Formula 1: The GOAT

“Now show me how you handle this,” Helmut Marko said as he watched the ongoing race on his tablet. Fatih had just left the pit lane, entering the track plum last and twenty seconds from the closest car in P12, with him being only a few seconds from being lapped.

He had always wanted to see Fatih perform under pressure, and he had done very well so far. But the level of performance he was showing during his return from the twelve-race ban made it look like he wasn’t feeling any semblance of pressure at all. The pressure was distributed long-term, making it easy to handle. That was what he thought to be the reason why Fatih kept performing so well. But the current situation was different. It was a single race incident, and Fatih now found himself at the back of the field.

This was the best opportunity to see his full mentality when he was pushed to the limit. Knowing this type of driver, he expected him to be extremely angry at the situation and even drive erratically, like Max when he received a penalty he deemed unfair. It was the best time for him to see if that was true, or if Fatih would be different.

…….

“I’m looking at the pace data of all the drivers, and Fatih is already up to speed. He gained a tenth through the Maggots triple turns as he entered the Wellington straight. I’m sure he is used to being alone on the track, but this is definitely a different feeling. All the previous times, he was in the lead, but now he is at the back of the grid. As he reaches the end of the Wellington straight and into the complex, Jewiss is already a quarter of the way down the straight,” Justin said as the TV director changed to a camera angle that showed both Fatih and Jewiss on the same straight.

“If I were Jewiss, I would have pushed the car even more to try and lap him and deal a mental blow to Fatih. That might be very helpful for him and increase his chances of keeping the title lead and winning it,” Brad said sarcastically, but he meant every word. Mental games were also part of motorsports, and the higher the level you go, the more effective and used they become.

“But you risk having an angry Fatih chasing you for the remaining two races, and that is not something you want at all,” Justin said just as Fatih finished his first lap out of the pit lane.

“And he has reduced the gap by half a second. Doesn’t it make sense for him to give up and conserve the engine for the next races instead of pushing it too much when there is no chance of him catching up?” Brad asked for the sake of the viewers, as he was sure many of them had that question in their minds.

“It is never over until the checkered flag is waved and you cross it. Who is to say there won’t be a safety car incident that will bunch up the field and give him the chance to return to a points position? Also, for many drivers, it is a matter of doing everything in their power and not giving up. Even if nothing comes out of it, he still gains track time and experience. But I’m worried about something else.”

“What is it?”

“Pushing the car too much. Most of the races, he always kept a window of performance in reserve when he was in the lead, increasing the gap by similar margins repeatedly. But now that he is in last position and attempting to return to the points, it means that he is going to be pushing the car to the limit of what it can do, and that is not going to be good for the car long-term.”

“But for us, it will finally show the pace that we have been theorizing he has been keeping in store for us, so I have no complaints,” Brad said, sounding very excited, as he too was curious to see if Fatih was already driving the car to the limit or if there was more he could have pushed out of it.

…….

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” the performance engineer said as he looked at Fatih’s live telemetry data, which showed everything he was doing to the car and how it was reacting.

“What is it?” James turned to his left and asked him, wondering what the reason for his reaction was.

“He is driving above our simulation pace,” the man said as he pointed to the telemetry screen before he toggled the overlay on to show both Fatih’s pace and the simulated pace on top of each other. In most parts, Fatih was outperforming the simulation.

Although it was something many people would have celebrated, the two of them weren’t doing that at all. The car was being stressed beyond what it could handle long-term. At the same time, they were experiencing disbelief because the control of the car gets worse the more you are out of the predicted performance window, and Fatih was already way past that.

The car should have been understeering, oversteering, and unstable in different parts of the track constantly. It was even worse for Fatih compared to another car in the same condition because he liked his car setup to be so sensitive and pointy that the other drivers in their team didn’t even bother trying to drive in the same setting. With that level of sensitivity, it became a nightmare inside a nightmare when you tried to control a car that was that erratic. But Fatih was doing it easily.

“Shouldn’t we tell him not to do that?” the performance engineer asked.

“No, let him do his thing,” James said as he looked at the onboard camera footage showing Fatih’s live steering inputs. He didn’t look any different than how he normally drove, just a few more additional corrections, that’s all.

“But the car can’t handle that much overdriving.”

“Well, that is a lesson he should learn anyway. Also, do you think he will listen to us?” James asked as if the answer was very obvious.

“Still, tell him. At least it’ll go on the record that we tried to do something.”

“Sure,” James said before looking at the screen, which showed Fatih was mid-corner. He waited until he entered the Wellington straight before turning on the radio and saying, {You are pushing the car beyond the window. Please be more careful.}

{…}

His call was met with silence. He silently turned to the performance engineer and gave him a look that said, “Why even bother?”