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Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix 2024 - Results
It's 2:45a as I'm posting this. I'm too tired to comment on the race...
Next race is in Shanghai, China -- April 19-21, 2024. First time racing in Shanghai in 5yrs!
Race Results -- SPOILER
| POS | NO | DRIVER | CAR | LAPS | TIME/RETIRED | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Max Verstappen | RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT | 53 | 1:54:23.566 | 26 |
| 2 | 11 | Sergio Perez | RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT | 53 | +12.535s | 18 |
| 3 | 55 | Carlos Sainz | FERRARI | 53 | +20.866s | 15 |
| 4 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | FERRARI | 53 | +26.522s | 12 |
| 5 | 4 | Lando Norris | MCLAREN MERCEDES | 53 | +29.700s | 10 |
| 6 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES | 53 | +44.272s | 8 |
| 7 | 63 | George Russell | MERCEDES | 53 | +45.951s | 6 |
| 8 | 81 | Oscar Piastri | MCLAREN MERCEDES | 53 | +47.525s | 4 |
| 9 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | MERCEDES | 53 | +48.626s | 2 |
| 10 | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | RB HONDA RBPT | 52 | +1 lap | 1 |
| 11 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | HAAS FERRARI | 52 | +1 lap | 0 |
| 12 | 18 | Lance Stroll | ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES | 52 | +1 lap | 0 |
| 13 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | HAAS FERRARI | 52 | +1 lap | 0 |
| 14 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | KICK SAUBER FERRARI | 52 | +1 lap | 0 |
| 15 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | ALPINE RENAULT | 52 | +1 lap | 0 |
| 16 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | ALPINE RENAULT | 52 | +1 lap | 0 |
| 17 | 2 | Logan Sargeant | WILLIAMS MERCEDES | 52 | +1 lap | 0 |
| NC | 24 | Zhou Guanyu | KICK SAUBER FERRARI | 12 | DNF | 0 |
| NC | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | RB HONDA RBPT | 0 | DNF | 0 |
| NC | 23 | Alexander Albon | WILLIAMS MERCEDES | 0 | DNF | 0 |
Fastest Lap: Max Verstappen
Source: F1.com
Alonso not only punching well above his cars performance but playing the game the last few laps towing Piastri in DRS. As soon as Rus passed Pia he increased the lead to 1.2s+ to stop Rus getting DRS. Legend. I'd love to see him on the podium again. I promise I'm not biased..
Stuff like this is why I love Alonso. Even the goofier things like commenting on what he sees on the screens... solid gold.
Let's go! My boy TSU with a point at home. The guy is carrying the team right now, very very well done. Hulk could've picked it up with that first start, it was wild but he ruined it in the second. Alonso masterclass as always. Merc... nothing to say.
Is Red Bull/Ferrari 1-4 dominance boring fans? 😛
It's kind of boring, but I do appreciate that they're focusing on midfield battles in their video coverage. I started watching during the 2020 season and it seemed that they would talk about the action in the middle of the pack but the cameras would still follow the podium places.
Being able to predict the winner is going to kill the series if it persists, it was terrible with Vettel, barely tolerable with Hamilton when Rosberg was around (partnered with Bottas, it was back to being dire) and it's awful now that Verstappen is occupying that position. It's a huge, long-term issue for the sport, but it's what it needs to overcome for a huge breakout moment. I've stopped watching live, it's just not worth committing that time any more. I'll find a stream somewhere later and skip through the boring laps and be done. No more listening to breathless commentators wondering whether an overtake is coming (it nearly never is) or whether Verstappen might not win (lol). I've been watching since 2010, so I'm not an ancient fan, but I'm not a newcomer either. Packing in more and more races each year, demanding more and more time, while offering a less-entertaining product... it's just got as good a deal as it used to be.
At first I thought people were kinda bombastic about this. I only started watching in 2021, so I wasn't familiar with the Hamilton years and Vettel years of dominance.
But after watching this year's season opener at Bahrain, and even this weekend at Suzuka, plus the last couple of seasons, I'm starting to understand this a little bit. Luckily, there's usually enough going on behind Max to keep it exciting. I don't only watch for P1, but I get wanting fights at the front (and all over the field). That's why I watch IndyCar and F2/F3 and even Formula E on occasion because I don't know who's going to win. And there are constant battles all over. Of course, these are all spec series.
I don't know what else FIA/FOM can do. It's all in the hands of the teams at this point. Seems like all we can hope for is that the 2026 regulations shake things up majorly. But even then, are we going to see fights or just dominance by a different team?
I think the sliding budget and testing allowance will eventually bring cars closer together, but it'll take time to shake off the residual dominance of the top teams.
To some extent, it's not possible to have truly competitive series like F1 because someone is always going to design a better car, and that progress will last for the rest of that era. They won't be able to make loads of progress with the testing caps, but it's better to have track position than race from the back ;)
Could the positive feedback loops be strengthened? Could you "penalise" the top teams even more when they're ahead? If Red Bull aren't being reined in and Sauber/Haas/Williams/Alpine are dropping back, perhaps the sliding scales need tilting even further? I don't know if this is feasible, but the problem of the pecking order being baked in for a whole era is problematic. I know friends that were borderline when Vettel was dominating, which meant that Hamilton's dominance was the final straw. I probably only kept on watching because I'm a Hamilton fan, but I could sympathise. I don't know if a balance of power solution is workable - a quick google on the issue showed me that the WEC community is pretty split, with passionate and solid arguments on both sides.
I'm sure they could be tweaked further but it's already pretty substantial, the 1st placed team has 30% less testing time compared to the team in 7th. At a certain point you have to accept that the lower teams just aren't as efficient with their time and money as the top teams - The Race YT channel had a piece on how Williams only moved away from Excel to track development this winter!
The difference is scales the further back you go. The team in 10th has 65% more testing time compared to 1st, and lower teams are allowed a higher budget.
Poor Sargeant
Honestly, he had his shot, that's still a massive win, in my opinion. I don't think he's good enough (along with a handful of others), but being "not good enough" to stay in Formula 1 is almost meaningless with how élite-level he probably still is as a driver. He's demonstrated good character, team spirit and grit - that should surely stand him in good stead to move elsewhere.
I agree -- I think the road to Indy all the way up to Indy and how they still manhandle the cars really hurts drivers not coming thru FIA series. If you watch Grosjean he had the opposite problem for a couple of years after moving to Indy (he still has the crashing problem tho :P)
Seargent and others just don't have the gentle muscle memory I think -- Even rookies coming from F2 struggle with that.
Sargeant's off in Japan that was commented on was a good watch and showed well how easy it is to be super proficient driver and just go off -- He clipped the inside which sent him wide and on the kerb. He didn't adjust his braking length being on a kerb with less grip and so he couldn't slow down for the next corner. All of that happened in maybe 3.5 seconds haha!
Just a counterpoint to u/chargrilled_broccoli which posted a very fair/reasonable take. I'm not a Max fan an I didn't watch in the Vettel or Hamilton eras. I started watching in 2021 so I've watched the "Rise of Verstappen." 2021 was excellent, the Mercedes and Red Bull were very closed and the last year that Max could be considered an "underdog."
The prevailing opinion is that Max is one of the best drivers ever. He "only" has three championships (and a fourth is pretty much in the books). The man lives and breathes racing. When he isn't doing F1 work he plays racing sims constantly regularly staying up late the night before a grand prix on iRacing. He's installed a full sim rig in his private jet so that he can race all the time. His childhood is also a bit different than other racers, his father is an abusive asshole former F1 driver (not very good). But pretty much shaped Max into a F1 driver since the age of 3.
The point that he has a dominant car is significant. To understand skills versus mechanical advantage our best data point is performance versus his team mate. His current partner is Sergio Perez. Who is a very good driver. But Sergio is beatable in the Red Bull. If Sergio beats the field by 10 seconds, Max is ahead of him by 20-30 seconds. And he isn't driving "all out." We've seen time and again that he has more time in his back pocket.
I think every F1 fan wants to see Max is a different car.
I agree that Max is one of the best drivers of all time, but I think you're underestimating both the strength of other drivers and the importance of the car.
I really think there'd be less than a 5% chance Max would win the championship in the Ferarri. The Red Bull is really fast, especially on race pace. Sainz and Leclerc are two of the best in the field, yet are still > 0.5s slower in race pace.
Max's real skill is in consistently performing at the peak performance of the car. But he can't drive a car faster than it's physically capable of, and that's genuinely what it would take to beat most drivers in a Red Bull.
I'm sure he'd sneak in a few more wins than other drivers (a la 2016 - 2020 in Red Bull), but the only way he'd be a Red Bull in a Ferarri is if Red Bull is running two pretty bad drivers.
I suppose I'm thinking an "average" driver. I'd agree on the 5% if we're putting another top 6 driver in his Red Bull Seat. But who would be an average driver? Gasly, Tsunoda, Ocon? If they were in a Red Bull I bet Max could beat them in a Ferrari. I think he would beat Perez just based on consistency, but my opinion could change this year, Perez has started well. Perez's last season highlighted that the car doesn't just win by itself.
I don't think I'm underestimating the importance of the car. I only claimed he'd have a chance in the second best car. There was no claim he'd be competing for the Driver's Championship in anything slower.
It's too bad that "racecraft" isn't even part of the conversation. We saw that Max tried to bully Hamilton in 2021. I'd like to see how others respond to similar competition.
As the other have said - the cars are all different (and Reb Bull is easily the best) so it's hard to say for sure.
But given his performances since the start of last year, there aren't many arguments against him being the best overall driver on the grid right now.
That's not to say he's been the single best driver every single race (even though he's won nearly all of them). There are definitely a lot of drivers who have had better performances relative to their car than Max, but over the past 2 seasons, Max has been constantly at or near peak performance more than any other driver.
The Red Bull being so much better than every other team does make it easier for him, but it still takes a supreme amount of skill to perform at that level every race. See his teammate, Perez, for an example of that. He missed the podium in over half the races last year, even though there was only 1 race where Red Bull wasn't the fastest car a mile.
Long story short - it is almost universally agreed that Max Verstappen is arguably the best on the grid right now.