Formula 1: The GOAT

“What do you think now?” the setup engineer asked James after pulling him aside while everyone else was starting to dismantle the garage in preparation to leave the track, now that the weekend was over.

James paused for a moment, thinking about it, as if deciding whether or not to answer. Since their conversation during the qualifying session, where the setup engineer had pointed out the changes in Fatih, he had been observing Fatih’s actions deliberately, trying to see any signs for himself. Now he could say with confidence that the setup engineer was correct.

“Norman,” he said, addressing the setup engineer who was calmly waiting for him to speak, “I saw the signs of the changes you were talking about.”

“Haaaa, so I was not going crazy or being paranoid,” Norman said as he released a sigh of relief. “So, what do you think we should do?”

“I said I saw some signs, not irrevocable evidence,” James made sure to clarify.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that there are signs showing that you are right, but it is not to the point of being uncontestable evidence.”

“I mean, his actions for the entire weekend just compounded on what I said. Look at how he handled the rumors. What is usually reported to the team’s PR department for them to clear the air, he circumvented and immediately went to the heads of each section and explained it to them, leaving them to do the explaining to their team members. That is not how things are done,” Norman said, his voice making it clear that he was getting frustrated.

“That could also be explained by him just being worried and wanting to get ahead of it before the team members misunderstood. He is still a teenager and one that doesn’t have any sort of media or hierarchy training at all. Have you considered that you might be just interpreting everything to fit the theory you have?”

“Then what about the second race incident where he didn’t want to believe the performance engineers’ recommendation and wanted to go with his own?” Norman asked, bringing up another point.

“That’s why I said there are signs, but this too can be explained by him just understanding the car because he is the one driving it and not just looking at the data,” James said, trying his best to bring another possible point of view to Norman.

“Haaaaa,” Norman sighed when he realized that although James saw signs of what he said, he was not yet on the same page. “So what are you going to do about it? Are you going to leave it be for now or do something about it?” he asked.

It took James a few seconds before he answered. “Let’s report it, but as a possibility, not a concluded matter, and let the higher-ups be the ones who come to the conclusion themselves. Besides, I’m going to a meeting about him anyway.”

“About his interview? What is wrong with it? Everything he said is true.”

“…” James paused for a moment, looking at Norman as if he had finally found out why this man had to be an engineer and not any other profession that required focusing on the deep meanings of things, before he said, “Nothing really, just to come up with a unified decision on how our response is going to be when asked about it or when the topic is brought up.”

“Ahh, good luck,” Norman said while nodding his head before he turned and went back to helping with the packing process to finish it even a minute faster.

James looked at Norman walking away with a complicated mind. He knew that Norman’s theory about Fatih was most likely right, but he had to act as the opposing force just in case, before the issue was delegated to those whose job it was to deal with such matters.

……..

Meanwhile, the man they had been talking about was in the car listening to loud Turkish music and nodding his head enthusiastically as he celebrated his win on the ride home.

“Man, I’m regretting asking you to take me,” Dennis, sitting in the rear seat, said as he recorded Fatih, who was focused on the song.

“This is me celebrating your death,” Fatih said, directly connecting to Dennis’s previous words about prying the title out of his dead body.

“Then the music has to be good, something we are all used to hearing,” Dennis said back.

Fatih, who had returned to his celebration, stopped and turned to look at Dennis for a brief second before saying, “I have exactly the song that we are all used to hearing.” He then picked up his phone, entering YouTube and searching for something.

Dennis, who was still recording, had a smile on his face as he turned the phone’s rear camera to face him with a smug look. But the smug look being recorded didn’t remain long when he heard the song playing.

It was a song he could recognize even from just a two-second snippet at the start. With a look of disbelief, the phone recorded him hearing the Turkish national anthem as Fatih sang enthusiastically while looking at Dennis before stopping mid-song to ask, “What? It is something we all know.”

Amidst his question and the still-playing national anthem, it was Alex’s laughter that kept increasing as he laughed harder and harder with each passing second, to the point that he was forced to stop the car and get out to laugh, as he was losing the strength to both stand or sit.

Fatih couldn’t help but record the now-lying-on-the-ground Alex, who laughed harder the more the still-blaring national anthem’s beat played.

Just as the song finished and Alex’s laughter slowly started getting under control, the national anthem started playing again, sending him into another laughing hysteria. It took them more than ten minutes before they could all finally resume their journey, but this time, Fatih was put in the back of the car as a random playlist was played to prevent any more incidents. To everyone, it was a clear victory for Fatih.

Completely unaware, or perhaps having already gotten used to their continued presence, everything was being recorded by the cameras set up across the car.