Chapter 319: Celebration
"That was as spectacular of an ending as this season could have had, and it is the first time ever in British F4 where the top two drivers finished with equal points, triggering the tie-breaker rule," Justin said as the feed showed Fatih coming to a stop in front of his number one board, his team mechanics waiting for him at the parc fermé barricades, looking excited.
He untied his seatbelts with his right hand before getting out of the car and standing on top of it, spreading his hands wide for a moment before pumping his fist as reporters took pictures of him. After staying there for about three seconds, he immediately jumped down and rushed towards his team members, jumping on them as they caught him and cheered. This continued for about half a minute before they let him down, and he started shaking hands with each one of them.
It was then that the feed changed to show the cars that didn’t finish on the podium before it slowly zoomed in on the car that had finished fourth: Kiern Jewiss. Despite having pulled to a stop more than two minutes ago, he was still seated and strapped in his car. His hands were on his face, his fingers inserted through the tiny gap he had opened in his visor as he held his head low.
"This is the polar opposite of what Team Arden and Fatih are feeling at the moment. Having led the entire season only to lose it in the final race has got to be devastating. I can’t imagine what is going through his mind right now, but it is not going to be a good thing," Brad said as the feed remained focused on Jewiss, his race engineer could be seen walking towards him.
"As for Team Arden, on the other hand, they have what can be called a perfect sweep. They won the constructors’ title, they won the drivers’ title, and at the same time, they also won the rookie championship as well," Justin continued, giving the viewers details he thought they would benefit from knowing.
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"Are you okay?" Alex, who was about to hug and celebrate with him, stopped and asked when he saw Fatih’s facial expression.
"My left hand is not doing well," Fatih said as he was finally starting to feel the pain, now that the adrenaline that had made him forget everything had worn off.
"The physio said something about that," Alex said as he pulled his backpack and started removing dry ice packs that were stitched together with an arm sling before he helped Fatih put it on.
"Thanks," Fatih said as he closed the Velcro, finally immobilizing his left hand but also transferring all the load-bearing responsibility for it to his shoulder.
"He said not to exert it anymore, as you have already pushed it beyond his recommendation, and this will do nothing but extend the required recovery time," Alex said as he adjusted the sling.
After talking for a short moment, Alex had to leave him, as there was still an interview he had to do.
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"Thank you very much. It was something I wanted to win no matter what, and after the Silverstone weekend incident happened and killed my momentum, it is exhilarating to be able to win it despite all of that, so I’m feeling very happy about it."
"This is a precaution from my physio, as he is worried about my recovery from the Silverstone weekend."
"Not really. As long as it was still a possibility, I didn’t really feel like giving up. Doing that when it was still mathematically possible would have been a self-fulfilling prophecy, so no, I never gave up on the title."
"Yes, it is a new feeling having the help of my teammates in my title chase, so I would like to thank them for the sacrifices they had to make, and I will be treating them to dinner as a thank you, for starters."
"I just felt like I had to do something to at least try and change the outcome, and that was the only option that I was capable of directly affecting, but it was risky. Jewiss almost overtook Hoggard, and I nearly finished second thanks to it."
"Yes, it was a risk worth taking, because if I did nothing, I would have guaranteed losing the title. So even if it didn’t work and I couldn’t slow them down in time, or if Simmons failed to overtake Jewiss, or if Jewiss overtook Hoggard, or if I failed to regain the positions I gave up, the outcome would still have been me losing the title, so it wouldn’t have mattered by how many points I lost it. But it worked in the end, so with hindsight being 20/20, I made the best decision."
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"And to welcome to the top spot of the podium, the race and drivers’ champion, FATIIIIIIIIIIIH YILDIRIIIIIIIIIIIM!" the MC announced as he called Fatih to the top spot of the podium, with the crowd cheering at the top of their lungs when Fatih appeared on the screen, walking to the top of the podium with the arm sling still on him.
"This is his fifteenth time on the podium out of sixteen races he has driven to the end, and out of seventeen races he has participated in. And every time he got to the podium, he was on the top step. He is now the only driver to ever win more than half of the season’s races while also participating in only sixty percent of the season.
He has shown everyone that he is a cut above them and that he can still do it even with an injured arm, under extreme pressure and expectations, and make it look like it didn’t make a difference," Justin narrated as Fatih shook hands with both Hoggard and Simmons before getting to the top position on the podium. Everyone went silent as the national anthem was about to be played.
Fatih sang the Turkish national anthem enthusiastically as he fully enjoyed it, before shortly receiving his race win trophy, which, thankfully, was light enough to lift with one hand. To the cheering of the attendees, he raised it.
But that was not over, as his drivers’ title trophy was also brought and handed to him as the public cheered even harder than before. Although he was not going to be officially acknowledged as the 2018 British F4 champion until December during the FIA Gala, where he would receive the certificate, he was still handed the trophy to raise and take pictures with.
But that didn’t matter to Fatih. After all, with his win, he had secured the maximum super license points he could earn in F4, 12, leaving only 28 remaining before he was eligible to apply for a super license. Winning the F3 title would give him 30, making it enough to meet the super license minimum points requirement, leaving only the other requirements.
He had taken a massive step towards achieving his dream.
