Formula 1: The GOAT

“We have four of our five drivers in the top ten for tomorrow’s pre-finals. Lando will be in P3, Fatih in P5, Enaam in P7, and Max in P10, while Alex will be starting from the back of the grid due to the penalty he received,” Steve said to Ricky and the rest of the engineers in the post-day gathering.

All the kids had already left the track following the final session, but the leadership and adult team remained behind to discuss matters regarding tomorrow’s races.

“He really clawed back all the way to P5,” Ricky said as he looked at the document containing the entire pre-final starting grid, with the names of their team drivers highlighted by a green marker. He focused on the driver number 99 of Fatih, which showed him in P5, before he added, “Tomorrow, he is going to be a nightmare.”

“Yes, he managed to limit the damage he experienced due to his setup disadvantage, and tomorrow he is going to be reaping the benefits of it against everyone else,” Steve said, quite impressed by the feat Fatih had shown.

Although due to the way Fatih performed, it might appear to others that it was something any good driver could do, the fact that only Fatih was the one to take the dry setup gamble, unlike the few who tried to go with a full wet setup, proved that it was the complete opposite.

His heat win and top-eight finishes across the remaining three heats were nothing less than the best possible result for his situation, even exceeding any of their expectations. It demanded the driver in the opposite of the current track condition setup to be on alert all the time in order to keep the unsuitable setup tame while also trying to exert as much pace from it as possible, something drivers in this category were not expected to be capable of, as it was too difficult of an ask from them. But Fatih had done that.

“So it means he still has a chance of starting the final race in pole position if he wins the pre-final tomorrow, and if that happens, he is going to disappear from everyone,” John said, receiving nods from everyone acknowledging the high likelihood of it happening.

Due to karting being a platform for young drivers to train and gain experience, it was designed to give them as many chances as possible to gain that experience and recover from their mistakes. So it had a very long and varied qualifying process before the final grid was decided.

Starting from the initial qualifying, where the fastest driver overall was in pole, it was then followed by the heats, where the one with the fewest points inherited the pole position. There was then the pre-final, where the winner of it inherited the pole for the last time, a slight format change compared to the one implemented in Turkey, where the pre-final was equal to a repechage on the international scene.

………..

“What do you mean you are coming? Don’t you want to rest on your actual free day?” William, the Red Bull junior scout, asked Mark, who had decided to go back to the track even when he was not required, having already gone today.

“You think I want to miss the show he is going to put on tomorrow?” Mark asked.

“Who and what are you talking about?”

“Watch for yourself before you ask why I made that decision,” Mark said, handing William a hard drive that contained today’s recording of the heat sessions.

William received it and immediately had it ready before he started watching the videos.

“Yeah, I understand it,” William said, finally understanding the reason, as he too, couldn’t wait to go tomorrow and watch the pre- and final races of the competition.

“Do you think we should tell Dr. Marko about it and see if he can come and watch the final?” Mark asked.

“We can do that, but I think it is better we record the whole weekend so that when we report, we can give him a full weekend overview, like initially planned. Because on the small likelihood of him actually coming when he is most likely watching Max, and Fatih doesn’t perform well, it is going to be us who are going to be in trouble,” William said, advising against it.

At the moment, it could be said that Helmut Marko was obsessed with Max, as he had already made it clear to his father that he wanted to sign him, and the only thing stopping it from happening was that the two sides were yet to have everything agreed upon, as Jos Verstappen, knowing the talent his son had, was holding out until he got the best deal for his son, and he was in no hurry at all.

“I agree, so let’s go with that then,” Mark said, seeing the reality behind William’s reasoning, before closing the topic and starting to talk about different things while they rewatched the recording again to discover things that they might have missed in the initial watching or to be able to see the wider picture of some of the drivers’ actions now that they knew the outcome of all of those actions.

………..

Hamilton had a very famous saying in the 2021 season: “It’s a marathon, not a sprint,” which he had said before accidentally activating brake magic and locking his tires into the first corner following a race restart, resulting in him finishing the race with zero points. Many people reasoned this to be the race where he lost the controversial 2021 championship.

Those words came to Fatih’s mind as the entire grid of 36 karts went through the shortcut that avoided the triple hairpin, sitting comfortably in P5, ready for the green flag marking the start of the pre-final of the KF-Junior category of the competition.

While he drove, he kept his eyes on the marshal post where the green flag would be waved, and just as they arrived at the final corner exit, the green flag was waved as all the drivers reacted to it and started pushing to the max, marking the start of the race.

As always, Fatih was one of the first to react to the green flag, immediately putting his foot on the power just as the kart straightened out of the corner into the start-finish straight. He didn’t move to the middle but stayed behind the two drivers ahead of him, gaining additional speed through the double slipstream, allowing him to gain more speed than was possible through engine acceleration alone. Just as the straight was coming to an end, he moved to the right, and with the additional speed he had gained, he went past the front two drivers before taking the corner while still on full power, finding himself in the lead of the race.

………..

“We have a green flag, and it is a go for the pre-final as the drivers start their race, all fighting to gain positions as early as possible to have the best starting position for the finals! The two formation lines have been broken in the rear, but it is kept by those in front, as it is more beneficial for them to keep their positions. But Lando Norris is losing ground to his teammate Fatih, who is behind him and benefiting from the double slipstream from the P1 and P3 drivers ahead of him. He still decides to remain behind them as he reduces the distance, getting closer and closer, AND HE MAKES A CRAZY MOVE, GOING TO THE RIGHT, AND THROUGH GOES FATIH, ACHIEVING A QUADRUPLE OVERTAKE INTO THE FIRST CORNER, CATAPULTING HIM INTO THE RACE LEAD! OH MY GOD, WHAT ARE WE WITNESSING TODAY?” Gianni, who had started commenting in a calm, excited tone, found himself shouting at the surprise move Fatih had made.

Although it looked like he had just overtaken the two karts directly in front of him in the train, there were two trains, so this one move gave him a four-position advantage.

“It is something he could do due to his setup matching the track conditions and it being the race start, allowing all the karts to be closer to each other. But it requires a perfect and better start than those in front of him and nerves of steel to make that attempt, knowing that a single mistake would send him off the track, killing his race completely and risking starting the final from the rear,” Martina took over, giving the general viewers the reason why that move was so impressive, but it looked like it was not needed as everyone on the track was already clapping and impressed by it.

“He is the last person you should expect to be conservative, as he is the only one who took the gamble to go with a dry setup when everyone else either went with a medium or a full wet setup. So taking gambles is in his nature, and not only that, he has shown the remarkable ability to actually reduce the damage if his gamble on the setup backfired on him, ensuring he doesn’t suffer too much from the unexpected results. And that gamble has now borne fruit, as he is now in the race lead, having already opened a two-tenths gap in a few corners when the first lap of the pre-final is not even over yet. And I’m sure this is not going to be the gap by the final lap, as the time for him to finally enjoy the perfect setup has arrived,” Gianni responded, fully excited as he focused on Fatih, wanting to see what the full pace of Fatih’s kart was going to unleash on the world.

………..

The moment he completed the move, his mind immediately adjusted to recreating that long practice run he had driven in the simulation the previous night. After he had already opened a few-tenths gap to the karts behind him, this session just turned into a qualifying session for him, and every lap was no different than a timed qualifying lap. By the end of the first lap, he was already only half a second off the lap time record of 1:03.507, finishing it at 1:04.009.

Lap 1: 1:04.007 | +0.682s gained | Gap to P2: +0.682s

Lap 2: 1:03.912 | +0.909s gained | Gap to P2: +1.595s

Lap 3: 1:03.845 | +0.738s gained | Gap to P2: +2.333s

Lap 4: 1:03.501 🟨 NEW TRACK LAP RECORD | +0.999s gained | Gap to P2: +3.332s

Lap 5: 1:03.384 🟨 NEW TRACK LAP RECORD | +1.120s gained | Gap to P2: +4.452s

Lap 6: 1:03.276 🟨 NEW TRACK LAP RECORD | +1.198s gained | Gap to P2: +5.650s

Lap 7: 1:03.214 🟨 NEW TRACK LAP RECORD | +1.201s gained | Gap to P2: +6.851s

Lap 8: 1:03.143 🟨 NEW TRACK LAP RECORD | +1.214s gained | Gap to P2: +8.065s

Lap 9: 1:03.071 🟨 NEW TRACK LAP RECORD | +1.229s gained | Gap to P2: +9.294s

Lap 10: 1:02.998 🟨 NEW TRACK LAP RECORD | +1.246s gained | Gap to P2: +10.540s

Lap 11: 1:02.917 🟨 NEW TRACK LAP RECORD | +1.261s gained | Gap to P2: +11.801s

Lap 12: 1:02.841 🟨 NEW TRACK LAP RECORD | +1.276s gained | Gap to P2: +13.077s

Lap 13: 1:02.734 🟨 NEW TRACK LAP RECORD | +1.293s gained | Gap to P2: +14.370s

Lap 14: 1:02.598 🟨 NEW TRACK LAP RECORD | +1.312s gained | Gap to P2: +15.682s

Lap 15: 1:02.482 🟨 NEW TRACK LAP RECORD | +1.320s gained | Gap to P2: +17.002s

………..

“Coming out of the final corner, having set consecutive fastest laps of the race from lap three and broken the track record for eleven laps consecutively, showing the full might of that kart, FATIH YILDIRIM WINS THE PRE-FINAL WITH MORE THAN SEVENTEEN SECONDS TO LANDO NORRIS BEHIND HIM! HAVING MADE NO MISTAKES, NOT PLACED A SINGLE WRONG INPUT, HE COMES HOME VICTORIOUS, HAVING FINISHED THE RECOVERY RUN OF THE WEEKEND AND PROVING TO EVERYONE THAT HIS SETUP GAMBLE WAS THE RIGHT DECISION TO MAKE! THROUGH THE SESSION, HE HAD BEEN MORE THAN A SECOND FASTER THAN THE DRIVER BEHIND HIM ON A MEDIUM SETUP! WHAT A PRE-FINAL, AND I CAN’T WAIT TO SEE WHAT HE IS GOING TO SHOW US IN THE FINAL, WHERE HE WILL BE STARTING FROM POLE POSITION!

And only now, after I finished recapping Fatih’s race, does Lando Norris go through the start-finish line, making that a one-two for the RFM team! What a way to sweep the competition!” Gianni commentated, screaming, as even he couldn’t believe what he was laying his eyes on.