Formula 1: The GOAT

The two commentators talked for about fifteen minutes before they headed to Karun Chandhok, who was in one of the corners as cars were crossing behind him at an unusually slow speed compared to how fast they would have gone in a qualifying or race session. No one talked about it, as they were still getting into the session, but also because of the crosswind around the track, as drivers were constantly losing control of their cars, locking up, and having to counter-steer.

They had dropped their aero rakes after driving only a few laps, since that was all that was needed to gather the required data.

As the first session drew to a close, the wind picked up, sweeping sand onto the track and activating the Virtual Safety Car. It remained active until the end of the session a few minutes later as all the cars returned to the pit.

The mechanics started working on the cars to set them up for the second driver who would be heading out for the next session, while engineers both on the track and at the home base immediately started going through the collected data as the session ended with Daniel Ricciardo at the top of the timing sheet.

Gasly had completed the most laps of any driver on track with 74, while Mercedes and Haas set the fewest. Bottas completed only fifteen laps before he had to pit due to a possible gearbox problem.

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”The good news is that we can say with confidence that we have the reliability part partially sorted out,” the performance engineer said on the radio as Gasly came back into the pit. The mechanics immediately started working on the car in preparation for Yuki Tsunoda, who would be going out in the second session to gather another round of data while also getting some real track time to get to know the new car.

”It is easier to make a fast car stable than to make a stable one fast; let’s hope we got everything in the sweet spot,” James said to Fatih while he remained looking at the data on his front screen.

”Well, we are yet to push it to the limit to see if it is really reliable or if we are still operating at the limits of the glue holding everything together,” Fatih said as he looked at the mechanics who were removing the engine covers at the rear of the car, knowing that they were about to discover many headaches from the data they had collected due to all the changes he had forced the team to make in his pursuit of a fast promotion to the main team.

”It should at least hold things together when pushed,” James said as he chuckled, going along with the metaphor.

”I’m going to take a short nap,” he said, wanting to leave for a moment so that he could enter the simulation and test the car as fast as possible, since he couldn’t wait any longer when he had been staring at the data the car provided for nearly four hours straight.

”Already? What about the post-session briefing?” Alex, who had finally joined them and heard about his plan to take a nap, asked.

”After that,” Fatih said as he slapped his forehead because it seemed that in his excitement to test the newly registered car, he had forgotten the process these sessions follow.

”That is if there is any time,” James said, knowing that there were only fifty-five minutes between sessions.

They usually hold post-session meetings immediately after the session so that the driver’s memory and sensation are still fresh, allowing them to gather as much driver data as possible.

It was also why Alex had approached him; the meeting was about to start in five minutes. As scheduled, the team called for everyone involved in the post-session debriefing, needing them in the meeting room before the start time.

The three of them picked up their notes and, leaving their headphones, headed to the meeting room.

Upon entering, Fatih immediately walked to his assigned seat, where he replaced an engineer who would normally sit there.

The meeting room was arranged around a very long table in the center, with a massive screen at the end. This structure allowed each driver to sit on one side along with their team while also being able to see the screen, which had a live video conference call with the engineering team back at base.

Gasly sat on the right side of the table with his race engineer and the rest of his side of the garage. Yuki did the same on the opposite side, but in the race engineer’s place sat James, who would be acting as a temporary race engineer for Yuki until it was decided who Fatih would replace. If Yuki remained, he would be assigned his own race engineer, but to everyone, it seemed obvious that the team was expecting Yuki to be the one to be replaced.

Within three minutes of his arrival, the debrief session immediately started.

Fatih listened and noted down everything Gasly was saying, as he was planning on testing it in the simulation to see if he could recreate the issues and, if so, whether he could come up with a possible cause, or even better, a solution.

Once that was done, they immediately moved to discussing their plan for the next session, this time focused on Yuki as he was the one going out on the second run. The entire briefing lasted for forty-five minutes, leaving only ten minutes before the new session was about to start, so it killed any chance of him touching the car anytime soon before the end of the second session for the day.

With an understandable disappointment, he returned to the garage as the mechanics were doing final checks on the car. The second session was about to start; however, it looked like the teams were not going to go out immediately since the track was currently under a fog of sand. They would not be learning anything in these conditions due to the lack of grip.

But AlphaTauri had agreed to go out so long as the conditions were drivable since Yuki needed as much track time as possible, but also because even though they couldn’t get any usable data on the aero side, they would still be able to gather data on the rear suspension, which had gone through a rebuild as they upgraded to the latest Red Bull rear suspension.

In the midst of a sand fog caused by the sandstorm, Yuki Tsunoda, along with only a few other drivers, was sent to the track, starting the second session.