Formula 1: The GOAT

Apollo floated behind Fatih, who was heading to the pit wall with a smile of satisfaction on his face.

“It is finally bearing fruit after a very long time,” he said to himself as he replayed the entire sequence before the crash in his mind.

It was the clearest picture of just how far Fatih’s competitiveness had come, reaching a point where he did his best to try and make an overtake that in the past he would have taken his time with. Although it might have looked foolish to make a move at that time when he could have waited for a more certain chance in the next corner or lap, inside Fatih’s mind, no such thought had even surfaced. He had full confidence that he could stick the overtake, and if it were not for the other driver misjudging his turn, it would have been a very high-speed, side-by-side battle between the two.

The aggressiveness and competitiveness that he had been trying to embed in Fatih seemed to have finally bloomed. Although this attempt ended in a crash, it was still going to bring good results. In the future, all drivers facing him would now know that he was always going to be making a move, and you either keep that in mind and adjust, or you might end up crashing with him.

……..

“We are under investigation, and although we tried appealing it, we don’t think it is going to result in our favor,” James said to Fatih the moment he arrived. During the five laps they were under a safety car, the team had already tried to argue and defend their driver’s actions.

“I was entitled to that space, so how come you make it sound like they are thinking I’m the one at fault?” Fatih asked with a look of disbelief.

“They are looking at it from a dangerous driving angle.”

“But is there a reason you went for it there and not in the next corner?” Hauger jumped in after having watched the replay from a few different angles with his race engineer.

“There was a gap, and I went for it.”

“Oh, Mr. Senna, but that was very foolish of you,” Hauger said when he heard the answer.

“Well, I was confident I could do it, and if the other driver had followed his racing line instead of closing mine, we would have done exactly that,” Fatih said in a disappointed tone, as he fully believed that if he were in the other car as well, it could have been taken side-by-side.

“Well, thanks to you, I’m in P3, so I can’t complain too much, but it doesn’t look the same for them,” Hauger said as he pointed him toward the pit wall box of Fortec Motorsports, Hoggard’s team.

Fatih turned and looked at the pit wall, where their remaining driver was talking with his race engineer and other members who were on the pit wall. They momentarily turned in their direction.

“Well, any update on his situation?” Fatih said, turning back to James and ignoring their actions.

“He is still in the medical center, and they will update us when the full situation is clear, but he should be fine,” James said as he looked at the available information through their system.

As they talked back and forth, Lisa finally returned and said, “We finished checking it, and it’s fine. There is no problem with it.”

“Thank you for that,” Fatih said.

Apollo, on the other hand, just observed everything, the smile of satisfaction still on his face. And he was not the only one observing Fatih, as the docuseries team had one of their mics hanging on top of the group, as the camera mounted on the edges of the pit wall did the recording.

…..

“The repairs on the barrier are finally done, and we are back on the track as the drivers follow the safety car for what will be the second formation lap for the standing start on Lap seven of the twenty-one-lap race,” Brad said once the cars started following the safety car while swerving left and right to generate heat into their tires.

“Care to clear something up for us? How come here we have twenty-one laps and on other tracks, we have only about fifteen or even fewer?” Justin asked for the sake of the viewers to clear up their questions.

“F4 races are not distance-determined but time-determined. The time is twenty minutes plus one lap. As a result, the number of laps on a track is determined by how long a lap is, divided by the time plus one lap, and from that, we have the total number of laps for every track of the season.”

“So we now still have about fifteen laps in the race, and I’m looking forward to it,” Brad said just as the safety car entered the pit lane and the cars headed to their starting grid positions, with Fatih placing himself in P2 while Jewiss stopped in P1.

“For the second time this race, the lights are on, then off, and away we go! Fatih has a good start, but so did Jewiss, as he immediately moves to cover Fatih on the inside line to stop any possible moves from the Turk at the start of the race. But Fatih doesn’t give up as he tries to go on the outside, AND HE IS PUSHED WIDE BY JEWISS, WHO SQUEEZES HIM TO DENY HIM ANY CHANCES OF MAKING UP A POSITION INTO TURN ONE! NOW THOSE TIRES WILL NEED AN ENTIRE LAP TO BE CLEANED FROM ALL THE DUST AND DIRT IT HAS COLLECTED! A BOLD MOVE BY JEWISS!”

“BUT THE PAIN FOR FATIH IS NOT OVER, AS A TEN-SECOND DRIVE-THROUGH PENALTY HAS BEEN GIVEN TO HIM FOR THE INCIDENT WITH HOGGARD! PER REGULATIONS, HE NEEDS TO SERVE IT WITHIN THREE LAPS OF THE PENALTY BEING ISSUED!”

Justin immediately jumped in. “THAT HERE IS EQUAL TO A FORTY-SECOND TIME PENALTY WHEN WE CONSIDER THAT HE HAS TO GO THROUGH THE PITLANE AT THE SPEED LIMIT OF 60KM/H! DO YOU THINK IT IS A FAIR PENALTY?”

“I DON’T THINK IT IS SOMETHING FATIH CAN BE FAULTED FOR ALONE, SO IT’S A FAIR PUNISHMENT. THE STEWARDS SEEM TO HAVE MADE THAT DECISION WITH ALL OF THE DATA IN FRONT OF THEM. BUT THAT IS A DEATH SENTENCE FOR FATIH’S RACE, AS THE FIELD IS STILL BUNCHED UP, AND IT IS ESSENTIALLY SENDING HIM TO THE BACK OF THE FIELD! I’M CURIOUS HOW HE IS GOING TO HANDLE IT!”