Formula 1: The GOAT

BAAAAAAAAM!

The camera crew, who were about to follow Fatih’s expected path, immediately whipped their cameras around, tracking the car as it slid until it crashed into the tire wall at over 321 km/h. They held the shot, focusing entirely on the scene. Another camera, capturing a wider angle, zoomed out to show the significant deformation of the tire wall, even as the crash site remained shrouded in dust kicked up by the car digging through the gravel.

Everyone watching held their breath, wondering if the young driver inside was alright. Unlike a typical race feed that would already be showing replays, they were left with the live shot of the dust slowly clearing.

…….

{Fatih, are you okay?} James’s voice was full of worry as he stared at the screen showing nothing but dust. When he received no answer, he closed his eyes for a moment, praying nothing bad had happened before asking again, {Fatih, are you okay?}

Once again, the expected response didn’t come. Before he could ask again, a radio communication came through his feed from the Milton Keynes control center, which was monitoring the entire track. {Medical car has been deployed. G-force in excess of 55g has been logged on the sensors.}

The moment James heard that Fatih had just experienced more than 55G in the crash, he felt his heart drop. He asked again, {Fatih, are you okay?} his voice was slightly more desperate than before.

Again, he received no response, but then something happened on the screen that brought momentary relief. The camera zoomed in on the car as the dust started to settle, revealing a figure throwing a steering wheel into the gravel before rising from the cockpit. The figure stood still for a moment, looking at where the car had lost control before turning back to the stranded vehicle, hands on hips, as if they were a scene investigator rather than the one who had just crashed.

After only three seconds of standing still, he walked to where the steering wheel had fallen, picked it up, walked back to the car, and reinserted it onto the steering column just as the marshal from the nearest post arrived.

Only then did James release a sigh of relief, realizing his hands were shaking. {Fatih, are you okay?} he asked for the fourth time.

This time, instead of silence, Fatih finally pressed the temporary radio button on his chest and said, {I’m fine. I think you need to check the data; the brakes locked when I only applied about fifty percent of brake pressure going into the corner.} He immediately started debriefing the situation.

{We will check on it later. Wait for the medical car to pick you up and take you to the medical center for now,} James said, trying to hide his disbelief. Who on earth would start deducing the cause of a crash moments after getting out of such a heavy impact?

{Okay,} Fatih said, giving a thumbs-up to the marshals who were carrying fire extinguishers, ready to douse any potential fire, which thankfully never started.

…….

“If I were on the other side, I would think you are trying to cover for your mistake,” Apollo’s voice was heard, laughing as he imagined the reaction of those on the other end of the radio who had feared the worst.

“That took a moment to recover from,” Fatih said as he looked at the system telemetry screen in front of him, showing the peak G-force he experienced in the crash. He remembered it was in the same range Max Verstappen would experience in his clash with Hamilton on this same track, a crash that, in his current timeline, was five years away.

What surprised him was that such a heavy crash only took a moment for his body to adjust before he felt normal and could move as usual, with just some slight lag that was fading with each passing second.

“Your sponge-like body is just doing its job, but be careful not to try and find its limit,” Apollo answered just as the medical car came to a stop on the track. The doctor in the car immediately got out and started running toward Fatih.

Fatih didn’t wait for them, starting to walk towards the parked car.

“Are you feeling okay? Any sort of discomfort, dizziness, or any weird feeling?” the doctor said as he reached Fatih, immediately holding his left side to act as leverage as they walked together towards the medical car at a slow pace.

“I don’t feel anything weird, and I think everything is fine,” Fatih said without beating around the bush, seeing no reason to lie.

“We will know about it once you undergo a checkup to see if there is any internal problem,” the doctor said as the medical driver opened the rear door for Fatih to get in. They immediately left the scene and headed to the medical center for checkups. There was no need to go to the hospital, as the medical center had all the necessary equipment.

…….

While Fatih was away, the recovery process for the car began. A tractor and truck arrived at the scene, and a few minutes later, the car, with its left side completely battered, was loaded onto the tractor. The truck then started heading to the pit lane to deliver it while marshals and technicians began repairing the barrier, which had been rattled and slightly moved from its original position by the heavy crash, also tearing the outer cover of the tire wall.

……

“Now that we have confirmed that he is fine, replay the lap from the start,” Helmut Marko, who had been silent through the crash and recovery process, finally spoke. He wanted to see a replay of the drive, not in the least worried about the heavy repair costs they were going to face. On the contrary, he was almost smiling on the inside.

He knew that a race-ending crash while the other drivers completed their practice sessions crash-free would do nothing but increase the pressure on Fatih. By tomorrow, the car should be ready, and if he is cleared by the medical center, he should be able to resume his practice. The other two drivers, on the other hand, were going to have their sessions extended today to take over Fatih’s time, giving them a much better understanding of the track and the cars in preparation for the third day’s race format.

It only took a few seconds before the video of the lap started playing on the screen, and he was fully focused on watching it.

“Pause it there,” Helmut said after only thirty seconds into the video. “Show me the side camera angle of the lap.”

A few seconds later, the video started from after he did the spin and returned the car to face the right direction. This time, Helmut didn’t focus on anything other than the steering wheel. He had noticed how smooth Fatih’s cornering was, making him curious about his steering inputs. As a former racer himself, he knew how difficult it was to do that even with experience, and even more so on the first try.

And there it was, in front of him. He witnessed Fatih’s steering inputs, which felt like they were animated or pre-practiced based on how smooth they were. When the steering wheel was turned, it was turned to where he wanted, and no micro-adjustments that many drivers needed were required. The inputs flowed smoothly from the initial turn to the apex to the exit; everything was being done in one motion, without any of the usual micro-corrections. He found himself mesmerized by them before they were abruptly interrupted the moment the steering wheel seemed to have a mind of its own, turning before the car lost control, slid through the gravel, and hit the wall.

Although the crash was fast, it didn’t take too much attention to see what Fatih was doing while it was happening in real time. The moment it was clear that the car was in an unrecoverable position, his hands immediately left the steering wheel before he placed them in an X shape in front of him, bracing for impact. Moments after the car stopped, he immediately pressed the neutral button on the steering wheel to disengage the gear.

“Show me the telemetry during the crash,” Helmut said, waking from his daze.

The telemetry was shown, and it revealed another amazing aspect. The moment control was lost, the throttle pedal was immediately lifted while the brake pedal and clutch were pressed at once, as Fatih followed all of the safety instructions to the letter in an instant.

Just as Helmut was about to give another instruction, something on the telemetry feed caught his attention: Fatih’s heart rate.

The heartbeat remained scarily the same from before the crash, all the way through it, and even after the heavy impact that the G-chart showed had gone through the roof, as if his body never triggered the fight-or-flight response.

It was a first in his life. “Are you sure the heartbeat sensors were working? Why are the numbers like that?” he found himself asking, looking for another explanation other than the improbable one.

“Yes, they are correct. They kept updating even after he got out of the car, so it is not a mistake,” one of the engineers in the room answered, disbelief clear in their tone as well.

“So you are telling me he wasn’t scared in such a crash?” Helmut found himself turning to the engineer with a look of disbelief.

“The same results come up when we look at the telemetry after the car spun when he left the pit lane, so I don’t think it is a mistake,” the engineer answered as he highlighted Fatih’s RPM during the spin.

“Is that even possible?” another engineer asked.

“It is only possible if the individual never felt fear or felt in danger enough to trigger any of the reasonable responses,” the engineer answered while dragging the timer on the video feed and changing the angle to one that showed Fatih’s upper body just before the crash. He played it while saying, “Look at his reaction. Does that look like someone who is in a fight-or-flight situation?”

Due to the weather being cloudy, the helmet Fatih was wearing had clear tear-offs, which allowed his eyes to be captured through his visor. And from his eyes, no sort of panic could be seen at all.

“HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA,” Helmut Marko found himself laughing. It started in a low voice at first, before it got louder to the point that everyone in the room heard him laughing for the next thirty seconds.

“Prepare a summary of the incident and the cause of the crash. I will be in my office waiting for his medical exam report,” he said as he covered his only working eye for a moment before he left the room.

“Is he excited or afraid that something might be wrong with Fatih?” one of the engineers asked the moment the door was closed, as that laughter made no sense at all.