Formula 1: The GOAT-Chapter 185: The Final Shoot

Chapter 185: The Final Shoot
Whooooooooooo, Fatih exhaled slowly as he shifted from the Warrior I (Virabhadrasana I) yoga pose to Warrior II (Virabhadrasana II), his flexible body making the transition seamless. All of this was done with his eyes closed, operating through his other senses, specifically proprioception.
Proprioception is what most people call the body’s sixth sense, as it allows you to know the position, movement, and location of your body parts in space without looking, relying on specialized receptors in muscles, joints, and tendons to send signals to the brain for balance and coordinated movement.
The more sensitive an individual’s proprioception is, the better they are at pushing things to their exact needs, nothing more, nothing less, as you will know the exact amount of force needed for a certain action. A sensitive proprioception would allow you to allocate only that amount, reducing the amount of energy you expend and ensuring it is fully utilized with no wasted energy.
For Fatih, who had both his brain, body, and senses pushed to the next level, this area was the most affected by them but also one of the most important parts of the whole network, since that is where his whole feel of the car was going to come from. His entire body would be connected to the car, allowing him to know the exact angle he was tilting, the exact response from all directions, and more, an ability that distinguished good drivers from great drivers in the world of motorsports.
In karting, the demands on this ability were very limited due to the size of the karts and the number of parts. But once you move into single-seaters, the number of individual parts moves from the low thousands to tens of thousands, meaning the amount of feedback multiplies by the thousands, allowing those who can fully adapt to them to have a better advantage by having superior car-body feedback.
A driver with more sensitive proprioception can sense subtle changes in the car’s balance, grip levels, and attitude (direction changes) through the seat and steering wheel, allowing them to react instinctively. Sub-second reactions are possible as the body’s sensors process information faster, allowing for hairline-trigger reflex adjustments that bypass conscious thought, precise car placement, and optimized force modulation. A driver with more sensitive proprioception can modulate the exact forces needed for braking and acceleration while preventing lock-ups or wheelspin and ensuring optimal power transfer and tire management, and much more.
But for Fatih, the sensitivity of his proprioception was top of the line, but his body’s reception of it was all over the place, and although it was not a problem for him to function normally, Apollo was now helping him calibrate it and start the fine-tuning early, since it would take quite some time to find the sweet spot.
After an hour of doing that, he finally stopped and walked out of the house to start jogging. Although he had stopped his dedicated training for proprioception, it didn’t mean that he had stopped training it, as he was fully focused on his body. He could now feel his muscles operating optimally, optimizing his run and adjusting his body positioning for optimal performance. He planned to finish his run and all his other exercises within two hours, as he had an appointment four hours later.
.........
"Did you miss school already?" Rümeysa, who had brought Fatih to school close to evening, asked as they got out of their car in the school’s parking lot.
The school year had already started on the 6th of September, but he had yet to attend a single class.
Although the school allowed for sports-related absences, this kind of long absence would have been quite difficult to get approved. But due to a change in circumstances, the school allowed it because he had opted to skip a grade by taking the GCSEs in May of next year to move to A-levels before taking the university entry exam at the age of sixteen. As a result of that decision, he had opted for homeschooling during the exam year, removing the requirement for him to go to school.
All of the relevant permissions were already given, and only applying for the exam remained, which would be done in January, finally giving him the time he needed to fully focus on his F4 training and the F4 season without much worry, since the school requirement had been removed.
It would have been quite difficult to juggle home training and his F4 training once it started, but he didn’t have to worry about that, since he was already fully prepared for the exam. Even if something changed, he could refresh his knowledge faster now that his Sponge Brain was at the ultimate level, making it easier than it was previously, which was already enough for him to maintain a perfect record despite his year-round karting competitions that kept him away from school for a large amount of time.
As a result, his visit to the school was not education-related; it was for the final shooting of this year’s karting docuseries, which needed a wide-open ground, something the school had in abundance. The school had given them permission to shoot on one of their football fields, as today’s shoot required that scale.
"I missed some of the students who are my friends, but the lessons are nothing to be missed," Fatih said as he put on his backpack before they started walking in the direction of the football field.
His mother, on the other hand, said, "You can spend time with them once we finish with our commitments," as she took out her phone to call the people who were going to meet them to update them on their arrival.
"Welcome, I’m the assistant secretary for today’s shoot. Please come with me," someone met them just a minute after the phone call, while they were on the way. She led them to the football field, and when they finally got a view of what was on it, they couldn’t help but say, "WOW!!!!"
In the center circle, all of the karts that Fatih had used in his entire karting career were arranged, and each kart had the trophies it had won.
The production team had gone so far as to pay for the transportation of Fatih’s karts and trophies from Turkey, which Rümeysa had agreed to and had tasked Elena to coordinate the delivery, storage, and everything else.
"Welcome, welcome," the shooting director approached them, taking off his glasses as he extended his hand and exchanged handshakes with Fatih and his mother before looking to the sky and saying, "Thank God the weather is clear today, so we won’t have to postpone it."
"I can agree with that. I have seen more rain here in a year than in Turkey in five years," Rümeysa said, causing all those present to chuckle.
"It is late, but congratulations on your move to F4. If things go as we expect, this won’t be a farewell, and we will be meeting sooner than you expect," the director said to Fatih with a mysterious smile on his face.
"Thanks. You have put in quite the work," Fatih said as he pointed at everything present. Other than his karts and trophies, they had gone so far as to borrow the team trophies that he had helped RFM win.
"Now that we are on the topic, let me explain today’s shooting plan," the director said as he unlocked the tablet in his hand, heading to the gallery and immediately playing a video before he added, "This is the test shoot we did to make it easier for you to understand," before playing the video.
When the video started, it showed his KF Mini kart with all of the trophies it had won in his first karting year as the camera moved closer towards it until it passed, only for the kart he used the next year to appear seamlessly with all the trophies it had won as well. This continued until he reached this year’s karts, but this time there were two of them, arranged in a way that they met at the front left at a forty-five-degree angle, with one of them looking new and completely fine while the other looked crashed, as it was the kart that had been in the accident with Fatih. Tony Kart had taken it, and after inspections, had given it to Fatih to keep once they had the full data on what had given up and why.
After reaching the final kart, the camera started retreating as the previous karts appeared until the first one, before the camera zoomed in on it and then fully retreated. But this time, as it retreated, its surroundings were now filled with all of the karts arranged in a line with their trophies, with a stand-in standing in the middle, staying like that for a few seconds. Then, the karts disappeared, and in their place, all of the trophies he had ever won were now arranged in front of the stand-in, who was standing in the middle. With more than a hundred and fifty of them arranged, the scale was massive, resulting in the stand-in looking small since the camera had to use a wider angle to capture all of them in a single image.
"This is the end result we plan to have by the time we finish the final shoot. We will also add additional context every time a kart and its trophies appear, like your age, the races you entered, the races you won, and fun facts, like the most impressive race in that season where we will highlight a performance above the rest, or other important milestones of the same level, before moving to the next category..." the director explained everything, knowing that the more Fatih had an image of what the final result was going to be, the better it would be for him to meet their demands without confusion.
"Any parts where you are curious or need additional explanation?" the director asked once he was done with his explanation.
"None yet. But can I request pictures of each of the scenes? I think the picture with all of the trophies will look good as wallpaper or a post. Of course, I will only post it after the series has aired," Fatih said, trying his best to act as normal as possible, which for today was easier than yesterday.
"I don’t see any problem with that."
"Then I will go and change into my racing gear," Fatih said before walking with his backpack to the changing room so as to start the shoot as fast as possible, because he was sure it was not going to end early at all.