Chapter 453: A Date & Briefing

Having finished giving him his line of thought, following breakfast, he rested in the living room for a moment with a phone in his hand the whole time, as it constantly vibrated, announcing the arrival of messages that brought a smile to his face.

Everyone in the house could see the obvious smile on his face as he seemed to have lost awareness of his surroundings, being too immersed in his phone, but they left him to it since there was really no good reason to interrupt him. They just felt happy for him, as something they felt was going to take a long time was handled very fast, and during what they might say was the worst period of his life.

When noon arrived, Fatih just stood up, went upstairs to refresh himself, and put on new clothes before bidding everyone farewell as he left the house with one of their cars. He didn’t say where he was going, but everyone knew he was going to meet Seraphina and finally go on their first date.

.....

"Wow," Fatih said involuntarily as he watched the door open and Seraphina come out of it.

As she stepped out into the afternoon sun, he could finally see her whole outfit, and she looked stunning, perfect in every way. She was wearing a flowing, emerald-green midi dress that was caught by the gentle breeze, paired with a classic denim jacket to keep the chill at bay. On her feet were stylish, low-heeled ankle boots, perfect for walking.

However, all of those things paled in comparison to her beauty. As she walked downstairs with excitement and slight shyness on her face, her pristine white hair jumped up and down, perfectly framing her face, which had very light makeup.

"You always are, but today you are even more beautiful," Fatih said as she reached where he was, and he gave her a hug.

"Where did you learn all of that?" Seraphina, quite surprised but also happy to hear those words, asked.

"It doesn’t take learning to tell the truth," Fatih said as he opened the door for her to get in before closing it behind her.

Once that was done, he turned around, and in the window of the house that looked slightly open, he showed a double thumbs-up, as he knew her mother, the one who had helped her get ready, was most likely there watching.

Without waiting for a response, he moved to his side of the car, and just as he was about to open it, the door opened, as Seraphina’s hand could be seen having reached out from her side to reciprocate the gesture.

"And where did you learn that?" Fatih said as he teased her back with her own question. He got back in the car, finding her already putting on her seatbelt.

"Why that look?" Seraphina, who was happy, asked Fatih when she saw him looking at her with his eyebrows slightly raised.

"Just mourning a missed opportunity," Fatih said as he put on his seatbelt. He felt a smidge of disappointment that he hadn’t thought to put on her seatbelt when he had opened the door for her.

"Well, there are many more to come in the future," she said, too excited to wonder what it was, but confident he was just messing with her.

As Fatih, ever the rule-follower, went through all of the checks he needed to make before moving the car, Seraphina just watched him adjusting the rearview mirror, checking the side mirrors, the fuel meter, and everything else with amusement on her face before he finally ignited the car.

"It’s lights out and away we go," she said as they started moving, causing both of them to laugh as they headed for their date.

Usually, she would have either been at school or doing her online classes, but due to the COVID situation, Year 13 had already finished their final assessments and were given an early summer break starting last week, making the date possible.

After a few minutes of driving, Fatih entered the M25 westbound as they headed to Junction 10, taking them twenty-five minutes before arriving at the RHS Garden Wisley entrance. They didn’t enter immediately, as Fatih took them three minutes down the road to The Anchor at Pyrford Lock, a gorgeous country pub sitting directly on the banks of the historic River Wey Navigation.

Having used the secretariat to get them a late reservation, they enjoyed lunch on the waterside terrace as they watched the canal boats float past while talking and enjoying their time.

Once they finished eating, they finally headed to RHS Garden Wisley and spent two hours wandering through the exotic world of plants inside the giant glasshouse, strolling past the laboratory building before getting lost in the beautifully curated rose gardens and woodland walks, spending a full two and a half hours there.

As the evening got closer, they stopped by the village square café near the exit for a coffee and cake before taking a slow walk through the premium plant center and the gift shop, where they bought lavender trees along with gardening tools. Finally, they left and started heading back to Surrey.

Upon arrival, they didn’t return home but headed to the karting track, where they chose a perfect place. Finally, they planted the lavenders together as a memory of their first date before bringing an end to the day with their scheduled practice.

Taking advantage of the track’s extensive lighting infrastructure, they didn’t return home until ten in the evening. Despite the tiring day, neither of them looked tired at all; rather, they looked disappointed to have to part ways.

With both of them being on holiday, they kept going on dates every day before ending each one on the track, until Thursday evening arrived when she had to head to Snetterton for the British F4 rounds 4, 5, and 6. She was more excited and tense about this weekend than her first three rounds, as Fatih was finally going to be in the garage attending the race on Sunday.

Although he wanted to head over and spend a whole weekend with her, his mother had to remind him that he was, at the moment, an F1 driver, and despite being a rookie, he was someone who had won all the races he had participated in.

This meant his appearance on that track was going to create chaos and attract too much attention, as it would give people the impression that he was going to keep coming to the track, flooding it with people in an attempt to see him and get a signature.

As a result, he had to compromise. His team went ahead and reached out to the race organizers to allow them to prepare ahead of time and avoid being overwhelmed by an influx of people they would have never expected or planned for.

So, while feeling slightly disappointed, he had to wish her farewell as she left that Thursday evening in preparation for her race weekend.

....

Rümeysa was back in her office, having arrived to receive the report she had tasked her secretary and the secretariat with gathering on the Red Bull can production side of things.

At the moment, she was still deep in complicated thought, thinking about the idea her son had brought forth a few days ago. She was still considering possible ways to gain leverage against Red Bull to force their hands into handing over control of the team for a few years before it was returned to them, because she was confident they would not allow it to happen if they didn’t have leverage.

She had considered promising to cover the majority of the budget cap funding during the period they operated the team, but that was just going to be the basic requirement since they would be the ones controlling the team. It wouldn’t work as the convincing factor since it would only come into action after they gained control.

She hadn’t for a moment thought about advising her son not to go this way because some might consider it a waste of money.

Thanks to the amount of money her son had made them earn, and with them still earning massive amounts of money every day as the stock market was on an uptrend, even spending a few hundred million dollars a year wasn’t going to even dent their accounts. All of that amount would be refilled within just a few days of returns from their active investments.

Since her son earned all of this money as a direct reaction to what he had faced during his karting years, spending it in F1 for him to avoid facing the same situation was exactly why the money was being earned in the first place. So, she had already greenlit it in her head and now only needed to find the route she could take to make it a reality with as little cost as possible to avoid needlessly spending money that wasn’t hers.

A few minutes after her arrival, Hannan, her secretary and the head of the secretariat, entered her office and started presenting their findings.

"Red Bull operates on an extremely asset-light business model. This means they intentionally avoid spending money on building factories, buying transport fleets, or maintaining heavy industrial machinery. Instead, they choose to own only the intellectual property, the secret recipe, and the brand market.

By keeping their physical footprint virtually at zero, they achieve two massive advantages.

First, insane profit margins. They don’t have to pay factory maintenance, building depreciation, or the thousands of manufacturing workers’ salaries, allowing for every dollar they make to be almost full profit, which they can spend however they wish, but mostly on their marketing expenses.

The other is hyper-scaling rapidly. Since they don’t have to wait until production lines and distribution centers are built if they want to expand into a new country, it saves them years by simply hiring local companies that already do those things, providing the recipe, and starting production and distribution near-immediately.

In this system, their Red Bull drinks operation can be divided into two sections: the in-house section and the outsourced section.

The in-house part is the recipe, the branding, and the ’retail police force’ who ensure retail stores live up to the agreed-upon conditions.

The outsourced parts are the heavy-operations parts. Their cans are fabricated by Ball Corporation. The liquid mixing and canning are done primarily by Rauch Fruchts?fte, who both work in tandem by building factories next to one another and connecting them with a conveyor belt, increasing efficiency and reducing transportation costs.

The long-haul logistics are all hired from third-party global shipping syndicates, and it is the same for last-mile distribution through exclusive logistics contracts with independent regional and state-level mega-distributors who own the warehouses and physically deliver the cans to the stores......."

As Rümeysa listened to Hannan’s presentation and looked at the supporting PowerPoint, her mind latched on to the first thing she had said: ’Red Bull operates on an extremely asset-light business model.’

From there, an idea sprang into her mind, one that she hadn’t considered before because she didn’t know things in detail. If what she was imagining was possible, and if they played their cards right, they could gain massive leverage against Red Bull and bring them to the table.

With that realization, she experienced an inspirational explosion, an idea that, if it worked, might be able to bring RedBull to the table without actually spending even a cent of their money.

Completely unaware of what was going on in her mind, Hannan continued with her presentation. It was the correct decision, as with every detail she added, she was just laying more and more bricks in the foundation of Rümeysa’s idea.