CHAPTER 132: RACE WEEKEND | FRIDAY | A LAP OF POWER PLAY II

After the two-hour KF Junior free practice, the next category was allowed on the track. However, instead of moving up just one step, the highest category in the competition, KZ2, was next.

KZ2 is known as the Formula 1 of karting. Unlike the lower categories, which only have rear brakes and no shifting, KZ2 karts have both, allowing them to reach speeds of up to 135 km/h.

For many, it was considered the final ground of their motorsports career, but for those moving to the next step, it was the perfect training ground. It allows drivers to gain experience with changing gears, using front and rear brakes, actively managing brake bias, engine braking, and more, making their move to single-seaters easier. As a result, it was looked upon as the final proving ground where those who excel are expected to adapt to single-seaters in the shortest period, making it an interesting scouting ground for teams and academies.

"This is like watching honey fall to the ground with a bear sitting near it, not allowing you to go and collect it," one of the many scouts present said as he watched the KZ2 karts enter the track for their free practice.

It was an almost impossible endeavor to find a good driver in this category that hadn’t already been signed to a team. All those who remained were either not talented enough for a team to take a gamble on or didn’t show enough promise for anyone to even look at them, making it nearly useless for scouts to watch. But they still did nonetheless, as they were fans of the sport first and foremost.

A majority of them were currently focused on the young prodigy Max Verstappen, who in this year alone had won the CIK-FIA KZ World Championship, the CIK-FIA European Championship, the South Garda Winter Cup, the WSK Euro Series, and the WSK Super Master Series, and was now seen as the favorite in the WSK Cup. He was known as a winning machine, an aggressive one, to the point that it had led to his disqualification in the final race of this year’s KF World Championship.

The incident occurred during a close battle for the lead. Verstappen made a move that resulted in contact, causing his rival’s kart to suffer irreparable damage and forcing him out of the race, while Verstappen fell to the back. The race stewards deemed Verstappen to be at fault and issued a disqualification, killing his hopes of clinching the KF World Championship title. However, despite the disqualification, Verstappen still finished third overall in the championship standings, showing just how good a driver he was on an incident-free day.

........

"Welcome back," Helmut said when Jos Verstappen finally returned and joined him in the grandstand after their back-and-forth debate.

"Am I right to think that you might have had a word with your son to try and show that he is not inferior?" Helmut asked teasingly, knowing how competitive Jos was.

"Let’s just see for ourselves. There is no benefit in me talking; it might cause us to miss an interesting scene," Jos said with an amused smile, as if Helmut had been caught in his trap faster and easier than he expected.

The smile alone showed how much trust he had in Max’s driving abilities, which was something he had the most confidence in, as he had been the one to mold it. He had done everything he deemed necessary to make Max a faster, monstrous driver with nothing but a winning mentality. From starting him in karting at the age of four, leaving him at a gas station in an anger fit when Max didn’t perform well, and having him practice for hours in the shivering rain, to deliberately sabotaging the kart before races by miscalibrating the engine or misaligning the tires to force him to adapt. He physically disciplined him, gave him the silent treatment, and ridiculed him for hours to make him feel the weight of his mistakes, all done to create the perfect aggressive racing machine. The results of his hard work were already showing, but he still wasn’t satisfied until Max had proven himself at the pinnacle of motorsports.

For someone who believed his son was the best, being compared to a newbie who only had a few good races was the worst possible comparison, and Helmut had done exactly that, even insinuating that Fatih was better due to his young age.

So, to make sure such a comparison would never come up again this weekend, he had forgone all of his usual training "gymnastics." He had given Max the perfect setup for the track, a perfectly calibrated engine and aligned tires, everything he could to allow Max to unleash as much pace as possible. To top it off, Max was not new to this track; just a few months ago, he had been here for the WSK Master Series, where he drove in the same category and secured the title, meaning he already knew the track inside and out. All of this was leading to the main point: Max being able to deliver a lap good enough to dwarf whatever Fatih had done.

Despite being the only two who knew of this power play, they were not the only ones with their eyes on Max, who was on his final approach following his reconnaissance lap.

....

As he came out of the hairpin into the straight, his father’s order came to mind: "I want you to go for a push lap immediately and drive the fastest lap you can."

He had wondered about the reason, but it didn’t matter. His engine and tires were now fully warmed up, the setup felt perfect, and the track ahead was clear. He immediately went for it, upshifting through the straight all the way to sixth gear before braking and downshifting to fourth to take the Turn 12 left-hander. He upshifted to fifth through the short straight before going back to fourth and keeping his foot on the throttle through the final corner, going wide on the exit and taking as much curb as possible. The moment he got the kart back on the track, he upshifted to fifth, then sixth, as he ducked his head for the mini-DRS effect.

He kept his eyes on the distance markers to his left, and the moment he reached his pre-designated marker, he adjusted his brake bias to lean more to the front, hit the brakes, and downshifted to fourth gear as he took Turn 1. He upshifted to fifth for Turn 2 before changing his brake bias once again, braking and downshifting to third gear on the short straight into the Turn 3 and 4 S-turn, taking both in third before upshifting to fourth and keeping that gear for turns 5 and 6.

Upon entering the long straight, he upshifted all the way to sixth gear, pushing himself forward before shifting the brake bias to be very heavy on the front, braking and downshifting to fourth while taking the Turn 7 corner with a slight drift. He got back on the power and upshifted to fifth on the straight, but it didn’t last long, as he braked and downshifted all the way to third before taking Turn 8, upshifting to fourth on exit, then upshifting once again after Turn 9. He kept it in fifth gear on the short straight before braking and downshifting to third for the Turn 10 hairpin, then upshifted all the way to fifth on the following straight before dropping back down to third for the Turn 11 hairpin.

Upon exiting the final corner, he upshifted all the way to sixth gear on the straight, braking slightly and downshifting to fifth to take Turn 12. He upshifted to sixth on the short straight and kept the gear through Turn 13 all the way to the start-finish line, completing his lap and following his father’s order as he slowed down for a cooldown lap.

....

[P1 - #101 Max VERSTAPPEN - KZ2 FP1 - Lap Time: 46.831]

"I think that answers all of the questions," Jos said, turning to Helmut and checking his reaction. He tried to hide his smile, but the twitching at the corners of his mouth betrayed his effort.

"We’ll see," Helmut said with a satisfied smile, as he was currently thinking the opposite of what Jos was.

He was now considering whether he should implement a tactic that would force both drivers to evolve by setting them up as competition for each other, which should push both of them to improve. The only problem was how to implement it when they were in very different categories. Given their age difference, the only category they would be able to race together competitively would be in Formula 1. But it wasn’t like there was no way, just a matter of whether it was worthy of taking the risk.

Turning to Jos, he asked, "Are you free after your son’s qualifying practice for today?"

"For what? Buying me dinner to apologize?" Jos asked, taunting slightly.

"No, I would like to introduce Fatih to him," Helmut said, almost laughing when he saw the veins protruding on Jos’s face upon hearing what he had said, as Jos tried to hold himself back from jumping up and headbutting him.