Formula 1: The GOAT

Chapter 261: Race Weekend | Sunday | Declaration

Fatih, from the outside line, experiences the slingshot advantage of going the longer route, giving him a speed advantage. He brakes earlier than Ayrton, who ends up braking later and locks up! His car moves straight and doesn’t turn!

Fatih seems to have expected it, as he takes the inside line into the second of the triple. He has retaken the lead and is alone as he enters and exits Sunny Out, with Ayrton finally rejoining the track four-tenths behind. His gamble has failed massively.

Fatih has shown that he can keep everything on his side under control and has avoided a few race-ending incidents just by reacting and expecting those mistakes from the other drivers. As he goes through the Complex and takes the final hairpin, entering the start-finish straight, he starts the final lap of the second race as the leader, increasing his gap to Ayrton up to half a second.

These two have shared one of the most fun and technical battles I have ever seen in this series and have kept it clean, but one of them had to come out on top, and it was Fatih in this instance. The rookie, in his second race on his first weekend following his ban, is now en route to take his second win, making it two for two.

The tabloids have said many things about him, but none of them talked about his driving, and he has, for the third time today, proven why that is. He is now going through the checkered flag, and for the second time this weekend, it is Fatih Yıldırım taking the win in the second race at Croft Circuit! The ghost of La Conca is now hunting the drivers at Croft, and it is a never-ending nightmare, with one more race waiting for them a few hours from now.

…

{Arghhhhhhhhh! YEAAAAAAAAAAAAH! WE DID IT! WE DID IT! IT’S TWO FOR TWO! LET’S GO FOR A HAT-TRICK!} James shouted through the radio.

{YEEEEEEEEES! YEEEEEEES!} Fatih responded excitedly before he said, {Once again, thanks for the hard work of the mechanics. This was the most interesting battle I have had in F4.}

“This is only the second race he has ever driven, and this is his first time even battling another F4 car in a race, so he is technically correct. But also, there is really no alternative to compare it with,” Brad said while laughing at the radio conversation.

“Hohoho, but does it really matter to him when his race was as eventful as it was? It is another sweep for Team Arden, who, for the second time today, have two drivers on the podium with Fatih in first and Dennis in third, with Jack Doohan finishing fourth. So, for the second time, we will be hearing the Turkish national anthem along with the British national anthem. But before that, let’s go to the interview with the race winner before the podium celebration.”

…..

“Congratulations on your second race win of the weekend and once again taking the maximum possible points from the race: 25 for a race win, one for the fastest lap, and eight for each position you gained, taking home a total of 34 points. How do you feel about it?”

“It was one of the most fun races I have ever had. The cars were big and faster, and unlike in karting, the aerodynamics actually made a very big difference. The incident with Jonathan was scary for a moment, but other than that, it was an enjoyable race.”

“Regarding Jonathan, who received a drive-through penalty, what are your thoughts on the incident itself and the penalty?”

“The incident was surprising, but it is one of the possibilities when a driver is pushed to the limit, so such a reaction was one of the things I knew was possible. The timing of it happening caught me slightly off-guard, resulting in the lockup. As for my personal feelings about the incident, so long as it wasn’t deliberate and was just instinctive, then I have no problem with it.

This is where we come to learn the basics of formula cars. Regarding the penalty, I see it as a fair one because if I had reacted late, the angle at which I would have hit him would have been directly on the sidepod. Depending on how the suspension elements broke and were sent flying, it could have injured him very heavily.

So, such a heavy punishment is enough of a warning to act as a reminder in the back of the drivers’ minds when they are about to make aggressive moves,” Fatih answered calmly. He knew that he had pushed the driver to that edge, something that Apollo had tormented him with for quite some time when he fought against him in the simulation.

Apollo had turned off Invictus to make him experience the situation from the POV of drivers who didn’t have his ability, and it was one of the worst feelings ever. The inevitability of the overtake, paired with the competitive nature of drivers not wanting to give up positions, keeps fighting against each other and compounding more and more the longer time passes, making your senses so twitchy that the moment you feel there is an action you need to take to defend your position, the body can react without conscious thought. That twitchiness causes the body to react faster than a driver can consciously make a decision.

“What are your expectations for the last race of the weekend in a few hours?”

“I always go for the race win, no matter what position I start in, and that will not change for the final race.”

“If you take maximum points once again, it would be the first time in the history of British F4 where a driver took the maximum possible points from a race weekend. Is that something you are now actively hunting, or do you see it as just an aftereffect of your ambition to win?”

“The record itself is not something I’m actively chasing, but if it is a side effect of my winning, I’m not going to say it isn’t an additional objective in my chase.”

“A chase for what exactly?”

Fatih paused for a moment, looking at the reporter as if he was deciding whether to answer truthfully or just give the generic response, before he said, “Of course, the title.”