As last year, we come to Japan in early in the season. My friends at Wikipedia tell me that the of the 38 races which have taken place in Japan during the World Championship era 13 drivers titles have been decided at the race, some, as many of us know, in controversial circumstances. That's not likely to happen in April now is it?
Last year was a Red Bull benefit, with Max taking pole, winning the race from Sergio Perez by 12 seconds, taking fastest lap, and leading all but 5 laps. The most exciting development for this race is that the Red Bull's will be painted white with red accents, as a nod to their engine supplier Honda as white with a red sun is the national racing colour for Japan. The car looks quite pretty, although putting next to Richie Ginther's Honda RA272 from 1965 makes you realise just how monstrously large modern F1 cars have become. Oh, and I'm not sure if anyone has heard, but Yuki Tsunoda will be in the second Red Bull as Liam Lawson wasn't very good. Sorry, needs more time to develop as a driver.
McLaren continued to show their early season pace in China, although there was a resurgence from Ferrari with Lewis winning the Sprint race. The Scuderia then blotted their copy book (look it up youngsters, it's perfectly acceptable metaphor) by not making sure Le Clerc's car was the right weight and running Hamilton's car so low to the ground it wore too much off one of the skid blocks during the race.
Verstappen's performance in a less than "optimal" Red Bull have been exceptional. His ability to extract speed from the car is testimony to his ability as a driver. It will be very interesting to see how close Yuki Tsunoda can get to him. Mercedes will probably be challenging for podiums, but are unlikely to threaten the top step. Has anyone worked out yet why Kimi Antonelli won driver of the day in China? He didn't drive badly, but he was very far from being the best out there.
Meanwhile, in the midfield, Williams and Haas are having fun and, I have to say, Alex Albon has surprised me by out performing Carlos Sainz so far this season. The RB (?) looks fast in practice, but this appear to tail off a bit in the race, and Hadjar looks to have a fair turn of pace. I wonder how Lawson will perform in the car as one must presume his confidence has taken a bit of a knock after events at Red Bull.
At the back it will be race between Aston Martin, Sauber, and Alpine to see who finishes last. I wonder how much time Adrian Newey will spend trying to improve the current car and how much Audi must be wondering what they have let themselves in for. Sportscar racing is probably, technically, more complicated than F1, but there are no balance of performance rules to bring your opposition back to you if your car is slow, and this Sauber car is slow, although not as slow as the Alpine.
There's no sprint race this weekend, so no middle of the night alarms for those of us working on European time. Still an early start for qualifying and the race if you want to watch it live.
Enjoy!
Last year was a Red Bull benefit, with Max taking pole, winning the race from Sergio Perez by 12 seconds, taking fastest lap, and leading all but 5 laps. The most exciting development for this race is that the Red Bull's will be painted white with red accents, as a nod to their engine supplier Honda as white with a red sun is the national racing colour for Japan. The car looks quite pretty, although putting next to Richie Ginther's Honda RA272 from 1965 makes you realise just how monstrously large modern F1 cars have become. Oh, and I'm not sure if anyone has heard, but Yuki Tsunoda will be in the second Red Bull as Liam Lawson wasn't very good. Sorry, needs more time to develop as a driver.
McLaren continued to show their early season pace in China, although there was a resurgence from Ferrari with Lewis winning the Sprint race. The Scuderia then blotted their copy book (look it up youngsters, it's perfectly acceptable metaphor) by not making sure Le Clerc's car was the right weight and running Hamilton's car so low to the ground it wore too much off one of the skid blocks during the race.
Verstappen's performance in a less than "optimal" Red Bull have been exceptional. His ability to extract speed from the car is testimony to his ability as a driver. It will be very interesting to see how close Yuki Tsunoda can get to him. Mercedes will probably be challenging for podiums, but are unlikely to threaten the top step. Has anyone worked out yet why Kimi Antonelli won driver of the day in China? He didn't drive badly, but he was very far from being the best out there.
Meanwhile, in the midfield, Williams and Haas are having fun and, I have to say, Alex Albon has surprised me by out performing Carlos Sainz so far this season. The RB (?) looks fast in practice, but this appear to tail off a bit in the race, and Hadjar looks to have a fair turn of pace. I wonder how Lawson will perform in the car as one must presume his confidence has taken a bit of a knock after events at Red Bull.
At the back it will be race between Aston Martin, Sauber, and Alpine to see who finishes last. I wonder how much time Adrian Newey will spend trying to improve the current car and how much Audi must be wondering what they have let themselves in for. Sportscar racing is probably, technically, more complicated than F1, but there are no balance of performance rules to bring your opposition back to you if your car is slow, and this Sauber car is slow, although not as slow as the Alpine.
There's no sprint race this weekend, so no middle of the night alarms for those of us working on European time. Still an early start for qualifying and the race if you want to watch it live.
Enjoy!
