Formula 1: The GOAT

“Are we sure he is running a medium setup, as we agreed?” Ricky turned to Steve and asked, his eyes not leaving the small timing screen in their tent, though the large timing board on the track was also clearly visible from there.

“Yes,” Steve said with confidence.

“….” Instead of replying, Ricky pointed to the timing board, then looked back at Steve. Steve understood the silent question and replied, “Yes, we expect him to be even faster if we switch to his full dry setup and have a run.”

Ricky turned to the timing board once again and saw the lap time, a 1:04.121, which catapulted Fatih to the third-fastest driver overall. He then turned back to the track and saw Fatih in the middle of his second push lap, which looked to be faster than the first. However, Fatih had to abort the attempt mid-lap due to a driver sliding and going off the track a few corners ahead of him, causing a yellow flag to be waved. He had to lift his foot from the power, killing all the momentum and time he had gained.

……

“Let’s keep an eye on him for the rest of the competition,” Guillaume Le Goff from ADD Management said to himself as he looked at Fatih on the track. Although it was not the fastest lap time on the board, the story the commentators had made him privy to was very interesting. But even without it, Fatih would have attracted his attention on the strength of this lap alone, though Guillaume would have preferred to observe him a bit longer before making a decision.

He was here today as an on-site talent scout to evaluate a few drivers who had shown interest and wanted to sign with their management firm.

His eyes remained on Fatih for a short moment before he picked up a pencil that was between his notebook pages and wrote Fatih’s name and number on it, adding him to the list that had Lando Norris at the top and a few more drivers below him that they were planning to observe this weekend.

With the name already in the book, he now returned to watching his other listed drivers who were on the track, but every few moments, he would turn and look to find where Fatih was and what he was doing, which at the moment was very obvious: he was trying to open a gap to go for another push lap.

……

“Should we report it to the Doctor?” Mark, covered in black clothes from top to bottom, turned to ask his friends the moment Fatih finished his first lap, and he saw the time registered on the board.

“But isn’t the Doctor now focused on trying to see Max’s development and bring him to us?” Willian, wearing similar clothes to Mark, answered, even though he too was impressed by the drive Fatih had shown.

They were going to be responsible for monitoring drivers for their academy, one of them for each day starting tomorrow, with today being the day they all agreed on the targets they were going to focus on from tomorrow’s qualifying and onwards.

“You think he is going to want to miss a new talented driver just because at the moment, he is focused on evaluating another? What happens if his recruitment of Verstappen fails, or what if he later learns that we came across Fatih in his first international race and didn’t report to him? Isn’t it better to report him and have him dismissed by Dr. Marko than to not report him at all, only for Dr. Marko to later ask us why we did nothing? Plus, do you think other scouts are going to do nothing about it just because he is new? And what if it is decided later to push for him, won’t that mean we will be on the back burner when chasing after him?” Mark asked his friend very reasonable questions.

As Red Bull Junior Team observers, the importance of looking for talent while it was still a diamond in the rough had been instilled in them. One of their discoveries from karting was now dominating and on the way to winning his fourth consecutive Formula 1 World Championship title.

With its effectiveness proven, the Red Bull driver academy had put more emphasis on monitoring talents still at the karting level compared to other Formula 1 academies, which rarely did that, as they usually focused on drivers who had either shown a spark or proven themselves in single-seaters, which for many had worked extremely well.

Although at the moment Vettel was dominating, like any other company with sane leadership, they were already preparing for a drought during their years of abundance. Even though they were in the middle of negotiating to extend his contract, and Vettel was very responsive, there were still rumors in the paddock of interest from Ferrari.

As a result of those rumors, but even without them, Dr. Helmut Marko, proud of discovering Vettel, was now in the middle of looking for the next Vettel. Just like when he recruited him while he was still in karting, that is where he went looking, and at the moment, he was attracted to Max Verstappen and was monitoring him before he was to make a move and try to recruit him.

Although not transformative or too jaw-dropping, Fatih was now on the radars of many teams and management agencies like Infinity Sports Management, who most of the time interviewed drivers and families to build profiles; Ward Racing & Baby Race reps, who were feeder teams with F1 links; and with this being a historical Italian race in its 42nd year, even scouts from the Ferrari Driver Academy were present. However, they were among the few who didn’t take much interest in Fatih following his first session. But for those who were now curious about how he would perform this weekend, it was clear they were going to watch him closely.

……..

“After a few of his push lap attempts were met with either flags or were interrupted by unaware drivers, he has now managed to open a perfect gap to avoid the majority of problems as he is on the way to complete his final lap in this session. He places his kart close to the optimal route as he goes through the chicane and uses all of the curbs on the exit, entering the short straight, leaving only the triple hairpins before he finishes his lap. Depending on how he takes them, there will be a huge time difference.

He brakes early into the hairpin and goes wide to open the entry into the second hairpin, which might look like a longer-than-optimal route, but due to the speed difference, going wide on the exit to set up for the optimal entry into the next hairpin, you gain time instead of losing it. And he shows where to place the kart as if following a template, repeating the same into the third hairpin and the final corner, maximizing exit speed.

And now he only has the final straight, which he pushes to the maximum, leaning ahead to induce a mini DRS and… Oh my god, the fastest time has been equaled! Fatih Yıldırım, the number 99 driver, moves to second overall due to him setting his lap time second, with Alexander Vartanyan remaining on top but with a zero-second difference! That is a first in a long time, as there is almost always going to be a small difference, but it looks like this lap would have needed us to go to the fourth decimal to find it,” Gianni commentated excitedly as Fatih slowed down. The practice session clock had already hit zero as he headed back to the pit lane.

“This now creates a very interesting situation for all of us to look forward to. Will he cause an upset and continue showing us a great performance today, or is this a difference in warming up for the drivers? But no matter the outcome, it is something I’m looking forward to in the following two sessions we are going to see him in today, as that will set the tone of our expectations for tomorrow’s qualifying and the heats,” Martina said, reminding everyone that although doing well in practice was good, doing so in the first practice only meant that you had dialed in the setup earlier than the rest, who were most likely bound to catch up in the remaining two free practice sessions. So there was no need to take everything as a preview of what to expect tomorrow or even in the second session.

This was the sentiment carried by drivers, spectators, and recruiters. That’s why, although they were impressed, they only placed him on the list to observe and did nothing more, as they wanted to first see his overall performance over the whole competition before deciding to do anything else. And if he performed badly, he might find himself struck from the list as early as tomorrow, as motorsport has a very short memory, and you are only as good as your last performance.