Formula 1: The GOAT

“Interesting,” Helmut Marko said as he watched the replay.

He was planning to leave to head and join Red Bull at the Hungarian Grand Prix but had decided to at least watch the first free practice and see their performance with his own eyes. He ended up seeing something he was very familiar with, and he couldn’t help but laugh.

“In some aspects, they are very similar,” he said as he didn’t take his eyes off the feed. He saw Fatih simply not planning to move and avoid the impending car at all, just crashing without any worry about potential consequences. And just like Max, Fatih seemed to forget the long-term plan for a momentary feat of anger—at least that is what he thought when he saw Fatih walking towards the front of the car. It made him think Fatih was going to try and fight Josh Skelton, but that line of thought was thrown out the window when Fatih didn’t rush to the other driver but just looked at the damage on the right side of his car with his hands on his hips, as if the consequences were finally setting in.

“In other ways, they are very different,” he said, knowing that if it had been Max, this had a higher chance of turning into a fight than not.

“Well, I’d better not be here when he arrives,” he said, turning and starting to walk away. He knew that if Fatih arrived while he was still there, he would be expected to reprimand him for his behavior, but he didn’t have any plan to do that at all. Rather, he wanted to encourage it, as this mentality fit the Red Bull team philosophy of performance above all else. To him, a calm and well-behaved but underperforming driver was worse than an aggressive but well-performing one. After all, in F1, performance is everything, and everything else is secondary, barring a few things.

……

“We can do a rush job, but we risk missing internal problems from the crash. Do you want to take the gamble to gain some practice time in the second free practice?” Lisa Cartwright, his head mechanic, asked when she saw the condition of the car that was sent back by the truck. She was fully ready to hear his suggestion because, unlike last weekend where he missed the second session but had managed to experience the track in the first free practice, this time there was no clean session he could use to fall back on.

“Let’s do a deep check on the car and avoid any second teardown if we do a rush job. If we are going to do it, we better do it well the first time,” Fatih said, his face making it seem as if he was ready to give up the second session for the sake of a car he could be confident in.

“We will try to do it as fast as possible,” she said, completely misunderstanding and thinking he was saying that for their sake.

“Don’t try to rush and risk a problem. Let’s do it at the appropriate pace to guarantee quality and trust in the car…” As he was about to continue, he stopped as he looked at James, who was walking towards him. “We need to head to the stewards’ room,” James said.

“Don’t worry about this and go. Leave it to us,” Lisa said, putting on a confident face.

“Thank you, and sorry ahead of time,” Fatih said before leaving with James for the stewards’ room.

“I hope this is not his normal modus operandi,” Lisa said as she looked at Fatih, who was walking away calmly, before turning to look at the car, which had the right side looking terrible. Last week, they had to call mechanics from the other two cars, leaving only the bare minimum for the other two drivers. It was something that rarely happened, but it seemed like with Fatih, it was going to be the norm, as this amount of damage also required the other two drivers, for the second week in a row, to be left with the minimum crew.

With a deep breath for the work that was waiting for them, she walked back to the garage to start planning how they were going to begin the whole process and what they would need to check, remove, or replace.

……..

“Hello, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the second day of our British F4 sixth round, and it is time for qualifying, the decider of who will start where in the first and third races of the weekend,” Brad said, starting the commentary a few minutes before the qualifying session began.

“That is what would usually be on everyone’s mind, but for today, Josh Skelton has a mountain to climb as he has a five-position grid penalty that will be added at the end of qualifying for his Race 1 starting position, essentially removing any chance he has of starting in the top five, even if he sets a time fast enough for pole position,” Justin took over as the feed showed the chaos in the pitlane. Drivers were getting into their cars or putting on their helmets before it stopped to once again show the protagonist of the weekend, Fatih.

“This is the second time he has missed the second free practice, but unlike last week where he had the first session’s experience to rely on in his gamble for a historic qualifying, this time there is no clean, competitive lap time recorded from yesterday, meaning he doesn’t even have an idea of how fast he is capable of going on this track. This is like rain in a drought for all drivers not named Fatih, as finally, they have the chance to use this to their advantage and shoot for pole position,” Brad said as the feed showed Fatih pointing at a piece of paper while talking with James about something on it.

“Well, he doesn’t seem that worried about this at all. What do you think about his chances for a pole position?”

“If I were to use his performance last weekend as the benchmark, then we can never count him out of contention. And if his lack of track time is to be used as the reasoning that he can’t be competitive, then he has the entire qualifying session to do something about that. So no, I believe he still has a chance to fight for pole.”

“I wanted to make a bet with you if you said no, but it looks like you are quite aware of it, hahaha. But to be fair, last weekend he was competitive from the first lap, and who is to say he wouldn’t have been the same if he wasn’t impeded in the first session as well?”

“I just hope that no one is dumb enough to pull the same stunt in this qualifying session. The stewards gave that harsh penalty most likely to deter other drivers from ever thinking about repeating the same thing.”

“You might have just given the drivers some ideas. With someone who already has one of his qualifying sessions ruined, who is to say no one else will take that gamble? But we have to wait and see for ourselves. We have a green light, and the qualifying session has officially begun as the drivers are now rushing to the track to set their times as fast as possible. This time, Fatih joins the other drivers as early as possible, unlike the gamble he made last week.”