Chapter 456 - 2021 French Grand Prix | Race I

As Fatih came to a stop in the pit lane for the first time in his career, he took a few seconds before finally unbuckling his seatbelt and getting out of the car. The AlphaTauri mechanics arrived where he was and started using the dry-ice-filled fans to make sure the car didn’t overheat.

"Good work out there," Lisa, his chief mechanic, said as she supervised the process.

"A first time for everything," Fatih said as he stood next to her, facing the yellow car for a moment.

"You are still the best of the rest, so there is comfort in that," she said as she patted Fatih’s back while looking into his eyes through the slightly opened visor.

Fatih went silent for a moment before turning to the Red Bull car of Sergio Perez that was ahead of him, having qualified fourth. He looked at it for a few seconds before he said, "There is no comfort in knowing that I’m limited in what I can do by the machinery," while taking off his gloves and heading to the weighing station, not looking the least bit happy with a position that would be considered the best of the rest.

Lisa just watched Fatih’s back before looking at the Red Bull that Fatih had been observing, seeing Perez getting out of it as the Red Bull mechanics worked on the car. She looked back at Fatih as what he said kept repeating in her mind again and again. "Limited by the machinery," she repeated in a low voice before shaking her head and chuckling as she saw how greedy drivers were for a better car.

Fatih had been beaten, lap time-wise, by the Red Bull of Sergio Perez by only two-tenths, putting him pace-wise at about half a second to the polesitter, Max Verstappen. Although, when looked at superficially, he might be seen as a slow driver to be beaten by that much, Carlos Sainz, who qualified behind him, was beaten by eight-tenths of a second, and his teammate Gasly in P7 was beaten by eight-and-a-half tenths.

This meant Fatih had outperformed both a Ferrari and his teammate by more than three-tenths, and despite that, he didn’t seem happy about it at all.

It was unheard of for a rookie to outperform his teammate by such a large gap in their third-ever F1 race. But with Fatih securing a pole and a grand slam on his debut, before qualifying in P3 and taking a back-to-back win in the next race, his P5 qualifying was seen by many as an average result when it was the best he could do on these proper circuits due to the pace deficit they had against the Red Bulls and Mercedes.

Fatih, who in her eyes was fully aware of this, seemed to be pushed to try different things to bridge that gap, and it seemed his push yesterday for a two-stopper was most likely because of that.

She immediately connected the dots and couldn’t help but feel the already high regard she had for him increase a bit more as she was seeing firsthand how Fatih, who for the first time was in what could be called inferior machinery after fighting in equal, if not better, machinery throughout his whole junior career, was finding ways to fight against superior cars.

...

"This is not good," Perez said in a low voice, one that only he could hear, as he looked at Fatih, who was now having his weight measured by Jo Bauer, the FIA Technical Delegate responsible for that.

He was not feeling good about how fast Fatih was, pace-wise, in the same car that Gasly was half a second behind him pace-wise. This not only spelled bad news for Gasly, but it was doing the same for him, since it made it clear that Fatih was extracting more from the car in three races than Gasly was doing in seven, while he was four-tenths behind what Verstappen was doing, creating a very clear comparison of who was who pace-wise within the limits of what the cars could do.

In his mind, if he was beaten tomorrow, then the chances of them pulling a Kvyat were going to increase, as they might see the chance to fight for both championships.

With that line of thought, he immediately came to the conclusion that he should not be beaten by Fatih tomorrow, no matter what.

....

[1: 33 Max VERSTAPPEN, 2: 44 Lewis HAMILTON, 3: 77 Valtteri BOTTAS, 4: 11 Sergio PEREZ, 5: 95 Fatih YILDIRIM, 6. 55 Carlos SAINZ, 7: 10 Pierre GASLY, 8: 16 Charles LECLERC, 9: 4 Lando NORRIS, 10: 14 Fernando ALONSO, 11: 3 Daniel RICCIARDO, 12: 31 Esteban OCON, 13: 5 Sebastian VETTEL, 14: 99 Antonio GIOVINAZZI, 15: 63 George RUSSELL, 16: 47 Mick SCHUMACHER, 17: 6 Nicholas LATIFI, 18: 7 Kimi RAIKKONEN, 19: 9 Nikita MAZEPIN, 20: 18 Lance STROLL. ]

While Perez was worried about demotion, Gasly, who was looking at the massive timing tower on the other hand, was having a similar but slightly different headache.

With Fatih’s level of performance, it was not presenting him in a good light at all, as it was now three for three that Fatih had beaten him in both qualifying and twice on the track, the complete opposite of when he was driving against Tsunoda, where he dominated him.

He knew if he couldn’t do something about this and show that he was better, the chances of him keeping his seat for next year were going to be slim, as Red Bull was filled with talented drivers waiting for a seat opening, and Red Bull wouldn’t hesitate to remove him by the end of the season if he didn’t do well.

His mind immediately went to Fatih’s two-stop strategy he had brought up and advocated for yesterday, and only then could he see some hope of finally being able to beat him. He knew he needed to capitalize on that.

After all, if he beat him thanks to Fatih’s gamble not working out, then the stats wouldn’t care how he beat him, but just that he did, and he could use that as a starting point for regaining his dominance in the team as the lead driver.

With that, he made up his mind as he walked to the weighbridge to have his weight measured while thinking of all the ways he could use the knowledge to his advantage.

....

David Croft: "Hello! Hello, everybody, welcome along to Paul Ricard, and it is the French Grand Prix. We’re back racing in France after a year’s absence in 2020, and we’ve reached round seven of the 2021 season.

It’s the first of a triple-header in the next couple of weeks that could have a big implication in the championship fights. We’re here at Le Castellet, in France, the birthplace of motor racing.

The earliest events were city-to-city, and the 80-mile Paris-Rouen event was the first of those. Rouen is one of many venues that have hosted the French Grand Prix in the past.

The Circuit Paul Ricard is the seventh different track to host a French Grand Prix, and it’s hosted 16 in total, the second most.

Here’s the track distance now: 3.6 miles, and this is one of 247 possible configurations at the Circuit Paul Ricard. It’s got two DRS zones along the main straights and th...."

.......

While David Croft was going through his opening commentary, Fatih was already in the car, which was still surrounded by mechanics. Although his face was covered by his helmet, he was smiling as things were still going as he expected.

It had rained heavily in the morning, forcing the F3 feature race to be run fully on wets, and as he had predicted, the track was cleared of all the rubber that had been laid down through the weekend, opening it up to wear the tires more than any of the simulations would have predicted, which was his advantage.

From the get-go, he was going to go for the two-stopper instead of what everyone else thought would be a one-stopper, and drive accordingly.

About a minute later, the mechanics who were covering the tires with blankets finally removed them as they all moved to the side, leaving only the cars. All the drivers now focused on the single light that was still on, and a few seconds later it went off as Max left his position, officially starting his formation lap.

...

Horner, keeping up with tradition, was standing in the middle of the garage with his hands behind his back as he looked at the TV, waiting for the race to start. The feed showed Max finally coming to a stop in his position, and one after another, drivers arrived at their grid positions by doing a few burnouts before stopping, waiting for everyone behind them to do so before the race could start.

Beeeeep.... Beeeeeeeep..... Beeeeeeeep... Beeeeeep.... BEEEEEEEP!

David Croft: "Ten out of sixteen previous races have been won from pole. Who’s gonna win today? It’s lights out, and away we go! An even start from the front two. Bottas gets away better than Perez, but Fatih got away better than the two of them as he is quickly catching them.

Verstappen is leading the men down towards turn one from Hamilton, then Bottas, who had to back up just a bit as Y?ld?r?m dives on the inside line, braking late as he passes the cautious Sergio Perez. And Verstappen goes off the track! And that gives the lead to Lewis Hamilton.

Hamilton, Verstappen, Bottas, Y?ld?r?m, then Perez makes the top five, but Max Verstappen has a poor turn into Turn 2, giving Hamilton the opening to take advantage of Verstappen going off the track....."

Horner, who had to pause amidst his clapping motion, furrowed his eyebrows while stopping, as he watched the situation developing in a worse direction for Red Bull. Max had to go off into turn two, while Perez was then overtaken by Fatih’s late braking into turn one on the inside line, putting them at a disadvantage against the two Mercedes.

They had planned to use their two cars as a counter-strategy against them, but with Sergio Perez now behind Fatih, there was a chance that Mercedes might use this against them if Perez failed to get past Fatih within a few laps.

Adjusting his headphones while actively listening to the live radio of the two drivers, he finally left the garage, walking to the pit wall, intending to have them make it clear for Perez to get past Fatih as fast as possible.