Grand Prix 2019 Japanese Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion.

Onward to Suzuka and the Japanese GP. Yakult anyone? Let’s hope that it’s more entertaining than the Russian GP, which excelled at only one thing, being dull.
Suzuka is built as the central attraction of Motopia a motoring and engineering theme park. Which really sums up F1 in 2019.
Michael Schumacher had six wins at Suzuka, and Lewis Hamilton has had five so far, will he win here and match Schumacher or will Ferrari get their act together and get another one / two. After Singapore I would have put money on Ferrari taking the win, in fact I think I did, but after Sochi I think that Hamilton will draw level with Schumacher. Although we mustn’t overlook Verstappen, this is a Honda track, it was built for them as a test track, and Verstappen is in a Honda powered Red Bull. Honda and the Japanese fans would love a home win, add those two facts together and Verstappen and his car might sprout wings.
Suzuka, from the drivers viewpoint, is quite a complex track, with its figure of eight configuration and cool crossover, slow hairpin bends, the uphill Esses a series of curves which if driven badly will lose the driver a bucket load of time, and then some flat out sections like 130 R. Plenty of scope for drivers to get it wrong, and cars and their engines to take a hammering. How do you set up a car for a track like this one. Red Bull of course had new engines at Sochi, Honda giving themselves the best possible chance to do well in Suzuka. The teams at the back end of the grid can be expected to struggle and a few to fall by the wayside. Although the days of just 9 or 10 cars getting to the end of a race seem to have gone.

The weather in Japan is Autumnal and there have been a few really wet races here, well certainly wet Qualifying sessions, with the occasional Sunday Qualifying followed by the race, there was even a Typhoon on race weekend back in 2004. All of which makes a tricky track, even trickier, but it also mixes up the grid quite nicely.
Anyway hopefully this track will deliver an interesting and entertaining race or at the very least a rain storm.
Enjoy.

Interesting Facts.
Honda have only ever won twice here
Kimi Räikkönen won this race from 17th position in 2005
Typhoons are common in this location
Lewis now has 322 points
Bottas has 249
Leclerc has 215

 

[Ruslan]

Even if he does have peripheral vision problems. * Joke!

I like him too.

Yea, he seems human, he seems real. Not perfect, but real.

 

[olegg]

 

[olegg]

Hamilton now has 46 fastest laps like Raikkonen.
Hamilton need 32 for record...

 

[Greenlantern101]

The F1 escaped the worst of the typhoon. Some scary photos here.

In pictures: Powerful Typhoon Hagibis lashes Japan

The worst typhoon to hit the country in decades brings deadly flooding and landslides.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[F1Brits_90]

weather was for once exactly as the weatherman predicted in suzuka not japan sunny Friday. horrendous Saturday. sunny sunday more sunny than predicted people thought it would be drying track in qualifying. but on qualifying 1st. cracking qualifying lap from vettel. i thought that was him back on top form & thought then that his momentum might carry him through & he was back. as without the errors in final sector leclerc wouldnt have got pole but it wouldve under a tenth.

but then yet another mistake from vettel. got fortunate to avoided a penalty. as there was alot of interpretation. some thought it was like athletics if you move it a penalty but some if you stay in the box your fine. but i very glad they didnt otherwise wouldve bern a terrible race. Leclerc bad from him, he's admitted he was at fault. i don't believe deliberate just never looked at took the normal line problem Verstappen was there completely innocent & quite badly damaged his car. wonder if he would get a grid drop in Mexico

Bottas was fantastic today easily best out there. rarely troubled & in hindsight never in doubt. proof he can beat hamilton but a championship means you have to have that most weeks not 1 in 3. lewis for me I would've stayed out there I said at time watching if he pits he's 3rd, stays out then worse case scenario would be 3rd, might as well take a punt as is bottas going to take out 7 tenths a lap & lewis proved how to tough it was to pass

but if any one wants to know or questions why mercedes won 6 in row right we take 2014 - 2016 out the picture because that was better car. but today Japanese gp is last 3 years in a nutshell, as a lot say they have the best car. i think bar 1st 8 this season theyve been 50/50 55/45. but what they do maximise what they have, Ferrari make too many errors could've won 9 grand prix this season but actually won 3 instead of 180 point gap it could should be 50/70. case in point today you would rarely if ever see Mercedes lock out the front row not have reliability issues & Ferrari finish 1st & 3rd very nearly 1-2. wouldn't happen

albon i thought had a cracking day more of that. seat should be his & no better circuit to follow this up than Mexico in a red bull. then
weird symmetry to end 1st lap turn 2 guy on inside at fault. final lap turn 2 guy on outside at fault

 

[cider_and_toast]

I can't help thinking there was some sort of favour done for Bottas today. That denied us the chance to see a really hard fight at the front. I think Lewis could have nursed his mediums to the end.

I didn't see too much wrong with the coming together at the start but running the car with a knackered front wing for as long as he did was wrong. It wasn't as if it was a dink, the whole left side was hanging off.

Once again we had another example of inconsistent rule application with Seb rolling forward at the start. I hate this "gained an advantage" stuff. Once you are in the box and the green flag is waved you don't move until the lights go out. End of rule. As soon as you start making judgements about who gained what, when, you and up with ambiguous decisions that cause arguments and cast the sport in a bad light.

Hamilton never really got near to passing Seb at the end which was frustrating as it was set up to be a great finish. Apart from the start, Seb drove a steady race.

 

[Angel]

I felt bad for Max, punted out and getting damage on his car when he did nothing wrong it seems. I enjoyed the race on the whole, plenty going on for me to keep me happy.

For those who are interested, Radical F1 is safe and well thankfully, his home suffered some damage, but he didn't which is the main thing.

 

[The Artist.....]

cider_and_toast - i got the impression that the stewards were basically not going to penalise Ferrari during the race today, so as to avoid the accusation that the only reason that Mercedes won the championship today was because of the penalties...

(Hence why the investigation about Leclerc/Verstappen was put to the end of the race- I would have put money that if Mercedes hadn’t wrapped everything up today, Leclerc wouldn’t have been penalised in the same way!)

 

[cider_and_toast]

That's possible. It's no way to run a sport though is it.

The rules are supposed to be the rules.

The same standard should apply from the back of the grid to the front regardless of the team or driver.

 

[FB]

If Vettel jumped the start, regardless of whether he gained an advantage, he should have been penalised. If I get caught speeding by the police I will be fined regardless of whether I have caused an accident or killed someone.

Le Clerc should have been shown the black and orange flag and then the black flag for driving around with a car that was falling to pieces. Hamilton was very lucky it didn't strike him directly in the helmet. The argument that it wasn't affecting the car performance is irrelevant, his car presented a hazard to other competitors so should have been forced to go into the pits to be repaired. Both Ferrari and le Clerc should be hit with a huge fine and a suspended race ban.

 

[rufus_mcdufus]

I thought Sebastian didn't cross his grid position line though (was a bit behind it to start with)?
I was expecting Leclerc to get black/orange flagged. Luckily it didn't turn out so bad.

 

[FB]

So if a driver stops 10 metres back from the line in his grid box he could start rolling before the lights change as long as he doesn't cross the line? I don't know the exact rule, do they have to have the front wheels in a certain space? There are sensors in the track to measure if they jump the start.

 

[rufus_mcdufus]

No idea, but looking around I found this:

“The Stewards reviewed video evidence and the jump-start report based on the information from the FIA approved and supplied transponder fitted to each car,” said an official statement from the FIA.

“Whilst the video shows some movement that movement was within the acceptable tolerance of the F1 jump start system which formerly defines a jump start per Article 36.13(a) of the FIA Formula One Sporting Regulations."

 

[FB]

Oh all right then. Still think le Clerc deserved a very harsh penalty though.

 

[rufus_mcdufus]

I thought they were fairly lenient with Sebastian too... But if it was inside the rules, I don't think I've seen that before.

 

[Ruslan]

For those who are interested, Radical F1 is safe and well thankfully, his home suffered some damage, but he didn't which is the main thing.

Good to know. Thanks.

 

[Ruslan]

Weird race.....actually not much of a race.

1. Vettel’s start: I have no idea if he should have gotten a penalty or not. It does seem like Vettel is averaging a mistake every other race.

2. Hamilton’s pit strategy was just weird. If he had just gone for a one stopper, I think he would have guaranteed 2nd. It was beginning to look like he could have won it. But, it appears that we were deprived of a fight for the lead due to Mercedes pit calls. Was this deliberate manipulation by them?

3. Verstappen: Not his fault......but, if you pass on the outside there is a risk.

4. Leclerc penalties: Not sure he should have been penalized for the crash with Verstappen. If his front end washed out and it was not deliberate (which is what the Stewards said and what I saw), then what is the basis of the penalty? Not aware that under steering was a penalty. The stewards claim that he should have known better that the car would be washed out, which may be true, but then would not that same argument apply to the car running next to him?
Anyhow, no problem with the penalty for not pitting to clear the damage.

5. I think the driver of the race was Ricciardo (if his car is legal).

In the end, after turn two of the first lap we were deprived of a fight for podium.

 

[Bernoulli]

1. Vettel’s start: I have no idea if he should have gotten a penalty or not. It does seem like Vettel is averaging a mistake every other race.

4. If his front end washed out and it was not deliberate (which is what the Stewards said and what I saw), then what is the basis of the penalty? Not aware that under steering was a penalty.

1. He didn't activate the sensors by moving, so technically he didn't jump the start. Hence, it would contravene the rules to penalise him.

4. He went to fast into the corner to defend against Verstappen that's what caused the understeer. Clearly it's a penalty then even though he didn't intend to crash into him.

 

[FB]

At about 1min in you get the view from Hamilton's car and you can see Vettel lurch forward and then stop.

Japanese GP: Verstappen and Leclerc collide in dramatic start

Watch the start of the 2019 Japanese Grand Prix in Suzuka, which saw an early coming-together for Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc.

www.formula1.com

 

[Bernoulli]

I know, I have F1TV and I can even watch it from Vettel's view, but by the rules of the book he didn't jump the start because he didn't activate the sensors.