Formula 1: The GOAT

Other than the push lap he had driven in the opening period of the free practice, Fatih didn’t attempt another full push lap and limited it to just driving fast in different sectors alternatively as he pushed the boundary further and further without the pressure of concentrating for a full push lap, following the team’s plan.

He periodically returned to the pit lane for refueling and once to change the tires from medium to soft, which he didn’t attempt a push lap with despite using them. Per regulations, each driver was given 13 sets of tires, and for the Monaco Grand Prix, they had received 8 sets of C5 soft, 3 sets of C4 medium, and 2 sets of C3 hard compound tires.

After each session, they were required to surrender two sets of tires to Pirelli, regardless of whether they were driven or left brand new in the blankets.

When the practice session came to an end, Fatih returned to the pit lane having dropped to the bottom of the timing sheets, as his push lap time was beaten by everyone once they moved to soft tires and the track was further rubbered in by the cars constantly going around.

....

"We will do the surface changes today, and the big changes will be done on Friday to avoid losing track time due to change-related delays. It should also allow you to build up to the changes," Franz said after hearing the amount of changes Fatih wanted.

They were too extensive to make in the short period between FP1 and FP2, and he also needed to buy time for the required setup to be sent back to the simulator at Milton Keynes so that they could see if they were applicable and how the car would drive and handle before seeing if they should go ahead with it, or if he should override the driver’s decisions because it might be undrivable. Just from hearing the changes, he could guess how twitchy the car might be.

The post-session breakdown continued for a few minutes before the meeting was brought to an end, and Fatih and Gasly walked back to the Red Bull Energy Station to rest for the short period before the second free practice.

...

"What do you think about the setup?" Franz, now left with two setup engineers, asked them.

He had heard about Fatih’s direct technical pinpointing capabilities and had even seen with his own eyes how good his intuition and mechanical abilities were, which had led to him being a quite liked intern in the team, but still, he was curious.

"We have to take a look at the final results, but it would be twitchy and on a knife-edge just based on the direction of the changes he wanted," Paul said, his eyes darting to the notes he had taken when Fatih was talking about the changes he wanted for his car.

"What do you mean by ’knife-edge’? Is it at Verstappen’s level of knife-edge or below that?" Franz asked, knowing the conditions of Max’s setup when he was at Toro Rosso.

"I don’t know what his setup sensitivity at Red Bull is at the moment, but what Fatih is asking for is above the sensitivity he had here," Paul answered, taking only a short moment to try and compare the two drivers’ setup sensitivity.

"That much?"

"Yes, it is at a higher level than that."

"What do you think? Can he handle that much on-the-nose sensitivity in Monaco on what would be his third outing with the car?"

"I can’t say what he can do in the real world, but based on what I have seen he can do in the simulator, we should at least give him the opportunity to prove himself before we override him and do another thing. No one will say anything if he crashes, but if he can handle it, he would gain a large amount of time and might deliver quite well," Samuel, the second setup engineer, said, speaking for the first time since this discussion had started.

He had been one of the few people in the team operation who had been present to see some of Fatih’s simulator sessions, so he knew how far Fatih could be pushed car-wise and fully handle it without much of a problem.

"How much time can he gain if he can handle that compared to the pace possible with Gasly’s setup?" Franz asked after a short moment of silence.

Unlike Gasly, who liked a stable and planted rear, what Fatih wanted was a pointy front that gave up stability on the rear, leaving all of it to the driver’s control and reaction to remain on the knife’s edge and also react the moment the rear tried to overtake him and send him into the wall.

"It should be around 0.35 to 0.65 seconds per lap, but only if he can handle it and not lose time fighting the setup. Though we would need simulation time to be sure exactly, it should fall within that window," Paul answered.

"..."

Upon hearing the answer, Franz paused for a moment in disbelief when he heard the time difference would be compared to Gasly’s setup if Fatih could handle it.

"But if he can’t, he will lose more time, right?" he asked.

"Yes, if he can’t control it or just barely can, it would be catastrophic since this is the setup he will have to drive with during the race tomorrow if it is locked in under parc fermé."

He kept asking himself if it was right to take such an aggressive move in the first round, wondering if Fatih was doing this just to impress the team and, in return, might be overextending himself more than he could handle.

Or if he was feeling the pressure of replacing a driver who, despite being a rookie, was doing very well, making people question if replacing him was the right thing to do, in order to prove them wrong. But amidst all those doubts, a "what if" still remained in the back of his mind: "What if he can handle it?" And it was the only thing allowing him to hold back and not immediately kill the attempt.

....

The second free practice started a few hours later, and unlike the first free practice where Fatih was limited to only a single push lap, this time he was finally let loose with the basic adjustments to his requested setup, and he had no intention of holding back at all.

Without even attending the meeting, he could guess what sort of things were discussed after he left, and he needed to remove the doubt from their minds since his everything hinged on the setup being exactly as the one he had driven in the simulator for hours every day for the past few months.

He now left the pit lane with brand-spanking-new soft compound tires as he joined the track with the car ahead of him being more than ten seconds away, a perfect gap for a full warm-up and a push lap without interference.

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