Formula 1: The GOAT

Time slowly continued moving as the COVID-19 restrictions went into effect, limiting the majority of citizens in the UK to staying inside. But the same was not true for Fatih, as he was fully benefiting from the exemption on the lockdown rule specifically made for elite athletes, which he qualified for due to his international grade A competitive license.

The rule allowed elite athletes some exemptions amidst the lockdown, enabling them to go out for practice in preparation for their sports and to keep themselves sharp. Although it would normally have been difficult for a driver to take advantage of this because even if they could go to the track, the mechanics and others couldn’t go without specific permits, it wasn’t a problem for him because he knew karts like the back of his hand.

However, as someone who had already moved to single-seaters, driving a kart couldn’t be counted as actual practice since the driving styles of a kart and a downforce-dependent car were polar opposites. But for him, who had just been practicing all of his upgraded abilities within the simulation, getting a kart that he knew like the back of his hand was perfect for real-world practice because he didn’t have a kart registered in the simulation, which can only hold a maximum of two cars at any given time.

”Drive the same again but two seconds slower,” Fatih said before tapping Seraphina’s helmet, sending her back onto the track for another lap.

He wasn’t the only one benefiting from this, as Seraphina held an international driver’s license as well, albeit at a lower grade than Fatih’s, but it was enough.

Seraphina, who always trusted Fatih when it came to many things but even more so when it came to driving, didn’t ask for a reason and just went out, trying to bring to life what he had instructed.

”What is the benefit of driving slowly? Isn’t everything about going as fast as possible?” his mother, who had picked them up and brought them to the track, asked as Fatih joined her on the bench in the pit lane.

”Pace management. You can only drive to the limit of the tires for so long before they give up, and you lose time,” he said while still having his eyes locked on Seraphina on the track. He currently had enough mental bandwidth to do both without any difficulties; rather, he found it to be another form of practice since it taught him how to do it in a low-stakes environment.

”But isn’t that why you should push more ahead of time so that when the tires die, you are far enough ahead to pit?”

”There are two ways to have a better pace. One is by driving as fast as possible, and although you would gain time, the stress on the tires would result in the car having a very short window of maximum grip before they taper out and lose time on a large scale.

The second one is by keeping a slower but consistent pace compared to the fastest, which allows you to not overstress or overheat the tires and keep them within the optimum operating window for longer, which gains you more time over the same lap distance compared to the one who overpushed them in the initial few laps,” he answered before marking the lap times on a piece of paper and telling her to go again.

”Can we create a driver’s academy?” he asked after a short moment of silence between them.

”Why, out of the blue?” she asked, surprised by the change of topic. She paused for a moment before giving Fatih a light slap on his shoulder as she asked with an amused smile on her face, ”Is it because Seraphina is in KZ2?” teasing him.

”It is one of the reasons,” Fatih, who had now become very shameless when it came to asking his mother for large amounts of money to spend, answered.

”Eeh, Mister lover boy,” she said as she leaned sideways, wanting to look clearly at Fatih’s face.

”What has that got to do with anything? We have been supporting her with karts for some time, so wouldn’t it make sense to expand it?” he answered, trying to ignore what she said.

”You said it is one of the reasons. What is the other?”

”There are too many talented drivers who don’t have the means to support themselves due to the high costs, and we end up losing possibly generationally talented drivers. Or it requires parents to sell their houses and live frugally while spending everything in pursuit of their son’s racing career, all in the hopes that they reach F1 and start earning to repay everything.

The same thing is done by thousands of parents, but only a few among them will reach the summit. It would have been the same for us if I were racing in Germany under the German ASN, since, unlike in Turkey, where someone of my talent was rare, it isn’t the same to stand out in Europe. There are many who dominate karting only to disappoint in single-seaters, so we wouldn’t have received the same level of support from the ASN.”

”It is going to be very expensive,” she said, now slowly getting tired of having to be the one who always questioned her son’s suggestions due to how much they would cost. But she knew that she needed to keep doing this so that Fatih would always have to think about the reasons he is spending the money, not just because he could do it, but because there was one justifiable enough to make the spending make sense.

”It doesn’t have to be a charity, and there is a pretty good example of a perfected system already.”

”Which is?”

”Football academies,” Fatih said with a smile, as he was very proud of the idea he had managed to come up with as a good example in such a short time, before returning to look at the track and noting down the sector time.

”You want to sell drivers to teams after developing them?” she asked, quite surprised by the suggestion but also impressed.

”Yes, it will be difficult to make it stick, but once a driver is generational enough that teams want to sign him, the system will stick. And just like in football, one good driver should be enough to cover the training cost of quite a few others.

It should at least reduce our losses...” he explained, having realized that it was not going to be accepted from the get-go as teams would be very resistant to giving legitimacy to a system that would require them to spend more money beforehand when they already had a system where the drivers’ families used to spend the money in their stead, leaving them to only be on the hook for the salaries, which for a rookie driver was pennies on the dollar.

But something he added later finally made Rümeysa understand why he wanted to build a driver academy for: ”If we later go on to have an F1 team, then we will have a highly optimized talent pipeline, one we can guarantee the quality of.”

”Do you have a document detailing all of this?”

”No, I just came up with it,” he said as he tried to make himself focus on the track. Although the reasons he gave now all looked like just additional justifications he later came up with in order to get his mother to help him build a driver academy for Seraphina, he knew he might be doing more than he should when it came to her.

But he couldn’t help but want to see her reach the summits, as he felt partially responsible for her falling in love with motorsports since he had introduced her to it, one heavy and expensive dream. He didn’t want her to live with the regret of not being able to satisfy that dream that had helped her come out of her perpetual, extreme shyness.

But that was not the only reason, since this was something he had had in mind for a long time; it was just the first time he had fully articulated it to his mother.