Formula 1: The GOAT

“A single sector is all it took for him to cover the distance, but instead of making a move, he is taking his time behind Tonteri all the way through the Clearways straight that leads to the final corner. He fakes a move on the inside, which Tonteri moves to cover, as Fatih moves to the outside line, giving him more traction, as it was off the normal racing line.

They enter the start-finish straight side-by-side, Fatih on the left, Tonteri on the right, as both of them try to cut the straight as short as possible. It looks like it is once again going to be a battle of nerves, of who can brake later, which Fatih had already fought and won twice in the previous laps.

AND BOTH OF THEM BRAKE AT THE SAME TIME AND TURN AT THE SAME TIME! AS TONTERI HAD THE INSIDE LINE, HE FORCED FATIH TO TAKE THE OUTSIDE WHILE ALSO COVERING HIM, ALLOWING HIM TO EXIT THE CORNER AHEAD OF FATIH WITH BETTER MOMENTUM! THEY NOW HEAD DOWNWARD TO THE TURN-TWO HAIRPIN, AND TONTERI TRIES TO TAKE A TIGHTER LINE TO GET BACK ON POWER EARLIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR, AND HE LOSES CONTROL AND SLIDES AND FATI—”

His commentary was immediately drowned out by the screaming crowd, as those on the track saw with their own eyes Tonteri losing control and oversteering as his car did a full one-eighty with Fatih meters behind him. For many, this was a done deal, as they saw no way for him to avoid the crash because any move he made would not be executed by the car fast enough to have any effect.

But what they saw moments later was something many of them couldn’t have even imagined. Fatih’s car looked like it had also lost control of the rear, starting to rotate as if it was going to crash into Tonteri’s car, only for it to start sliding sideways for a moment.

The pivot point changed from the front tires to the rear tires, completing a three-sixty degree turn, but having him end up on a different racing line than if he had done a normal 360. Without losing a moment, he got back on the power and continued with the chase, having lost only two seconds in his gap to Jack Doohan.

……….

The entire sequence happened so fast that people’s reactions took a while to come, and by that time, Fatih was already continuing with his drive while Tonteri was still stuck there, trying to get out of anti-stall and into first gear again, causing a yellow flag at his location moments before Hauger overtook him.

“OOOOHHHH MY GOD! WHAT WAS THAT?! WE NEED TO SEE IT AGAIN BECAUSE NOW I’M WONDERING IF IT WAS LUCK OR IF IT WAS DELIBERATE, THOUGH IT WOULD BE CRAZY IF IT WAS DELIBERATE!” Justin shouted at the top of his lungs by the time he came to terms with what he saw.

And as if to answer his prayers, the TV director replayed the situation, showing the development of the entire sequence from Fatih remaining behind Tonteri after turn one all the way to the hairpin entry. Just as Tonteri started spinning, they put it in slow motion to show the entire sequence and give people time to focus on what was happening.

“Wooooooooooooooooow,” Brad could only say at that moment as he saw Fatih’s car pivoting, with the front tires being the pivot point when it started until the halfway point where the rear tires became the pivot for a moment before the car moved in reverse while the rear tires continued to be the pivot as the front end slid until it faced the right direction.

To not keep them wondering how that was even possible, the feed once again changed, and this time showed Fatih’s onboard camera. To add to that, they also overlaid his telemetry to show exactly how he could have done it.

As the feed showed Fatih getting closer to the hairpin, a short distance from Tonteri, who then immediately lost control and oversteered as his car did a one-eighty. While it was still turning, and in what looked like a matter of pure instinct, Fatih locked his steering to the right while at the same time getting off the brakes and going to full throttle.

This immediately unsettled the car, which was already in the middle of turning, forcing the rear to oversteer.

While that was happening, Fatih immediately turned the steering wheel to the opposite lock while also pressing the brakes to about thirty percent force until the car had already turned ninety degrees. Only then did he release the brakes that had locked the tires and intensified the slide.

He moved his foot that was on the brake to the clutch pedal to engage it, allowing the rear wheels to free-rotate. This move allowed the sliding momentum, which continued until about a 125-degree rotation, to pivot from the front wheels to the rear wheels, which could now freely rotate in any direction.

With the momentum and change of pivot moving to the rear, it allowed the tires to turn in reverse, which then caused the front tires to be the ones sliding as the momentum of the rotation got lower and lower.

While the pivot point was now at the rear, he was also downshifting to second gear while revving the engine to the optimal RPM just in time so that the car was facing the right direction before he dropped the clutch and continued with his driving. The entire sequence only happened in just two seconds.

“I can say with confidence that it started as instinctive, but then every other action was made for a specific reason. I also can’t imagine someone reacting that fast to such a niche situation and coming up with that solution while things are happening within that short time,” Brad said in a normal voice, being the one to break the silence between the two.

They had put themselves in the same position as Fatih and imagined what they would have done if they had the same short time frame, and all of them came to the conclusion that they would have one hundred percent crashed into Tonteri.

And while they were still watching the replay that had started again, this time with the full knowledge of how it was done, Fatih overtook Jack Doohan, who didn’t fight him at all, as he moved into P4, now leading the entire team, with Doohan and Hauger just behind him in P5 and P6 at the end of lap four.