Formula 1: The GOAT

“Are you okay?” Steve asked, touching the shoulder of the low-motivated Enaam, who was sitting in a folding chair with his head buried in his legs, which were hugged by his hands. He was in the tent, waiting for his parents to come and pick him up from the track.

He was feeling down after coming in second in every session he participated in with Fatih. The loss in the qualifying simulation was a particularly big hit to his confidence, having come in second to someone he didn’t know at all.

“No, I’m not,” Enaam said in a demotivated voice, still not raising his head.

Upon hearing the response, Steve dragged the nearest chair over, taking a seat near Enaam before he said, “You don’t need to feel demotivated. Just because you lost today, it doesn’t mean you can’t rise later and come and beat him. After all, I’m sure you have grown better by fighting against Lando in the past few years. Now that he is going to move to the next category next year, I was worried there would be no high-quality competition, but now you have one. So you should try to look at it from a positive angle and not hang on to today’s loss as much.”

He, in his own way, tried to motivate Enaam, feeling bad for bringing him here only for him to be dominated by the new kid, when they thought it would be a strong challenge for the new kid. But as a telemetry engineer and not a coach, his words didn’t come out as motivational as he thought. They came out as if he saw Fatih to be on the same caliber as Lando and Enaam to be a level below, crushing his morale even more.

“…” When Enaam kept his head buried and did not give a response, Steve realized that his words might have been taken negatively. So he quietly rose to go and look for someone good with words who could talk with kids, lest he make it worse and end up causing a kid to hate karting.

Although he knew the possibility of that happening was low, as Enaam was a very talented and motivated driver and wouldn’t quit just because a new challenger appeared, it was better to deal with it earlier than later. After all, he was their driver, and they were being paid to support him and his career.

……..

“How did it feel to finally drive a kart after a long time?” Burak asked as they walked back to the car while he carried Fatih’s bag.

“It felt very good. I missed it, so I did my best,” Fatih answered with an excited smile, making it look like he was excited about driving a kart. And although that was true, a larger portion of his excitement and happiness was due to finally earning additional SP from successfully completing the mission.

“Don’t worry, starting from next week, after they finish going through the evaluation, you will finally be able to start practicing daily as usual,” Burak said, playing with Fatih’s hair as he opened the door for him. During this whole period, the cameraman followed them from behind, recording them.

The drive back home was mixed with random conversations about different things, ranging from karting all the way to his upcoming school in about a month, until they arrived back home. Upon arriving, Burak asked to have a conversation with Rümeysa, who agreed.

Burak used this opportunity to tell her about his decision to accept TOSFED’s suggestion of paying for his education in order to be able to meet the demands of the constantly developing and growing Fatih.

“How would it work?” Rümeysa asked, wondering how it would work since he would still have to train Fatih daily.

“The course will most likely be concentrated in the morning to noon periods, and only a few times would I be needed to travel for on-field experience and tests, so you won’t have to worry about him having to be trained by someone else,” Burak made it clear that he was still going to be the one training him on a daily basis, barring the few times he wouldn’t be available.

“It’s not that I was worried about you not being available. I’m of the view that your improvement is for his benefit, so there is really no reason for me to be against it. We can keep the same schedule as we did in Turkey, and for the days that you are not available, he can go to the tracks and drive by himself, doing the assignments you will give him. So focus on developing faster. I think Fatih would think the same way, considering he wanted you to come with him all the way here,” said Rümeysa, fully supporting him.

Rümeysa did her very best to try and make Fatih’s life as close to Turkey as possible because, unlike her, Fatih had a very small circle of people he knew closely: her, her mother, Burak, and his friends. But now his friends were no longer with him, and she didn’t want the same to happen with Burak.

It was better for Burak to grow with him and act as his most trusted individual when it came to motorsport dealings, since finding another trusted individual who would risk important things for Fatih after he grew up was going to be very difficult when he already had one of them here.

Although he would have an increasing number of people in his surroundings the higher he rose, having Burak there with him would allow him not to have to start from scratch when it came to things like understanding each other and working together, because Burak would act as the connection between the two sides.

While they were having that conversation, Fatih was busy having a conversation with his videographer and editor about what to do with today’s recorded footage.

Although he had more than one editor, only one of them was able to come and join them abroad; the others remained back home, doing their work remotely.

“As for this video, I think we should make it in the form of a vlog, starting from my arrival all the way to us leaving. There will be no interviews or additional ad-libs, just showing the process as is,” Fatih went on and on about how he wanted the video to be, as Mustafa took notes of every important thing he said to later share with the editor team in order to make those words come true.

Once Fatih was done, Mustafa repeated the written instructions and ideas to see if he had missed or misrepresented anything. “So, you want it to be…”

“Yes, you can add your own flair if you want. If it enhances it, then good. If it doesn’t, then we can just remove it.”

“Are we going to continue following the season format for it, or are we going to upload it as soon as it is ready?” Mustafa asked because at the moment, they were still in the midst of editing the backlog of episodes.

At the moment, they were on the third season of his Road to Formula 1 story, which was the most interesting season yet, as he had received a double promotion to KF-Mini and immediately to KF-Junior once he showed a dominant performance. So if they were to follow that format, it would mean this episode would not come out for at least five months.

“Since we are going to package it with the three races I will be participating in for a short special series, I think we should upload it after the third season is over, but before the fourth season starts. It will be a good promotion for me and something for those who will look for me following those races to see my most recent driving performance.”

“Okay, I will then accelerate the editing of it and finish the parts that we already have the footage of, and proactively edit the following parts as soon as the session is over and we have the footage.”

“Okay, thanks.”

“No problem, see you later.”

……

“Do we have all the relevant documents for the applications?” Ricky Flynn asked as he put down the telemetry information of the qualifying session that took place while he was not on the track.

He had immediately dived back into reading them the moment he returned from the appointment he had, and he was not disappointed in the least, having already become one of Fatih’s believers.

“Yes, they brought us all of the relevant documents, including his wild-card entry approval for the FIA World Karting Championship from TOSFED, his updated physical and mental evaluation, and his license,” his assistant answered as he slid a dossier that contained everything he had mentioned and more.

“They are very thorough,” Ricky said as he went through them, finding both the original version of them in Turkish and their translated copies with seals showing that they were done through a professional service, before he added, “So all that is left from our side is to go ahead and register him as our driver and apply for local certification for races that require that, right?”

“Yes, and TOSFED has reached out to us requesting the invoice for this year’s service.”

“They are very eager to give him the very best experience possible. I can understand why, though,” Ricky said, as this was the first time that the paying side had requested the invoice first instead of waiting for them to send one in order to pay. But knowing that any complication that arose from payment-related issues meant there was a risk that Fatih might miss the competition or race in an underwhelming machine, it was understandable for them to want to avoid that in all shapes or forms.