Formula 1: The GOAT

“I really didn’t expect you to go the entire four weeks radio silent and not visit us even once,” Alex said as he hugged Fatih at the entrance of Milton Keynes, where he had come to welcome him upon his arrival.

“What are you talking about? We communicated throughout the entire time,” Fatih said as they separated, looking at the base that he hadn’t seen for the past four weeks. Although he could have visited and continued practicing in the simulation during his four-week ban without any problems or risk of breaching regulations, he wasn’t interested in doing that. He wasn’t too satisfied with their reaction to the situation, but also, he could already practice with his own means, so it was better for him to spend time with his family.

“Anyways, welcome back,” Alex said as he took Fatih’s backpack from him and started walking towards the building where they would be doing briefings on all the important developments regarding the competition and everything else he was expected to face during his return, so that he could be prepared and not be caught off guard.

“How thick is the stack?” Fatih asked immediately as they started walking.

“Just a few hundred pages, not much, so don’t sweat it,” Alex said with clear sarcasm, knowing that it was going to take them a few hours straight to go through all of it.

“Aaaaaah, I really hope the speaker can speak fast,” Fatih said as he already started feeling the upcoming fatigue. He loved motorsports, but anything other than building and driving the car was not his favorite. He knew these other things were what allowed motorsports to be possible and sustainable, so he tolerated them and sometimes even tried to enjoy them, like he did with interviews. But there were some parts that would never be enjoyable for him, and the meeting he was about to attend was one of them.

“What if Helmut is the one to lead it?” Alex joked, knowing that Helmut was one of the slowest talkers, which could turn a six-hour briefing meeting into a two-day affair.

“I will protest. You can’t just torture me more than I have already been tortured,” Fatih said, holding his hands together as if pleading.

…………..

“The current top three after the twelve races we have completed are Ayrton Simmons, who leads the championship by a single point with 181 points total; Kiern Jewiss with 180; and third, Johnathan Hoggard with 132 points, almost fifty points behind. So many people see it as mostly a fight between the current two leaders if they maintain their consistency and continue to open the gap.

As for your teammates, Dennis is fourth with 115 points, and Jack Doohan is fifth with 106 points. Sebastian Priaulx, the driver who took your seat, is eighth with 84 points. And for you, you are currently last, tied with Christian Lester at zero points, though due to him having started races, you are currently at the bottom. All of your teammates already have a race win each, with Jack and Hauger having four podiums each…”

Fatih silently listened to the briefing, which felt as if it was specifically highlighting his teammates’ superb performance. He understood that it was important information so that he would know how his teammates performed and what the average performance expected of him would be, so he didn’t think much about it. As a perk of having Invictus, but also because such briefings were a first for him, he was completely unaware that they were not usually conducted like this. This was being presented in a manner to highlight both his teammates’ and the replacement driver’s performance so that he would feel the pressure of expectations to either match or exceed them, as he was the best of the three when it came to karting, meaning the same level was expected of him now that he had moved to single-seaters.

His reaction of looking completely normal despite things being said that should have made him nervous and feel pressure caught the man presenting by surprise, to the point that he almost asked him if he was understanding what he was saying but ended up holding himself back and resuming.

“Your license has already been delivered for inspection and approval to Motorsport UK, and everything has been approved, along with them clearing you to resume competition starting this weekend, where you will replace Sebastian at the Croft circuit and inherit his chassis. As you are inheriting a chassis, this means the power unit is going to remain the same. You might be worried about inheriting a weaker engine, but based on our analysis, an engine which has driven about 15%, or 1,500 km, is in its sweet spot, as any initial “tightness” from a brand-new build has worn off, and internal friction is at its lowest. We also expect high interest in you from the media due to the circumstances you will be returning from, so you will have to keep that in mind and prepare for it beforehand to not be caught by surprise.

Do you have any questions?”

“No, I have none,” Fatih said, shaking his head before turning to Alex to see if he had any questions, which he too shook his head at.

“Then please take the documents and take a look through them again before the weekend comes,” the man said before collecting his things and bidding them farewell to return to his tasks, since briefing people wasn’t really his main job.

“Are you sure you don’t have any questions? It felt like they were putting massive weights of expectation on you, didn’t you feel that?” Alex asked when they were left alone.

“I don’t have any questions since they already gave me the answers to all the ones I had during the briefing. As for expectations, isn’t it normal for them to have them if they are spending big money on me?” Fatih said as if he didn’t understand what Alex really meant.

He was feigning ignorance, not because he was worried that he might bomb and acknowledging the expectations would put him in a worse situation, so he decided not to accept them. It was because he was confident he would perform well, so no matter how many expectations they put on him, it had no bearing on his performance at all. After all, two hours spent in the simulation every day for an entire month was not going to yield anything but good results, unless by force majeure.