53 laps of the 5.807-kilometre Suzuka Circuit 4th April Practice 1 03:30 - 04:30 4th April Practice 2 07:00 - 08:00 5th April Practice 3 03:30 - 04:30 5th April Qualifying 07:00 - 08:00 6th April Race 06:00 - 08:00 All times are UK times Poll closes before Quali.
Hard to see past one of the two McLaren’s this weekend, so hopefully it’s Piastri to keep things as close as possible, although I think it’s probably a circuit that’s more likely to favour Norris. Good to see Yuki start well and that Lawson is immediately performing in the RB too. I think most would agree that we now have the drivers in the cars they should have started the season in, so hopefully it’s all positive from here. Looked like another little mistake from Alonso - I’m definitely watching for signs now, but I really do think we’re watching his last year in F1.
That will be sad. He was at times his own worse enemy and wasn't helped by the fiasco with Honda when they reentered the sport. Despite his WDCs he never achieved his full potential.
The Alonso thing is interesting. We’ve been so used to him driving to perfection in rubbish cars that any small mistakes stand out. If he was 30, I don’t think we’d be worrying so much. Today he’s bounced back, smashed his team mate, just missed the cusp of Q3 with what is a very poor car. Aston never recovered after their misstep in development mid 2023. I really hope he gets a race winning car before he bows out. It would be a travesty if he leaves before the billionaire sulker in the garage next door. Newey should give him a good chassis- big question is Honda. However interestingly- Alonso spoke out against V10s the other day and said we need to stick to new regs. I wonder if there is a bit more confidence emanating out of the Honda project now.
Yep, love him or hate him,you`ve got to give credit where it`s due. That was a simply fantastic lap. He seemed as much surprised as anyone to do a 1min 26secs time.
Totally agree with the sentiment and to be clear I don’t think he’s no longer fit to be in F1. I think the key word you used was perfection and that’s what’s gone, across a long hard season, the ability to perform relentlessly is declining and mistakes are creeping in. Honestly, I do think he’s gone from being (one of) the best drivers to just being a good/average one now. As such I anticipate it might get taken out of his hands e.g. Verstappen moves and takes Russell’s seat you can see Aston deciding that it makes a lot more sense to build around Russell and moving Fernando on to enable that. If everyone stays where they are, the scenario where Aston comes good and gives him a final flourish is realistic, but if there’s another shuffle and you can see one being caused this year either by Verstappen or by a McLaren intra team fight blowing up, then it’s hard not to see a situation where he’s the one that loses out.
The ultimate evidence of how hard it is to be Max Verstappen’s team mate today. Yuki, 0.5s off him in Q2, which is perfectly acceptable for the situation and the fact that this is a track where Max excels more than usual. End result he’s 14 grid spots behind and faces a scrap to get into the points.
3 rookies in the top 10. That's a lot closer than the last 2 were, but at the same time, Yuki should be fast at Suzuka.
Three races in to this season, I'd really hoped for a bit more excitement. Maybe even some racing. Maybe it'll get going
Suzuka was never overly likely to be one to break the snoozefest streak. Bahrain has half a chance. For today we should probably take a moment to consider how crazy it is that Max is one point off the WDC lead in that car. The gulf in driver quality on full display once again. God help us if Red Bull bring upgrades...
Whilst watching sporting brilliance has it’s attractions, it’s better when served at least with a side portion of action and even the mid pack let us down with that today.
Yeah, China and Japan haven’t been great adverts. The added spoil is that Ferrari are not able to fight for wins until they solve whatever their major flaw is currently (it might be something more than just ride height according to Le Clerc who said it would be a little while before there is a fix). If McLaren keep botching points then the likes of Verstappen or even Russell could be rewarded for consistency in cars not quite fast enough to fight McLaren toe to toe, so keep an eye on them. The one positive for Ferrari is that even with big problems, their car is still quick enough to be 3rd or 4th best car on any given day so if they can get the sweet spot like China sprint, they should find the speed. The Mercedes in particular looks a highly compliant car this year - be interesting to see if they have much in the pipeline to throw at it because for the first time in these regs I think they’re much closer to being on top of the car.
I don't think upgrades will make it faster, just make it easier for the other guy to extract a bit of pace.
