F1 2025: Japanese GP - Suzuka (Apr 6)

[dfox]

Well, best of luck to Yuki.

I think Horner is kicking himself for ignoring Checo's complaints for years. He had his experienced second driver who has driven for multiple teams giving him feedback, and now he's hoping Yuki can do that... Oof.

[Artemis]

Originally Posted by minn19

A lot of people don’t like Zach (especially Horner of course), but at least he takes responsibility for what happens with his team, unlike Horner.

Zak Brown wasn't particularly kind to Stoffel Vandoorne. Vandoorne was a young F1 hopeful chosen by Ron Dennis. Placid composure as Piastri. Brown definitely wanted his boy Norris in the seat (he had personal commercial interests). And so Vandoorne lost the seat. Vandoorne made no scene about it.

And that's even the sugar-coated version of what happened. Brown is a very opportunistic, brash person. Also aggressively snatched Piastri away from the jaws of Alpine in the summer of 2022 (who were caught off guard).

[Artemis]

Credit where credit is due.

"Slowson" ? During the Australian GP, Lawson's FL was faster than Verstappen's FL.

More to come from Lawson. He'll be on a mission.

Originally Posted by Artemis

All drivers performed their fastest laptime during lap 42 or 43. Safety Car exited in lap 41. Lap 43 DRS was enabled. The field resumed with new tires (order: NOR PIA VER RUS LEC TSU ALB HAM GAS ANT STR HUL BOR LAW OCO BEA). Lap 44 rain started to intensify with NOR and PIA going off-track. Raindance.

Peculiar laptime facts:

• only Norris and Lawson clocked a sub 1m23s laptime during the race
  
• Lawson (DNF) outperformed Verstappen
• Hamilton outperformed Leclerc
• Antonelli outperformed Russell
• Stroll outperformed Alonso (DNF)
• Albon outperformed Sainz (DNF)
• Bortoleto (DNF) outperformed Hulkenberg

1. NOR - 1:22.167 (lap 43)
   
2. LAW - 1:22.970 (lap 43) (DNF 46/57)
   
3. VER - 1:23.081 (lap 43)
4. PIA - 1:23.242 (lap 43)
5. BOR - 1:24.192 (lap 43) (DNF 45/57)
   
6. TSU - 1:24.194 (lap 43)
7. HAM - 1:24.218 (lap 43)
8. ALB - 1:24.597 (lap 43)
9. ANT - 1:24.901 (lap 43)
10. GAS - 1:25.020 (lap 43)
11. RUS - 1:25.065 (lap 43)
12. HUL - 1:25.243 (lap 43)
13. LEC - 1:25.271 (lap 43)
14. STR - 1:25.538 (lap 43)
15. OCO - 1:26.764 (lap 42)
16. BEA - 1:27.603 (lap 42)
17. ALO - 1:28.819 (lap 32) (DNF 32/57)
18. SAI - / (DNF 0/57)
19. DOO - / (DNF 0/57)
20. HAD - / (DNF 0/57)

[///M Power-Belgium]

Originally Posted by LH44

Just an inchident.

That's what I really like about Charlie

[///M Power-Belgium]

Originally Posted by G30M

It's OFFICIAL. Tsunoda is now Max's partner. Lawson is Hadjar's partner.

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/a...4YYPhhMJpHqUiO

That's already old news for us ..

[GuidoK]

https://youtube.com/shorts/EDU4kp2oh68
😁

[minn19]

Originally Posted by Artemis

Zak Brown wasn't particularly kind to Stoffel Vandoorne. Vandoorne was a young F1 hopeful chosen by Ron Dennis. Placid composure as Piastri. Brown definitely wanted his boy Norris in the seat (he had personal commercial interests). And so Vandoorne lost the seat. Vandoorne made no scene about it.

And that's even the sugar-coated version of what happened. Brown is a very opportunistic, brash person. Also aggressively snatched Piastri away from the jaws of Alpine in the summer of 2022 (who were caught off guard).

I get it, nobody’s a saint, but I’ve heard him multiple times last year taking responsibility for strategic mistakes, mishaps, bad decisions etc etc.

Horner has talked a lot of poo over the years and it’s coming back to him from multiple points.

He was right on Lando and Oscar so I guess I don’t see the issue there. Alpine were idiots in not reading their own agreement with Oscar and they let him get away. Isn’t it their job to aggressively get the best drivers for the team?

Any comments on Horner’s (mis)management of the team that has lead them to where they are now?

Edit: Also if Vandoorne was the real deal why did he not end up with another team or RB for that matter?

[///M Power-Belgium]

Originally Posted by GuidoK

https://youtube.com/shorts/EDU4kp2oh68
😁

100% Adrenaline => https://www.youtube.com/shorts/sM-aqOedy8A

Just listen

[Artemis]

Originally Posted by minn19

Edit: Also if Vandoorne was the real deal why did he not end up with another team or RB for that matter?

Vandoorne is the guy next door. No wealthy family. No big sponsors. Ron Dennis chose him because of talent and results - no pay driver.

Especially in the nowadays F1 world: no money = no honey. And if the powers that be of a team got a personal interest to promote their own kid, you're at risk of getting axed.

F1 is a ruthless dog-eat-dog business. Not every F1 driver deserves to be considered "one of the 20 best F1 drivers worldwide". Lots of super talented race drivers never got the chance to access F1.

Originally Posted by minn19

Any comments on Horner’s (mis)management of the team that has lead them to where they are now?

Horner virtually single-handedly ruined RBR with his antics on track and off track. Success went to his head: hubris.

Verstappen gets increasingly bothered by all that has happened since Summer 2022 (finding out that Perez had deliberately crashed during the Monaco Q3 qualies, seems to have caused quite some damage in the team dynamics; losing Honda after 2025; the damaged relationship with Mark Mateschitz after having snubbed Porsche and an attempted power grab (failed RBR buyout); the fallout/handling of the female employee story widened the divide; Adrian Newey and several others have left, etc.). Lawson getting demoted being the latest in a series of situations that bother Verstappen (he opposed against demoting Lawson, but Horner & C° ignored his point of view). Chances are increasing that Verstappen will be donning the Mercedes race suit in 2026, you'll see.

Throwback to 2022: Verstappen refused to let Perez pass in the final stages of the 2022 Interlagos GP because of the the 2022 Monaco Q3 crash:

Originally Posted by Artemis

• when Verstappen was radioed to let Perez pass during the final lap of the 2022 Brazil race, the reporter "already knew for sure at that moment" that Verstappen would refuse "and that has everything to do with Monaco earlier this year";
• he claims that a couple of weeks ago, "I believe in Mexico" (the Mexico race weekend of Oct 28-30, 2022), Verstappen was internally asked whether under such (hypothetical) scenario he would let Perez pass, but Verstappen "re-iterated" that he would refuse to do so "because you know why"; Red Bull internally "knew" that Verstappen would definitely not change his mind on this subject and that "what happened in Monaco is not forgotten";
• he said that, after Max Verstappen secured the 2022 WDC title in Japan (Oct 9, 2022), Jos Verstappen told his newspaper that "also for him, Monaco was the turning point";
• he added that during the Azerbaijan race weekend (June 10-12, 2022; the next race after the Monaco race weekend of May 27-29, 2022) he was "by chance standing next to Red Bull" and he heard Helmut Marko ask where Perez was; after returning from the press conference, Perez was escorted upstairs where he was "summoned to explain" ("op het matje geroepen" is a Dutch expression for being ordered to explain alleged inappropriate behavior); the reporter added: "And apparently, there, Perez has internally admitted that he had deliberately spun during the final run of the qualifications. He had P3, so it was not about pole position. He saw on his steering wheel via the delta time that he was not faster underway. He thought « I park over there » and so Verstappen - who was faster underway - can no longer pass.";
• Perez went on to win the Monaco race and the reporter claims that "Verstappen has always remembered this";
• he added: "People can say: « Suggestive ». However, we know this already since months. It's internally already known." and "The onboard images of Perez, the data, and you clearly see that only in that moment he immediately floors the gas pedal in the middle of the turn ahead of the tunnel. Yeah, that was pure intent. And this has nothing to do with speculation, again, this is just a fact and he has also internally admitted this.";
• he also said: "Inside Verstappen's mind there is a difference between helping someone and truly deliberately screwing someone. And in his view that has happened in Monaco. And you can factually construe this. And he does not forget this.";
• futhermore: "Max Verstappen is not in F1 to make friends. He's a man of principles, a pure winner. And notwithstanding that it's only about P6, he has already internally told this, and he's not gonna change his mind in the final lap at Interlagos.";
• he concluded that "regardless of everything you may think about it, I do not understand why, given that he had internally already pointed this out a couple of times, to still think that via the onboard radio he would then [you could make him] agree.";
• and finally about his claim that the incident is related to Monaco, he concluded: "Was it Monaco? He [Verstappen] replied something along the lines « You can decide that. I'm not gonna say it ». Well, I just know for 100% that that's case. He's not saying it, but we are there to disclose it to the world.".

[///M Power-Belgium]

Originally Posted by M5Rick

What's Newey doing this year then, I thought he was employed by AM as from January or is he just concentrating on the '26 Frankenstein cars..

Angie and LEW => https://www.youtube.com/shorts/bie1CAb6xmM

[minn19]

Thank you Artemis for the detailed response!

I can definitely see that and agree about the most talented drivers not always making it or staying in F1. Stroll is probably the most obvious example of that for years now.

[Davil]

Originally Posted by Artemis

Placid composure as Piastri.

Don’t let Piastri’s lack of words make you think he is placid. He has much more of a winning mentality than Lando. Also a fantastic dry sense of humour.

Vandoorne is a mister nice. He is one of the Aston Martin reserve drivers these days. He was at Melbourne GP.

[Davil]

Originally Posted by Blindside_137

I was playing on it the other day and man 1959 racing green is special

Lovely. I went to the Vanquish preview the other day. Beautiful, stunning thing. Over a million of our dollars though and certainly out of my pay grade. Are you going to get one?

[Blindside_137]

Originally Posted by Davil

Lovely. I went to the Vanquish preview the other day. Beautiful, stunning thing. Over a million of our dollars though and certainly out of my pay grade. Are you going to get one?

They are beautiful no doubt. But no just playing on the configurator. I got an M3 to add to the garage just at the start of the new year

[Davil]

Liam has spoken. I have a feeling he will do well at Suzuka.

[wizardofOz]

I can't wait....Can you??

[Steeler]

Originally Posted by Artemis

Placid composure as Piastri.

Reminds me of the age old saying "don't take my good nature as a sign of weakness"

[///M Power-Belgium]

Originally Posted by wizardofOz

I can't wait....Can you??

Spot on

BTW : And a triple header is coming up with Japan, Bahrain, and the Saudi Arabia GP.

So , 3 race weekends in a row . Just let it come ...

[M5Rick]

Originally Posted by ///M Power-Belgium

100% Adrenaline => https://www.youtube.com/shorts/sM-aqOedy8A

Just listen

If I'm not mistaken that's Newey next to him.

[M5Rick]

Originally Posted by Davil

Lovely. I went to the Vanquish preview the other day. Beautiful, stunning thing. Over a million of our dollars though and certainly out of my pay grade. Are you going to get one?

Six numbers is all I need to park it in my coming new place..but any colour except green

[M5Rick]

Originally Posted by ///M Power-Belgium

Angie and LEW => https://www.youtube.com/shorts/bie1CAb6xmM

Nice to have your own personal assistant to help out with the places you can't see

[M5Rick]

Originally Posted by Artemis

Vandoorne is the guy next door. No wealthy family. No big sponsors. Ron Dennis chose him because of talent and results - no pay driver.

Especially in the nowadays F1 world: no money = no honey. And if the powers that be of a team got a personal interest to promote their own kid, you're at risk of getting axed.

F1 is a ruthless dog-eat-dog business. Not every F1 driver deserves to be considered "one of the 20 best F1 drivers worldwide". Lots of super talented race drivers never got the chance to access F1.



Horner virtually single-handedly ruined RBR with his antics on track and off track. Success went to his head: hubris.

Verstappen gets increasingly bothered by all that has happened since Summer 2022 (finding out that Perez had deliberately crashed during the Monaco Q3 qualies, seems to have caused quite some damage in the team dynamics; losing Honda after 2025; the damaged relationship with Mark Mateschitz after having snubbed Porsche and an attempted power grab (failed RBR buyout); the fallout/handling of the female employee story widened the divide; Adrian Newey and several others have left, etc.). Lawson getting demoted being the latest in a series of situations that bother Verstappen (he opposed against demoting Lawson, but Horner & C° ignored his point of view). Chances are increasing that Verstappen will be donning the Mercedes race suit in 2026, you'll see.

Throwback to 2022: Verstappen refused to let Perez pass in the final stages of the 2022 Interlagos GP because of the the 2022 Monaco Q3 crash:

Attachment 3697415

All good except this, won't happen as a deal would have been done, like by now.