Formula 1: The GOAT

When the final light went off, he immediately left his grid position, going around the track for a formation lap. A few seconds after he left, he could see Apollo in his rear-view mirror, leaving his P2 grid position as he followed him around the track.

While following the procedure of the formation lap as instructed, he also wondered how everything looked no different from Apollo actually being on the track, but he immediately chalked it up to everything being projected in his mind to make it look like a reality. After thinking about it, he realized it was something trivial compared to what his simulation ability allowed him to do while sleeping.

As he swerved left and right on the long Hangar Straight, he looked at the sky, trying to see if the clouds were getting darker and darker, and lo and behold, they were, increasing the possibility of rain during the race practice even more.

Although he wanted to ask on the radio, he knew that under the regulations, he was not allowed to talk to the pit wall, and vice versa, during the formation lap, unless there was an emergency, which the current situation did not count as.

When he finally came out of the final corner, he slowed to a crawl before pushing the accelerator aggressively to force the rear tires to do a burnout to clear out all the debris accumulated during the formation lap.

He then slowly coasted 1across the back of the grid while looking in the rear-view mirror, making sure Apollo was as close to him as possible because he didn’t want to sit on his grid position longer than necessary and lose heat in the tires, which would be disadvantageous for him.

As he approached his grid box1, he did the final burnout before he entered his grid, angling it aggressively towards the path of the second grid position and as far forward as he could without receiving a penalty, making his intentions as clear as day. He now had his eyes fixed on the rear-view mirror at Apollo, who was finally entering his P2 grid position.

Per the regulations, the distance between each grid position is 8 meters, giving Fatih a 0.6-second advantage at F1 car launching speeds, but that was only under the condition that he reacted faster, if not at the same time, as the driver closest to him, or he would have a challenge from the start.

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”Now that is aggressive positioning,” Horner, who was on the pit wall along with Helmut, James, and the performance engineer, said when the front camera angle showed how much Fatih had placed his car facing the right side of the track.

”....”

No one said anything as they were focused on the track as the lights started lighting up one after another.

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Beeeep.... Beeeep.... Beeeep.... Beeeep.... Beeeep....

When the fifth light lit up, Fatih was already in full focus with the engine revving high, waiting for the lights to go out. The regulations state it could go out at a preset random delay of anywhere between 0.2 and 3.0 seconds, and as if playing with them, the lights went out almost immediately after the fifth one lit up.

But he was not caught off guard, as he immediately dropped the first clutch, and with little wheel rotation, he left his pit box. He released the second clutch over a one-and-a-half-second duration once he was up to speed, immediately moving to the middle of the track and not going fully to the right side to cover Apollo.

It seemed Apollo had planned to go in Fatih’s opposite direction, so the middle of the track allowed him the freedom of movement to cover both sides if the distance closed, but his launch was near-perfect.

He arrived at the end of the straight and Turn One first. While in qualifying trim,1 it could be taken flat out in eighth or seventh gear, he had to lift to eighty percent throttle on the opening lap due to the extra 110kg of fuel he was carrying at the moment.

He moved to the leftmost part of the track before turning the car, cutting the corner as much as possible as he went back to full power, before lifting again slightly for Turn Two, then braking heavily and earlier as he approached Turn Three and then Turn Four, The Loop. He was back on power and immediately upshifting as he looked at his mirrors before entering Aintree, finally arriving at the long Wellington Straight on full power.

Apollo, on the other hand, was very patient as he immediately tucked behind Fatih and used the overtake button1, forcing the battery to dump out the maximum allowed power to the tires.

He closed the gap slowly with the help of Fatih’s slipstream1 as Fatih started moving to the left side, trying to break the tow.2 But Apollo just followed him, and by the time they approached the end of the straight, he moved out of the slipstream to Fatih’s right side moments before Fatih braked. Apollo outbraked3 Fatih, allowing him to be barely side-by-side with Fatih.

Not wanting to remain passive, Fatih used the inside line to his advantage as he widened the line1, forcing Apollo to be more conservative as there was nowhere to go other than the space Fatih had left him.

By the time they came out of Luffield, Fatih was still in front, having opened back nearly a second gap, but Apollo didn’t let him off. He remained behind him through Woodcote into the long straight in Fatih’s slipstream while once again using the overtake button for just two seconds, getting him closer and closer to Fatih.

As the straight was coming to an end and Copse Corner was coming at him rapidly, he moved to the left side of the track and lifted the throttle while also turning his steering wheel left by just one degree to load the suspension1 and flatten the tire carcasses2 against the asphalt early, before immediately turning the car while going back on full throttle just as Apollo attempted a dive on the inside line. 3

Apollo was forced to brake and lift more than normal as Fatih called his bluff and risked a crash if Apollo didn’t give him room. This lift-off gave Fatih a two-second gap by the time Apollo came out of Copse corner, giving him breathing room to focus on optimizing his racing line1 and not defending as he approached the Maggots, Becketts, and Chapel corners.

He had managed to survive the opening lap, unfortuantley this was not a one-lap stint, but a 52-lap race, and he needed to survive the remaining 51.

Coasting: Rolling forward smoothly with zero input on either the brake or the gas pedal to maintain car balance.Grid Box: The specific white-painted rectangular boundary line that a driver must park inside perfectly to avoid a jump-start penalty.Qualifying Trim: A lightweight car setup optimized purely for single-lap speed with minimum fuel and maximum engine performance settings.Overtake Button: A high-priority switch on the wheel that forces the hybrid system to dump maximum electric battery power for a massive speed boost.Slipstream: The pocket of low-pressure air punched by a leading car that cuts wind resistance for the trailing vehicle to gain straight-line speed.Break the Tow: Aggressively weaving across a straightaway to detach a trailing vehicle from your slipstream pocket.Outbraked: Stamping on the brake pedal later and harder than an opponent to steal a position entering a corner apex.Widened the Line: Deliberately guiding a car toward the outer boundary of a corner exit to block a chasing vehicle’s momentum.Load the Suspension: Turning the wheel early to compress the springs and shift the car’s weight smoothly before entering a high-speed turn.Flatten the Tire Carcasses: Forcing the physical structure of the tire against the track surface to expand its rubber contact patch for maximum grip.Dive on the Inside Line: An aggressive, late-braking lunging move down the interior of a corner to intercept a position under braking.Racing Line: The mathematically fastest and most efficient geometric path around a race circuit that carries the highest mid-corner speed.