Formula 1: The GOAT

“From the very first session, a young man in only his second international event garnered everyone’s attention by delivering a marvel: breaking the track lap record ten consecutive times in a single session. Many knew him from his victory at last week’s 42nd Trofeo delle Industrie, on his very first international event, with many thinking it would be difficult to top that. But he has proven to us that any ceiling can be breached. He did it with many different feats: ninety-one overtakes over the weekend, recovering from last to first three different times, and to top it all off, as he comes out of the final corner and pushes through the straight.

AND THE CHECKERED FLAG IS WAVED, FOR THE FIFTH TIME HE WINS, AND FOR THE NINETY-FIRST TIME, FATIH YILDIRIM BREAKS THE TRACK LAP RECORD, CEMENTING HIS NAME ON THE LIST WITH THE NINETY-ONE FASTEST LAPS EVER SET ON THIS TRACK IN A KF JUNIOR KART! ANOTHER RECORD UNDER THE BELT FOR THIS YOUNG MAN! HAD IT NOT BEEN FOR HAVING TO FIGHT FOR POSITION, WE MIGHT HAVE SEEN SOMEONE BREAK A TRACK LAP RECORD MORE THAN A HUNDRED TIMES IN A SINGLE WEEKEND. A SHAME, BUT WHAT A PERFORMANCE!” Giancarlo commentated as Fatih went through the start-finish line of the final race of the FIA KF Junior Karting World Championship.

“It is a performance worthy of the championship, but he is not going to win it, as he is ineligible for the title. So the honor of winning the first round of the two-round 2013 FIA Karting World Championship goes to Lando Norris, who comes home to finish second, twenty-three seconds after Fatih crossed the finish line. But it doesn’t matter, as he is going to be the one taking the full 25 points, as Fatih’s ineligibility makes it impossible for him to receive any points. What a dramatic and complicated ending,” Luca said, reminding everyone that Fatih was a wild card entry, not an official one.

“So does that mean he is not considered to have won the race?” Giancarlo asked on behalf of the viewers.

“No, the race win will still be credited to him, but the points for winning the race will go to Lando Norris. If he wins the second round, he will have won this year’s KF Junior World Championship. But next year, if Fatih participates as an official entry after gaining eligibility by entering a few European and FIA karting events and meeting the requirements, I don’t think he will have any problem qualifying. As for Lando, this is his last chance to win the KF Junior title, as next year he will be moving to the KF category, where a certain Max Verstappen has been causing quite the sensation.”

The detail-filled post-race commentary continued for more than five minutes, buying just enough attention from the attendees to make sure that they didn’t get bored as the podium was being set.

“Now, let’s hear what our race winner and podium finishers have to say. I heard from someone that despite this being the first time he has been abroad, Fatih is quite fluent in Italian, and I can’t help but look forward to it,” Giancarlo said as he passed the baton to the interviewer who would be responsible for the post-race interviews.

……

“Let’s welcome the race winner and the driver who dominated the weekend, Fatih Yıldırım,” Serenya, the podium-side interviewer, said, and the crowd reacted, cheering and clapping for the performance he had shown.

“It has been a very chaotic weekend for you, but you have managed to not let it hinder you at all and managed to perform better than the rest in all but two sessions. Please walk us through what was going through your mind, starting from the moment you realized that the engine was not going to let you set a qualifying lap to the recovery drives you showed everyone,” Serenya asked, getting to the very crux of the situation as soon as she started, since she had at most three questions to ask each of the podium finishers.

“I would like to first thank my mechanics who, despite receiving such a short time to reassemble the engine that went into inspection, managed to put it back together as fast as they could. I want to make it clear that I do not fault them at all for the problem I faced, as in the end, it really didn’t stop me from winning the race. Though I’m still not that fine with the one who reported me, since they did everything as the regulations expected of them and the officiating body accepted their protest and started the investigation, that is all I have to say. However, it angered me quite a bit as it insinuated that I was dumb enough to cheat when I have nothing to gain since I was a wild card entry.

That displeasure, paired with the need to repay my mechanics fo rtheir hard worl, acted as additional and more potent fuel that powered my kart throughout the heats and aided in my win,” he answered, wanting to use the privilege of being ten years old to vent what he and the entire team were feeling. He paused for a moment, considered if he should or not, before deciding to go with it and added with sarcasm, “To make things clear, that fuel powered me, not the kart. So I hope no one reports me again, as that was my last kart, and we can’t have someone dismantling it all over again.”

With people understanding the context of the situation, quite a few of them chuckled or laughed at his response, but at the same time raised eyebrows, as the answer and the articulate nature of it were not something you ever expected from someone at the age of ten, especially while they are speaking a foreign language they only learned in school.

“You speak quite good Italian, to the point I would have believed that you were a native if you said so,” Serenya said while laughing, trying to shift the topic. After all, she didn’t want the situation to devolve into a child venting his anger at the one who reported him. Although that would be entertaining, it was not something she was interested in, as it might harm Fatih’s relationship with other teams and even officials if they thought he was targeting them.

“Thank you, I studied quite hard to learn the language.”

“I’m very curious about the ninety-one lap records you have set throughout the weekend. Many are wondering if it was deliberate or if you just kept improving session after session?”

“It was deliberate to some extent. I realized I could push the kart more and more and gain additional time, as I wanted to find the maximum limit I could push it. However, to be careful not to overdrive the kart, I deliberately only pushed it slightly more than I did the last lap so that I could guess how it was going to behave. The more I continued pushing, the more time I continued getting. Even on the final lap of the race, I hadn’t yet reached the maximum I could have gained, though that is for the best, since if I did, that would mean crashing, and it won’t do me any good if I crash on the final race after all the hard work I put in.”

“Although I would like to ask more and find a deeper understanding of your thinking and how you came to that realization, unfortunately, we have to bring our interview to an end here. Congratulations on your second international win in your second international competition.”

“Thank you,” Fatih said, shaking her hand before leaving the interview area.

“Now let’s welcome the current KF Junior World Championship leader, Lando Norris, who, depending on his performance in the second round, can clinch that world karting championship for the KF Junior category.”

“Before I ask how you are feeling about it, I would like to first ask about the pre-final and the final starting laps, where your reaction matched or was only just slightly slower than Fatih’s as you both went wheel-to-wheel for the first few corners before Fatih clinched the lead. What changed from the heats, where you made a few mistakes during the start, and avoided them in the pre-final and the final?”

“For that, I would have to thank the advice Fatih gave me, which I tried to implement, and surprisingly it worked quite well, though I failed to fully implement it to the same level he did…”

Lando Norris went into detail about what Fatih had said before he answered questions about his chances of clinching the FIA KF Junior World Championship in the second round. After that, Serenya moved on to interview the third-place finisher.

Once that was over, the podium ceremony took place, where for the second time in Fatih’s international career, the Turkish national anthem played to commemorate his win, ending his second week with an 85.71% podium rate, having missed the podium only during the qualifying session. Quite a dominant weekend.