Formula 1: The GOAT

”...only eleven milliseconds to make up in the final sector, his foot absolutely flat to the floor as he rises towards the finish line, crosses it now, and stays third fastest. So Hamilton survives that from his teammate, who crosses the line in a few moments, as Verstappen goes through only fifth fastest. Hamilton extends his advantage, but only by two one-hundredths of a second.

AND NOW HE TURNS TO SEE KIMI RÄIKKÖNEN AND SEBASTIAN VETTEL. RÄIKKÖNEN STAYS FOURTH FASTEST. VETTEL’S NOT HAD THE BEST MIDDLE SECTOR, CROSSES THE LINE... CAN’T BEAT LEWIS HAMILTON! MERCEDES HAVE THEIR ONE-HUNDREDTH POLE POSITION IN FORMULA ONE, HAMILTON HAS HIS TENTH POLE POSITION IN 2018, AND THE MAN WHO SEALED THE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP LAST TIME OUT RETURNS TO THE RACE TRACK AND CLAIMS POLE POSITION IN QUALIFYING!” Fatih listened to the commentary with one earphone in as he watched the qualifying session on his phone while also listening to the team radio on his headphones.

He was really living the best moment of his life. This had been his dream in his past life: to see how F1 works from the inside. Although the videos he watched were informative, none of them could make him experience what he was feeling at the moment.

It was chaotic and noisy, but the kind of noise he found enjoyable as he listened to the radio back and forth between the race engineer and the drivers, between the strategists and the race control center back at Milton Keynes, and the team principal and other members on the radio. It was like a perfect mix of chaos and coordination, one that was completely missing on the other side of a screen.

”Aaah, I want to feel this longer,” was what was on his mind as he walked to the meeting room once again to observe how the post-qualifying debrief was done, and more.

........

”That was exciting, and I’m looking forward to it tomorrow,” Fatih said as he walked with Alex, heading to the entrance of the paddock where the golf cart would already be waiting for him. They were now heading back to pick everyone else up to go on a helicopter tour around the city. There were many places he wanted to visit, like the grave of Ayrton Senna, Beco do Batman (Batman Alley), and more, but the time constraints limited the number of possible things he could personally visit.

His family and Seraphina’s were already in the middle of a tour since the morning, but for him, being at the track was the best possible tour he could have for the day, and he was already looking forward to tomorrow, wishing it would come faster.

.......

The next day was even more hectic. Although the race wouldn’t start until noon, they needed to be there as early as possible, which he wouldn’t have missed barring a few emergency reasons, including his death. They attended the final strategy meeting before the race.

”Alright, good morning. P5 for Max, P11 for Daniel after the penalty. Not ideal, but this is Interlagos. Opportunities existed before and exist today too. The car was strong in race trim on Friday. Hannah, take us through the plan,” Christian Horner said the moment he finished putting on his headphones, marking the start of the meeting.

Hannah Schmitz took the baton and immediately started talking to the room through the radio since more people from the home base were also in attendance via remote conference. ”The baseline prediction is a one-stop. The Supersoft is quick but fragile, especially the rears on this abrasive surface. We’re projecting an optimal pit window between laps 18 and 24 to switch to the new Soft compound to go to the end.”

Fatih calmly listened to how these meetings happened. He had only speculated in his mind in his previous life, and although he was a driver in this one, this was a completely different level compared to what they did in F4. In here, they were talking as a result of billions of laps being driven in the simulation, giving them answers to as many questions as they might have in the race as possible.

”Max, your race is made in the first three laps. The Mercs and Ferraris will be vulnerable on the harder compound for the opening lap, maybe two. Turn 1 and Turn 4 are your primary opportunities. The goal is to clear at least one, ideally both, of the Ferraris early to get into clear air. If you get stuck behind them, their straight-line speed will be difficult to overcome, and it will destroy your rear tires.”

Max just lifted his head and said, ”If I’m behind Bottas and I feel I’m faster, I want the undercut. Don’t leave me out there.”

Hannah nodded, acknowledging his point as she said, ”We will be monitoring the situation and keeping all options open, and we will choose the best one for that time,” effectively agreeing with his suggestion but not promising to stick to it blindly. She then talked more about Max-centric plans for the next five minutes, while also noting down Max’s response and input before finally moving on to Daniel Ricciardo.

”Your race is entirely different. Starting P11 on the Soft tire gives us huge flexibility. Your strategy is to extend your run as much as possible.

Every lap you extend, the fresher your tires will be at the end compared to the leaders, but it also allows you to take a chance on a possible safety car that might be deployed before we have to pit, as a way of losing as little time in the pits as possible with the tire advantage still in play.” She continued like that for five more minutes before she returned to talk about the overall race situation, as all of the previous plans were under the assumption that the race would be run according to their perfect simulation plans.

”There’s a 20% chance of a light shower around lap 40. The crossover1 to inters is projected at a 1:17.5 lap time. It will be the driver’s call on the feel, but that is our baseline time before we call you to the pits.....”

Fatih calmly absorbed everything as he was seeing firsthand how humans at the pinnacle of motorsport plan and run their operations, while knowing exactly what was going to happen on the track to destroy all of that planning. Currently, in everyone’s mind, a win for Verstappen was still a possibility, and it would have actually happened had it not been for Ocon.

The crossover point is where the grip from a wet tire outweighs the rolling resistance and straight-line speed of a slick.