Formula 1: The GOAT

Clack! Clack! Clack!

With each minute, Fatih continuously placed a new piece from the car that he had disassembled, his pace visibly faster than the last time, as he was actually implementing what he had seen the mechanics do. With each new piece that he removed from the car and placed on the ground, he forgot the feeling he had when Apollo denied his request, and a smile started to appear on his face, widening with each new part being placed on the ground.

Without realizing it, he had started to enjoy this behind-the-scenes process as he realized he was moving to the next step, something he couldn’t have even participated in in his previous life due to his situation.

Apollo, who was watching all of this while invisible, had a smile on his face too. He was seeing with his own eyes Fatih opening a new branch that he had not even considered, as Fatih had been fully focused on driving. Although a talented driver being fully obsessed with driving might be seen as something everyone would welcome, that situation wasn’t the same when it came to Fatih.

Unlike other drivers in motorsports who could only get an average of between 80 and 120 hours of track time depending on their or their team’s financial situation, Fatih only needed thirty days of driving before he would exceed the 120-hour track time that the best drivers could get, and he still had months more ahead of him, which was nothing but an additional advantageous experience. By the end of a year, he would have had more than 1,200 hours of track time, which is more than ten times the average track time of a well-funded F4 driver, before even counting his actual real-world track time.

It might seem like a very good situation to be in, but Apollo knew that if Fatih actually put that much time into only driving, he would reach the ceiling of the current car and have no additional improvements pretty early. Any additional practice would add to his fatigue as it would take away his enjoyment of the drive until he moved to the next series, and the same would repeat again and again. By the time he reached F1, he might have gained a Sensory-Specific Satiety, the same feeling you get after eating something you love repeatedly to the point you don’t enjoy it anymore.

Although the system had the ability to prevent that, it was no different than just forcing someone to do something they once loved but no longer did by removing the feeling of them getting fed up. The way the system was created made it impossible to force him into that option, as it was made to fulfill his biggest wish and dream, but if that wish no longer became his priority, there was no way to force him to continue, as the system had no mechanism for that at all and was fully dependent on Fatih’s willingness to pursue his ambitions.

So, what was the solution that he came up with instead of just either stopping him from driving the cars once he reached a certain point or using system intervention measures? The answer was just to widen the scope of his obsession so that even the time he had on hand wasn’t enough to cause Sensory-Specific Satiety. And from that came the car disassembly and assembly tasks, which he knew Fatih would love but hadn’t considered in either of his lives because he didn’t have enough time to first get tired of just the visible parts of F1 before he could delve into what was under the cars of the sport he loved.

And as he looked at Fatih, whose smile got wider and wider with each new part that he removed and placed neatly on the ground, he knew his plan was working perfectly. He could see in real-time how what might be considered a surface or immature obsession was being expanded into an in-depth one, encompassing everything about the car: the driving and the creation of it, both the mechanical, electronic, aerodynamic, and all other core engineering disciplines involved in the making of the car.

Time passed rapidly, and before long, Apollo had to reveal himself and say, “I have to stop you now as someone is knocking on your door.”

“How long has it been?” Fatih said as he tried to rub the sweat that had gathered on his forehead, but it instantly disappeared along with the rest of the sweat and other dirty patches on his body and clothes as Apollo removed them.

“Two hours and fifteen minutes,” Apollo said, and without waiting for any follow-up response, he immediately logged him out of the simulation.

……….

Just as humans build tolerance to repeated exposure to the same things, Fatih realized that he was also building tolerance to logging out of the simulation and immediately waking up. Although it was only his second time, he could distinguish the difference in the amount of time it took him to adjust, as he remembered everything about the feeling he had when he logged out from the simulation yesterday.

“I’m coming,” Fatih said as he stood from where he slept before moving to open the door, finding James just about to restart his knocking.

“I almost thought you weren’t in the room,” James said as he lowered his hand that was just about to knock on Fatih’s face instead of the door.

“Seems like the sleep was too good,” Fatih said as he stretched before he asked, “But where is Alex?”

“Alex left to deal with something and will be back in a few hours. Get ready, your car is ready, and you will be entering the track in ten minutes, so make sure you are not sleepy by then,” James said, emphasizing the “getting ready” part.

“DON’T WORRY,” Fatih said, his voice rising not from shouting but from him trying to pump himself up as he started jumping to rapidly warm up his body and remove all of the sleepiness. He continued his jumping, picking up his balaclava and other equipment before he headed downstairs while still moving forward as if he were rope skipping.

……..

“Okay, Dennis, you are running low on fuel. Pit by the end of the lap for refueling and rest,” James said just as Dennis was on the exit of Stowe corner. He immediately responded by changing his racing line and entering the pit lane, which was just a few meters from where he was, slowing down as he activated the pit limiter way ahead of time.

As Dennis pulled into the pit lane, he saw Fatih’s car already outside at the end of the fast lane, fully ready, just waiting for the red lights to turn green.

“Oh, looks like the genius is finally back,” Dennis said to himself in a sarcastic tone as he came to a stop in front of his garage. As he received help releasing his seatbelt connections and got off, his eyes still remained on Fatih’s car. Jack Doohan’s car had just passed the start-finish straight about a second ago, and now Fatih needed to wait until Jack was at least at Copse corner before he was released, but his impatience was clear based on how he was revving the engine up and down.

It wasn’t until a minute later that the end of the pit lane turned green. Fatih, as if ready for a race, immediately released the clutch and left the pit lane, rejoining the track with zero intention of taking it easy at all, as he was already shifting gears on the rejoining track, which was allowed as the pit limiter line was passed the moment he left the lights.

“Haaaaa, you really don’t pace yourself, genius,” Dennis said with a sigh before he took off his helmet and accepted the drink handed to him. He walked to the pit wall, taking his chair as he focused on the screens in front of him showing both Fatih’s camera angles and the live telemetry.

……

“Jack, an update. You now have Fatih for company on track,” James said, informing Jack of his new companion.

“Okay, I will be careful if I meet him,” Jack answered, pausing for a moment before he added, “Tell him to do the same.”

“Will do,” James said before pressing Fatih’s radio and saying, “Okay, let’s be patient this time and take it one lap at a time,” trying to get Fatih to reduce his aggressive start in a car he had no experience in.

“I have been doing that from the start,” Fatih said as he approached Stowe corner, the same one he had crashed into yesterday. James didn’t add anything, as he knew that the only place to talk to drivers is when they are on straights, because when they are in corners, they need full focus. Sometimes they can’t even breathe from the Gs, which removes the possibility of being heard and understood.

But unlike how he expected a driver who had a heavy crash in that corner to react, Fatih didn’t show any sign of fear or lifting off more than was needed. He retook the corner the same way he did the first time, but this time the car survived as he entered the following straight, passing the pit lane entry and heading towards the Vale chicane, braking heavily before taking the left-right chicane, experiencing the slight dip on the otherwise flat track. He then took Club corner, the final corner on the track, before entering the start-finish straight, officially starting his first lap as the timing screen updated.

When James looked at the timing screen that showed the lap times of the two cars on the track and the gap between them, he found himself stopping for a moment. He just clocked that the gap had gone down by more than five seconds, despite how Fatih’s start from the pit lane was slower.

“Oh God!!!!!”