Formula 1: The GOAT

“[A five-second penalty has been given to Noah Milell for causing an incident between him and Pedro Hiltbrand]. Although he is currently still in second position, there are two drivers who are very close to being within five seconds of Noah, and they have four laps to do that. Hannes Janker is already within that window, and Seraphina is six and seven-tenths seconds behind Noah. It is going to be tight, but if she gains a second against him within the remaining laps, she will be on the route to achieving her first podium.”

………

[P2 5P]

[T +1.5 L4]

Seraphina read the board directed to her at the start-finish line before she responded by giving a thumbs-up. She was now aware that the driver in P2 had received a five-second penalty and she needed to gain at least one and a half seconds within four laps against him. She was already pushing as much as she could safely control, as Fatih had suggested, but those in front of her were in free air and uncontested positions. While she was battling against David, she had lost too much time, a gap she couldn’t cover even now with only four laps to the checkered flag.

“Just a little more,” she said to herself as she committed to pushing more than she had previously been comfortable with. She started by taking Turn 1 with her right foot not even relaxing for a moment into the short straight leading to the wide left-hander, the precursor to the bridge. She braked only lightly to keep as much speed as possible, and although it resulted in her going wide, the time gain was worth the longer route. She swiftly moved leftward on the bridge, braked heavily, and swung the steering wheel right while still braking, trying to replicate what Fatih had done to load the front and have the kart comply with her demands faster. But she failed to keep control as the rears locked for a moment, sending her sliding. Thankfully, she managed to catch it early and ended up benefiting as she entered the longest straight and started sector two.

Despite everything almost going wrong by trying to emulate Fatih’s super-aggressive racing lines, which he managed to make look smooth, she still wasn’t intent on giving up. She didn’t want to remain cautious when she had the opportunity to push for a podium and stand there with Fatih, who had helped her so much today. So she kept the aggression up, making aggressive moves to cut as much time as possible.

………

“What caused her to become that aggressive?” Burak asked as he focused on Seraphina on the track, who was already pushing very hard. To normal people, it might look no different from her normal driving, but to him, who had now gained additional in-depth knowledge regarding motorsports and driving thanks to his education and practical experience as an F2 team racing engineer, it was very obvious that she had become more aggressive than she had been at the start and middle parts of the race.

“What do you mean?” Rümeysa asked, but Brunhilde, Seraphina’s mother, turned to Burak to hear his reasoning.

“If you look at how she exits Turn 1 into Turn 2, she has changed her driving style to forgo stability and retain as much momentum as possible. Although it is crude, it is very similar to Fatih’s driving style, where he aggressively forgoes everything else in the pursuit of retaining as much momentum as possible, unlike others who focus more on retaining stability and gaining pace through keeping the car in a stable window and letting it perform its best within that window,” Burak said as he started explaining in detail what he meant.

The further he explained while also pointing to the track right before she did what he said, the more surprised the two women became. The surprise was not because she was driving faster, but because she was taking the initiative to do something that big while in the middle of a very public competition. Having spent time with her and knowing her problems, they knew that despite her massive improvements, she wasn’t yet at the level of taking risks by changing her driving style to a different one from the one she was used to and confident in, especially in the middle of such an event. With this context, the two women now fully focused on Seraphina, as they believed they were watching her take another huge leap of improvement, and they didn’t want to miss it at all.

…………

“Fatih Yıldırım takes the checkered flag and completes another perfect weekend in his karting career as he led every single session throughout the entire weekend, adding another one to his almost perfect karting record!

A few seconds behind him, it is Noah who takes the checkered flag second, but his final position is not yet set in place as Pedro Hiltbrand finished three seconds behind him and moves to second place, dropping Noah to third for now.

But it is not yet set in stone! Having closed a 1.7-second gap, Seraphina brought down that distance by four-tenths for the previous three laps, but if she reduces it by the same gap, she will finish fourth and Noah will keep his final podium position despite the penalty!

She comes out of the final corner with her foot still on the ground as she crosses the finish line… AND SHE TAKES THE LAST PODIUM POSITION! SERAPHINA IS ON THE PODIUM, AND IT IS BAD NEWS FOR NOAH, WHO NOW FALLS ALL THE WAY DOWN TO FOURTH! 0.02 MILLISECONDS! THAT IS THE AMOUNT SHE BEAT NOAH BY!

A BLINK-AND-YOU-MISS-IT AMOUNT OF TIME, BUT SHE MANAGED TO GIVE IT HER ALL FOR THE LAST FOUR LAPS AND EXTRACT AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE FROM THE KART! AND IT HAS EARNED HER HER FIRST CAREER PODIUM, HAVING STARTED THE FINAL FROM TENTH PLACE! AND SHE CELEBRATES IT WITH SOMEONE WHO HAD BEEN VERY MONUMENTAL IN AIDING HER TO EVEN HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO BE ABLE TO CONTEND!

BUT IN THIS FINAL RACE, SHE DID IT ALL BY HERSELF, AND SHE CAN PROUDLY TAKE THAT PODIUM POSITION AS HERS AND HERS ALONE!” As the commentator shouted excitedly amidst his commentary, Seraphina drove until she was side-to-side with the slowly driving Fatih, who was watching the race come to an end while still on the track as he drove in the direction of the pit lane.

Both of them celebrated heavily as they excitedly cheered, making many wonder if Fatih was cheering his race win or her podium. But it didn’t matter to either of them or their families, who were watching from both the stands and the pit lane, as they were very happy and emotional.