Formula 1: The GOAT

“At what time do you think is the least painful moment for him to take the penalty?” Justin asked as the feed still showed Fatih chasing Jewiss through the long straight leading to Maggots.

“No meaningful distance change is going to happen within those three laps that makes it worth delaying it. But going at the earliest, which is the end of this lap, will not be optimal either, since everyone is still as close as they will be, other than a safety car restart. He can’t really risk it all, hoping for a safety car to come and rescue him. However, even if that happens, he is still going to go to the back of the grid anyway, so he is doomed either way,” Brad said. Before Justin could say anything in response, the radio communication between Fatih and his race engineer was played.

{We have been issued a ten-second Stop and Go penalty for the incident,} James’s voice was heard on the feed.

{….} his update was met with silence on Fatih’s side, so he repeated it.

{A ten-second stop-and-go has been issued for us. Do you hear me?}

{Understood. I’m just disappointed,} Fatih said just as the feed showed him swerving immediately to the left side of the track on the Wellington straight after spending time in Jewiss’s slipstream.

…….

“IT SEEMS LIKE IT DOESN’T MATTER THAT HE HAS A PENALTY WAITING FOR HIM THAT WILL SEND HIM TO THE BACK OF THE GRID, AS HE ATTEMPTS TO MOVE TO THE INSIDE LINE, BUT JEWISS REACTS AND COVERS THAT SIDE!

THIS LEAVES FATIH TO DECIDE WHETHER TO REMAIN BEHIND OR CHOOSE ANOTHER OPTION, AND ANOTHER OPTION HE CHOOSES, AS HE MOVES TO THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE TRACK AS THE BRAKING ZONES ARRIVE!

IT IS A BATTLE FOR BRAVERY AS JEWISS BRAKES FIRST AND A FEW MOMENTS LATER, FATIH DOES, AFTER OUT-BRAKING HIM! BUT SINCE HE IS ON THE OUTSIDE LINE, THEY ARE NOW ENTERING THE CORNER COMPLEX SIDE-BY-SIDE!

ARE THEY GOING TO KEEP IT CLEAN, OR WILL THEY TOUCH WHEELS? AND ONCE AGAIN, HE PROVES HIS INGENUITY AS THE OUTSIDE LINE HE REMAINED ON HAS NOW TURNED INTO THE INSIDE LINE!

AS THEY COME OUT OF THE LUFFIELD CORNER, IT IS FATIH WHO IS IN THE LEAD! BUT JEWISS HAS NOT GIVEN UP AS HE TUCKS BEHIND FATIH FOR THE SLIPSTREAM AND OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH, FATIH ENTERS THE PIT LANE ABRUPTLY, AND JEWISS RETAKES THE LEAD HE HAD LOST A FEW SECONDS AGO! WHAT A SURPRISING TURN OF EVENTS!”

“HE REALLY SERVED IT AT THE FIRST POSSIBLE MOMENT!” Brad said, surprised that Fatih didn’t try to keep the race lead for the next two laps to at least increase the gap and reduce how far back he was sent.

The TV director reacted immediately, changing to a camera in the pit lane showing Fatih barreling in at a very high speed before braking heavily right before the speed limiter line, reducing the time he spent under the limit to the bare minimum.

The camera then shifted to a top-down angle from the pit lane garages, showing both the slow-moving Fatih and the fast-moving cars on the start-finish straight, highlighting the contrast and how far Fatih was tumbling down the order.

He shortly turned into his team’s pit box and came to a stop as three mechanics accompanied him, one holding a lollipop-shaped stop sign, which acted as a visual marker for when he could move, and the remaining two stood a short distance from the car with leaf blowers carrying dry ice, pointed in the direction of the air intakes to prevent the engine from overheating.

…..

As he sat there looking at the system’s screen showing the seconds counting down for his stop-and-go penalty, he focused on it to the point that he started seeing the world slow down. Everything other than the imaginary sound of a timer ticking down was in complete silence, even the rumble of the car’s engine behind him that was constantly sending small vibrations through his body.

Apollo watched silently, knowing exactly what was going on inside Fatih’s head: fury. He was angry at the situation he found himself in, where a weekend that should have been one where he was going to take the title lead and cement it had started so poorly, for something he was confident was not his fault.

Usually, this much fury would cause a driver to drive erratically and lose sight of the target, but for Fatih, who had [Invictus], it was being channeled slightly differently. Instead of losing focus and becoming tunnel-visioned, his brain just removed everything else as a distraction, leaving him with only the main goal in mind. All information that was allowed to go through was none other than that pertaining to achieving that goal.

As the floating timer ticked closer to zero, he immediately started the standing-start sequence: engaging the clutch, revving the engine to the optimal RPM, engaging the gear, and…

VRRRRRRRRRRRRRM! He left the pit box.

……..

“Ooooh, he left the pit box before even the lollipop could be lifted to let him know the penalty was over, and is already away in the pit lane! He’s now plum last, with Jewiss being a few turns away from lapping him, and he’s twenty seconds from the closest car ahead! This is a nightmare situation to be in! And what happens if he hadn’t served the ten-second stop-and-go penalty satisfactorily?”

“Usually, the timekeeper in the teams adds one or two more seconds just to be sure. It is better to serve a longer penalty than a shorter one because if the race director determines you haven’t served the time penalty as described, a similar, if not worse, penalty will be given. But from the timer on the screen, he is safe, though barely, because only a tenth earlier, and he would be repeating the penalty. I wonder if he was counting in his head,” Justin, the ever-Fatih fan, took time to explain everything for the viewers.

“I think he was counting in his head as well because it is a similar ability to the one that allows him to keep up with a certain lap time repeatedly, even when he was interfered with on the track. But now I’m curious about what he can do in the remaining laps.”

“Thirteen. That is the number of laps he has on hand to make a comeback, which is nearly impossible.”

“But we have been repeatedly reminded to never say impossible when it is something related to him. This looks like the chase for the championship, as Jewiss is now on the verge of extending his title lead by twenty-five more points on top of the nine he currently has, and Fatih has to minimize the damage as much as possible.”