Formula 1: The GOAT

“This is crazy,” Jos Verstappen found himself involuntarily saying, his eyes locked on the track.

He was watching Fatih in the final, still in the dominant form he had maintained all weekend. Fatih had started and kept the lead in every session, gaining and maintaining at least a five-second gap from the closest driver.

As a former Formula 1 driver, Jos was among the best when it came to spotting talent. Until now, he could say with confidence that he had never seen anyone in the junior categories who would require his son to fire on all cylinders to contend. Fatih drove like a machine, going entire sessions without putting a foot wrong. But unlike a machine, which often lacks personality, Fatih was imbuing his personality into the sessions, even experimenting with racing lines during a competitive race while still maintaining the gap.

Although, like his son, Fatih was not yet a complete driver, they were both heading there, in a category above anyone else he had seen in karting. There were a few, like Charles Leclerc, who could sometimes contend, but they lacked the consistency these two could maintain throughout an entire weekend in competitive machinery.

For a former Formula 1 driver, seeing such good talent should have been something that excited him for the future of motorsports. But at the moment, he was a father first, and no father wanted their son to have a rival who could match them, as that would mean the benefits that would have been solely concentrated on his son risked being divided, halving his potential. The only saving grace was that Fatih was only ten, meaning by the time he caught up to Max, Max would already have a few years of experience in Formula 1, giving him an edge.

However, despite knowing that, he still decided to keep Fatih in his mind and continue observing him for the foreseeable future. Who knew, he might find a chance to do something that would increase his son’s opportunities over Fatih, like improving his son’s influence in preparation for Fatih’s arrival.

Having finally come up with a decision and an action plan for Fatih, he wanted to leave, but the racer in him, which he had suppressed, forced him to remain watching. As someone who didn’t have a single race win in his own career, he wasn’t about to start risking his son’s future over something like a “racer mentality.” Succumbing to that feeling meant risking his son not achieving what he knew he was capable of and ending up with a disappointing career like his own.

Although he had success post-Formula 1, like winning races in the A1 Grand Prix Series and even a 24 Hours of Le Mans win, he couldn’t bring himself to say his motorsports career was good due to his lackluster Formula 1 performance. While the reason for it was not just about his talent but also the teams he was in, he considered using the poor cars as an excuse to be something only someone looking for something to blame would say. To make sure his son didn’t go through that, he was intent on making him be in only competitive teams, the ones that, if there was talent, could lead to race wins, world championships, or even multiple world championships. He was ready to do everything to make that a reality.

TRIIIIIIIIING TRIIIIIING TRIIIIIIIIIIING

His train of thought was interrupted by a phone call, which he picked up the moment he saw the caller ID.

“What is it?” he said, placing the phone to his ear.

“I don’t have any plans to have a meeting with him when he hasn’t even signed with the team, so no. Plus, what are we even going to talk about if the meeting happens?”

“No, why should I introduce them to each other when they are not going to meet anytime soon? It would be a waste of our time. So stop suggesting that until he is on the team, and only then will I consider it seriously. Bye, I have a final race to prepare for,” he said before ending the call with a frown. When he looked back at the track, he had lost the small appetite he had for watching the race and decided to leave and return to their tent to check on Max.

…….

“(Supremazia) Supremacy, the state or condition of being superior to all others in authority, power, abilities, or status. That is what people will say when talking about his international debut season or his national karting career. It has been a weekend of Eat, Sleep, Win, and Repeat for the past three days. To make that pattern a reality, he comes out of the final corner with his foot still on the pedal at full power, and the checkered flag welcomes him home to complete his perfect weekend, where he reigned SUPREME by leading in every session from free practice all the way to the final. It is official, a perfect weekend for FATIH YILDIRIM AS HE WINS THE 2013 WSK FINAL CUP AND TAKES HOME HIS SECOND TROPHY OF HIS INTERNATIONAL DEBUT, WITH A MONSTROUS HUNDRED PERCENT WINNING RATE ACROSS THE THREE RACES HE PARTICIPATED IN! AND AS HE PASSES THE AREA WHERE THE KZ2 CATEGORY TEAM TENTS ARE SET, HE RAISES HIS HAND, POINTING TO THE TRACK AS IF HE IS SAYING, ’MAX VERSTAPPEN, IT IS YOUR TURN TO RESPOND,’ MARKING THE OFFICIAL ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF YOUR CRAZY THEORY, MARCO! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! What an exciting weekend and what an interesting challenge,” Leonardo said, his voice sounding hoarse from the way he shouted for the final lap of the race.

“Supremazia? Did you prepare that final commentary ahead of time? Because it sounded too good to be spontaneous,” Marco asked as he laughed at the way Leonardo sounded.

“I mean, unless someone crashed into him, which in itself is a tall task since he is always the fastest to react to the race start flags and opens the gap from lap one, I didn’t see the race ending any other way than him winning. So why not prepare something worthy of the performance he displayed?” Leonardo said after he was done re-lubricating his throat.

“It is worthy of the commentary, but what’s more interesting is that he has finally acknowledged the competition between him and Max for the first time. But he is very cunning, as he did that only after he won his final race, leaving all the pressure on Max, who now has to respond after he lent legitimacy to it. He is going to be very good at psychological warfare in the future,” Marco said, chuckling while feeling proud that his discovery, which was considered a reach when he came up with it, had been validated.

“But I think he is just messing with Max, since he has also kept a one-to-one tit-for-tat and hasn’t shown any hint of pulling back. So for him as well, so long as he doesn’t make a mistake at the start, doesn’t crash, or someone doesn’t crash into him, he should also have a grand slam weekend. It is something I’m very curious about how they are going to talk about in the post-race interviews.”

“I couldn’t agree more.”

…….

“Tell us how you are feeling after your perfect weekend,” Matia, the post-race interviewer, asked Fatih the moment he arrived at the podium area.

In competitions with more than one category, the post-race podium celebration and interviews are done the moment that category’s final race is completed. This removes the need for those who don’t want to remain for the next category’s final races to wait until the end for the podium celebrations, while also allowing for focused media coverage, unlike what would have happened if they were all concentrated after the finals were over, since the focus would be on the few who have a name in motorsports.

“I feel quite good. It is quite enjoyable to drive in clear air,” Fatih answered as he looked around, wanting to see where his mom and grandma were.

“You speak very good Italian, as I heard.”

“Thank you, I worked very hard to learn it,” Fatih answered, coinciding with him finding where they were as he started waving at them with a smile on his face.

“Then, to the next question. What is this rumor going around the paddock that you are in a tit-for-tat competition with Max Verstappen? Is it true, and if so, what is the reason behind it, and why did you wave at his paddock area?” Matia asked, finally arriving at the question that those who understood Italian were also curious about after having heard about it from the two commentators.

“There is nothing official going on; it is just two drivers doing their best for their weekend. After all, it is not like a driver who is capable of a faster pace will deliberately go slow. He did his best, I did my best, and it just coincided that our best was enough to lead every session back to back. As for the waving, I did that for the whole track, so there is no special meaning behind it,” Fatih said, deliberately not acknowledging it, as doing so would give it legitimacy and give the other side the power to say that it was just in his head and that they had no competition with him at all. Although he was competitive, he knew Jos Verstappen was very good at media play, having been the reason for the start of quite a few controversies in his son’s team.