Formula 1: The GOAT

Exiting the pit lane while feathering the throttle, he entered the track at the exit of Turn Two, Farm Curve. He immediately got on the power using his intermediate tires amidst the falling rain, sending water into the air as the tires bit into the track tarmac.

Although he wanted to immediately start pushing the car as he had done in the simulation, he still kept it within the discussed speed limit as he drove on the outside of the normal racing line, which was grippier than the racing line during a rainy period.

When he reached the Wellington Straight, he immediately pressed the throttle, smoothly increasing the percentage as he gained speed without spinning the wheels. He fully focused his senses on feeling everything the car was telling him through all of its reactions to what was happening, allowing him to create a low-resolution image of everything—a direct result of him continuously practicing his imagination skill.

He didn’t have any difficulties navigating the track, as he was sure no driver would ever come close to the number of laps he had driven on this track. Though he did them in the simulation, to him, it felt no different from driving on the actual track.

........

James and the rest of the team looked at Fatih’s feed from the cameras they had set up to both record this for their videos and transmit everything to the pit for technical viewing and to the home base for those monitoring from there.

”I didn’t think he would not push it on his first try,” Helmut said as he looked at the telemetry showing Fatih was lifting his throttle on the long straights to keep within the discussed speed limits.

”When he is not in a competitive session, he is agreeable most of the time, but that changes when he is in an official competitive session, and anything he doesn’t agree with will not go through,” James said as Fatih exited Stowe corner and, without James’s call, entered the pit lane, returning to the pit. He came to a stop in the pit stop locations where the mechanics were already waiting for him. They raised the car before sliding it back into the garage.

With the help of Lisa, he finally got out of the car as the mechanics started checking for hydraulic leaks, fluid drips, or loose carbon pieces. Meanwhile, the data engineers started checking the sensors to ensure the steering wheel layout, throttle pedal, brake pressure sensors, and all the hundreds of other sensors on the car worked as expected or if they needed additional checks.

Fatih, who had just gotten out, walked to the pit wall after taking off his helmet and immediately started going through the data about the track conditions that were gathered during his lap, along with the prediction data on how the car was expected to deal with these conditions, the expected grip levels, and more. This continued until the checks from both sides were completed, which had taken half an hour, before he got back in the car, this time to go for fully allowed push laps as much as he could for someone in a new F1 car.

.......

{Okay, this time we will be doing three short stints of five-lap runs so you can push as much as you trust the car. No need to push it more than you deem safe,} James said as Fatih was finally done getting strapped into the car. The mechanics removed the tire blankets from the new inters they had put on the car as he was allowed to go out on the track for the second time, and from the get-go, it was clear that he was not going to be holding back at all.

James and everyone on the pit wall or anywhere they could be watching the data could immediately see that Fatih, despite being in the pit lane, was already in a race to keep the heat in the tires from dissipating. He was still pressing the brakes while the car was moving, forcing the cold brakes to warm up to their operating temperatures and, in return, radiate heat into the tires, allowing them to keep and even raise their temperature from the inside.

The moment he got on the track, he immediately floored the car as he eased the pressure on the brake pedal but still kept it active at about ten percent on the straights and even trail-braking during the corners, allowing him to retain most of the heat. On the straights, he weaved left and right to warm up the rubber, gently generating and retaining heat in the tires as he slowly brought them to operating temperature, as if he had done this a hundred times before.

........

”Isn’t he too good at this for someone doing it for the first time?” Horner asked when he looked at the steadily increasing tire temperatures along with the battery that was being topped up during the lap.

”He was good at it even during the lower formulas, so I’m not surprised. He should be at least this good for us to push him this heavily,” Helmut said as Fatih was at the end of the pit straight entering the Vale corner. He immediately changed the dial from warm-up lap to a qualifying setting on the steering wheel as he entered the final corner, Club, and immediately went on a full push for a qualifying session amidst the wet track.

As he went through the start-finish line, the timing screen immediately started its counter. He shifted from fifth gear, entered seventh, then all the way to eighth gear as he moved to the left side of the straight before lifting the throttle to 60% for a moment as he turned the car into Turn One and the same for Turn Two. It was usually a flat-out corner on a dry track, but in the wet, you have to lift while deliberately steering wide of the apex curbs to avoid the metallic white paint that would send the car into a slide if he touched it in wet conditions.

He braked heavily before Turn Three, moving to the middle of the track while avoiding the traditional inside line because of the heavy rubber laid down by cars over the years, creating a greasy barrier when mixed with rainwater, as he squared off the corner to make it a sharp V-turn.

When he arrived at Turn Four, The Loop, the slowest corner, he fed the throttle in very carefully, short-shifting from second gear straight to fourth to keep the Honda engine’s torque from spinning the rear wheels, before getting back on power on the short straight.

As he approached Aintree, he swept right, pinning the throttle while hugging the outer edges of the track and entering the Wellington Straight. With visibility very restricted on the Wellington Straight, he just continued shifting gears as his speed got higher and higher, reaching 185 mph before he started braking fifty meters before where he usually would have braked on the dry line into Turn 6, Brooklands, sweeping wide to the absolute edge of the track and running a wide arc to hook up the mechanical grip of the fresh intermediate tread blocks.

As he started taking the never-ending Turn 7, Luffield, he kept a constant forty percent throttle, exiting it and straightening the steering wheel through Woodcote, rocketing down the national pit straight as he barreled towards Copse Corner. On the dry, it was a blind 180 mph throw, but in the rain, he braked earlier, dropped down to fifth gear, and kept the car one car width away from the inside curb, avoiding the massive puddle.

Once he was back on the straight, he was now approaching the famous triple corners of Maggots, Becketts, and Chapel, which he was very experienced in driving. He expertly handled the changes in direction as he lifted off the throttle slightly to keep the front axle pinned, keeping the car on the edge of just aquaplaning. He accelerated faster and faster as the straight, which was a previous runway, was eaten up by the Honda engine, reaching a top speed of 192 mph, the fastest point on the track. He then braked a hundred meters earlier than he normally did, deliberately taking a late apex to avoid the water running across the entry of the corner.

On the pit straight, he accelerated once again before slamming the brakes and dropping down to first gear. He started trail-braking into the corner after tightening the differential to lock the rear that was trying to break away under the trail braking to stabilize the car, leaving a single final corner.

He short-shifted to third gear before turning, letting the car drift wide towards the pit entry wall before getting back to full power and going through the start-finish line.

Everyone watching him pull that lap immediately turned their eyes to the timing screen to see the lap time he had set on the track.