Formula 1: The GOAT

Chapter 264: Race Weekend | Sunday | Race III

A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes, and by the time the truth catches up, it’s too late. The lie has become lore.

And Fatih was actively experiencing this in the paddock, because in a period shorter than an hour from the interview, the rumor had spread enough that the number of people looking at him while talking to themselves increased.

The only saving grace was that their team was mostly spared by it due to his rapidly reporting the situation and making sure it was cleared before it could spread and gain its own legs.

“You are going to have to pry that title from my dead body,” Dennis Hauger said, teasing Fatih, who was in the middle of reading a book when he approached.

“I’ve done it twice, what’s fifteen more times?” Fatih said sarcastically without even raising his head.

Dennis clutched his heart as if he was feeling chronic pain from the words before he said, “Ahhh, for those words, I’m going to T-bone you later today,” while dragging a chair and placing it next to Fatih.

“That only works when you are faster than me,” he said while closing and placing the book down.

“You just gave me a reason to go off track, crash into you, and send you to the hospital for a second time.”

“This time I’m in a cockpit with a crush structure, not karting.”

“Looks like the FIA will be getting good data on the limits of their crush structures then,” Dennis said while his head moved to the book that Fatih had placed down. “Is that what you read when you are relaxing? Damn, do you even understand what’s written?” Dennis said when he saw the title, he immediately understood it was not something he would even bother trying to read.

“Racing isn’t going to be my entire life, so I need to know about other things.”

“Looks like you are already looking for an out now that you heard the rumor going around, but isn’t finance a bit much for someone who only karts? Why not think of becoming a mechanic or race engineer? I mean, I would hire you even now.”

“You can’t afford me, and the situation is being handled already,” Fatih said with full confidence in his mother.

“Helmut? Wasn’t he silent when you were punished? You think that is going to change?”

“I would trust you telling me that the world is ending over him telling me the sky is blue at noon, so no. My mother is the one who will be dealing with it,” he said with full confidence, without worrying that those words might reach Helmut, because he couldn’t care less at the moment.

“What about the driver misunderstandings? Aren’t you planning on clearing them up? I mean, I got to watch the video, so it’s not a problem for me, but what about the other drivers?”

“You want me to go and find them to explain it? Is there even time for that before the next race?”

“Ooooh,” Dennis said as if he had just realized something. “You are not in the WhatsApp group chat?”

“There was a WhatsApp group chat? Since when?” Fatih looked at him, wondering why he had not been made aware of it.

“We created it during dinner at the end of the first weekend, which you missed, so they forgot to add you. It is currently exploding,” Dennis said as he handed Fatih his phone, showing the messages updating in real-time.

“…” It took Fatih only a few seconds of reading the constantly updating messages to understand their reactions.

“Not good words, right?” Dennis asked, knowing the types of things that were being said by some of the drivers in the group. “I sent them the video of the interview, but they didn’t seem to have even watched it. Some of them seem to be using it to try and vent their frustration,” he added, explaining the situation.

“If you have sent the video, then there is no need for me to do anything. But thank you for the assistance,” Fatih said as he returned the phone, his expression barely changing, even after reading some of the messages.

“No worries, it is the least I can do. Don’t let their words bother you,” Dennis said as he placed the phone back in his pocket.

“As you said, we do the talking on the track, right?” Fatih said, using Dennis’s interview words.

“Yes,” Dennis said while chuckling.

They continued talking but didn’t linger on the topic anymore as they started talking about something else.

…….

And on the track, he did his talking.

“He said he is targeting the championship title in his interview, which is being misunderstood by many, but he is proving that his ambitions are not just pure arrogance. He is on the way to prove it as he starts the final lap of the final race of the fifth of ten rounds of the championship, leading the second-place car by more than fifteen seconds, gaining a second every lap from the first lap,” Brad commentated as Fatih passed the start-finish line for his fifteenth lap.

“He had the fastest reaction in all of the races this weekend, and that allowed him to build a gap from the start. No one came even close to a second by the end of the first lap as he disappeared out front. It makes you wonder if the impossible and unimaginable possibility of what he said is actually going to happen,” Justin, who was now trying to redirect the discussion regarding Fatih in the correct direction, said, knowing that this race was now being watched by the highest number of viewers who tuned in as a result of the rumor that had spread and was even trending on Twitter.

As someone who had watched the interview live and knew that it was not true, he was doing his best to change that narrative.

“He is using the tires he had used in the first race and qualifying session, but despite that, he is on pace to win with the widest gap of the entire weekend and is en route to make another record. This time it is about taking the maximum possible points that can be earned from the weekend: 87.

AND HE COMES OUT OF THE TIGHTEST CORNER IN BRITAIN INTO THE START-FINISH STRAIGHT, AND FOR THE THIRD TIME, GOING THREE FOR THREE, FATIH YILDIRIM WINS HIS THIRD RACE! POLE POSITION, FASTEST LAP, RACE WIN, FASTEST LAP, RACE WIN, AND FASTEST LAP AND RACE WIN FOR THE ENTIRE WEEKEND, KEEPING HIS WIN PERCENTAGE AT A PERFECT 100 PERCENT! A GRAND SLAM OF A WEEKEND! WHAT A DRIVE, WHAT A DRIVER!”