Formula 1: The GOAT

“THE QUALIFYING SESSION HAS COME TO AN END, AND IT WASN’T A PLEASANT ONE FOR EITHER OF THE TITLE CONTENDERS. FATIH HAD HIS SECOND PUSH LAP INTERRUPTED, BUT THE ONLY CONSOLATION WAS THAT HE HAD SECURED POLE POSITION FOR THE RACE THIS EVENING.

FOR SOMEONE WHO WAS ALMOST GUARANTEED TO TAKE POLE IN BOTH ROUNDS IF NOTHING INTERVENED, THIS IS A BLOW. THE ONLY CONSOLING THING, HOWEVER, IS THAT WHILE HE HAS A POLE POSITION, JEWISS, ON THE OTHER HAND, STARTS IN P9 IN RACE ONE, GIVING FATIH AS MUCH BREATHING ROOM AS POSSIBLE. BUT EVEN THAT IS NOT GOING TO BE ENOUGH CONSOLATION, AS THE SITUATION IS FLIPPED FOR THE THIRD RACE.

JEWISS’S SECOND-FASTEST LAP IS GOOD ENOUGH TO PLACE HIM IN P5, WHILE FATIH WILL BE STARTING FROM THE BACK OF THE GRID FOR THE FINAL RACE, AS HE DOESN’T HAVE ANY COMPETITIVE LAP TIME ON THE SHEET AFTER HIS FINAL ATTEMPT WAS ENDED BY JEWISS BEING STRANDED OFF THE TRACK.

BUT SOMETHING TO NUMB EVEN THAT NEW STINGING PAIN IS A TRIPLE LOCKOUT FOR TEAM ARDEN IN RACE ONE, AS THEIR THREE DRIVERS WILL ALL BE STARTING AT THE FRONT, AND IT IS VERY CLEAR WHO WILL BE LEADING THE RACE BY THE END OF THE TRACK…” Jackson slowly started listing the starting positions for Race 1, which was just a few hours away.

……

“Any word from the stewards on the impedance?” Fatih asked James the moment he got out of the car and reached the pit wall.

“They told us they will investigate it after the session. After all, it was the most chaotic qualifying session of the entire championship, so they most likely needed all eyes on the feeds to note any infractions,” James said as he rotated his chair to face Fatih, who still had his helmet and racing suit fully on.

“What about the last-minute incident? Was that deliberate as well?”

“That too is under investigation, but I don’t see why they would give a punishment for that… or maybe it looks different with telemetry.” As James answered, Alex finally reached him and handed him a modified brace that had a medical gel ice pack, usually used by drivers to keep themselves cool.

He immediately took his helmet off and handed it to James before opening his outer fireproof suit, letting it hang at his waist. He remained in only his fireproof, long-sleeve underwear before putting the brace on his left hand with Alex’s help.

“Did the injury get worse? I saw you had to use your hand to recover the car from Jewiss, nearly sending you into the wall,” James asked as he rotated the helmet in his hand to look at the details.

“This is to maintain things at the current condition. It acts as a temporary ’reset switch’ to get me through the weekend,” Fatih said as he moved his hand around.

“It sounds like it’s not all rainbows and sunshine,” James asked when he felt like the wording was specifically chosen that way.

“Well, in order to keep things as they are, it needs to slow down tissue action, which doesn’t differentiate between cellular repair and inflammation. So by the end of the next session, they said I will feel twice as sore,” Fatih said so easily that it momentarily made James think everything was fine just from the tone. But by the time he was done comprehending it, it was a completely different story.

“Does Ernst know about this? He needs to know so that he can prevent any permanent damage to your hand,” he asked as he jumped down from his chair, looking around for the doctor Helmut had sent.

“Yes, he is aware,” Fatih said as he took his helmet back from James. They continued their small talk before he headed back to the team garage to start the post-qualifying debrief and have a moment of rest before the first race.

James looked at the retreating Fatih before he said in a low voice, “I hope that is true,” as he returned to his pit wall seat to go through the data and footage one more time to see if they could find any other incidents they could report to have Jewiss receive more penalties. Because if they could find something that would result in a penalty for the second lap that put Jewiss in P5 for Race 3, then they would definitely increase their chance for the title, just like they had for today’s race.

…..

“Ladies and gentlemen, the time for speculation and build-up has come to an end, as it is time for us to finally see what the drivers are capable of doing when they are pushed to the limit. For this weekend, it’s mostly about these two drivers: Kiern Jewiss, the current championship leader, leading the chase for the title by 61 points, with the chaser, Fatih Yıldırım, taking two points from the top in the qualifying session, having entered the weekend with a 63-point deficit.

He is not showing any signs of giving up, and to make him feel even more motivated, Kiern Jewiss has been given a five-grid-position penalty after the stewards determined his impedance of Fatih’s lap was dangerous.

Based on the circumstances, it is not something that should have happened, which in turn resulted in him being sent all the way to the back of the grid for this race. This should allow Fatih to win a large amount of points in this race if he keeps performing as he usually does and doesn’t succumb to pressure.”

As Justin opened the session’s commentary, the feed kept focusing on Fatih and Jewiss alternatively.

“And the formation lap begins, with Fatih, the pole-sitter, leading everyone around the track for final checks on the car and to warm up their tires to optimal temperature amidst the cloud-covered British afternoon. What do you think about the current situation we have on our hands?”

“I would say this is the most interesting weekend of any British F4 season that I have spectated or commentated on because the tension has been building up since the last round of the championship, and these two drivers and their teams have kept on adding more and more things to the situation to increase the tension to the point that I really can’t bring myself to watch it actually start being released live due to the nerves.

In situations like this, I usually want to sleep and wake up once everything is over so that I can re-watch from the start, knowing something has already happened and there is nothing I can do to change it. But knowing that I have the chance to watch it happen live and not do so is not something I will forgive myself for.

So, with all of my nerves, I’m going to be enjoying it. But I keep wondering about the level of pressure the two who are the cause of all of this tension are feeling. Unlike us, they have the ability to change the final results based on what they do on the track,” Brad went into a long rambling, as that was the same feeling many who had followed the season from the start, or those who had joined in after hearing about everything that was going on, were feeling.

Reflecting that sentiment, the championship that had usually had a peak of 200,000 live viewers at the start of the season had reached half a million once Fatih returned and ignited his run back to title contention, and had just broken the 800,000 live viewers mark and was still going up in real time.

“Fatih is back into his grid position, having paced himself very well to arrive back close to the cars coming after him, which were very compliant since they are his teammates. But still, they will be waiting there for at least thirty seconds, if not more, for the rest of the grid to get to their grid boxes.

Since the last driver is Jewiss, he is going to take his time, pushing everything to the limit to ensure Fatih’s tires have as little temperature as possible. And after forty-five seconds since Fatih entered his grid box, Jewiss is finally in his, and we have a green flag!

For all the build-up we have had through the entire weekend, it is time for the drivers to take hold of their own fate! IT’S LIGHTS ON, AND IT’S LIGHTS OUT AND AWAY WE GO!”