Formula 1: The GOAT

The next day, once his uncle and his wife returned from the office, they started driving to the town where the Super Cup was going to take place. They had taken time off from work for the upcoming Friday so they could spend the weekend with the Fatihs, which had now turned into an improvised family gathering following the race.

Upon arriving at night, Fatih was sent to sleep as they continued their conversation into the depths of the night, picking up where they had left off yesterday.

Finally, Friday arrived, and early in the morning, they immediately left for the track to start their initial inspections, arrival registration, and all the processes needed to be done before they were given the green light to prepare for their free practice.

Fatih bid farewell to his mother, uncle, and his uncle’s wife before leaving with John, who had come to collect him. John was now carrying Fatih’s helmet on his shoulder, looking like a dad who had finally come to pick his son up from school.

………….

“So it is the last run, huh?” John asked as they walked from the parking lot, heading into the garage area of the Prokart Raceland track.

“Yeah, it looks like that,” Fatih said after a moment of silence.

The entire team was aware of his move to F4, as they needed to be alerted so they didn’t end up going with his karts on the track when he wasn’t going to be there. But even if that wasn’t the reason, he would have still told them. He had spent the largest percentage of his weekends with them over the past three years, and they had done everything in their power to make it as easy as possible for him to just come and race, without any additional kinks, and they had succeeded in achieving that almost all of the time.

“I mean, we knew about it for more than a month, but now that the final weekend has finally come, I still can’t fully believe it. I believe that next weekend, I’m going to be expecting you to be there, as that has been the norm for the past four years,” John said with a smile on his face, finding it to be a mixture of amusement and inevitability.

“I think it will be the same for me as well. I have grown quite fond of and used to the environment,” Fatih said just as they reached the front entry point of their tent.

“Well then, let’s have the best final weekend of your karting life,” John said, pushing the cover on the door, and the moment Fatih entered the room… PAH!! PAH!! PAH!! PAH!!!! Confetti poured in Fatih’s direction as members of the team holding confetti poppers activated them before they clapped and cheered, all looking at Fatih.

Ricky Flinn, who was standing at the front of all the team members, walked to Fatih with a cake that had four candles to represent the four years he had been with them. He said, “The team wanted to do a farewell celebration for you for all the times we had spent together, so go ahead and blow it out,” with a smile on his face.

“And here I was, thinking that I was being slick for wanting to invite all of you to a dinner after today’s sessions. Also, nice shirts,” Fatih said with a smile before blowing out the candles, after pointing out the blue shirts with his name that everyone on the team wore.

“Dinner is on Fatih!” Ricky shouted when he heard what Fatih said, with the team immediately starting to clap and cheer.

“Okay, although we would like to have you open all of the gifts from the team members and see your reaction, we are tight on time, so let’s have you cut the cake before we start the registration and inspection procedure,” Ricky said, holding the cake with his left hand and guiding Fatih’s shoulder with his right, directing him to the table where there was a knife and a few paper plates for him to do the cutting.

Once the cake was cut, everyone on the team gathered for a group photo in their blue shirts.

It didn’t take long for the picture to be taken, as everyone else immediately dispersed and returned to their tasks before they could attract any more attention than they already had.

Fatih, in his thankful mood and with a refreshed mind, walked to the inspection room to finally start the official part of his final karting racing weekend.

……………..

“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Friday of the 2017 CIK-FIA International Super Cup for KZ2, or what many people call ’free practice day,’ where everyone gets up to speed with their karts and their understanding of the track in preparation for the qualifying session in the evening. This will determine the starting positions of tomorrow’s heat races, which will then determine the starting positions for the pre-finals, which will in turn determine the final race’s starting positions.

To our new viewers, it might look like the system is unfair to those who perform well in a single session, and you are completely right. This format was made in a way to allow the young kids who are in the starting stages of their motorsport experience to have as many chances as possible to not suffer from a single bad performance, while giving them as much track time as possible in an official competition,” Manuel, the event’s main commentator, opened in his clear, full German.

Although he was a German citizen fluent in German, he had lived most of his early life until university and a few years of work outside of it, so he lacked the rigid German mindset, which made him the best individual to take on the commentary of the Super Cup.

“It is unfair to some, but it is a required evil for it to meet its intended goal. A good driver will not have any problem, no matter how many times he is made to prove himself, and I’m sure everyone who knows anything about karting will know the name of the best example of that…” the second commentator, Toni, said, dragging out his final words to let the main commentator finish.

“Fatih Yıldırım, the embodiment of consistency,” Manuel said, pausing for a moment before he continued, “We have seen this young driver move up the ladder across the karting series, and through it all, he has maintained a scary amount of consistent performance.

And we are now five minutes away from seeing the embodiment of consistency enter the track for the first time. I can’t say that I’m not looking forward to his fabled second-lap maximum push that he has maintained on every track he has raced on, no matter if it was his first time on that track. He always delivered a front-running pace on that second lap, as if he had driven hundreds of laps before. I don’t see any reason for him not to do it after consistently doing so for four years straight.”

The two commentators continued their conversation, which was heard through the speakers across the entire venue. It acted as both entertainment and information, subtly providing the audience with storylines to follow throughout the weekend, to see if they would end well or not. But to anyone present, it was very obvious that the main storyline was always going to revolve around the prodigy, Fatih.

…………..

“Looks like you were not exaggerating or looking at things through a mother’s filter,” Enes said, chuckling as he heard the commentators’ conversation.

He had had a few hours to watch some of Fatih’s videos, but knowing that it is easy to cherry-pick things that made him look better than he actually was, he knew he still needed more time to gather more information. He wasn’t planning on seeing things so that he could do something about it, but he was just curious about the actual, truthful level of his nephew’s son and wanted to see if he could support him.

His wife, however, didn’t look that amused. Rather, she looked like she was trying to find some flaw. At least, that was what someone who could read her mind would discover. For reasons unknown, she seemed not to have a good liking for Fatih or his mother, even though she had yet to find the real reason why she disliked them. But if she took a moment to look into her heart, she would realize it was because she hated the fact that Rümeysa had the freedom to do whatever she wanted for her son without having to take into consideration everything she had to for every major decision she needed to make. Even more so, she hated seeing a parent going to the maximum to support her child’s dream when her own parents had done their very best to make sure that she didn’t follow her dream. So instead of feeling happy for him, she was now feeling spiteful.

After asking for the direction of the toilet, she left and took out her phone, finding a certain number. After a moment of hesitation, she pressed call with a weird smile on her face as she placed the phone to her ear, listening to it ring.