Formula 1: The GOAT

(There was an election in my country, Tanzania, and a protest erupted so they shut down the internet)

“How did it feel to start the first race of your biggest vehicle change, from an upgraded category, all the way down in fifteenth due to a problem when you were on track to start it from the front? Did it put more pressure on you? Did it complicate your plans?” the reporter back in the studio asked Fatih.

“Not really. Whenever I’m in a car, driving, it doesn’t matter if it is a new category or if I’m starting first or last; I always drive it to the maximum of my capabilities. The only difference in my race when I start behind people is that now I have to also consider how they are driving as I’m about to pass them, so that we don’t crash and they don’t try to threaten me with that as an outcome as well,” Fatih answered the reporter’s question seriously, but the moment he mentioned setting an example so that others don’t try to threaten or intimidate him, something changed in his eyes.

…….

Having already gained five positions before Turn 1 by going on the dirty side, Fatih didn’t look intent on being satisfied with just those five. He now eyed the ten drivers ahead of him, starting his chase as a small gap had opened between him and them due to the shenanigans of Turn 1. He needed to recover his tires after they were covered in dust, and that resulted in him delaying everyone behind him as the group ahead opened a gap.

But he didn’t look worried. He knew he had twenty laps to deal with the situation. His now completely soaked competitive personality wouldn’t be right with him not winning the race with all the advantages and near-torture training he had gone through with Apollo over the past three years. This had embedded a “no stone left unturned” mentality, and it was the first time those in this category were going to experience it.

The gap ahead was reduced near the end of the lap, but only by a small amount, as he had focused on cleaning all the dirt and dust from his tires. Now they were finally back to optimal condition as he was about to start his first fully focused, optimal lap.

Having already reached sixth gear before crossing the start-finish line, he had already reached the maximum speed possible on this track without a slipstream, at 136.8 km/h. As he neared the end of the straight, he started the high-speed turn that he was used to taking flat out in the lower categories, but here he braked for a moment before downshifting to fifth gear, hitting the apex at 97 km/h. He went wide on exit while on power, taking advantage of the external curb, having already reached speeds of 109.7 km/h by the time he was wide enough to use it. Still in fifth gear, they arrived at Turn 2, where he slowed down only after putting the kart into fourth, which lowered his speed to 93 km/h.

He took the corner at that speed, almost touching the inside curb before going wide on exit while staying in fourth as he approached the oncoming hairpin. He braked decisively, dropping down to second gear and going from 105 km/h down to 46 km/h. He missed the first apex and just nearly clipped the second of the hairpin, taking the corner not in a semi-circle but in a V-shape before immediately moving to third gear the moment he passed the second curb, exiting at 67 km/h. Moments later, he moved up to fourth gear, and by the end of the short straight, he had already reached 91 km/h, giving him an advantage all the way through the next corners.

He was driving as if possessed, knowing the track inside and out and how to drive it in the most optimal way. From the start of lap two until now, where he was in the middle of the second sector, he had already reduced the gap by half a second, having gained time in all areas where other drivers didn’t take the corners optimally or on the exits where they had to wait for their karts to settle before getting back on power. Fatih, on the other hand, looked to have the car set up perfectly, and everything he did seemed to be for maximum pace extraction in the next section.

Following the same driving style, he went down from fifth gear to fourth before taking the right-hand corner, remaining in fourth as he went from the wide exit of the previous corner into the chicanes that followed, which he did all while being full on power. He started at 86 km/h before the chicane and hit 92 km/h after the first corner, before hitting 102 km/h at the exit of the final corner of the chicane, finishing the second sector having gained an additional tenth through this sequence alone as he started the third sector.

The final sector was a high-speed section as he remained in fifth gear, taking the wide bend in full power before moving up to sixth, all while avoiding going too wide to avoid the counter-slope. Having reached a speed of 121 km/h as the final hairpin approached, he left it for the last possible moment before braking heavily while downshifting all the way to second gear. His speed reached only 59 km/h by the time he started moving into the hairpin, which he immediately got back on power through, going wide on exit as he moved up to third, then fourth, then fifth, and finally to sixth as he entered the final straight. He had shaved a total of eight-tenths in a single lap and was now right behind the driver in P10, Thomas Joyner.

………

“They don’t call him the ’Ghost of La Conca’ for no reason! All the advantage he had given the front group following the first lap has now all been taken back within a single lap as Fatih Yıldırım sets the fastest lap of the race!

He is now in a drag race with Thomas, who is looking back, trying to keep Fatih at bay as Fatih tucks behind him in the slipstream through the straight! AND HE SHOWS THAT HE IS NOT GOING TO WAIT! HE HAS MORE DRIVERS TO OVERTAKE! HE FEINTS GOING ON THE INSIDE FOR A DIVE BOMB, TRICKING THOMAS INTO MOVING TO COVER THE INSIDE LINE AS FATIH MOVES TO THE OUTSIDE! WITH MUCH MORE SPEED, HE TAKES THE RISK OF OUTBRAKING THOMAS, KEEPING THE KART ON THE EDGE AS HE GOES INTO THE CORNER MUCH FASTER AND WITH MORE CONFIDENCE!

THOMAS NOW LOSES HIS POSITION TO FATIH, WHO GOES THROUGH HIM AND NOW SENDS A DIVE BOMB ON THE INSIDE OF ALESSIO PECCINI INTO TURN TWO, FORCING HIM TO GO WIDE ON EXIT AS FATIH MOVES UP ANOTHER POSITION! HE IS NOW CHASING FRANCESCO, WHO IS JUST IN FRONT OF HIM!

FATIH REMAINS ON THE OUTSIDE AS FRANCESCO MOVES TO COVER THE INSIDE, AND AS FATIH CARRIES MORE SPEED BY BRAKING LATE, THEY ARE NOW SIDE-BY-SIDE GOING INTO THE HAIRPIN!

FRANCESCO KEEPS THE CORNER TIGHT TO COVER FOR FATIH SWITCHING SIDES, AND AS THEY ENTER THE FOLLOWING STRAIGHT, FATIH, THANKS TO HIS SPEED ADVANTAGE, REMAINS SIDE-BY-SIDE WITH FRANCESCO AS HIS OUTSIDE LINE NOW TURNS INTO THE INSIDE LINE INTO TURN FOUR, WHICH HE TAKES FULL ADVANTAGE OF! HE NOW TAKES ANOTHER POSITION AS FRANCESCO IS FORCED TO GO WIDE!

IN A SINGLE SECTOR, HE HAS GAINED THREE POSITIONS, MOVING FROM P10 ALL THE WAY TO P7, AND IS ALREADY CATCHING UP TO VINCENZO IN P6! SHOWING CLEARLY HOW GOOD OF A DRIVER HE IS! OH MY GOODNESS GRACIOUS!” Matia shouted excitedly as his voice was heard through the speaker, energizing the atmosphere as the spectators were now fully focused on the race, following Fatih, who had once again proven how good of a wheel-to-wheel driver he was in a single sector.

The crowd could be heard cheering through the overtake sequence, as it had broken many of their expectations of him going cautiously since it was just the second lap of the race. But the moves he pulled were quite the opposite, as he had put all the drivers he overtook in positions where there was nothing within the legal limits that they could do to keep their positions.

………

“SHIT, shit, SHIT! He can’t beat me this time. He’s just a newbie, and what will I be if he can just beat me?” Vincenzo, the only Italian driver ahead of Fatih, thought to himself as he heard the commentary through the speakers. He knew he was going to have to do everything in his power to make sure he wasn’t overtaken. He couldn’t disgrace himself with the shame of a hotshot newbie coming and just beating them.

Nearly every driver in motorsports believes they are the best or are on the cusp of it, with the only thing holding them back being funding, a good car, a good setup, or anything else other than their talent. They needed to be that level of delusional to do what they do, or else they would just give up. Although many of them work hard with what they have, there are some who will do anything, legal or not, to prove they are talented or to make sure that the driver people believed to be a prodigy doesn’t get to show off at their expense, even if it means pushing things to the gray zone or even slightly beyond.

And as such, he had steeled himself to make sure he held Fatih off and show him who was better, no matter the cost. His justification was that he was grounding the rookie, or at least that is what he told himself, despite deep down knowing that this was not true in any sense. It was just his pride, not wanting to accept reality, as he was one of those drivers who would do anything not to have to accept that he was not talented enough.