in danger wanted to discredit Fatih, while the Turkish fans, who were now finally going to get their own driver on the grid, moved in to defend with vigor, as it was the first time in their lives they had been this invested in a season of F1.

From deep support came toxicity, as things went from cordial to a full-blown Twitter war over who was the best driver. Some had their lives threatened for the takes they had, some were cursed for dragging another driver into an unrelated topic, and it was too big a thing for those in F1 not to notice. Amidst their silence, they all knew that this was going to be an interesting season.

The writers who pen the stories they need to focus on during the season noted it down, and with Fatih’s presence in all of the sessions until the fourth round already guaranteed, he was earmarked for increased attention from the broadcast side. The Helios AlphaTauri garage was going to be a controversial one, and as long as it remained within the rules, they would spectate and highlight everything happening from within.

Fatih had finally arrived in the sport, and living up to its status, the sport was preparing to welcome him.