Formula 1: The GOAT

“Why is he wearing that? Is she a racer or something?”

“I don’t think so. It would have made sense for her to have racing overalls on instead of the helmet.”

“Maybe she is a fan of a driver or something, but definitely not a racer. The helmet looks like a real one and not some knockoff fan item.”

“Now that you say it, I can see exactly what you mean. Maybe she is matching with a driver on the track?”

“Look there! I think I just discovered who she is matching with. Look at driver number 7, leading the final.”

“Isn’t that the driver… what was his name? Is he the one you showed me an article about, who had heavy injuries a few months ago?”

“Yes, Fatih, that’s his name, and this is his comeback race. That’s why when I realized we were near the track, I asked you to come with me.”

“And I thought it was a date. Looks like I misunderstood the situation.”

“No, no, no, it is a date that just happens to be taking place during an interesting situation.”

While the two friends, one of them just realizing they were on a date and rolling with it, were having their little back-and-forth gossip, Seraphina, the subject of their discussion, was still wearing the helmet on the second day of the competition, where only the final was left. She had realized that she could keep calm in crowded places whenever she had it on, even if people were looking or talking about her.

It had become quite a topic of discussion, but her parents didn’t see a reason to be against her wearing it, as it was cute, but also because it was actively supporting her improvement, though they didn’t hold back from teasing her.

As for her, she was fully focused on the race, with all of her attention on Fatih. She analyzed the way he was driving: where his eyes were while taking a corner, how he was adjusting his throttle input, moving his body, controlling the pace, and everything else. She was fully immersed, as she had already made up her mind to try and take this sport seriously, having already verbalized it to her parents yesterday. It was something they discussed further that night and had decided to continue the conversation upon their return home. But for now, she was both supporting him while also trying to learn from his actual driving as much as possible.

After all, he had previously only been teaching her things to match her level with a mixture of both seriousness and casualness, letting her take her time to learn things. He was training her from the point of view of her using these driving sessions as something to focus on while in more crowded places, like the local karting track where they practiced, giving her that exposure to the public while also preventing her from focusing on the eyes of those around her. But now, she was looking forward to asking him to teach her seriously.

…….

“I think it is going to get boring for him if this continues,” the Red Bull scout sent to monitor Fatih’s return performance said to himself, his eyes still locked on Fatih, who was driving as if he was alone on the track. This would be the best description for his situation, as he was actively maintaining a fifteen-second gap from second place and was not making any mistakes that someone with such a lead would have, knowing that any mistake he made could be rectified in time without losing his position.

But Fatih showed none of that, as he kept driving with a hunger and competitive nature that is rarely seen at this stage of karting, a hunger that many teams look for in a driver, as it acts as a guarantee that the driver’s effort would not be the bottleneck in their growth, and only their talent would be, meaning they won’t have to worry about the driver not making an effort.

His fingers kept tapping rhythmically on the hard paper holder on his lap that contained all of the data Red Bull had on Fatih. He had gone through it once, even though there was no need to look at it. After all, his performance could be summarized as his finishing position always being first. When it wasn’t, it was either a mechanical problem dropping him down or a full retirement, meaning he had been in the lead in nearly all of the races and heats he had participated in since joining the Red Bull academy, though the record extended way back to his home country.

It was a consistency that many young prodigies fail to maintain, as many who would have been capable of achieving that either got complacent and lost their hunger or just got arrogant and eased up on their effort. Although Fatih didn’t show any signs of letting up on the effort, it was not clear how long that hunger could be sustained in an environment where no one was really challenging him.

“It is about time he should start preparing for his single-seater move,” the scout said before immediately stopping the rhythmic tapping. He took a pen from his pocket and started writing things down on the back of one of the printed papers.

Although the race was still going, he didn’t bother to even raise his head, as he was fully focused on jotting down some notes. He already knew that unless a force majeure happened, Fatih was going to win the race. He realized he might have just understood some of Dr. Marko’s intentions behind sending him to observe, which were more than just checking on his form. It felt like one of those final proofs needed before a major decision was made, because if he only wanted to check on his recovery, he could have just waited for the race results, and that would have been enough to know the gist of his situation.

To him, who had realized this, it was plenty obvious that Dr. Marko was contemplating whether to send Fatih to F4 next year once he becomes eligible at the age of fifteen. If he was really planning on doing that, practice and training needed to start as early as possible. To the scout, it was a very exciting discovery, one that had stirred his heart, as he was now not only looking forward to it but was trying to see how it would be executed by Red Bull, since this was going to be on a different scale than what they did with Verstappen, as it was going to be systematic.