Formula 1: The GOAT

“Once again, congrats on your P3 win, Alexander, and good luck in your future,” Alessandro Riva, the trackside reporter, said before it was translated into English by the translator, bringing an end to the P3 interview as the crowd congratulated him with their claps.

He had received a post-race penalty for an incident on the track, which had demoted him to P3, and his expression during the interview had made it very clear that he was not happy.

“Let’s welcome the second-place finisher and the best of the rest, Lando Norris,” Alessandro said, raising his voice as the crowd welcomed Lando, who looked confused as the translator didn’t translate the welcome, leaving him wondering what was being said along with his name.

“Complimenti per la prestazione! Raccontaci com’è andata la tua gara,” Alessandro said before turning to the translator, indicating that he was done with the question and he could translate it.

“Congratulations on the performance! Tell us how your race went.”

“Yeah, thank you. The race went pretty well overall. I was hoping for the win, obviously, but Fatih’s pace was just unreal today. I knew unless he made a mistake, which he didn’t, there wasn’t much I could do to catch him. So I had to settle for P2. Still happy with the result, but I’ll be pushing harder next time.”

“Is there a reason you didn’t go with a setup gamble like Fatih did, and if you had the same setup as him, do you think you would have matched his pace and fought for the win?” Alessandro asked.

“The setup gamble was Fatih’s call, and to be fair, it wasn’t something the team really backed, especially with the forecast showing rain, which ended up being heavier than expected. We went with a neutral setup to stay competitive in both dry and wet conditions. As for my pace, I can’t say how I would’ve performed on his setup without actually driving it and getting a feel for it. But I don’t think I’d have been as strong in the wet without proper practice. On a dry track though, I believe I could’ve matched his pace.”

“Ah, thank you very much for your answers, and once again, congratulations to you and your team on having a one-two finish in the final,” Alessandro brought the interview with Lando to an end with a handshake before Lando walked to his coach, moving aside to wait for Fatih’s interview before the podium celebration was to take place.

“And ladies and gentlemen, the KF-Junior category winner of the 42nd Trofeo delle Industrie and the driver who showed himself to be above everyone in terms of pace, Fatih Yıldırım,” Alessandro shouted as he welcomed Fatih to the interview area.

“Congratulations on your first race win in your first international competition of your career. Walk us through your feelings,” Alessandro said before turning to the translator, and just as he was about to start the translation, the words were stuck in his throat when Fatih started responding in what sounded to be native-level Italian, causing the eyes of many who were focusing on the interview to nearly pop from surprise.

“Thank you. I’m very happy to have performed at a level that I deemed to be satisfactory for my debut and managed to meet the expectations I had for myself. And for my first international win to be from one of the most prestigious and oldest continuing karting events in the world, where the best compete, is nothing but a dream come true for me,” Fatih answered humbly while acting as if he was not enjoying the looks from Alessandro and the translator.

“…..” Despite Fatih finishing his answer, Alessandro still didn’t move to ask the next question, as he was still surprised.

“Sorry about that, as I didn’t expect you to know Italian since the report I read mentioned that you were in Turkey for your entire career. Do you have some connection to Italy?” Alessandro asked, while hoping on the inside that Fatih had a connection to Italy, as that would mean an Italian had won it instead of the current situation where none of their Italian drivers were on the podium.

“No, I don’t have any connection. I just studied it at an academy, knowing it might be useful in my career, and it came to be true earlier than expected.”

“I would have believed it if you said one of your parents was a native, as you don’t sound any different from one. What a surprise,” Alessandro said before moving on, sounding a bit disappointed that he had no connection to Italy, but he hid it pretty fast that very few realized it before he said, “Let’s move on. From Lando’s words, the decision to go with a full dry setup was made by you. Can you walk us through the reasoning behind your decision?”

“I wanted to have the best pace in the finals in order to increase my chances of winning, and since it was my first international race, there wasn’t any sort of pressure on me to perform, so I had the freedom to take risks, which thankfully worked out in my favor, albeit with a very difficult Saturday….”

…

As Fatih was answering the interview, a “+10” was noted in Davide Colleoni’s, the Ferrari Driver Academy scout’s, notebook in front of Fatih’s name, giving Fatih ten additional points due to his ability to speak Italian.

However, those plus-ten points didn’t change anything, as the win alone was enough for Fatih to now be on the radar of the driver academy and professional management agencies. It was a prestigious event won by the likes of Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel, Robert Kubica, and many other drivers who went on to have spectacular careers in motorsport. And doing so in his first international race and at the age of ten meant even more in their eyes.

“I really hope we all maintain our patience in monitoring him without anyone making a rash move and giving him an offer now,” Davide said, knowing that with many driver academies and karting manufacturer teams currently present having seen Fatih’s performance, there was now an invisible battle of nerves where everyone wanted to wait and watch how he performed in other races to see if this was an exception, luck, or his true abilities. But at the same time, they didn’t want to take too long in observing him and risk losing him to another team. The moment someone couldn’t keep their nerves and reached out to Fatih, a bidding war would start from all the teams that would then want him on their roster.

…

“So the next competition he is participating in is the FIA World Karting Championship next week?” William, the Red Bull Academy scout, asked his fellow scout, Mark.

“Yes, I think we should prepare for the Doctor coming to watch if he doesn’t want to be behind other academies, should he decide to try and recruit him,” Mark said as he imagined the attention that was going to be on Fatih in the next competition.

“Looks like he is going to be coming either way, since the best of the best are going to be there anyway, and all the heavyweights are going to have their eyes on the world championship. And if he performs like he did this week, then the bidding war is going to start,” William said, knowing that although Fatih was not eligible to win the Karting World Championship since he was a wildcard entry, that made no difference to the attention he was going to have from all the teams.

With each year, teams had started looking at karting to find their drivers and grow them within their system. And although each team placed a different level of weight on recruiting from karting, they still placed a level of importance on it and were ready to recruit a driver that had shown a performance meeting their stringent requirements.

…

“Good job out there,” Ricky said, welcoming the two team drivers who had just returned from the podium, high-fiving them while they were still covered in non-alcoholic champagne, with their medals and trophies still in their hands.

“Thanks,” Lando said before heading to get changed, leaving Fatih behind, who didn’t say anything, just looked at Ricky as if he expected something.

“Okay, a deal is a deal. We will prioritize your suggestions over the team’s if there is a disagreement regarding it,” Ricky said in a defeated tone, but the smile on his face told a very different story.

“Now go and get yourself cleaned up. You need to be out of here as fast as possible and have enough rest,” Ricky said, pushing Fatih away from the tent and to the dressing room.

…

“This is going better than expected,” Rümeysa said, the wide smile not leaving her face for even a moment. This single race win alone had triggered the clause in the agreement with TOSFED for them to supply the maximum agreed-upon support, no matter what his performance in the next two races remaining on his calendar was.

“He just made leaving home worth it,” Güldane said, as the remaining regret of leaving her comfortable home left her heart completely. Fatih had just proved that he was good even on the international scene, affirming that the sacrifices they had made were worth it.

Fatih thanking them for their support and the sacrifices they had made during the post-race interview also added to that. Although parents being selfless and sacrificing for their children is something that they willingly do, being acknowledged and thanked for that sacrifice meant a lot to them, and Fatih didn’t shy away from doing it every opportunity he got.