Formula 1: The GOAT

Had he not learned to have patience, he might have just ended up entering VR during the flight and checking his rewards for finally finishing the mission. But he didn’t hurry, as he knew if he did it now, he would have to go through things very fast, as they would land before he could savor every moment. He would have a difficult time focusing on anything else until he finished what he had started. So he decided to wait, as the highest gratification can be felt when the timing is right, and he held himself back during the air travel.

“Looks like you have caused quite a stir,” Rümeysa, Fatih’s mother, said as she showed him her phone with a news article talking about his revelation.

She had immediately informed Elena the moment Fatih mentioned it being his final competitive karting race, so that she could coordinate with Red Bull to control the narrative. It wasn’t that Red Bull wanted it to be a secret; it’s just that they didn’t bother to think about releasing the news when they hadn’t even started his training, as that would be putting the cart before the horse. Plus, Helmut knew that to induce maximum pressure, the timing of the release of these news items is also important, and releasing it early would lead to it being forgotten by the time he was about to debut, so the amount of pressure would have been spread over a long period of time, which was not to his liking as he wanted to see how Fatih would perform when all eyes were on him.

Red Bull, once informed about his announcement, had decided to go ahead and release an official statement acknowledging their plan to move him to F4 next season and his planned training for that. But they refrained from mentioning which F4 series or which team he would be competing under, to make it seem like those were still things under consideration and not yet set in stone.

He wasn’t as famous as an F1 driver yet, but he still had a very big audience from both the motorsport world and the entertainment side, as people of all ages loved watching his high-quality, entertaining videos. The news had generated quite a buzz in his audience demographic. Those who watched him for fun just realized that he was moving to the next level of his favorite activity and showing that he was serious about it, while those who were fans of his from the motorsport side were looking forward to seeing how he transitioned from karting to single-seaters.

Of course, there were doubters who argued that Red Bull was taking his karting records too seriously and was rushing him before he had matured enough, or those who believed that just being good in a kart doesn’t mean it is going to translate well into single-seaters. Unlike karting, the complexity increased a hundredfold the moment the leap was made, and it might be difficult for someone who had been used to and tuned in simple karts to be able to adapt and perform at the same level in single-seaters, and that he was destined to flop. Fortunately, they were in the minority.

“It is weird seeing articles written about me from a company I used to own,” Fatih said, chuckling as he looked at the article’s title, which read: [A Leap of Faith or Insanity? Red Bull Pushes for the 14-Year-Old Karting Prodigy to Move to F4]

“At least they are still writing good things about you and didn’t immediately go into slandering you,” Rümeysa said, chuckling as she resumed reading the article on her own, while Fatih took out his phone to distract himself as he prayed for time to accelerate, at least relative to him.

Upon arriving back in the UK, they took their parked car as the drive back home started. As they passed each kilometer and got closer to home, the more Fatih felt time was slowing down or that they were driving too slowly. But he knew it was just in his mind, so he didn’t change anything, though the anticipation kept building.

……………..

By the time they arrived home, it was already evening, so they brought in their luggage and ordered dinner, as everyone was too tired to cook. After eating, Fatih bid farewell to his family as he rushed to his room, ready to sleep and rest from the long trip, at least, that is what his mom and grandmother thought. But he was the least likely person in the house to be heading to sleep at that moment.

“I think we have waited for the perfect moment. Time to release the built-up pressure,” Fatih said as he jumped onto his bed and covered himself with his blanket before immediately entering the simulation, where it seemed Apollo was already waiting for him with a surprise. The moment he appeared in the simulation, CRACK! BOOM! Fireworks went off, dominating the night sky that Apollo had changed the environment to, creating a very beautiful scene.

“Wow, you went all out!” Fatih said, shouting to Apollo in order to be heard amidst the explosions as he continued to enjoy the show.

“I needed to do something to pass the time other than suspending my time perception,” Apollo said, trying to chalk the whole thing up to him just passing his boredom instead of actually planning the party ahead of time, specifically to congratulate him for all the hardship he had endured.

“Thank you, anyway,” Fatih said, not bothering to argue or even ask for details about his so-called “time perception suspension.” He just chalked it up to his complete control over everything inside the simulation, but also because the firework show was coming to an end, signaled by the largest firework explosion he had ever seen, as it covered the entire Silverstone track that they had been using as their default base with beautiful colors.

“Now hurry, I want to see the final rewards!” Apollo said as they approached the pit lane.

Fatih immediately materialized the system screen, making it as huge as an IMAX theater screen before clicking on the mission that had stopped him from using any of the earned SP to upgrade his abilities. The system pulled up the mission itself, which Fatih wanted to read to refresh his memory before checking the rewards.

[Experience Challenge #001]

Your coach has determined that any additional improvement while in Karting is not beneficial to your situation and could be even more detrimental. He has proposed an interesting challenge to allow you time to assimilate and learn to use your current abilities to the maximum in order to prevent you from becoming complacent and only dependent on your system abilities.

Mission Objective: Do not use SP to upgrade any ability during this time. Compete in karting with your current abilities to push your understanding of them to the limit.

Objective Completion Reward: The reward is dependent on the results you deliver with the use of your current abilities, with a potential automatic upgrade in ability should you train them to their breakthrough limit during this period.

Restrictions: Purchasing new abilities will not be allowed during this period; however, they will be at a twenty percent discount should you remain patient until the end of the mission.

Exception: You can gain new abilities should you reach the thresholds for their capabilities to assimilate into an ability, but they, too, will be under the restriction of being non-upgradable using SP during this period, though they can be upgraded through breaking their ceiling limit. You can also continue gaining them should they be a reward for a mission, and you successfully complete the given mission.

“A twenty percent discount across all of my abilities is worth the trouble of holding back all this time,” Fatih said before he clicked, imagining receiving the results of his hard work. The system finally responded, creating a new screen…

[CHALLENGE MISSION: Experience Challenge #001]

STATUS: COMPLETE

Yearly Events Breakdown:

2013: (Partial International Debut)

Events: 42nd Trofeo delle Industrie (debut, Italy), CIK-FIA World Championship (KF-Junior, wildcard entry), WSK Final Cup

Total races: 3

Titles Won: 2 (Trofeo delle Industrie, WSK Final Cup), CIK-FIA World Championship race win (wildcard, ineligible for title)

2014: (First full international season, KF-Junior)

Events: WSK Champions Cup, WSK Super Master Series, WSK Euro Series, CIK-FIA European Championship, CIK-FIA World Championship, WSK Final Cup.

2015: (KF-Junior Title Defenses)

Events: ……..

2016: (KF Senior)

Events: ……..

2017: (KZ2)

Events: ……..

The list went into more detail, breaking down every race weekend all the way to the individual SP earned for overtakes, defenses, fastest laps, pole positions, race wins, and grand slams. It was his entire international karting career being broken down, one action after another.

It felt emotional for Fatih as his hard work was quantified into individual actions. It was rewarding, as he was receiving an additional prize compared to a normal driver who would only feel the happiness of winning and the potential monetary compensation afterward. He had an extra reward that gave him a distinct advantage in return for all the suffering he had to go through in training.

As he looked at the breakdown, his eyes finally moved past the individual entries, past the yearly summaries, and all the way to the final total rewards section at the very bottom of the massive screen.