Formula 1: The GOAT

”That is understandable, but what makes you identify the lower rear wishbone pickup specifically?” Franz asked again. He wasn’t trying to embarrass Fatih; he was genuinely curious to see the mindset that singled out something specific, to see if he had the mentality of an engineer or if he had just randomly picked a theory to see if it would stick. He was leaning toward the former, but there was no harm in asking to remove doubt.

Without missing a beat, Fatih said, ”Because it’s the most geometrically sensitive point on that rear end. The entire philosophy of that suspension depends on that pickup being exactly where it’s designed to be. A 0.3mm deflection at most locations is below the threshold of consequence. At that specific point, the leverage ratio to the wheel means it isn’t.”

James, Fatih’s race engineer, kept looking at his laptop screen. Gasly and Yuki, on the other hand, were looking at Thomas, as they had been told that it was an aero integration problem when they reported the rear felt nervous.

Franz also turned to Thomas, and even without him having to ask the question, Thomas immediately answered, ”The stress analysis on the adapter plate passed. I’d need to check whether a deflection analysis was included in the design scope under combined loading specifically.”

That alone was enough to cause people in the room to raise their eyebrows since they expected the answer to be that it was already checked, not ”I need to check.”

He wasn’t the only one who had to check something. Hendrik’s jaw moved very slightly. He, too, was running through his own design package in his head, section by section. He already knew what someone was about to find, and he knew it in the way that engineers know things the precise moment they realize a question they didn’t think to ask has a specific answer.

Upon hearing that answer, Franz leaned back for a moment. ”Okay, we are going to remain with our plan for session one as you take a look. If it is the actual problem, we will make the changes as fast as we can, but I need an answer before Session 2 starts, understood?”

He gave them a very short timeline to come up with the answer because if it was truly the cause of the problem, then it needed to be dealt with as fast as possible.

”Yes,” Thomas answered as he picked up a pen and started noting something down.

”Okay,” Franz said as he looked at his watch. ”We are ten minutes from the start of the session, so let’s hurry and get on with our plans as we wait for answers.” The people who had previously looked ready to leave but became interested once things got going finally stood up. As they left the room, they were already talking amongst themselves, along with those at the home base.

”Fatih, wait for a moment,” Franz said to Fatih, who was about to leave, as he needed to talk with him.

As he waited for everyone else to leave the meeting room, James patted Fatih’s shoulder as he passed him. Lisa, his chief mechanic, who was currently working with Yuki, did the same, not the least bit surprised by his pinpoint diagnostics, as that was something she had gotten used to since his F4 days.

....

”That was impressive,” Franz said.

”Thank you.”

”I heard your father is a motorsport engineer. Did you learn from him?”

”No, I’m currently being tutored by university professors for a few majors, so I learned most of the things from them,” he said, not planning to mention Apollo and the simulation, which had the right to take most of the credit, as they both allowed him to immediately apply everything he had been taught by the tutors and understand them with practical experience.

”Ahh, so you are being tutored privately in place of university due to F1?”

”Yes.”

”Are you being taught about motorsport engineering?”

”Not specifically. I’m being taught subjects related to Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Materials Science, with a focus on carbon fiber.”

”Wow, that is impressive. Since when did you start?”

”Around April of last year.”

”What year course could we say you are in, based on the subjects?”

”Around third year.”

”Already?” Franz asked in surprise, since it was only about a month away from being a full year.

”We skipped the basics like calculus, physics, and such after I aced the exams to test my level, and immediately started on the major-specific classes. Since we rented labs to do the practical classes, we managed to move faster and faster as we increased the pace to match my understanding.”

”....” When Franz heard what Fatih was saying, he had a hard time believing it. After all, he was being told that someone was focusing on three engineering fields. Although some parts overlap, it’s a small reduction compared to the number of subjects and things to learn. But he was already in his third year, and even with private tutors not being limited to a certain timetable, it was still a stretch, no matter how smart Franz knew Fatih to be.

”So you would have been in the period of starting an internship for experience, right?”

”I was thinking of applying to do it at AlphaTauri, if possible, when the time comes,” Fatih said, revealing what he was planning ahead of time since the situation called for it.

”HAHAHAHAHA,” Franz found himself laughing out loud when he heard what Fatih was thinking. ”We would look at your application and decide accordingly,” he said, making it clear that there was not going to be too much preferential treatment other than the ability to apply at any time, before he added, ”but if your current guess is correct, you can consider yourself fully accepted and can start interning at your pace.”

”Thank you for accepting me,” Fatih said with a smile on his face.

”It has to be correct before you say that,” Franz said, reminding him his immediate acceptance was under the condition that he was correct.

But Fatih looked confident that he was. Deep down, Fatih *was* confident, since it was something he had only managed to discover and come up with a solution for after spending the rest of the three hours focusing solely on the suspension matter.

They didn’t talk for too long before Franz allowed Fatih to leave, which he did, not wanting to remain there since he needed to watch the session as soon as it started. Now, only a few minutes remained on the clock before it was to start.