CHAPTER 93: LACK OF CONTEXT

Once out of the pit lane, he silently followed the driver ahead. Instead of accelerating to maximum power like those in front of him, he drove just fast enough not to be left too far behind, but slow enough that a gap automatically opened as they navigated the track toward the start-finish line.

A few restless drivers overtook him on the way, but he paid them no attention. Those watching from the grandstands didn’t consider what he was doing out of the norm, as everyone was focused on what was interesting to them.

However, that lasted only until the final three corners; once enough of a gap had opened, he instantly started pushing to maximum speed. He was nearing the start of what he had decided would be his push lap.

(Track map image here)

Going wide on the final corner to preserve more speed into the start-finish straight, he kept his steering super smooth, avoiding as much wobbling as possible on the current setup. He maintained the same smoothness as he took the first corner flat out before taking a sharper turn for turn two while still at full speed. He did his best to keep the kart stable over the bumps, which he knew the locations of as if they were on his own body.

Going wide for turn three, he rode the exit kerbs out of the corner without having lifted even once since the push lap started. As he entered the short straight toward turn four, he braked early, leading into the turn, using the brakes for the first time. Still, he avoided hitting the kerbs on the apex, electing to do so on the exit kerbs, stabilizing the kart once again as he pushed to the max on the long straight.

He arrived at the marshal post, where he braked nicely and early, hitting an early apex into the corner and making sure to have as little slide as possible out of it as he headed into the next double-apex corner. He missed the first apex of the corner while powering on hard and only hit the second apex while maintaining smoothness on the exit.

He got on the brakes early for the chicane, just missing the first kerb and nibbling the second one just a little as he used all of the exit kerbs on the short straight into the final triple hairpin corners. He got on the brakes early into the first hairpin, opening up the entry into the second and repeating the same into the third hairpin and the final corner, maximizing exit speed as he pushed full power all the way down the straight, finishing his first full push lap as he immediately started pushing for the second.

......

1:04.421

The lap time flashed on Steve’s laptop once Fatih passed the start-finish line and completed his first push lap.

"Wow," everyone in the tent who had watched the lap, focusing on Fatih, couldn’t help but be amazed at the pace he managed to extract from a kart on a neutral setup. They were equally impressed with how he was driving on his second lap, even though they already knew he could do it from the test.

Unlike the test where they had only given him the track map, this time they gave him as many details as possible to reduce the track acclimation time and allow him to spend more time finding the best setup. The track was very grippy, requiring the driver to avoid sliding as much as possible, as doing so would lose them time. The fastest way around it was through very smooth steering to preserve grip and chassis balance, late apexing to maximize exit speed on short straights, and getting on the power early on the exits without sliding to gain additional time, all while keeping an eye on the Kerbs, since hitting some of them would upset the chassis.

The same information was provided to every driver before their first stint, but Fatih was the only one who had hit this lap time on his first try and in a neutral setup nonetheless. This meant there was at least a full one and a half seconds of lap time that could be gained through an optimal setup if they managed to find the sweet spot and the maximum edge that Fatih could drive while still having control.

"What was the fastest lap last season?" Steve asked as he parsed through Fatih’s live telemetry, witnessing the smoothness in all aspects of his driving, from throttle and steering input to even his braking. Despite braking later than those currently on the track, he was managing to apply just enough braking to slow down optimally and gain time without locking up the tires, retaining as much speed as possible through the track as he averaged around 70 km/h.

"1:03.507," John answered as he went through the debrief notes that contained that information.

"So he is about 0.914 seconds from the fastest lap in this category. Looks like the record is going to be officially broken by more than one person," Steve said, realizing that with an optimal setup, that gap was going to be closed fast. He felt impressed, since three of their drivers, Lando, Enaam, and now Fatih, had the pace to break the record if track evolution was also taken into consideration.

Just as they finished speaking and marveling at his first lap, Fatih completed his second one and had reduced the gap to last year’s fastest lap by another 0.15 seconds.

"This is going to attract attention," Steve said as he tapped his teeth together, wondering if it was a good or bad thing.

"For his race, it might be bad since it paints a target on his back. But for his European dream, there is nothing better than this type of attention. Plus, the more aggressive the competitors are against him, the better he can look if he outperforms them despite that," Burak, who was silent during the previous conversation due to being fully focused on Fatih’s second lap, said.

"Can’t deny that," John said, nodding, having already seen how Fatih drove against aggressive drivers during their constant tests and practices, to the point they considered him a scary driver to fight against.

"I agree. After all, scouts choose their targets of interest early, and a good performance later from a driver they weren’t watching from the start might be considered a fluke," Steve said as he turned his head to the track in front of them, but not focusing on the karts, but on the main grandstand across from them where he could see a few people sitting and watching.

From this side, they were too small to distinguish faces, but he was sure there were some scouts and observers there, maybe not the main ones, but their interns or assistants were there watching for the abnormal and formerly unknown in order to have them included on the list of drivers to observe.

"But we also risk revealing our fastest setup before parc fermé rules lock setups if we allow him to continue pushing to the max after the setup change," Steve added after a moment of silence, trying to think of a way to balance the situation where Fatih got the attention he needed while also preserving their setup advantage.

"We don’t have to worry about him not having enough practice time to fully push. Back in Turkey, he had less practice time than this, and he still had pace from the start. We can ask him to keep some lap time in hand, or we can sandbag him for the rest of the session," John said, acting in his authority as Fatih’s coach in order to keep as much advantage as possible. "But we also need to inform him about it and let him decide."

However, they failed to consider one thing. They thought Fatih would attract attention from his driving, but they knew something the observers didn’t: Fatih, unlike any other top driver who went out with a baseline configuration derived from their last experience on the track, was on a completely neutral setup. This resulted in him being slower than many of the best drivers, like Lando and Enaam, who had started with optimized configurations.

As a result of this lack of context, Fatih’s superb drive was chalked up to being a good but average performance during this unofficial session. Maybe a more experienced scout would have noticed the difference, but those in attendance today didn’t, resulting in Fatih’s name not being included in the list of new talents to watch out for by the end of the first session.

However, even if Fatih knew he wasn’t attracting attention, he wouldn’t have felt bad or wanted to push to the maximum to attract their attention. He was someone who, if given the choice between boiling a frog slowly or dipping it in a volcano for an instant result, would choose the latter. That approach has a more memorable impact compared to the other, where extraordinary feats spread out over time might appear to be just slightly above ordinary. Besides, he knew that the main scouts would be on the track once the official sessions started.