F1 MSC CRUISES JAPANESE GRAND PRIX 2024

[PTRACER]

Bottom post of the previous page:

Eh I don't understand everyone's reaction? Whether to look left or right is a split second decision. I guess Ric might have been expecting a car on his left but not on his right, and nor would you as you took a left handed. Racing incident with such huge cars on a narrow track.

[PTRACER]

Carlos keeps his 100% races started podium finishes this year.

Carlos did very well and this is the first race I have ever been consciously aware of Ferrari taking a strategy that actually worked!

[Star]

Well there aren't many times when watching highlights is of any benefit. When a race gets red flagged though, it's a definite benefit as you don't have to sit and wait for a restart. Nasty crash for both Ricciardo and Albon and something neither of them needed. It's not great for Ricciardo's prospects with the team and Williams must be worried about how they're now going to field two cars in China. You have to say, based on last year you'd expect Sargeant to be the main issue, only he's not, it's Albon who seems to be playing demolition derby out there.

There were quite a few overtakes but mostly I found it a pretty dull race I have to admit. Bottas looked a bit racey for a while, then it all went to bits after another duff pitstop for Sauber. It wasn't as bad as previous races, but it was enough to drop him back after all his hard work. The mass pitstop was great for Tsunoda though, the team did a great job for him and he did really well to score a point in his home race as well I felt.

Leclerc must be wondering what he has to do in order to be able to beat Sainz. He is supposed to be the number 1 driver at Ferrari, after all, he's the one with the signed contract and is supposedly their future, yet Sainz keeps on finding ways of showing him up by being faster than him. Leclerc made another unforced error today, he's made too many of those.

Sargeant did well to make it back onto the track after his trip across the gravel, I'm not sure it was the best way to get back on, but he got away with it seemingly and didn't cause anyone else any real problems.

Alonso was clearly trying to use Piastri to keep Russell behind them both, in the end though it didn't work out. Saying that, Russell managed to pass Piastri, but he couldn't get Alonso, so as far as Fernando is concerned, it was job done.

The Red Bull 1-2 was never really in much doubt it seemed, Checo has found some form again and is doing what he needs to do. You can't really say much more than that.

As I said, not an exciting race to be honest but then lately, they're really not it seems to me. Oh well, maybe in China.

[Everso Biggyballies]

Carlos keeps his 100% races started podium finishes this year.

Carlos did very well and this is the first race I have ever been consciously aware of Ferrari taking a strategy that actually worked!

I thought the same pre race too, as Ferrari have always found a way to shoot themselves in the foot in previous years. Hence why I picked the photo below for the race preview. I thought it appropriate.

It does seem though, that Vasseur is getting better work from the team than his Italian predecessor Team Principals, with all respects to our Italian friends here.

JAPANESE GP 2024 - SUZUKA

[DoubleFart]

Ferrari are best when they're not managed by Italians.

[P. Cornelius Scipio]

I enjoyed the race, not a classic but not too bad either

Verstappen as usual on a race of his own, I presume that he should think carefully if he wants to move somewhere else because he's never going to have it so good

Perez IMHO did ok, he was close to Max in quali and in the race he managed to pull some great moves, he was slightly slower than Max but not that much

Sainz IMHO is the driver of the day. I have a few reservations about the timing of his second pit stop but he managed to pass many cars on track which is good, I think that on pace he could have possibly tried to finish ahead of Perez pity his strategy seemed to be less than 100% effective

Leclerc had a stunning first stint (he was still posting decent lap times at the end of his stint) and an average second one, to me it was obvious that with the white tyres he wasn't as effective as with the yellow ones or as effective as his team mate. I guess that he's not 100% comfortable with his car because on occasion he showed that he can drive (for example at 130R) but the overall result was a bit of a let down

I'm glad that the accident between Ricciardo and Albon was deemed as a racing accident, one could maybe argue that Albon was slightly optimistic because he was in Ricciardoì's blind spot but other than that it was a racing accident. I feel for both drivers as they needed some solid result instead

[DoubleFart]

Nice that Russell thinks Piastri was wrong to cut the corner and should have given up the place.

[Star]

Is it just me or is anyone else amazed that Ferrari actually let Sainz pass Leclerc the way he did?

I mean based on previous similar scenarios you'd usually you'd expect them to put out a message warning Sainz to stay where he was and not risk the cars. That was sort of what I expected yesterday, but no, they actually let him race and pass Leclerc, who didn't make it easy for him at all. Whether they knew Carlos would ignore them and go for it anyway, so they decided it wasn't worth saying it, I don't know. I'm guessing if they had said it and Carlos had ignored it, we'd have heard the message one way or another.

[P. Cornelius Scipio]

Is it just me or is anyone else amazed that Ferrari actually let Sainz pass Leclerc the way he did?

I mean based on previous similar scenarios you'd usually you'd expect them to put out a message warning Sainz to stay where he was and not risk the cars. That was sort of what I expected yesterday, but no, they actually let him race and pass Leclerc, who didn't make it easy for him at all. Whether they knew Carlos would ignore them and go for it anyway, so they decided it wasn't worth saying it, I don't know. I'm guessing if they had said it and Carlos had ignored it, we'd have heard the message one way or another.

Holding up Sainz would have looked really bad, he was way faster than Leclerc and had been ahead all the week end. I understand that they were "forced" to postpone Leclerc's pit stop by traffic (and he is to praise because he drove very well during the first stint and was still competitive when his tyres were already past their sell by date), but I think that Sainz's second pit stop could have been slightly earlier so I wonder how long Sainz's positive streak of races will continue, the pit wall decisions are bound to favor Leclerc, it's only natural if they do so, otherwise they would have to admit that they were fools in ousting Sainz the way they did

[Everso Biggyballies]

ODDS AND SODS

Start off with a Max thing.

Although not in calendar terms due to the early Japanese GP this year, it was at the Japanese GP 10 years ago in 2014 that we first ever saw Max in an F1 car.... Max ran as #38 in FP1 for what was then STR. He finished the session 12th fastest, ironically just ahead a Sergio in a Force India back then.

Since then, in 8 Japanese GPs , all at Suzuka, (no race in 2020/21 for Covid) Max has had 3 wins, 6 podiums, 1x9th and 1 DNF at the Japanese GP. His three. wins have been consecutive, (2022-2024).... Schumi is the only other driver to win 3 Japanese GPs on the bounce before.(2000-2002)

It was Max's 30th win from pole from 36 pole positions. It was his 57th win. (30.16% of starts... of current drivers Lewis has 30.64%

During the race Max passed the impressive mark of having led 3000 race laps. Only 3 other have led more.... Hamilton (5455) Schu (5111) and Seb Vettel (3501)

It was RBR's 31st 1-2 finish (3rd 1-2 this year, each one with Ferrari 3rd!). That puts them 5th on the list, behind Ferrari(86) Mercedes(59) McLaren(48) and Williams.(33)

The podium in Japan this year was identical to that we saw in Bahrain last month.

No season in history before 2024 has ever started with four consecutive one-two finishes involving multiple constructors (three for Red Bull and one for Ferrari).

I mentioned this at the end of the race but here it is again..... Yuki Tsunoda became the first Japanese driver to score points in his home race since Kamui Kobayashi finished 3rd for Sauber in 2012.

P9 for Lewis is the first time he has finished outside the top-five at Suzuka since the hybrid era began in 2014.

[Everso Biggyballies]

ODDS AND SODS

Start off with a Max thing.

Although not in calendar terms due to the early Japanese GP this year, it was at the Japanese GP 10 years ago in 2014 that we first ever saw Max in an F1 car.... Max ran as #38 in FP1 for what was then STR. He finished the session 12th fastest, ironically just ahead a Sergio in a Force India back then.

Since then, in 8 Japanese GPs , all at Suzuka, (no race in 2020/21 for Covid) Max has had 3 wins, 6 podiums, 1x9th and 1 DNF at the Japanese GP. His three. wins have been consecutive, (2022-2024).... Schumi is the only other driver to win 3 Japanese GPs on the bounce before.(2000-2002)

It was Max's 30th win from pole from 36 pole positions. It was his 57th win. (30.16% of starts... of current drivers Lewis has 30.64%

During the race Max passed the impressive mark of having led 3000 race laps. Only 3 other have led more.... Hamilton (5455) Schu (5111) and Seb Vettel (3501)

It was RBR's 31st 1-2 finish (3rd 1-2 this year, each one with Ferrari 3rd!). That puts them 5th on the list, behind Ferrari(86) Mercedes(59) McLaren(48) and Williams.(33)

The podium in Japan this year was identical to that we saw in Bahrain last month.

No season in history before 2024 has ever started with four consecutive one-two finishes involving multiple constructors (three for Red Bull and one for Ferrari).

I mentioned this at the end of the race but here it is again..... Yuki Tsunoda became the first Japanese driver to score points in his home race since Kamui Kobayashi finished 3rd for Sauber in 2012.

P9 for Lewis is the first time he has finished outside the top-five at Suzuka since the hybrid era began in 2014.

Another fact re Suzuka comes to light......

As we know it was another Max Verstappen victory last weekend.... he’s now won the last three grands prix around Suzuka.

Remarkably, those three races represent 60% of all Honda engine victories in the 34 years the Japanese Grand Prix has been held at Suzuka, a circuit owned and conceived by Honda itself. For an engine manufacturer with such extensive periods of F1 domination in its history, its relatively meagre haul around its own track is at best weird.

Apart from Verstappen’s wins in 2022/23/24, Honda has powered the winner only twice: in 1988 (with Ayrton Senna’s McLaren) and 1991 (Gerhard Berger’s McLaren ).

They coulda shoulda won more but title-clinching implications of the race’s late-season placement in the calendar (until this year) cost them the loss of at least one of the wins, maybe two, which would otherwise have been dead cert wins. The collisions between Senna and Prost in the races of 1989 and ’90 as they fought out the destiny of the world championship might conceivably have yielded two Honda wins (though Prost was in a Ferrari in 1990 making that one more up in the air.)

In one line, Honda have only ever won twice at Suzuka is 30 plus years until Max came along. Prior to Max they have actually had 50 cars start races with Honda engines at Suzuka.

Just two wins out of over 50 starts, including all their eras of dominance by the likes of Williams Honda in the Piquet Mansell years, , McLaren Honda in the Senna Prost years (from 1987 when Suzuka joined the circus anyway), Lotus Honda through to other partnerships with Tyrrell Honda, BAR Honda,, Jordan Honda, Toro Rosso Honda plus of course their own works Honda team. Bizarre given both those two pre Max era wins were 1987 and '88, the first two years of Suzuka as a GP venue.... Berger and Senna with McLaren taking Honda's only non Max wins..

Of course technically one of those Max wins, that of 2022, was an RBPT engine with no mention of Honda ,,,, only 2023 and '24 they were entered as Honda RBPT engines. We know they were built by Honda in 2022 despite the lack of Honda on the entry list so im giving that win to Honda as well. The cars carried HRC Stickers at Suzuka 2022..