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
 
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after listening to 5 live preview they had the bbc weatherman on who is big F1 fan. & using knowledge of both, he's stuck his neck out. says he would be amazed if anyone was on the track Saturday & along with crofty believes qualifying will be 9am local time (1am uk). but the race will be fine maybe even normal dry race

so thought i have have a look at forecast now i can, as it closer on my accuweather app & he's got a point. just the 6 weeks of rain in 10 hours 🌧

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It's official then, qualifying won't happen until Sunday morning. The weather is going to be too extreme on Saturday. Full details here: Saturday running cancelled in Japan – full revised timetable for Sunday | Formula 1®
However Kansai area which includes Suzuka will not get direct hit by the typhoon but will still experience heavy rain and gusty winds.
We in Tokyo though will get the eye of the storm/direct hit. Predicted to be the biggest hit in Tokyo over recorded history, we will get hit from 9:00AM to 8:00PM Saturday. This damn Typhoon is huge that it engulfs 80% of Japan.
China should do something with their huge contribution to Global Warming !

Catch you on the flip side later Angel. Hope I make it LOL
 
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However Kansai area which includes Suzuka will not get direct hit by the typhoon but will still experience heavy rain and gusty winds.
We in Tokyo though will get the eye of the storm/direct hit. Predicted to be the biggest hit in Tokyo over recorded history, we will get hit from 9:00AM to 8:00PM Saturday. This damn Typhoon is huge that it engulfs 80% of Japan.
China should do something with their huge contribution to Global Warming !

Catch you on the flip side later Angel. Hope I make it LOL

You'd better make it my friend, I will have you on my mind until I hear from you afterwards. Stay safe okay? :friends:
 
Quote from Andrew Benson on twitter "If weather conditions are still too bad on Sunday morning to run qualifying, as Typhoon Hagibis makes its way north after hitting Honshu tomorrow, the results of second practice will define the Japanese GP grid."

So expect FP2 to be more like qualifying.
 
I was talking current F1 circuits. Not all circuits , I’m sure there are plenty of other circuits with a cross over.
 
Angel will they get out for FP2?

Also - not wanting to stir the pot or anything - but if they are able to do qualifying in Sunday morning before the race this week, then in the name of cost and fan satisfaction, shouldn't they do that everyweek?
 
Angel will they get out for FP2?

Also - not wanting to stir the pot or anything - but if they are able to do qualifying in Sunday morning before the race this week, then in the name of cost and fan satisfaction, shouldn't they do that everyweek?

There you go again RasputinLives trying to be sensible. :rolleyes: Of course it would be better for the fans as it would save them a lot of money if it was all done on the one day. However I am guessing the tracks need to get the extra day of ticket sales in order to cover the costs imposed on them. I suppose they could just bump the race days ticket prices to cover it but would you really pay that much for just one day out?
 
There you go again RasputinLives trying to be sensible. :rolleyes: Of course it would be better for the fans as it would save them a lot of money if it was all done on the one day. However I am guessing the tracks need to get the extra day of ticket sales in order to cover the costs imposed on them. I suppose they could just bump the race days ticket prices to cover it but would you really pay that much for just one day out?

apart from that in European races it wouldn't be able to fit in because you have the 2 F3 & F2 races in the morning. I disagree I think for tv audiences as well it works because for like me id probally end up not watching qualifying because I don't have the time in such a cramped schedule. (im talking UK as I don't know other countries) because in races like Australia China Japan Vietnam, used to be Malaysia. . if you've got qualifying at 1am - 3am & the race at 6am - 8am. we are likely to just wake up early watch the race skip qualifying
 
why do they use FP2 for race grid if needed surely the fairest way is to use drivers championship positions like I think IndyCar have used this season because that's your great barometer of pace
 
I wasn't thinking about F2 and F3 races F1Brits_90, I have only ever watched the F1, I've never had the coverage of those other races and they don't occur to me as a result of that.

Makes sense to use FP2 if they can't qualify for the reasons Greenlantern101 gave.

To date I personally have never known them had to cancel a race since I started watching F1, could this be the first time it happens?
 
I think the final cut off is dependant on available light. I don't recall the exact time (maybe 3 hours) but it is determined by sunset I think. The failing light was a factor in Biachi's death which is when they changed it. So if the weather is still terrible 3 hours? before sunset it will be the first cancellation ever I think.
 
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