Formula 1: The GOAT

Dun dun dun.......

The Formula 1 orchestral intro started playing on the televisions of millions of viewers who had tuned in to watch the first free practice.

”OOOH FATIH IS ON THE TV!” Seraphina shouted when Fatih finally appeared among the drivers shown in the intro.

He was sitting on top of a square object, putting on his helmet, but the way he was holding it and the camera angle he was recorded from made it look as if he were putting on a crown. But just before it could settle on his head, the intro changed to the next driver. That didn’t matter to those who knew him, as each of them cheered in their own way to celebrate the achievement.

As for the most emotional ones, it was his family. His mother, sitting awkwardly on the couch due to her pregnancy, wiped her tears as she was feeling very emotional. Her son was finally achieving his dream, something he had worked very hard for since the age of five and for thirteen years straight without any complaint.

”He looks better in person,” Güldane said as she looked at her daughter. She was very confident that he looked better in person, having raised him like her own son, and not a grandson, when her daughter had to return to work in Germany.

When the intro sequence was over and the live feed started broadcasting, the feed immediately focused on Fatih, who was already inside the car with his bright, rose-colored helmet. A few seconds later, he left the garage, entering the fast lane before stopping at the pit exit.

.........

”Hello, ladies and gentlemen. It is finally time for the cars to go and have a look at the shortest track in the Formula 1 calendar and the most glamorous of all Grand Prix, the Monaco Grand Prix...” Natalie Pinkham said, starting her commentary of the first free practice following her prepared script during the track introduction and incidents that happened on different corners.

”And making it clear that he is very limited on time and needs to spend as much time as possible on the track, it is Fatih Yıldırım who is first to get onto the track, and he is already going at a very high speed, quite the opposite of what I had in mind. What do you expect from him, Karun and Paul?” Natalie talked for a bit before moving the conversation to the two more experienced individuals in the booth, Karun Chandhok and Paul di Resta.

”Although he is new to the car, he is not new to the track, so this pace is not that out of the ordinary, but I’m very curious to see how long it will take before he has enough confidence to go for a push lap,” Karun said as the helicopter that had been ported to as the main feed that was following Fatih remained on Fatih’s car.

It showed him swerving left and right as if trying to generate heat in the tires for a push lap, which was not something they were expecting at all.

”He seems to want the tires to be at a good temperature so that he can slowly increase his pace. As for when, I believe he might go for a push lap; the earlier he can do that might be at the end portion of the session...” But before Paul could finish his words, a radio conversation between Fatih and his race engineer was played.

{The track is clear at the start-finish line, and the cars closest to you are fifteen seconds ahead. It is all up to you,} James said, answering Fatih’s question on the conditions on the track.

{Thank you,} Fatih’s response was heard just in time as he was coming out of the final corner and he was already rapidly accelerating, making it clear for everyone that he was already going for a push lap.

”I might be hallucinating, but Fatih looks like he is not intent on building up to it and is already going for a push lap. Karun, take us through,” Natalie said before immediately handing the responsibility of commentating to Karun, just as Fatih crossed the start-finish line and the qualifying lap time timer popped up with Fatih’s name and number below the screen.

.......

As he barreled towards Turn 1, he braked heavily, downshifting to third gear before committing to the turn, taking just enough of the curb, and letting the car go all the way to near the barrier on the left side as he got back on power and started upshifting all the way to seventh gear, going flat out on the uphill section.

As the crest section approached, he remained in the middle of the track before finally moving leftward, touching the curb late before returning to the middle of the track and once again moving to a very late apex, which was very close to the barrier. This allowed him to remain on the left side of the track before he started braking heavily while downshifting to fourth gear before turning right, carrying as much speed as possible through Turn 4.

As he exited the corner, he kept steering and did not let the car remain on the left side of the track to avoid a very specific bump that would rattle the rear end of the car as they started heading downhill. As the straight came to an end, he started braking while downshifting to second gear before turning, hitting the apex on the right side, and getting back on power, straightening it for a short moment as he moved to the rightmost side of the track.

He downshifted to first approaching the tightest turn in the F1 calendar as he turned the steering wheel fully until it had steering lock before accelerating just as he exited and moved to the leftmost part of the track for a short moment before turning right, running over the curbs and letting the car go wide on exit on the short straight before diving rapidly into Turn 8.

Unlike the previous few corners where he accelerated very fast on the exit, this time he let it take a bit longer before finally getting back on power as he started accelerating moments before entering the tunnel, going full flat out as he broke 300 km/h just as he was about to exit.

As he barreled down the short straight out in the open and just as he reached the 100-meter mark, he braked heavily and started downshifting from eighth gear all the way down to second gear, turning early, carrying speed but going deep into Turn 10 before turning.

Now fully focused on the exit speed, he straight-lined the car despite the road out of the corner not being straight so that he could get back to maximum power earlier than if he had tried to correct the turn on the track.

As the car approached the barriers on the right side, it had already exited the traction-limited phase, so he finally straightened it without any worries as he continued upshifting to fifth gear. As Turn 12 arrived, he just downshifted to fourth gear before turning, making sure to make no errors since there was no room for error.

Remaining in fifth gear but still on full power, he went through the swimming pool chicane without lifting the throttle for even a second, upshifting to sixth gear in the middle of the chicane, moving left of the track before hitting the brakes and downshifting to fourth gear.

He immediately started turning left, allowing the car to approach the Tecpro barrier and getting close to the point where the gap between the tire and the wall was just a line of light passing through, while he was still braking into Turn 15 before finally turning left into Turn 16. He took just an appropriate amount of curb and started upshifting to third gear as he started heading into Rascasse corner.

It was a very complicated corner since he needed to brake for the right-hand corner while on a track that was still turning left, which he tried to straighten as much as possible as he braked very deep before finally turning right, deliberately missing the first apex and closing only on the second apex.

He got as close as possible to it, recreating the same gap as he did for the swimming pool chicane, getting a beautiful run out of the corner all the way to the barrier, setting himself up for the last corner as he took the shortest path possible to the start-finish line. While everyone’s eyes were locked on the timing tower to see the lap time, Fatih didn’t seem to stop, as he was already pushing on his second lap.