Formula 1: The GOAT

“So you moved countries just because of his racing? That was a very brave move, because I most likely would not have made that decision when it required me to leave my work here in Germany,” Seda, the wife of Fatih’s paternal uncle, said when she heard the reason for them moving to the UK.

“I wasn’t working in Germany by then; I had already quit and was working in Turkey. Plus, if you saw his talent, you would see how I came to that decision,” Rümeysa said, understanding how that decision might appear to someone from the outside who was not fully aware of the situation.

“Well, if he is that good, then I don’t see any problem in that as long as you are not harming your livelihood for him,” Enes said, carrying a more understanding and positive outlook on the situation, going in the opposite direction from his wife despite the lack of additional context.

“I would believe that he is talented, seeing as how they are still persisting, and we will get to see it on the weekend anyway. But if it were me, I would have sent him with his grandmother first and, depending on how he does on the international scene, made the bigger decision. But it is good that it worked for you,” Seda said, revealing her cautious nature but also because, from her point of view, giving up a lucrative, sought-after international job in a country that her countrymen were trying very hard to come and work in but were facing significant difficulties was quite an unimaginable move.

“So what are you focused on these days?” Enes asked, trying to shift the direction of the topic as his wife’s words risked turning the situation awkward, which he didn’t want to happen because he had finally had the opportunity to meet his nephew’s son, and if things went wrong because of his wife’s negative outlook, he might lose that chance again.

“I’m currently fully focused on overseeing all aspects of his karting career: sponsors, competitions, acting as a liaison for his driver academy, supervising his media side of things like YouTube, and many more. It is quite a busy field if you look at it,” Rümeysa said, not bothering to talk about their previous lucrative business that was sold or even his betting side of business, since that was something she didn’t want connected to her son, and to protect something, the best way is to not talk about it to anyone at all.

“Oh, he has YouTube videos? What is the channel name? I need to check it out,” Enes asked excitedly as he picked up the phone on the table and went directly to YouTube before starting to input the name of Fatih’s channel, which was just his name. He immediately went for the latest one, and just as he was about to click play, he paused for a moment.

“Two million views on a video not even a week old?” he said in a surprised tone as he looked up at Rümeysa before adding, “Looks like he is bigger than we even imagined he would be, to warrant you moving a country to continue pursuing it.”

He then clicked on the latest YouTube video titled, “Karting: The Basics.”

It was a video of him going through all the basic things in karting that was both informative, showing his deep understanding of the sport, while also being very entertaining to even non-karting individuals. Each part he talked about was followed by examples of how people usually did it, where the mistakes were, how it should be done, and how he does it.

It was something Fatih had created when he learned about the move to F4 and how going to the training camp would mean that he wouldn’t be there to train Seraphina for however long he wanted. So he decided to create a step-by-step guide so that she could refer to it whenever he wasn’t available to answer her questions or provide solutions for problems she faced. It ended up blowing up more than he initially expected, as he had forgotten to take into consideration that anyone who was even a little into karting, along with motorsport fans who knew him, knew how good he was when it came to driving karts. All of the hundreds of trophies acted as nothing but proof of his abilities. The entertaining factor also helped, as even those who weren’t thinking of driving a kart could watch and fully enjoy it for that alone.

…………..

While his mother was having a conversation with the husband and wife who picked them up from the airport and even housed them, Fatih and his grandmother were in a deep sleep, having been very tired from the long waiting periods at the airport. At least, that was their excuse for resting early, but Fatih just wanted to use this moment to have his four hours of simulation practice.

“Looks like this weekend is going to be our last time training in karts,” Apollo said once Fatih came to a complete stop in the pitlane, having completed all of the tasks that he had set for him to do today.

“Why are we stopping now and not continuing until we register the F4 car?”

“I call it a cooldown period. Just like people need to rest to let the training settle in before moving to a higher level, it is the same for you. You need to rest but also allow for a distant detachment, fully ready to shift into the F4 cars. Plus, you have to take into consideration the time it would take for all the abilities you upgrade once the ’All or Nothing’ mission comes to an end this weekend and you receive all of your accumulated rewards over the last few years,” Apollo said, giving his reasoning.

“Who said I’m going to upgrade all of my abilities immediately?” Fatih asked, trying to look like he wasn’t actually planning to do that.

“If you don’t do it now, before your training starts, you will not be able to do it until after the season break. If you try to do it in the midst of your training or the F4 season, you will enter a slump period. You of all people know how Red Bull, who are deliberately trying to put you in a pressurizing situation, are going to react if you undergo an immediate slump after moving to single-seaters. And let’s not forget the people who are waiting for you to fail as well.”

“I can see the ’only good in karting due to having the latest specs’ title being labeled from a mile away,” Fatih said with a chuckle. He knew what people liked most was not seeing a good driver perform, but seeing a driver people called good, whom they didn’t like, not perform to expectations. They would tear him apart online, giving all sorts of excuses to discredit all of his previous performances as being a result of something other than his skill. It was something that even Lewis Hamilton faced, despite having a repertoire of wins and titles under his name, as it was all credited to his rocket ship of a car. They completely forgot that F1 is a sport where both man and machine need to consistently perform at the top of their game to have that level of success in the first place, even with a fast car.

“So, do you have a list of abilities that you want to upgrade first?” Apollo asked as he created a chair and sat with a notebook and a pen in his hand, acting as if he were a therapist.

“It is all dependent on how much SP I have once the mission is over, but if possible, I want to focus on the ’Sponge’ abilities first so that my mind and body are in the best condition, ready for absorbing all of the training. After that, depending on how much SP remains, I can then move to other things, like seeing how much SP I can use to complete the remaining parts of the hyper-vigilance training and…” Fatih started breaking down his entire upgrade plan the moment he got System Points from his mission, with Apollo carefully listening and noting down everything he was saying with complete seriousness.

“The plan might look solid from the outside, but it’s not really that streamlined, considering that we are doing calculations through guesswork. I will wait until we have the total SP count before I give my side of the suggestions for the best possible route we can take, but the final decision will still remain with you, of course,” Apollo said moments before the simulation closed and Fatih was ejected, having finished his daily allocated four hours.

Although he was ejected from the simulation, he didn’t wake up. As far as his brain was concerned, he was still in a deep, dream-filled sleep, completely unaware of the conversations his mother was having with his father’s uncle and his wife. He was fully looking forward to his final competitive race in karting.