Formula 1: The GOAT

“He didn’t go crazy, did he?” John asked Steve, who was standing with him on the side of the tent, where they monitored data, speaking quietly enough that only Steve could hear the question.

“I don’t know; it’s my first time seeing such a reaction from a driver who failed to qualify. Do you think we should call Burak and ask him if it is normal for him to behave like that?” Steve said while looking at Fatih with slight worry at the way he was behaving.

“You think he will have the peace of mind to sleep if he hears what happened to Fatih when we call to ask him?” John said, pointing at Fatih, whose hands were interlocked on his chest, with his head leaning back, facing the ceiling, while his eyes were closed. That was all normal, but the thing making them worry was the crescent-shaped smile that kept appearing on his lips, making them wonder how someone could smile after facing such a situation.

“I don’t think so,” Steve said as he lowered his head to look at the clock on his wrist before he added, “He is still on the road heading back to the hotel, so he might even turn that car around to check on him.”

“How about we give him time to recollect himself and see if he is still in the same condition after ten minutes? Then we can check on him. I read somewhere that coddling someone the moment they face a difficult situation teaches them to be dependent, and you should first allow them to try and come to a solution as you observe them, only helping after you see them fail,” John said before he turned to pick up a laptop, searched for a folder that opened only after he input a password, and started going through the documents one by one.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m checking his historical records to see if he has been in a similar situation, starting from the back. I want to see if he has any experience with this because I only ever hear about his dominance. It should at least tell us if this is a first-time experience for him,” John answered.

“Move over, let’s check together then,” Steve said, moving John to the side to allow both of them to read the documents.

………

While they were going through his records, the qualifying session continued as normal, albeit more competitive. In the grandstands, the scouts who were in attendance to watch Fatih had their own thoughts.

“This is even better,” Luca Baldisserri said as he watched other drivers setting hot laps in the absence of Fatih.

“Why so, sir?” Davide asked, wondering why he was happy that the driver they came to watch was now relegated to the back of the grid through no fault of his own.

“We get to see his mentality and how he delivers when he is not out front in clear air, setting record-breaking laps, and has to constantly fight for position. Although last week’s recovery drive was quite good, that was when he started just outside the top ten, meaning there were fewer people in front of him. This is quite different from when the entire field is in front of you, so it should push him to his limits and allow us to see his advantages and weaknesses,” Luca said. He had already gotten bored seeing Fatih break the track record lap after lap all day yesterday, as that just showed he was fast and nothing more. That wasn’t a good thing, because he needed to know how Fatih performed in all other areas before assigning him a level, but Friday’s session had made that impossible.

But now that Fatih was not on track and no one else garnered his interest, he brought out his bag, removed a dossier, and started going through the documents in it to pass the time until the heats started.

The title on the dossier read, in a bold font, “Florida Winter Series 2014,” with “Ferrari Driver Academy” written in a smaller font underneath.

It was a winter series planned by the Ferrari Driver’s Academy as a non-championship training platform to allow drivers to transition from karting to single-seaters. At least, that was what they were telling the public as they invited notable drivers to compete. The truth, known by only a few, was that the event came into existence because Lawrence Stroll wanted to provide a platform to support his son, Lance Stroll, in transitioning from karting to Formula cars and to provide him with a low-pressure environment as he prepared for his Italian F4 debut.

At the moment, Luca was tasked with looking for talented drivers to fill the list of participants in order to at least make it competitive and allow Lance to build his confidence against these talented drivers.

……

“To avoid any more problems, we have already requested and received approval to enter the spare kart starting from the next session. I made the mechanics make sure this one doesn’t have any problems, so you can put that worry out of your mind during the heats,” Ricky said, showing Fatih the document that had the official approval.

He had gone to argue for Fatih to participate in the qualifying session with a new kart without a penalty, as the officials were the cause of this failure. But they had denied that, saying the reason they returned the torn-down machine in pieces is because the team’s mechanics are the ones who know their car better than the officials who took it apart.

Just as Fatih was about to answer, he turned his head, looking at the clear window as the sound of the commentators reached his tent.

“And Lando Norris still holds the provisional pole from his group B lap; however, his name is not written in stone, but on beach sand! Is there anyone on their final laps who can wash his name away? Jehan Daruvala finishes his lap but fails, as he sets a time just fast enough for overall P2! What about Robert Shwartzman? As he comes out of the final corner, he gets his foot on the power, taking the shortest line possible, and does he make it? Nooo, he only has a lap fast enough for P4, not improving on his previous time! BUT SOMEONE HAS FINALLY MOVED LANDO NORRIS! ALESSIO LORANDI TAKES POLE POSITION BY A TENTH, DROPPING LANDO NORRIS DOWN TO P2! CAN ANYONE ELSE DO THE SAME, AS ONLY TWO DRIVERS ARE STILL ON THEIR FINAL LAPS, AND BOTH ARE TEAMMATES OF LANDO NORRIS? BUT THEY FAIL, AS THEY BOTH SET A TIME ONLY FAST ENOUGH FOR P9 AND P10!

THE QUALIFYING SESSION COMES TO AN END, AND ALESSIO LORANDI CEMENTS HIS OVERALL POLE POSITION, ALLOWING A FRONT-ROW START FOR ALL THE HEATS! AND THE YOUNG ITALIAN RIGHTFULLY CELEBRATES HIS POLE POSITION!” Luca commentated with full-on excitement, as finally an Italian driver had managed to shine with Fatih absent from the field.

“With the final qualifying session now over, let’s go through the overall list. On pole position, we have Alessio Lorandi, followed by Lando Norris, Jehan Daruvala, Daniel Ticktum, Robert Shwartzman, Dean MacDonald, Mick (Schumacher) Junior, David Beckmann, Max Fewtrell, and Enaam Ahmed in P10….” Giancarlo went on, reading all the names and the positions they qualified in until he finally reached the last: “In P36 is this weekend’s shining driver, whose laptimes have been highlighted in golden color as he constantly broke the lap record for his category lap after lap: Fatih Yıldırım, who will be starting P24 in all four of the qualifying heats that will take place today. He now has a mountain to climb, but based on the pace he has shown, he can recover quite a few positions during the heats and the rest in the pre-final before starting in a higher position for the finals tomorrow. It’s quite an undertaking and a difficult task for the young man, and I can’t help but look forward to his drive later today.”

Fatih absorbed the news as if it were just weather: unexpected, but not unwelcome. His fingers tapped the helmet, his mind already running through different scenarios. For once, he wasn’t the favorite. For once, he had a mountain to climb and the world to watch him do it.