Formula 1: The GOAT
Chapter 52: Race Weekend | Sunday | Teetering on the Edge

Chapter 52: Race Weekend | Sunday | Teetering on the Edge

"A minute and a half minimum, two minutes maximum," Fatih calculated, his mind racing as fast as his kart. That was the window of time it would take for the other teams to complete a pit stop and change to wet tires. It was also the window of time he had to create as much of a gap as possible before they returned to the track with more advantageous tires and began to hunt him down. Once they were on wets, they would be seconds faster than him in each lap, a deficit he could not overcome with skill alone.

He would have preferred to pit, but he knew the moment he did, his chances for a race win would evaporate. Although he had mounted a similar recovery in the first round, the circumstances were vastly different. The Istanbul Park circuit was compact, with a long track forced into a small area, which meant the drivers had to brake drastically in the majority of the corners. This track, however, was different. It was spread out over a large area, with flowing, high-speed corners that didn’t require constant heavy braking. This allowed for a much larger build-up of speed over a longer distance, diminishing his primary advantage of carrying a higher cornering speed.

He knew this lap, the one he was on right now, was going to be his make-or-break lap. As he came out of the final corner, a right-hand hairpin that he navigated at a slower-than-usual speed to complete the lap just as all the other drivers entered the pitlane, he pushed all of his senses and mental bandwidth to the absolute maximum. He focused completely on his [Invictus] ability, which made his senses abnormally sensitive, allowing him to feel the track’s grip with an almost supernatural clarity. Adding his [Aquaman] ability to the mix, he slowly started to feel as if a new racing line, a path of maximum grip, was being drawn on the track in front of him. He knew the line was an imaginary one, a mental construct his mind was creating to make the flood of sensory data easier to digest, an inspiration from the racing games of his past life. But he didn’t care. He got on the power as aggressively as he could, teetering on the very limit of grip to avoid wheelspin, and started to push.

In his mind, this was no different than a qualifying lap. A qualifying lap where he had to get pole position, no matter what.

......

"And Fatih, the lone man on the track, starts his first lap on a fully wet circuit!" Süleyman’s voice was filled with a mix of awe and anticipation. "This lap will determine whether his decision to stay out was a strategic masterstroke or a catastrophic blunder! And look at his driving line! He’s completely changed it from his usual lines, even from his qualifying line! It’s as if he’s driving on the opposite areas of the track he had been using in all the previous sessions, if I remember correctly."

"Although taking the opposite of the optimal line in normal conditions might lose you time, doing that in a wet condition gains you time," Zakir said, his voice a calm, analytical counterpoint to Süleyman’s excitement.

"How so? Care to elaborate for our viewers?"

"If you look at a track in dry conditions, you will usually see a darker color on the optimal racing line," Zakir began, using as little racing lingo as possible to make the concept accessible to everyone. "Many people would attribute it to being dust-free due to karts constantly passing over it, but it’s mostly because that area is filled with rubber from the tires, seeping into the asphalt. This allows for further grip on the track, a phenomenon we in our field call ’track evolution.’ But in the rain, the same rubber on the track that gave you additional grip and speed is the same one that will cause you to slip. With water getting in the mix, that grippy area turns into an ice rink, as slippery as polished obsidian glass. So, driving in the areas where the karts *didn’t* deposit a large amount of tire rubber during all of the previous sessions means there is less of it, and the abrasive, natural surface of the track is still there, allowing for much more grip. This makes it the more optimal area for driving during a wet condition."

"Then please, take us through his lap," Süleyman said, handing over the commentary to Zakir.

"Thank you, Süleyman. As Fatih reaches the end of the straight, he needs to lift and brake *before* the track intersects with the usual, rubbered-in racing line. Braking on that line now means you will go sliding. He has to give it a sharp jab of the brake, a brief but surgical application, or he risks being sent into a spin..."

.......

While Zakir was narrating his lap, Fatih had already tuned out everything else, his entire being focused on his driving. He reached the end of the long straight, going through the start-finish line. Seeing the corner that he could normally take flat-out in the dry, he lifted for a moment, then immediately replaced it with an instantaneous, heavy, but perfectly modulated jab of the brake, just enough to force the rear tires to lock and bite, reducing his speed. As he turned in, he leaned his body forward to load the front tires, helping with the turn-in. He used a snap of the steering wheel, a quick, full-lock input to provoke a hint of understeer, which in turn jacked up the front end, lifting the inside rear wheel for better rotation. As he exited the corner, he shifted his weight rearward to improve his traction, getting back on the power while modulating and feathering the throttle, dancing on the razor’s edge where even a few percentage points more throttle would send him into a wheelspin, locking his rear axle and destroying his lap.

Coming out of Turn 1, he immediately moved to the non-racing line side of the track as Turn 2 came at him. He repeated everything he did on the first corner, but this time, he used the kerbs, hooking his inside wheels over them, anchoring the kart and helping it pivot through the corner. He then just connected it with Turn 3, which was now no different than a straight as he pushed through it at the maximum possible throttle.

........

"As he comes out of the final corner and gets on the power, barreling through the start-finish line, he puts in a lap time that is only twelve seconds off his dry pace!" Süleyman shouted, his voice cracking with disbelief. "While also creating a one-minute, twenty-eight-second gap, lapping the entire field as they are still in the pits, in the final stages of their tire changes! They are now starting to rejoin the track, a full lap and twenty seconds down! But with better tires, can they cut down that time and catch up to him? The wet tires will cut down the time significantly!" The race was getting more and more interesting with every passing lap.

"I’m curious to see the lap times of the drivers on the wet tires and compare them to the lap time Fatih just drove on his slicks," Zakir said, his own voice now matching the excitement in Süleyman’s.