Grand Prix 2025 Japanese Grand Prix

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.

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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!

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That was a race Verstappen earned but also Mclaren threw away

I think the swap should have happened
i don't know if McLaren couldve won because the undercut didnt work with piastri but then also antotelli ran out of laps to get close to russell on the overcut
 
That was a race Verstappen earned but also Mclaren threw away

I think the swap should have happened
If piastri couldn’t pass Norris, there was no way he was getting past Verstappen.

This season, it is looking more and more as if it will be a fight between the McLaren drivers - it would be terrible if one driver misses out because of team orders.
 
Piastri could get to Norris within less than a second but Norris could not to Verstappen

It should have been worth a go with 12 laps to go if both agree to swap back . Piastri to me seems to be prepared to pull a move if its half a chance where as Norris needs to be 75% sure he will come out cleanly

I've been waiting for Piastri to race Verstappen wheel to wheel . He seems to be less intimidated by his antics

There is shades of 1986 possibly about this but the conditions in Suzuka helped to remove Red Bull's weakness namely tyre wear

the constructors seems to be heading to Mclaren its a matter which driver is going to be racing Verstappen if not each other

Ferrari - what is going on ?

Mercedes - the car is safe 3rd best at the moment and Antonelli has the hallmark of a multiple GP winner

Hadjar , Bearman and Albon deserve a mention for their performances

Tsunoda - messed up yesterday but he will surely do better than Lawsom

Sainz still struggling

Lawson - a small improvement but still terrible

Stroll - well that was rubbish

Alonso - another no score !
 
This is Williams best start to a season since 2016 and, after 3 races they've already scored their third highest points total of the last 8 seasons.

The trouble they'll have is sustaining that performance while trying to build a new car to next year's regs.

Should the FIA decide to delay the rule changes, Williams could be one of the biggest beneficiaries.
 
This is Williams best start to a season since 2016 and, after 3 races they've already scored their third highest points total of the last 8 seasons.

The trouble they'll have is sustaining that performance while trying to build a new car to next year's regs.

Should the FIA decide to delay the rule changes, Williams could be one of the biggest beneficiaries.
Albon has not been fazed

I think Sainz is given a kind hand given the way he was treated with Ferrari but they need him to step up. It looks like they will be best of the midfield unless Racing Bulls start scoring heavily
 
That was a race Verstappen earned but also Mclaren threw away

I think the swap should have happened

If piastri couldn’t pass Norris, there was no way he was getting past Verstappen.

This season, it is looking more and more as if it will be a fight between the McLaren drivers - it would be terrible if one driver misses out because of team orders.

Agree with the view that if Piastri can't pass Norris then he can't pass Verstappen.

However I like the idea of having an arrangement where if he can't get the place they swap back. And then encourage Pastry to do whatever it takes - i.e. pull a Verstappen on verstappen.
 
The most boring race in years. Max did what he used to do, get pole and then lead the whole race (I hate that guy, and want to slap that smirk off his face). I don't think there was one pass among the top 5 starters. DRS, as artificial as it is, did nothing.
 
what is wrong with F1 now. & why have we seemingly gone back to 2017 - 2021 where its so tough to overtake. because back then we brought back ground effect so cars were less dependent on the wings to give them downforce. & yet we still have this same issue. as autosport article said. "70 fewer overtakes than a year earlier, despite there being 2 extra races"

- are the cars too big. do we need to go from 2m? to 1.60m

- do we need to be ruthless & ditch the new 2026 engines & batteries bring in the lighter V8/V10 engines in 27/28 & lead the charge on sustainable fuels. get closer to 600kg

- or as i suggested above do questions need to be asked about pirelli. because i felt at 7am on sunday. it seems as if we are no closer to finding a solution 15 years in. as the cars seem to have always struggled with thermal deg when following cars closely. which means nobody stay close enough for long enough to try an overtake. is it rose tinted glasses but i feel we didnt have this duscussion with bridgestone, i think of schumacher v alonso imola 2005 & how close they could run for 20 laps, without tyres falling off & in a DRS era. schumacher wouldve passed alonso to win easily.

- final point controversially, do we need to bring in a 2nd tyre manufacturer because. im guessing the reason why bridgestone had to be so good was because like renault found out in engines. if your not competitive nobodies going to use you
 
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