CHAPTER 87: A MONSTER

F.YILDIRIM - 47.10

Both of them turned their heads to the lap time board as Fatih’s name finally graced it, taking sixth place. On his first-ever push lap, Fatih was now within one second and a few more tenths of the fastest lap time Enaam had driven today.

Despite their surprise, they returned their heads to Fatih on the track, who was in the middle of his second push lap. They saw him now being more fluid, making less than half of the mistakes he had made on his first push lap, optimizing his entry in some corners or the connection between a string of corners, going through them fluidly as if falling into a rhythm and going with the fastest flow.

Amidst their mesmerization, Steve lowered his head back to the telemetry laptop that had Fatih’s telemetry live updating. He moved the mouse aside before clicking and overlaying Enaam’s telemetry over Fatih’s, showing how each of the drivers did in every part of the track. It showed that Fatih was already matching Enaam for more than three-tenths of the lap he had driven, and in some parts, he even had the upper hand.

F.YILDIRIM - 46.76

On his second lap, he took three-tenths off his first push lap as he continued to his third consecutive push lap.

The following laps didn’t go past it, but instead of the two of them thinking that he had already reached his limits, they were more impressed by what he was doing. From the telemetry, it was clear that he was now optimizing and going sector by sector. In one lap, he optimized sector one and sector three, compromising sector two to set it up perfectly. Then, on the following lap, he did the opposite, optimizing sectors two and three but compromising sector one, and repeating the process.

Despite deliberately compromising parts of his lap to set up the next ones, he was still keeping it within less than a second of the fastest lap Enaam had set on the board. They immediately remembered that they had told Fatih that this was not a session for him to go for the fastest lap, but for him to understand the track, its characteristics, the kart and its characteristics, and what setup changes could be made to it so that it could perform better on this track and provide feedback on everything.

"Wow," Steve said, feeling goosebumps on his body as he saw the lap-by-lap telemetry showing that after finding the perfect input for a sector, the following laps all had nearly a copy-and-paste of those inputs in that sector. The same was happening all over the track as he was pushing the kart beyond its limit until he found a sweet spot of performance in its current setup, and he stayed on it.

"We have a monster on our hands," John said, agreeing with the impression Fatih was leaving upon them.

Although they had seen Fatih’s TOSFED letter of recommendation that contained his competition-related performance and the dominance he displayed, a majority of those who saw it thought that the dominance was because he was just a big fish in a small pond, and he would look like a normal fish once he was moved from the pond to a lake.

Their assumption was not born from a feeling of superiority but because they had experienced this happening again and again, as prodigies from less competitive karting countries performed better than the rest, and their parents, believing that their child was a good driver, sent them to compete internationally, only for them to be crushed and not be competitive. Although a few of them survived this lake, the number was so small that it was considered an exception and not the rule.

........

"...." Ricky Flynn, who was watching Fatih on the track from the pit lane, had a speechless expression on his face, with a similar expression blanketing the mechanics and even Enaam, who was watching with him.

"What did they feed him?" a mechanic said when he heard the engine screaming as it was being forced to provide every bit of power it was capable of producing.

Ricky didn’t say anything outwardly, but inside, he was already looking forward to how he was going to perform against Enaam and what he would deliver in the three races he was planned to participate in this year. Because if this show was not a fluke and he could carry the same drive during those three races, then there was a chance that he was not going to need their services next year at all.

Just as they finally came out of their surprise, Fatih’s kart entered the pit lane as the twenty minutes he was given were over, and he didn’t need anyone telling him that the time was up before he returned to the pit lane, coming to a stop a few meters away from where the mechanics were.

Although he normally would have to go back to the tent to do the debrief, it looked like he didn’t have to do that, as Steve and John were already walking out of the tent and towards him with laptops in their hands. They placed them on the table before dragging the table next to the mechanics, just as Fatih finished taking off his helmet and balaclava, revealing his face flushed red with a few deep lines on it from the balaclava bending and being pressed down by the helmet.

"Good drive out there," Steve said as Fatih placed his helmet and balaclava on the same table.

"Thanks," Fatih said as he wiped the sweat using the towel he had received from one of the mechanics, who were now silent and listening to the conversation that was taking place, with Ricky moving back a bit to observe as well and not interfere.

"Okay, you can debrief us once you are ready. There is no need to try and go into details; even if it is a feeling, it is enough. What are the kart and the track telling you?" Steve said, flushed with excitement and expectation, as he wanted to see how good Fatih was at giving feedback. Being able to provide good feedback is something that makes a good driver great, as he can improve the kart to be the best it can be on the track, allowing him to go faster than a great driver driving a neutral kart.

Fortunately, or rather unfortunately, he asked the question to the only ten-year-old who could provide the most detailed answer possible, having survived over two years of setup changes torture and hours upon hours of lessons on what part of the kart does what from Apollo, who had said it was important that he knew the technical side of things so that he could be able to explain what he was feeling perfectly and not be limited to using his feelings and leaving it to the mechanics to interpret what those feelings meant and try to deduce the best setup possible from that, as it would be time-consuming and risked the setup going in a different direction due to his debriefing being misunderstood or misinterpreted.

After taking a sip of water and closing the bottle once again, Fatih finally started speaking. "The engine feels strong, it has a good pull out of the slow corners. There is no bogging down at all. The main issue is the chassis balance. It’s too neutral and too safe, leaving large margins on the table everywhere.

If I were to break it down by corner phases, on corner entry, especially into heavy braking zones like the Ashby hairpin, the rear is too stable, making it difficult for the kart to rotate. I’m forced to use too much steering input to force the nose to the apex, which is scrubbing the front tires and losing me time."

"So you want more front-end grip?" Steve asked amidst his suppressed surprise.

"No, the opposite. The front bites quite well; the problem is the rear won’t follow, like it’s nailed to the track. I want to be able to use the brake pedal to initiate the rotation, but the chassis is preventing that right now. I think we should narrow the rear track width by 5mm on each side. That should free up the rear axle and let the inside rear wheel lift more easily on entry.

Then, for mid-corner, particularly through the long, fast bends like Inkermans and the final Pit Bend, the kart feels lazy. It takes a set, but it doesn’t want to change direction quickly. I feel like I’m waiting for the chassis to respond. I think we should add the front torsion bar. Let’s start with the medium stiffness. It should stiffen the front of the chassis and give me a sharper, more responsive turn-in for those high-speed direction changes.

As for corner exit, because the rear is too planted on entry, I’m having to get on the power later than I want to. When I do, especially out of the slow corners like Christmas and the Boot, I’m getting some initial wheelspin that feels like bogging, compromising the exit.

It might be solved by changing the carburetor to a leaner low-end jet, but I think it’s a mechanical grip issue first. The changes to the rear track width should help the rotation, which will let me get the kart pointed straight earlier. But I also think we should lower the rear ride height by one setting. Dropping the rear axle should give me more traction on the exit, letting me put the power down more aggressively without the initial wheelspin. But if it fails, we can try the carburetor solution as well and see what it entails."

Once he was done, silence hung in the pit lane for a moment.

’Oh god,’ Steve said in his mind.

’....’ John was speechless.

’Who the heck trained him?’ Ricky Flynn thought to himself as the goosebumps that had subsided once again came alive.

As for the mechanics, they were currently wondering if they were dreaming or if they were in a prank video where an adult with dwarfism and experience in karting was messing with them and wasting their time.

The level of understanding of what the problem was, what the possible solution was, and the ramifications of the changes made to fix that solution, potentially leading to other problems or not even solving the initial problem, was not something someone his age should or even be able to be at that level of understanding. It was something that took them years to hone, but they were seeing it in front of them, something that they wouldn’t have believed if they had heard someone telling them it was happening.

As for Apollo, "AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH"