Formula 1: The GOAT

A few days ago.

It was eight in the evening in England, and for Seraphina, it was the end of her day outside.

Unlike her usual routine of settling in and watching cartoons with her mother after dinner, today she borrowed her computer. She planned to take a look at Fatih’s channel, both because she had promised and to satisfy her curiosity about his karting.

After typing Fatih’s name into the search bar and pressing enter, his YouTube channel appeared at the top, showing details that caused her to pause in surprise.

800k. That was the number of subscribers shown. Had it not been for Fatih’s blue eyes, visible through the helmet’s open visor in his profile picture, which she could recognize anywhere, she would have wondered if there was someone else with the same name and a large audience. For someone who could be said to have chronic shyness, imagining herself being seen by that many people was no different from torture, her worst nightmare come true. But thankfully, it was not her. She couldn’t help but wonder what his videos were about for so many people to subscribe.

She immediately clicked to be directed to his channel and went to the playlist, planning to watch the videos in the order Fatih had set them.

The moment the first video played, Fatih’s voice was heard as a montage of Formula 1 cars and different drivers appeared on the screen. He said, “Formula 1, the pinnacle of motorsport, a place where, if you win, you can say with confidence that you are the best in the world, and no one would argue against that. It takes years, hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars, just to reach it. And even after reaching it, there is no guarantee you will succeed. Only the best of the best reach Formula 1 and perform under pressure. Yet, at any given time, thousands of people around the world at different levels of motorsport chase this dream, knowing there is less than a one percent chance they will reach it. And I’m among them.” The screen went black for a moment, and when the visual returned, it showed Fatih sitting in a cinematically lit room where he was the only thing visible, with everything else in darkness. His neutral face broke into a smile before he said, “Hi, everyone. My name is Fatih Yıldırım, a future Formula 1 driver, and this is my journey to Formula 1…”

From the start, she found herself hooked. The video was both cinematic and informative, satisfying both the entertainment and storytelling aspects.

“Woooow,” she found herself gasping in surprise as she watched Fatih’s first-ever race where he started from pole. Someone crashed into him, sending him all the way to last place before he mounted a historical recovery drive, from last to first, as if possessed. When that performance was mixed with cinematic editing, premium sound design, and transitions to animations to show different angles, with his narration overlaid with slow-motion footage as he went through his line of thought during the audacious double, triple, or even quadruple overtakes, it was very addictive for viewers of all ages, and she was no different.

As she watched, she found herself impressed by Fatih’s confidence in front of so many people. He showed none of the things she imagined she would do if she were in front of that many people, confident that she would make mistakes even if all she had to do was breathe and keep her eyes open.

“What are you watching?” Her focus was interrupted by her mother, who spoke after placing her head on Seraphina’s shoulder without her even realizing she was there.

“Fatih told me he had a YouTube account, so I was watching his videos,” Seraphina answered as the sound of a door opening and closing was heard from the living room.

“He has a YouTube channel? About what?” her mother asked in surprise, as all she had heard about Fatih was that he was her friend and deskmate and that he had declined her invitation due to a competition.

“Who has a YouTube channel?” a male voice was heard repeating the question as the speaker came from the entrance corridor, clad in a suit and carrying a handbag. He walked towards the mother-daughter duo with a smile on his face, as if they had just cleared all the fatigue in his body the moment he saw them.

He first kissed his wife before moving to Seraphina and said, “Come and give Dad a kiss.” Seraphina tried to fight it while laughing before giving up and kissing him on the cheek.

“It is about her friend. It turns out he has a YouTube channel, and she was watching his videos,” Brunhilde, Seraphina’s mother, gave a short summary to her husband, Henry Everson.

“The boy who is coming here this weekend?” Henry asked as he moved to get a good view of the laptop screen.

“Ooh, he is very handsome,” Henry said, teasing Seraphina as he looked at the paused YouTube video with Fatih in the interview space.

“Ow!” Before he could tease her further, he ended up groaning from being pinched by his wife as she whispered to him, “Do you want her to feel shy and not invite anyone anymore?”

They knew their daughter’s condition and were actively working to deal with it through therapy. Fatih couldn’t have appeared at a more perfect time, as they needed someone she trusted but who was new to start her exposure therapy, where she was slowly exposed to the situations she feared.

“She is fine,” Henry said as he rubbed his pinched spot with a smile on his face before shortly turning to Seraphina and saying, “Let’s watch and see what they are about.” He would be lying if he said he wasn’t curious about the kid who had managed to open the hard shell she had covered herself in. At the same time, he wondered what sort of videos he was making and if they were going to be a good influence on his daughter.

“I thought when she said he was going for a competition, it was just for the sake of enjoying it as an expensive hobby, but it looks like it is the farthest thing from it,” Henry found himself saying when he came to himself after having watched the entire video in full concentration.

He understood the significance of the videos the most among the three in the room. Like many people in Great Britain, he too was a fan of Formula 1, so he knew that karting was the start. Seeing Fatih’s straightforward attitude of not hiding that that was his destination, followed by actually having the ability to dominate at his current level, meant that he was actually walking towards that destination in as systematic an approach as possible.

“I’m looking forward to meeting him even more,” he said with a smile on his face as he took a look at the name of the YouTube channel before he walked to his room to clean himself and change into more comfortable clothes, planning to watch all of the videos on the channel and get a better picture of the kid.

……

“No problem, I already told my mom about it, and she agreed to bring me to your home, but you have to give me the address,” Fatih said, answering Seraphina’s reminder during the break between classes.

“Ah, I know the address,” she said, her eyes brightening before she started reciting the address while Fatih took notes in his book.

“Can I have your mom’s number? I have to give it to my mom so they can communicate,” he said.

“I know that too,” she said, and she recited her mother’s and father’s numbers in the sequence she had memorized them before a smug smile appeared on her face.

Fatih had slowly started realizing that when they were in the class alone, she had started opening up more and more with each passing day, though most of that disappeared the moment there was a third person with them or within their vicinity. But it was a step in the right direction, and he enjoyed seeing her improve, one step at a time. After all, she was only eleven.

……

While Fatih was enjoying a break between his lessons, an important discussion was taking place between his mother and his coach.

“What?! You want to quit? Why? Is it because of what’s going on between us?” Rümeysa fired one question after another, her surprise making it impossible for her to remain calm.

“That is one of the reasons, but not the main one,” Burak said as he moved to hold her hand, trying to calm her down before he continued.

“During the three international races that I participated in with Fatih, I realized that despite the extracurricular education and hands-on experience I was gaining through TOSFED, it was inadequate to keep up with Fatih’s rapid growth. If nothing changes and I remain at my current level, I’m going to become a bottleneck in the future. People will start questioning my credentials to remain by Fatih’s side and accuse you of keeping me because of our relationship. So, to deal with both of those issues, I requested and was approved by TOSFED to go and pursue motorsports engineering at Oxford Brookes University. It’s a four-year ’sandwich’ course that includes a mandatory 12-month work placement. By then, I should have more qualifications and the ability to continue with Fatih as he moves into single-seaters, if he does that at the age of fourteen. We can grow together and move up the ladder as one.”