Grand Prix 2018 Japanese Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

After a fairly soporific Russian GP the circus moves nearly 7,000 miles (by road according to Bing maps) to Suzuka in Japan. The Japanese have a love affair with the automobile and Japanese car companies make up 4 of the top 15 car manufacturers in the world with Toyota top of the list, just above VW.

Japan also has a long association with Formula One. Many Japanese manufacturers have made cars and engines which have raced in F1, with varying degrees of success. Honda prepared a car and engine in the 60’s and Richie Ginther won the Mexican GP in 1965. They had further success in 1968 when John Surtees won the Italian GP but the team withdrew from racing after the death of Jo Schlesser in a car with a magnesium chassis caught fire quite horrifically.

Honda came back as an engine supplier in the 80’s and pretty much wiped the floor with everyone with their motor bolted in the back of the Williams and McLaren chassis. Yamaha and Subaru have made engines and Toyota and Honda coupled their motors to their own chassis in the early 2000’s, albeit with little success (I just remembered Button's win in Hungary with the Honda engine - sorry Jenson fans, what a lovely day that was)

I don’t think I need to remind anyone of the Honda’s latest foray into the world of F1 engine supply.

Japan has also supplied the grid with 20 drivers. The first was Hiroshi Fushido in 1975 with the Japanese made Maki chassis coupled to the inevitable Cosworth DFV. The most successful Japanese F1 driver is Kamui Kobayashi who amassed 125 points in his career as well as taking a podium in Japan for Sauber in 2012 and fastest lap in the same year in China. Two other Japanese drivers have stood on the podium, Takumo Sato at Indianapolis in 2004, the Michelin tyre debacle, and Aguri Suzuki for Larousse in Japan in 1990, the one with the infamous crash between Prost and Senna at the first corner.

So what of the race itself? Lewis Hamilton goes in to the final phase of events with a healthy lead in the Championship and Mercedes showed in Russia that they will do anything to ensure that their man takes the drivers title. The constructor’s title is already pretty much nailed on for the Stuttgart team so expect team orders to come in to play if Lewis finds himself behind Valterri Bottas at any point during the race.

What of the rest? Ferrari looks to have peaked before the summer break and are now on their way down. Red Bull may well figure close to the front but I doubt they can beat the Mercedes. Back in division 2 we should see some racing between Hass, Force India and the Sauber of Le Clerc which might compensate a little for the Silver Arrows running away at the front.

It will be an early start with Qualifying at 7:00 a.m. on Saturday and the race starting at 6:10 in the morning on Sunday but at least you will have the rest of the day to something after the inevitable Mercedes 1-2.
 
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Ferrari have shot themselves in the foot. Again. How many more daft decisions will they make before Vettel decides to walk.
 
Ricciardo betrayed them by letting them think he was staying and then announcing he's not. I never expected him to do well after that. You can't treat people that way and expect them to be that nice to you.

As for Ferrari, all I can say is :givemestrength:
 
yeah really feel for riccardio never seen him so angry or he did a good time in hiding it at monaco, 5th time in 7 races missing Q3, but it happens usually its 1 driver gets all the bad luck, last season it was Verstappen although some bad luck some self inflicted. worse for Riccardo is that this is a Renault problem so its not Verstappen who feels he gets a fresh start next year. he still got this problem in 2019

interesting bit from the Alonso interview that he slipped out that McLarens last update was spain. which explains there shocking performance for the majority of the season. even Williams have overtaken them here, which credit to stroll that was an great lap in Q1 to beat hulkenburg

Ferrari & Vettel proving yet again when they are flustered & under pressure. they make mistakes. im not saying inters was a bad idea because honestly I was surprised more didnt, but Ferrari are at the bottom of the pit lane & time is such precious commodity in those conditions. so why did Ferrari take 5 mins of thinking & strategy time away from themselves by punting for inters so early, when they could've like Mercedes use your pit lane advantage make your decision on a drying track. then vettel a guy of his expierence a 4x world champion & a 11 season veteran of F1, you would've thought he would've learnt to stay off the kerbs in rain. which cost him sending him flying off.

if I have my mathematics correct if Hamilton wins - Vettel 5th in Japan & Hamilton wins - Vettel 3rd or lower in USA or Hamilton wins - Vettel 4th & 4th or lower in both. then that is title over at COTA as their would be 76 pt lead with 75 remaining
 
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Thanks for cheering me up there Ruslan ;):snigger:

Unfortunately, I do have a strong bias towards the truth. Not real good at "white lies."

Let me try......Vettel still have a very good chance, Hamilton when he is leading spends to much time on the radio being uptight and this will certainly cause an error.

That wasn't a very good attempt.

I think this season is over. Hamilton will probably win tomorrow and the best Vettel can hope for is third. Then it is a 60 point lead with 4 races left. The real problem is that it appears that Ferrari's advantage for part of this season is due to its "trick" with the batteries. That advantage had disappeared. Now it is clear that Mercedes still holds an advantage in overall development. That advantage will carry into next year. This has been the problem all along. Until something disrupts Mercedes, no one is really going to catch them. They have great engineering, good organization, tons of money (the most), are already well developed, and one great driver. Ferrari is going to have get better at them at something, and I don't think they can. Ferrari are close, so certainly the first half of 2019 and 2020 will be interesting, but right now I suspect that as each season develops, Mercedes will once again establish themselves. Are we looking at Lewis Hamilton was WC for 2018/2019/2020? This really is a possible scenario.

The only thing that will chance the equation now I suspect is rule changes and budget caps. I gather those are both coming in 2021...but I note that the rule changes are fairly conservative.
 
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The rain made it quite an interesting quali in the end. Watched Q2 and Q3 on the laptop in bed then went back to sleep, lovely.

Now the season is 100% guaranteed over - there is no doubt who will be WDC - I will enjoy watching the sorry faces at Ferrari for the next few races. And they should be sorry after that debacle in Q3. Pressure, pure and simple, you could almost hear them thinking ‘We must be bold and radical in our thinking and take risks to be able to win! Put on wets and get a quick lap before it gets worse! Oh. Bugger.’
 
I think this season is over. Hamilton will probably win tomorrow and the best Vettel can hope for is third. Then it is a 60 point lead with 4 races left. The real problem is that it appears that Ferrari's advantage for part of this season is due to its "trick" with the batteries. That advantage had disappeared.
The FIA installed the second sensor ahead of the Monaco GP, so the the engine trick couldn't have being doing much more in the past than it is now.
 
The FIA installed the second sensor ahead of the Monaco GP, so the the engine trick couldn't have being doing much more in the past than it is now.

Mark Hughes wrote a piece on the Motorsport website recently, saying that's not true. There has been no second sensor fitted to the Ferraris. The quote below is taken directly from the article:

A story published post-Sochi suggested that a second sensor had been fitted to the Ferrari since Singapore, at the FIA’s insistence, and that this had clipped Ferrari’s wings. The FIA’s Charlie Whiting has refuted that absolutely here in Suzuka. There have been no additional sensors fitted to the Ferrari. That is unambiguously the case. Disinformation is being spread by the teams, and that story was a direct result of this. We can forget stories of a second sensor as an explanation. It didn’t happen.
 
Due to Japan being only one week after Russia F1 and MotoGP are taking place on the same weekend. Since the MotoGP races are taking place in Thailand tomorrow morning I have the choice of which recording to watch first. Hmmm.....
 
I'm a Lewis fan but even I wished Ferrari put up more of a fight this season. It was so exciting earlier this year when Ferrari had the quickest car and you didn't know what was going to happen. I still think Formula 1 could learn a lot from MotoGP
 
I'm a Lewis fan but even I wished Ferrari put up more of a fight this season. It was so exciting earlier this year when Ferrari had the quickest car and you didn't know what was going to happen. I still think Formula 1 could learn a lot from MotoGP

Same. I was hoping last 2 years for great title showdown in abu Dhabi but by mid september ferrari jump off the wagon nevermind fall. & its just anti climatic. Because easy wins are abit boring
 
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