2026 Japan Thoughts
THE BIG PICTURE: It finally happened. What everyone was concerned about. And the basic lack of outrage is quite concerning. What happens when a car is launched off the back of another? And ends up in a marshall station? Or worse, debris in a spectator area?
EVENT: The tifosi at Monza. The Orange Army at Zandvoort (and Spa). The costume designers at Suzuka. The three best fan bases on the F1 calendar.
TRACK: This track did not lend itself as much as the others with easy passing. Other old style tracks will probably play out the same.
QUALIFYING: Antonelli maintains his momentum in commanding fashion, McLaren sends Ferrari a message, Verstappen shockingly again doesn't make it out of Q2 while Hadjar, Lindblad star again, and Cadillac beats Aston Martin.
RACE: Not like the first two, but still some back and forth passing. But ultimately, the safety car was the deciding factor for most.
START: And there goes a Ferrari ... wait, what ... where did that orange car come from?! Piastri finally gets a start this year and uses it to grab first place as Norris slots into third. All while Antonelli barely gets off the line, dropping to sixth.
ANTONELLI: Yeah, Kimi got a bit lucky with this win. But what driver hasn't before? He still put the car on pole and drove in a dominating fashion when he got the lead.
RUSSELL: George may have been screwed by the safety car, but he was not as fast as Antonelli since issues arose in qualifying.
MERCEDES: Their cars sure do love to run in open air. They sure do dislike running in traffic.
PIASTRI: Oscar started a race! And lands a podium in the process.
MCLAREN: Never should have done the undercut for Piastri. They had the necessary information to avoid it. Another McLaren strategy blunder.
FERRARI: Another podium. If they can get the race power to couple with the starting power, they will be a solid contender.
GASLY: Pierre is really liking this car. And look at what he did with a car he didn't like last year.
COLAPINTO: We don't think his move warranted a penalty, as he wasn't aware Bearman initiated boost mode. But it still should have been investigated further than it was. However, the real issue...
ALPINE: ...is why weren't the harvesting warning lights blinking on the back of the car? This is something that definitely should have been investigated.
BEARMAN: What must have been going through Ollie's mind. Very lucky to only come away with a serious bruise and has such a long time to recover.
OCON: Backed into a point because...
HAAS: ...the car just didn't have the speed this weekend.
VERSTAPPEN: Would Max really walk away from F1? On the one hand, he's always said it's not about running F1 as long as he can. But on the other hand, really?
LAWSON: Liam admits he got a point only because of the safety car.
ALBON: Literally used the second half of the race as a test session...
WILLIAMS: Just miserable. Again.
AUDI: It appears Mattia Binotto took his Ferrari politicking lessons over to Audi and had Jonathan Wheatley ousted. This may not turn out as well as he thinks.
CADILLAC: Faster than Aston Martin the whole weekend.
ASTON MARTIN: And the (down) beat goes on.
FIA: Issuing word salad press release is not the solution to a serious safety issue.
WORD OF THE WEEKEND: Differential.
STAT OF THE WEEKEND: 28mph -- The actual approximate closing speed for Bearman on Colapinto's car. This is not multi-class sports car racing where drivers expect and prepare for that. This is F1, where drivers are trained differently.
HISTORICAL STAT OF THE WEEKEND: The last Italian driver to win two F1 races in a row was Alberto Ascari. He actually won nine races in a row from 1952 (all six races after the opening Swiss event which he skipped to enter the Indy 500) and the first three in 1953 (when he did not enter the Indy 500). Ascari also won two more races later that year for back-to-back world championships. It was the last year he was competitive in F1, as he never finished a world championship race again, before dying while testing a Ferrari sports car at Monza on May 26, 1955.
TWEET OF THE WEEKEND:@elmejordelresto:
"What are you going to do this month without F1?"
Max: "Well, I'm going to keep racing, but in categories that I actually enjoy"
#F1 #JapaneseGP
QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND: When asked what should change, Lando Norris said, "There's no point in saying it. It doesn't matter what we say."
QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND RUNNERUP: Even the drivers are all confused over this unexpected long break as Antonelli said, "See you in Miami in three weeks time." Umm, Kimi, it's five weeks.
SCHEDULE: Lots of teams will be glad for the long break as they will be able to concentrate on development. And the FIA should be concentrating on fixing the rules causing the safety issues.
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