Formula 1: The GOAT

Fatih’s answer, which was translated into English by the translators on the international broadcast on his YouTube channel, caused quite a few individuals knowledgeable about cars, and even more about F1 cars, to pause and, for a short period, even wonder if the translator had misunderstood something.

"Check that out," Horner wrote and sent the message to his secretary. Many who heard the answer from the general public didn’t understand the weight of that response, but those working in motorsports definitely did. It meant that Fatih had enough feel for the car to be able to differentiate the tire’s grip, the car’s weight, and a few other things, and on top of that, was able to control the pace at which he consumed some of them to end with a result within a specific window.

Drivers with high sensitivity were not rare; there was even an anecdote of Michael Schumacher being able to tell the difference when a mechanic reduced the tire pressure by only a small amount after just one lap around the track. But what Fatih was insinuating was completely different.

There were drivers known as "tire whisperers" as they managed to extend the tire’s life and retain some form of pace for longer than other drivers could, and even what simulations predicted, but none of them could do what Fatih was insinuating he had done.

So, just like Horner, nearly all F1 teams were already looking into the possibility of it being true because if it was, a new area of advantage would open up, and this time, unlike the advantages being a result of innovations from the brilliant minds of engineers, this was a driver-based form of advantage.

It would be very exciting if it were true, but many who were knowledgeable about this incident didn’t fully believe what Fatih was saying once they considered a few things, with the most important part being the tires.

The tires Pirelli gave teams for Testing of Previous Cars were a harder compound than the hardest range of tire compounds used in an official F1 session, made for the sole purpose of being used for extended durations. With that in mind, although they had ordered their engineers to take a look, deep down, they felt like he was just exaggerating and, at most, his abilities would be within the range of those they had dubbed "tire whisperers."

As for why they still had their engineering teams look into it, it was because there was no harm in being sure, and thanks to the data that was made available, they could get an answer with a very high degree of accuracy.

However, the majority of their curiosity was not on whether what Fatih said was true, but on what they had seen regarding how he had managed to keep the tire temperature within the operating window for the entire race, not pushing it beyond or letting it fall under, on what would be considered a harder compound to warm up and control.

They needed to be sure that this was true and not just Red Bull manipulating the data to make their driver look good. For that, some of the teams were planning to go further and try to run simulations using the data they were provided through the broadcast to see for themselves and look at things from there onwards.

With just one session and one interview, Fatih had dropped two related but heavy possibilities that, if even a single one of them was true, would raise his value to the stratosphere.

.......

"Can what you did on the track be applied to an F1 race, or does it only work on the current tire compound, which is harder and less grippy than the ones used for an F1 race?"

Another reporter took the opportunity to ask the question once the silence stretched to a certain point.

"Unfortunately, I turned eighteen today and, as a result, have yet to drive in an official F1 free practice to get the feel of the race tires, so I’m limited to the TPC compound. I would need to drive those race compounds to see if it is applicable or not to have a definitive answer, and that is dependent on how fast I can get my super license," Fatih said, avoiding answering that aspect despite knowing it was applicable on race compounds, having already done so in the simulation.

Surprisingly, the FIA rules on someone getting a super license didn’t have a specific deadline. If they had everything ready, they wouldn’t necessarily get the super license immediately, meaning the FIA could stretch that period for however long they wanted. Although there was no example of them doing it yet, he still wanted to make it clear that he wanted it as fast as possible. Red Bull would be pulling its muscles to make sure he got it before the Monaco GP started, since if he didn’t, they would be liable for penalties. He wanted it to be known to the public to ensure no one in the FIA tried to play any of those games.

"Considering you are starting in the fifth round of the 2021 season and driving this car for the first time on one of the hardest tracks to drive on in the F1 season, what can we set as expectations?"

"Monaco is a track I have already driven in F3, so it is not a new track, but it is going to be the first time driving it in a faster, wider, longer, and more powerful car. Since it is my first race weekend, even though the car I will be driving has proven to be competitive among the best of the rest and having driven it in the simulation for quite some time, winning points will be a good enough result to be satisfied with.

I will take the learnings from there and try to apply them in Baku, the following race," he said, setting for himself very moderate expectations since there was really no advantage in him saying he was aiming for a race win on his debut. No one would take those words seriously, and it might, in return, remove the legitimacy of everything else he said in the interview, which he didn’t want to happen.

The interview went on for more than 45 minutes before he was finally allowed to leave and start his post-session recovery process.

...

"Wouldn’t it make sense for you to not reveal that to everyone?" Alex asked Fatih as they left the conference room and headed to the recovery center for him to get into an ice bath.

"There is no way of hiding it, as they would have known about it after just a race or two at most, and there is no specific damage I can suffer even if they know about it ahead of time," Fatih said with a smile that clearly had the words "this was only half the story" printed on it, but Alex, missing it, added, "But they could have their drivers try to learn about it ahead of time and even replicate it."

"Do you know how long it took for me to come up with it and try to make that absurd idea a reality?" Fatih asked Alex, stopping for a moment to look at him.

"More than eight years, starting from my karting days. If it took me that long and I have yet to touch the ceiling of what is theoretically possible, how long do you think it will take them to learn?" Fatih asked in an amused tone. He didn’t say that those eight years included daily practice within the simulation and were not just limited to real track time.

Although not obviously pointed out during his training, he had come to realize that Apollo had been trying to ingrain the foundations of this ability into him since he started driving in the simulation by having him do things that he previously only thought of as a way to train consistency, like having to recreate the same racing line, driving within a certain delta, and more.

When he finally revealed what he was teaching him, all of these little things had already reached a certain level, along with his abilities having been upgraded to a point where he could actively combine them. He knew that there was still some pace he was leaving on the table.

As they walked, with Alex deep in thought from the surprise of the information he had learned, Fatih had a smile on his face. He already had working evidence of what happens if someone tries to imitate it without understanding, or even after understanding the basics of it, with Gasly being the perfect evidence.

Deep down, he was even hoping that the other drivers would take it seriously and try to imitate it, as this would create chaos like Gasly’s incident and bring more opportunities his way. But he couldn’t really tell this to people, since they didn’t understand the intricacies needed to do what he was doing.

...

"What do you think? Will it work?" Fatih asked Apollo in his mind as he enjoyed the ice bath.

"Depending on how much of the anomaly they consider to be the tire compound and you doing something about them. But even if they don’t take that seriously, they will be looking into how you kept the tire temperatures within the operating window and did not exceed or let them fall below it, which is the crux of everything else," Apollo said as he, too, was in his own ice-filled bathtub made of clouds as he floated around.

"I would pay a thousand system points to be a fly in the room as they talk about it," Fatih said as he laughed heartily, imagining what their reaction would be when they learned that he had actually, surprisingly, managed to keep the temperature within those windows for the entire duration, since it would require a level of control and sensitivity to know exactly within which window the tire temperature was, which was unimaginable for a driver to be able to do with that level of accuracy.

But above all, he was happy that he had finally finished all the obstacles getting in the way of him finally getting into F1. Only the license remained, and he was already scheduled to head to Monaco on Tuesday, no matter what happened.

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