"Kenapa dia pakai itu? Dia pembalap atau bukan?"
"Kayaknya bukan. Masuk akal kalau dia pakai overall balap, bukan helm."
"Mungkin dia penggemar salah satu pembalap, tapi jelas bukan pembalap. Helmnya kelihatan asli, bukan barang penggemar tiruan."
"Nah, kamu bilang begitu, aku jadi paham maksudmu. Mungkin dia mencocokkan dengan pembalap di lintasan?"
"Lihat sana! Kayaknya aku baru tahu dia cocok dengan siapa. Lihat pembalap nomor 7, memimpin final."
"Bukankah itu pembalap... siapa namanya? Dia yang kamu tunjukkan artikelnya beberapa bulan lalu, yang cedera parah?"
"Ya, Fatih, itu namanya, dan ini balapan kembalinya. Makanya waktu aku sadar kita dekat sirkuit, aku ajak kamu ikut."
"Dan aku pikir ini kencan. Ternyata aku salah paham."
"Tidak, tidak, tidak, ini tetap kencan, cuma kebetulan terjadi saat situasi menarik."
Sementara dua sahabat itu, salah satunya baru sadar sedang kencan dan menerimanya saja, sedang bergosip bolak-balik, Seraphina, subjek pembicaraan mereka, masih memakai helm di hari kedua kompetisi, saat hanya tersisa final. Dia sadar bisa tetap tenang di tempat ramai setiap kali helm itu dipakai, meski orang-orang menatap atau membicarakannya.
Hal itu sudah jadi bahan perbincangan, tapi orang tuanya tidak merasa perlu melarangnya memakai helm, selain karena lucu, juga karena aktif mendukung kemajuannya, meski mereka tidak menahan diri untuk menggoda.
Sedangkan dia, fokusnya penuh pada balapan, seluruh perhatian pada Fatih. Dia menganalisis cara Fatih mengemudi: ke mana matanya saat menikung, bagaimana dia menyesuaikan input gas, menggerakkan tubuh, mengendalikan tempo, dan segalanya. Dia benar-benar tenggelam, karena sudah bulat tekad mencoba serius menekuni olahraga ini, dan sudah mengutarakannya ke orang tuanya kemarin. Hal itu mereka bahas lebih lanjut malam itu dan memutuskan melanjutkan pembicaraan saat pulang. Tapi untuk sekarang, dia mendukung Fatih sekaligus berusaha belajar sebanyak mungkin dari cara mengemudinya yang sebenarnya.
Lagipula, sebelumnya Fatih hanya mengajarinya hal-hal yang sesuai levelnya dengan campuran keseriusan dan santai, membiarkannya belajar perlahan. Dia melatihnya dari sudut pandang agar sesi mengemudi ini jadi sesuatu untuk fokus saat berada di tempat ramai, seperti sirkuit karting lokal tempat mereka berlatih, memberi paparan ke publik sekaligus mencegahnya fokus pada tatapan orang di sekitarnya. Tapi sekarang, dia tidak sabar ingin meminta Fatih mengajarinya dengan serius.
.......
"Kayaknya bakal membosankan buat dia kalau terus begini," kata scouter Red Bull yang dikirim memantau performa kembalinya Fatih dalam hati, matanya masih tertuju pada Fatih, yang mengemudi seolah sendirian di lintasan. Itu deskripsi terbaik untuk situasinya, karena dia aktif menjaga jarak lima belas detik dari posisi kedua dan tidak membuat kesalahan yang biasanya dilakukan pembalap dengan keunggulan seperti itu, yang tahu kesalahan apa pun bisa diperbaiki tepat waktu tanpa kehilangan posisi.
Tapi Fatih tidak menunjukkan itu, dia terus mengemudi dengan rasa lapar dan sifat kompetitif yang jarang terlihat di tahap karting ini, rasa lapar yang dicari banyak tim pada seorang pembalap, karena itu jadi jaminan usaha pembalap bukan penghambat pertumbuhannya, hanya bakatnya, artinya mereka tidak perlu khawatir pembalap itu kurang berusaha.
Jari-jarinya terus mengetuk berirama di pemegang kertas keras di pangkuannya yang berisi semua data Red Bull tentang Fatih. Dia sudah membacanya sekali, meski tidak perlu. Lagipula, performanya bisa diringkas: posisi finisnya selalu pertama. Kalau bukan, itu karena masalah mekanis yang menjatuhkannya atau pensiun penuh, artinya dia memimpin hampir di semua balapan dan heat yang diikutinya sejak bergabung akademi Red Bull, meski rekornya membentang jauh sampai negara asalnya.
Konsistensi yang gagal dipertahankan banyak prodigi muda, karena banyak yang seharusnya mampu mencapainya justru cepat puas dan kehilangan rasa lapar, atau jadi angkuh dan mengendurkan usaha. Meski Fatih tidak menunjukkan tanda-tanda mengendurkan usaha, tidak jelas berapa lama rasa lapar itu bisa bertahan di lingkungan yang tak ada yang benar-benar menantangnya.
"Sudah waktunya dia mulai bersiap pindah ke single-seater," kata scouter itu sebelum langsung menghentikan ketukan berirama. Dia mengambil pena dari saku dan mulai menulis di balik salah satu kertas cetak.
Meski balapan masih berlangsung, dia tidak repot mengangkat kepala, fokus penuh mencatat. Dia sudah tahu, kecuali terjadi force majeure, Fatih akan memenangkan balapan. Dia sadar mungkin baru memahami sebagian niat Dr. Marko mengirimnya mengamati, yang lebih dari sekadar mengecek performanya. Rasanya seperti salah satu bukti akhir yang diperlukan sebelum keputusan besar diambil, karena kalau hanya mau mengecek pemulihannya, dia bisa menunggu hasil balapan, itu cukup untuk tahu inti situasinya.
Baginya, yang sudah menyadari ini, jelas sekali Dr. Marko sedang mempertimbangkan apakah mengirim Fatih ke F4 tahun depan begitu dia memenuhi syarat di usia lima belas tahun. Kalau benar berencana begitu, latihan dan pembinaan harus dimulai sedini mungkin. Bagi scouter itu, ini penemuan yang sangat menggembirakan, menggugah hatinya, karena sekarang dia tidak hanya menantikannya tapi juga berusaha melihat bagaimana Red Bull akan menjalankannya, sebab ini akan berbeda skalanya dari yang mereka lakukan pada Verstappen, karena kali ini akan sistematis.
"Why is he wearing that? Is she a racer or something?"
"I don’t think so. It would have made sense for her to have racing overalls on instead of the helmet."
"Maybe she is a fan of a driver or something, but definitely not a racer. The helmet looks like a real one and not some knockoff fan item."
"Now that you say it, I can see exactly what you mean. Maybe she is matching with a driver on the track?"
"Look there! I think I just discovered who she is matching with. Look at driver number 7, leading the final."
"Isn’t that the driver... what was his name? Is he the one you showed me an article about, who had heavy injuries a few months ago?"
"Yes, Fatih, that’s his name, and this is his comeback race. That’s why when I realized we were near the track, I asked you to come with me."
"And I thought it was a date. Looks like I misunderstood the situation."
"No, no, no, it is a date that just happens to be taking place during an interesting situation."
While the two friends, one of them just realizing they were on a date and rolling with it, were having their little back-and-forth gossip, Seraphina, the subject of their discussion, was still wearing the helmet on the second day of the competition, where only the final was left. She had realized that she could keep calm in crowded places whenever she had it on, even if people were looking or talking about her.
It had become quite a topic of discussion, but her parents didn’t see a reason to be against her wearing it, as it was cute, but also because it was actively supporting her improvement, though they didn’t hold back from teasing her.
As for her, she was fully focused on the race, with all of her attention on Fatih. She analyzed the way he was driving: where his eyes were while taking a corner, how he was adjusting his throttle input, moving his body, controlling the pace, and everything else. She was fully immersed, as she had already made up her mind to try and take this sport seriously, having already verbalized it to her parents yesterday. It was something they discussed further that night and had decided to continue the conversation upon their return home. But for now, she was both supporting him while also trying to learn from his actual driving as much as possible.
After all, he had previously only been teaching her things to match her level with a mixture of both seriousness and casualness, letting her take her time to learn things. He was training her from the point of view of her using these driving sessions as something to focus on while in more crowded places, like the local karting track where they practiced, giving her that exposure to the public while also preventing her from focusing on the eyes of those around her. But now, she was looking forward to asking him to teach her seriously.
.......
"I think it is going to get boring for him if this continues," the Red Bull scout sent to monitor Fatih’s return performance said to himself, his eyes still locked on Fatih, who was driving as if he was alone on the track. This would be the best description for his situation, as he was actively maintaining a fifteen-second gap from second place and was not making any mistakes that someone with such a lead would have, knowing that any mistake he made could be rectified in time without losing his position.
But Fatih showed none of that, as he kept driving with a hunger and competitive nature that is rarely seen at this stage of karting, a hunger that many teams look for in a driver, as it acts as a guarantee that the driver’s effort would not be the bottleneck in their growth, and only their talent would be, meaning they won’t have to worry about the driver not making an effort.
His fingers kept tapping rhythmically on the hard paper holder on his lap that contained all of the data Red Bull had on Fatih. He had gone through it once, even though there was no need to look at it. After all, his performance could be summarized as his finishing position always being first. When it wasn’t, it was either a mechanical problem dropping him down or a full retirement, meaning he had been in the lead in nearly all of the races and heats he had participated in since joining the Red Bull academy, though the record extended way back to his home country.
It was a consistency that many young prodigies fail to maintain, as many who would have been capable of achieving that either got complacent and lost their hunger or just got arrogant and eased up on their effort. Although Fatih didn’t show any signs of letting up on the effort, it was not clear how long that hunger could be sustained in an environment where no one was really challenging him.
"It is about time he should start preparing for his single-seater move," the scout said before immediately stopping the rhythmic tapping. He took a pen from his pocket and started writing things down on the back of one of the printed papers.
Although the race was still going, he didn’t bother to even raise his head, as he was fully focused on jotting down some notes. He already knew that unless a force majeure happened, Fatih was going to win the race. He realized he might have just understood some of Dr. Marko’s intentions behind sending him to observe, which were more than just checking on his form. It felt like one of those final proofs needed before a major decision was made, because if he only wanted to check on his recovery, he could have just waited for the race results, and that would have been enough to know the gist of his situation.
To him, who had realized this, it was plenty obvious that Dr. Marko was contemplating whether to send Fatih to F4 next year once he becomes eligible at the age of fifteen. If he was really planning on doing that, practice and training needed to start as early as possible. To the scout, it was a very exciting discovery, one that had stirred his heart, as he was now not only looking forward to it but was trying to see how it would be executed by Red Bull, since this was going to be on a different scale than what they did with Verstappen, as it was going to be systematic.
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