Formula 1: The GOAT

“I have to give it to you. He is driving with an aggressiveness that shows his confidence in his capabilities to handle the car, while others are tiptoeing around to not lose traction,” Brad said as Fatih drove on the long straight, water spreading everywhere he passed while he drove at a far higher speed than what other drivers were managing in those same areas.

“He is lapping seconds faster than anyone in each sector, and he is reducing the gap to those two in front at a very fast and scary pace. I expect he should be within striking range in the next lap,” Justin said just as Fatih lifted and turned the car into Hawthorn bend without braking, as if he was driving on a dry track. The only difference was that he lifted earlier than he would have on a dry run, but nothing else changed.

……

{What? How fast do you say he’s going?!} Hoggard asked when he was told Fatih was closing in rapidly.

{He is, on average, three seconds faster.} When he heard that part, he breathed a sigh of relief. As he calculated their gap, he knew he could keep his position for a long time and even fight for it near the end of the race. But what he heard next almost caused him to have an accident. {Every sector. And on the final sector, he is up by five seconds.}

Eleven seconds on average, that was the gap he had closed on the previous lap alone, and he was on pace to do the same, meaning he was going to catch them in the next lap.

{How is he making up that much time?} Hoggard asked.

{He is pushing more everywhere.}

{Give me something I can work with, not vague words.}

{How about trying to improve moderately and build up into it? You currently hold the fastest lap, so let’s strive to be three seconds off that pace.}

{But the rain is getting worse, and the track is getting wetter,} he said, stating the obvious. He had only managed to get the fastest lap due to circumstances perfectly aligning. A lap completed in dry conditions would remain the fastest one for the entire race, but since it had started raining in sector two, all cars had slowed down too much to avoid aquaplaning and losing control. Fatih, who went to the pits in the second lap, wasn’t in any condition to attempt it when he was fighting for survival. But being one of the first to leave the pit lane, he immediately went for a push lap, and his time set the fastest lap. With the rain continuing to increase, achieving the same lap time was now out of the window for anyone.

{Just try, and if it is dangerous, you can pull back, no problem. We are happy with the current pace if you are happy as well,} his race engineer said to make it clear that he had the option to keep the same pace if he deemed it safer. After all, P2 for them would still be the best position he would finish this year, as the highest he had ever gone was P4.

But telling a driver that someone else was driving seconds faster than him and then telling him to keep the current pace if he saw it as safe was not the best choice of words. Hoggard, who now knew that it was possible to go faster, tried to push for more. But knowing it was possible and actually doing it were two different things.

He found himself burning his tires and losing control as he slid into the grass, trying to regain control and only managing to do so at the last moment before he could return to the track. But by then, he had already lost his lead and rejoined the track. As he looked into his rear-view mirror, he first saw water vapor being thrown into the air, and only moments later did Fatih appear.

“Fuck,” he said as he started the long right-hand turn for the final corner, which he was constantly having to correct as he was losing his nerve and Fatih was closing in rapidly.

…..

“FATIH, SHOWING HIS FULL CONFIDENCE, MAKES HIS MOVE ON THE START-FINISH STRAIGHT, AND HE MOVES PAST HOGGARD TO TAKE P2 IN THE STANDINGS BEFORE THE FIRST TURN! HE IS NOW STARTING HIS CHASE OF THE RACE LEADER, TONTERI, WHO IS NOW TEN SECONDS IN FRONT OF HIM! THAT IS A GAP THAT HE HAS SHOWN THE PACE TO CLOSE IN A SINGLE LAP, IF NOT MORE!” Justin shouted as the feed showed Fatih’s onboard camera, where he was making constant adjustments.

The TV director then overlaid Fatih’s telemetry of his throttle and brake input onto the screen, which showed just how many changes he was constantly making. There wasn’t a moment where the throttle remained stable; it kept modulating up and down constantly. It looked like the work of an amateur, but the results were telling a completely different story. While other drivers did make some corrections, theirs were larger, meaning they were leaving seconds on the track over a full lap, which he was completely capitalizing on.

“They say rain is the great equalizer, but this looks like a nightmare for every other driver that is not Fatih. Based on this pace, he is set to be on the gearbox of Tonteri in this lap, and after that, he will have eight laps of a clean track all to himself. I think we might see someone getting lapped in just a few laps,” Brad added, just as Fatih caught another slide early into it.

…

“…” Helmut Marko watched with a look that suggested the things happening in front of him were normal. But inside, he was having a fit of happiness from what was unfolding.

He was in Sochi, following the Russian Grand Prix, but he also had a tablet showing the ongoing F4 race. As a result, he found himself unable to choose which side to focus on, as both had interesting incidents happening at the same time. On one hand, he had Verstappen and Daniel, who were starting in P19 and P18 due to tactical grid penalties for changing power unit components.

Verstappen had gained twelve positions in a matter of just five laps, and by lap 19, he had already inherited the lead. On the other hand, he just watched his other driver take a dangerous gamble and stay out on slick tires on a wet track to gain a tactical advantage, which he then compounded by lapping more than ten seconds faster than anyone on that track, lap after lap. He had already regained the lead by repeating the same move he did to take P2 and was continuing to push more and more every lap to increase that gap.

All he could do was smile, as he knew he had made two decisions that would be his defining legacy in the Red Bull Junior Academy.

….

“IT WAS AN ADVENTUROUS RACE, BUT OF ALL THE DRIVERS ON THE TRACK, IT IS THIS DRIVER WHO SHOWED THE COURAGE TO CHARGE INTO THE MIST AND WATER! IT IS FATIH YILDIRIM, TAKING HIS SECOND WIN OF THE WEEKEND AS HE TAKES THE CHECKERED FLAG NEARLY A MINUTE AHEAD OF THE DRIVER IN P2!

13 POINTS! THAT IS THE REMAINING GAP AS WE GO INTO THE FINAL RACE IN A FEW HOURS! AND THE TITLE LEADER COMES HOME IN P6 AFTER A LONG AND HARD DRIVE ON HIS PART TO TRY AND RECOVER AS MANY POSITIONS AS POSSIBLE!

IT IS GOING TO GO ALL THE WAY TO THE FINAL RACE, THE FINAL LAP OF THE 2018 BRITISH F4 CHAMPIONSHIP FOR THE TITLE WINNER TO BE DECIDED, WITH FATIH STARTING FROM LAST, WHILE JEWISS IS TO START IN P5, AND IT IS TO BE RACED UNDER RAIN!”