{One more to go. Good job out there,} Jas said on the radio as Fatih drove the cooldown lap, heading into the pit lane.
{Where did the other two finish?}
{P4 for Doohan, P8 for Hauger. He lost too much ti and position in the pit,} Jas said as Fatih finally arrived at the pit lane entry and continued in.
{Thanks to them, we are still in contention,} Fatih said monts before he stopped in front of the number one marker.
The live feed showing him was positioned in front of his car and zood in on Fatih, so only his head was visible. But the zoom was done in such a way that the front right tire was also in view, and as if the TV director had discovered sothing, the focus changed from Fatih to the front tire. It was still smoking, with the channels that were cut to expel water from under the tire being ground nearly flat, looking closer to slick tires than wet weather tires.
"Those tires have a story to tell," Justin, who saw the feed, said as it panned from the right front tire to also look at the left one, which didn’t look to have fared any better.
"Knowing he doesn’t have to use them in the next race, he really pushed them to their limit without any worry at all," Brad added, giving context and a reminder that Fatih hadn’t just lost himself in the chase for lap tis without caring about the tires he had to use. The rules allocated nine wet-weather tires for every weekend, and since he had already used four in this race, he still had five of them for the final one.
"How do you think the final race is going to go?"
"It is still up for grabs by Fatih, but it is going to be a monuntal chase for him since he will be starting from the rear while Jewiss starts in P5. To win the title, he only needs to finish on the podium to guarantee his win, and any lower than that would all be dependent on where Fatih finishes. So for both these two drivers, these new wet weather tires are going to be their saving grace to be able to push further."
.......
With the podium celebration now over, the live feed finally ended, and the two comntators had a mont to breathe before the next race they would be needed for. A few seconds later, a woman entered with an excited look on her face, handing them a piece of paper that was still hot to the touch, aning it had been printed less than two minutes ago.
"Wow, looks like it’s going down to the wire, bringing in more and more people," Brad said as he read what was on the paper. It contained the viewership numbers across the entire race, and although it started at an already record-breaking one and a half million viewers, by the ti the checkered flag was waved and the race ca to an end, three hundred thousand more people had tuned in.
"2 million is now a possibility in the final race," Justin said as he snapped his finger on the paper. For these two, this was the best way things could go. The more people watching the race, the more people would get to know them, and this much attention was already unheard of. The fact that the number continued to increase with each race made it even more exciting for them.
"Who do you think will win this?"
"It would be better for us if Fatih wins it, as it would be the greatest coback run ever. But it is going to be difficult for him to do that because Jewiss should have it very easy to enter podium positions if the two Team Arden drivers can’t do anything about containing him ahead of ti."
"Can’t argue against that much, but I will still believe that Fatih can make it possible."
......
Ding!
A cascade of notifications went off from nearly every phone in the room during the post-race debriefing.
Jas, who was the first to check it, said, "Officials have declared the final race to be a wet race, so the Parc Fermé restrictions have been lifted. We can make adjustnts to the setup without any worry."
They were already planning on taking the grid penalty in return for adjusting the setup during Parc Fermé conditions for Fatih since he was starting from the back of the grid anyway. But with that announcent, that need was removed, though in return, everyone else gained the sa advantage when he would have been one of the few who had taken the gamble if the Clerk of the Course hadn’t declared a wet race.
The discussion imdiately shifted to what they were going to do in preparation for the wet race. Many of the things were standard: the car ride height would be raised from five to eight milliters to reduce the chances of aquaplaning, the anti-roll bar would be softened to induce chassis roll, the front and rear wings would be set for maximum downforce, the negative camber would be reduced to maximize the tire contact patch, and the tire pressure would be dropped to open the tread blocks.
.......
"If I’m shaking like this from nerves, I wonder how he is doing," Seraphina said as she looked at her shaking hand while watching the live feed of the session that was only a few minutes away from starting on the massive screen in front of the Paddock Hill Grandstands, where she was.
"I’m sure ntality-wise, he is doing fine. What I would worry about is his hand," Güldane said as the feed then cut to show Fatih coming out from the back of the garage to the front with Alex walking with him, carrying his helt. He looked very calm and not at all as if he wasn’t in a title chase.
"That is true, I have never seen him feel nervous at all since he started racing," Rüysa said as she chuckled when she saw Fatih smiling while talking with Alex and Jas, waving at his teammates who passed by him heading to their cars.
Both his and Seraphina’s families were here to support him, and instead of being his support, they were the ones feeling the nerves of it even more than Fatih did. Burak patted Rüysa’s back to try to calm her, but it didn’t look like it was working at all.
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