Formula 1: The GOAT

“They go together into the triple right-handers! Taking the inside line he was forced into, which has now turned into an advantage, Pasma tries to leverage it by squeezing Fatih to the left side to secure his corner entry. Fatih yields and lets him pass, but it seems Pasma has overshot his calculation! Fatih makes a switchback move, takes the inside line this time, moves ahead of him into the first of the triple, and cements his position, rejoining the racing line. What a great battle between the two!”

“It is more of a beatdown from Fatih because Pasma didn’t have any sort of control at any part of the short fight. Every move he made was read beforehand and used against him, which is a very weird thing to see a rookie in his second race doing to what you would call a veteran when their time in these cars is compared, hahaha,” Justin said as the battle was replayed from Fatih’s T-cam, showing what his helmet and steering were doing during the entire interaction. It looked very decisive on his part, as his helmet was looking at the rear-view mirror for nearly the entire time.

“So this is the Fatih they were talking about when you have to fight him. He is already in a podium position at the end of the first lap, but this short battle required him to slow down enough that he is about a second behind the leading two drivers. We have more than ten laps, so if he can sustain the pace he had shown in the practice session, he should catch up to them in a few laps, if not earlier, because those front two will keep fighting, and this will benefit him,” Brad said as he connected the driving style to what he had mentioned earlier in the weekend.

……..

{Gap to the leading group?} he asked on the radio when he entered the start-finish straight, starting the second lap.

{Eight-tenths to Ayrton Simmons, one second to Johnathan Hoggard, the race leader,} James responded, giving him only the information he asked for, nothing more, nothing less.

Now with a gap between him and the front group, Fatih started driving as if it was a qualifying session, but at a more tamed pace as these tires needed to survive this and the next race. With each sector he completed, he was reducing the gap to the group ahead by a tenth, and by the time he completed the second lap, he had already reduced the gap to six-tenths.

…..

{Fatih is lapping three-tenths faster than you and will catch you in three laps at this pace,} Hoggard’s race engineer updated him, reminding him to increase his pace.

{Where is he making time?}

{Everywhere,} came the response after a short silence.

{What do you mean he is making time everywhere, and you expect me to increase my pace?} Hoggard, quite shaken by the response, asked with frustration audible in the low-quality radio.

{Do your best,} the race engineer said, trying to sound as calm as possible to not increase the pressure on Hoggard.

Hoggard didn’t respond again.

“Everywhere. That is something you don’t want to hear from your pit wall. If you were in his position, what would you do?” Brad asked Justin while chuckling at the radio conversation.

“I don’t know. Pray that he gets a puncture? Pray that Ayrton Simmons makes his car as wide as the entire track? Or any of the many misfortunes possible? Because there is nothing they could realistically do that would prevent the inevitable from what he has already shown us. He is very decisive when he needs to be and flexible when he has room to breathe, so there is no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to trying to stop him. Their pace is already very good when compared to the rest of the group, but the rest of the group isn’t the problem they are facing, so it is not comforting at all. I wouldn’t like to be in their place.”

“And he has already reduced the gap by two-tenths while we were talking… OHHHHH! HOGGARD GOES WIDE ON THE TRIPLE RIGHT-HANDER AS HE TRIED TO TAKE IN MORE SPEED, AND HE HAS NOW LOST THE LEAD TO AYRTON BY THE TIME HE REJOINS THE TRACK! AND HE NOW HAS FATIH WITHIN STRIKING RANGE! A MISTAKE FROM TRYING TO IMPROVE HIS PACE HAS RESULTED IN FACING THE NIGHTMARE HE HAD WANTED TO AVOID!”

“DREAD IT, RUN FROM IT, DESTINY ARRIVES ALL THE SAME. AND NOW IT’S HERE, OR SHOULD I SAY HE IS. AS HOGGARD NOW HAS TO FACE HIM EARLIER THAN INITIALLY EXPECTED. AS THEY SAY, YOU MEET YOUR DESTINY ON THE ROAD YOU TAKE TO AVOID IT!” Amidst his excitement over the unfolding events, he ended up using a quote from a recently released movie as he felt it perfectly fit the situation.

“I understood that reference,” Brad responded before he took over the commentary. “Fatih bides his time behind him, which must feel pretty anxiety-inducing from Hoggard’s point of view. You don’t know when and where he is going to attack, and the longer you wait for the attack to actually happen, the more nervous you are going to be and the more trigger-happy you are likely to become.

And Fatih, who seems to be aware of this, is deliberately holding station while making some random peeks to increase the amount of space he takes up in Hoggard’s mind. He is really like a hunter playing with the mentality of the hunted to induce a collapse.”

……..

“Huuu… Huuu… Huuuu…” Hoggard breathed heavily as his head darted to the left and right, looking at the rear-view mirrors, trying to see which side Fatih would choose to attack from so that he could defend.

This continued for almost the entire final sector, where anxiety had taken up more space in his mind than it normally would have if the attack had come right from the start. The anticipation was compounding with each corner and straight that Fatih didn’t attack.

On the short straight before the final hairpin corner, Fatih finally made a move on the right side. The moment the car appeared to have committed to the move, Hoggard committed to covering the right, which turned out to be a dummy move, as Fatih took the inside line. Just as he was about to dive into the corner that had arrived, without thinking much, Hoggard swung the steering leftwards instinctively to cover the now-open inside line….