Motosport General discussion tread --- Formula1, MotoGP, WTCC, ETCC, DTM.....

[coinlocket$]

fourth consecutive pole for max verstappen on the redbull.
Only Perez managed to threaten him for pole position.

Disappointing day for Ferrari, especially with Leclerc.

The race will now be downhill for the Redbulls, only an unexpected event or abnormal tire degradation could threaten their victory.

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[tokeweed]

^  Yup...  Another qualifying that finished with Sainz beating Leclerc again.  :/  Is this gonna become the trend for Ferrari this season.  If so Leclerc would be asking where is the fast car that he was promised last year?  Lol.  It's gonna be memes galore if the team doesn't deiiver it for him.

And did he already sign a new contract extending his stay beyond 2026?  Next year with Hamilton around he'll surely be having a lot tougher time against Lewis Hamilton.  I could already see all the memes...  

Anyway both Tsunoda and Alonso were impressive at quali.

[Velvet78]

Regarding Vettel , I think this are all rumors and the guy is happy with his current life but I could see him returning as an official within F1...am ambassador or something.

Maybe it is just no more than rumours like you said yeah. News sources love to spread this kind of news regularly. It would still be nice to see in Formula 1 world if he rejoins with a different role instead of driver.  


The qualifying results must have made Red Bull very satisfied. Because they had a very dominant run. Perez was known by making mistakes in qualifying session in the previous season but know it seems like he has got over it. We will see if he will keep up the good work to consolidate his seat more. I was sad to see Leclerc being slower than Sainz again.    Leclerc still can't get comfortable with his car unfortunately indeed.

[retreat]

Once again Sainz gave a better performance compared to Charles, and this may be homework for Charles considering that Ferrari gave him more special treatment compared to Sainz.
And as for Max, we don't need to talk about this guy anymore, because this season he's already been on pole several times and maybe this will be another win for him - the only thing stopping him is his car.
And for Ricciardo, it seems his performance is still poor compared to his colleague Tsunoda. Well, maybe the public's expectations of him are too high, which makes his self-confidence decrease even more. Hopefully he can improve his performance or RB is ready to replace him at any time.

[coinlocket$]

Ferrari has a good race pace but has difficulty getting the tires up to temperature.
In the third free practice Ferrari demonstrated an excellent race pace even though it had less fuel than Redbull.

the performance of Sainz and Leclerc's times was excellent, demonstrating low tire degradation.
Great disappointment therefore at Ferrari as they hoped to be close to Max and then battle in the race.
The overall impression remains the same, low degradation, excellent balance.

It will be difficult to get rid of the Meclarens at this track.

[boltz]

fourth consecutive pole for max verstappen on the redbull.
Only Perez managed to threaten him for pole position.

Disappointing day for Ferrari, especially with Leclerc.

The race will now be downhill for the Redbulls, only an unexpected event or abnormal tire degradation could threaten their victory.

I think last time a Ferrari won at Suzuka was back in 2004 with Schumi and that says a lot about last 2 decades of Ferrari because nothing great happened since then. I also tend to believe that Ferrari needs to win at Suzuka and then they can think towards a championship because this race is a curse that needs to be broken for Ferrari.

Yep , I think the same with RedBull and I cannot see them losing this morning.

[karabiber]

I think the Japanese GP was one of the most exciting races of the season. Aside from Verstappen's comfortable win, everyone had a different strategy in the middle top group of the grid. Of those strategies, Leclerc's strategy worked very well and took him from 8 to 4. Leclerc had a great performance but was kept off the podium by his team.

Ferrari again got a good result in a race where they were not at the top. I think Ferrari is good at strategy this year. Mercedes seems to have replaced Ferrari this year. Alonso was able to keep 2 cars behind him with timely drs to the car behind him. There was a moment on the bottom row when 5 cars pitted at the same time and it was a strange moment. It was good for Tsunona to score points at home. Finally, it was a race where Ferrari's performance in terms of tire management was much better than last year.

[Distraction]

I think last time a Ferrari won at Suzuka was back in 2004 with Schumi and that says a lot about last 2 decades of Ferrari because nothing great happened since then. I also tend to believe that Ferrari needs to win at Suzuka and then they can think towards a championship because this race is a curse that needs to be broken for Ferrari.

Yep , I think the same with RedBull and I cannot see them losing this morning.

Yeah, it was the last time Ferrari won on Suzuka track. Today it didn't happen once again so the series has reached 20 years now.    As long as nothing happens to Verstappen's car like in the Australia GP there was no way he was losing the win to another driver. I can't say 100% maybe as he is also human but his concentration level and the balance of the car combined is just so broken.  

At least Ferrari were on podium today with Sainz. Leclerc followed right behind by making up for his poor qualifying result.

Ferrari can finish the season in the 2nd position this time if things don't get messy.

[coinlocket$]

Superb race for Leclerc with tyre managment.
In a track where is very hard to overtake in similar condition, he got the best outcome.

Redbull is on another level but today we have the dimostration that Ferrari halved the distance from the past year and now they are the second strenght in the cirucs

[swogerino]

Superb race for Leclerc with tyre managment.
In a track where is very hard to overtake in similar condition, he got the best outcome.

Redbull is on another level but today we have the dimostration that Ferrari halved the distance from the past year and now they are the second strenght in the cirucs

It surely looks like that yet we have to see full confirmation after the China race where we will be in Europe where most F1 tracks are based and it is exactly in such tracks that the full power of each team is seen.Ferrari sure looks much more improved as a car compared to last year and they are doing great so far in these first couple of races that we have seen already.

What has caught my eye now is that Perez is there and he is just 13 points distance to Verstappen with 4 races already passed,if he had been a bit more brave and not have the tire problems in Australia he most probably would have been leading the season which would be a welcome change.I think that since he is being consistent in second place it is worth noting that most likely the season has already ended now and most likely the fight for the first place will be between the two Redbulls with Max having a much better chance winning his 4th consecutive title.The number 4 though with Redbull is a cursed one,no one has won more with that car and let's see how it expands to Verstappen.

[boltz]

I think last time a Ferrari won at Suzuka was back in 2004 with Schumi and that says a lot about last 2 decades of Ferrari because nothing great happened since then. I also tend to believe that Ferrari needs to win at Suzuka and then they can think towards a championship because this race is a curse that needs to be broken for Ferrari.

Yep , I think the same with RedBull and I cannot see them losing this morning.

Yeah, it was the last time Ferrari won on Suzuka track. Today it didn't happen once again so the series has reached 20 years now.    As long as nothing happens to Verstappen's car like in the Australia GP there was no way he was losing the win to another driver. I can't say 100% maybe as he is also human but his concentration level and the balance of the car combined is just so broken.  

At least Ferrari were on podium today with Sainz. Leclerc followed right behind by making up for his poor qualifying result.

Ferrari can finish the season in the 2nd position this time if things don't get messy.

Yep , Suzuka remains a forbidden race for them but hopefully next year they will have a proper chance to actually compete for the win. Yep , I can't see Verstappen losing any races as long as his car won't break down and by the look of how the car was today , I doubt he will have another DNF for quite some time.

True. At least we can be happy as Ferrari fans for having Sainz on podium and a Charles who fought for that p4 for almost entire race.

[coinlocket$]

Suzuka is a starnge track, it is very technical and here the best car always win.
In the last 12 years guess what? only Redbulls and Mercedes has won.
The last not top car winning here was Button in 2012.

This track reminds Sivlerstone where only the best car wins on high speed turns (silverstone has more variance due the variable wheater situation and the high risk/presence of rain on track)

[swogerino]

Suzuka is a starnge track, it is very technical and here the best car always win.
In the last 12 years guess what? only Redbulls and Mercedes has won.
The last not top car winning here was Button in 2012.

This track reminds Sivlerstone where only the best car wins on high speed turns (silverstone has more variance due the variable wheater situation and the high risk/presence of rain on track)

This track is also a narrow one compared to Silverstone being a better wide track than this,this makes Suzuka so special and that is why all drivers without exception love this track,of course the best car wins here most of the time but that is under normal conditions first and they need to start from the front row,I don't remember anyone winning in this track starting 12th or 15th for example despite this track being very technical and permitting the fast car to win so in order to win in this track the drivers should make sure to be in the top 6 at least to have a true chance of winning,nevertheless we have only one race in Asia and then we are coming back to Europe to see the real F1 we all love,these tracks are different that are not European.

[retreat]

Superb race for Leclerc with tyre managment.
In a track where is very hard to overtake in similar condition, he got the best outcome.

Redbull is on another level but today we have the dimostration that Ferrari halved the distance from the past year and now they are the second strenght in the cirucs

Ferrari managed to show good results with their strategy, in particular Sainz seemed to take his "exit" from Ferrari to heart, because in several races he managed to show maximum performance better than Charles. However, RB has a very good car performance so it is quite difficult for Ferrari to beat them, especially on a straight track, but this is by far the best performance from Ferrari compared to last year and hopefully they can be consistent.

[FanEagle]

Ferrari managed to show good results with their strategy, in particular Sainz seemed to take his "exit" from Ferrari to heart, because in several races he managed to show maximum performance better than Charles. However, RB has a very good car performance so it is quite difficult for Ferrari to beat them, especially on a straight track, but this is by far the best performance from Ferrari compared to last year and hopefully they can be consistent.

To be fair the problem with Ferrari was never the car, and usually it is not the drivers neither. Problem with Ferrari has been unexpected stuff becoming expected, it could be a reliability issue, a pit stop issue, a strategy issue, a team order issue. Whatever it is, if those unexpected stuff didn't become expected, we could have just said that Ferrari had a better car last year than everyone aside from Red Bull too.

In any other case, we also have Sainz situation this season as well, which shows that Sainz is aware of the fact that he will be teamless next season, so he will have to race a lot better and he is doing that, he is showing the whole world that Ferrari is making a mistake letting him go, and he should be hired by someone else.

[püsür]

Ferrari managed to show good results with their strategy, in particular Sainz seemed to take his "exit" from Ferrari to heart, because in several races he managed to show maximum performance better than Charles. However, RB has a very good car performance so it is quite difficult for Ferrari to beat them, especially on a straight track, but this is by far the best performance from Ferrari compared to last year and hopefully they can be consistent.

To be fair the problem with Ferrari was never the car, and usually it is not the drivers neither. Problem with Ferrari has been unexpected stuff becoming expected, it could be a reliability issue, a pit stop issue, a strategy issue, a team order issue. Whatever it is, if those unexpected stuff didn't become expected, we could have just said that Ferrari had a better car last year than everyone aside from Red Bull too.

In any other case, we also have Sainz situation this season as well, which shows that Sainz is aware of the fact that he will be teamless next season, so he will have to race a lot better and he is doing that, he is showing the whole world that Ferrari is making a mistake letting him go, and he should be hired by someone else.

Sainz was able to lap faster than perez at the end of the race. We know that suzuka is a much more suitable track for red bull; We can see ferraris that can challenge verstappen on a suitable track. I don't think the drivers championship, but in this way, ferrari can possibly take the teams championship. Ferrari don't use the tyre as badly as they used to. This has a negative effect on qualifying performance, but as we have seen, it gives tremendous flexibility for the race. As the characteristics of the car change, so does the performance of the driver.

[Koal-84]

If will leave RBR he can go only to Mercedes or Aston Martin.
Aston Martin is rumored to be sold to Aramco, and if they buy a team it will be for dominating in F1 also.

Arabs when they comes they go all in or nothing.

Mercedes are apparently asking for Vettel, but is that true and does Vettel even want to come back?

Verstappen still has a valid contract until the end of the 2028 season, so the question is rather if Verstappen gets a team-mate, Perez still has no contract, and RedBull doesn't seem to be in a hurry either.

[retreat]

Ferrari managed to show good results with their strategy, in particular Sainz seemed to take his "exit" from Ferrari to heart, because in several races he managed to show maximum performance better than Charles. However, RB has a very good car performance so it is quite difficult for Ferrari to beat them, especially on a straight track, but this is by far the best performance from Ferrari compared to last year and hopefully they can be consistent.

To be fair the problem with Ferrari was never the car, and usually it is not the drivers neither. Problem with Ferrari has been unexpected stuff becoming expected, it could be a reliability issue, a pit stop issue, a strategy issue, a team order issue. Whatever it is, if those unexpected stuff didn't become expected, we could have just said that Ferrari had a better car last year than everyone aside from Red Bull too.

In any other case, we also have Sainz situation this season as well, which shows that Sainz is aware of the fact that he will be teamless next season, so he will have to race a lot better and he is doing that, he is showing the whole world that Ferrari is making a mistake letting him go, and he should be hired by someone else.

However we all agree here that the cars owned by RB are better than Ferrari, but I just agree that the problems often experienced by Ferrari are things that are not expected which often prevent their drivers from getting to the podium. If only such possibilities could be prevented by Ferrari, perhaps we would be able to see Ferrari become a leading constructor.
And for Sainz himself, it is common for him to be able to show his best performance this season. It's like he has to perform more optimally with what he has now, so that it can be a good note on his "CV" to attract other constructors to recruit him.

[Distraction]

True. At least we can be happy as Ferrari fans for having Sainz on podium and a Charles who fought for that p4 for almost entire race.

I would like to add an interesting detail about this topic also. During the race the team offered a different plan than Leclerc thought of. It didn't made sense for Leclerc to gain positions so he offered his own plan. The team trusted him and applied his plan instead. This really helped Leclerc climb to 4th position at the end of the race. 

However this situation also shows how problematic Ferrari still are when it comes to planning strategies. I mean their plan was far worse than Leclerc's and probably it was going to cause him to finish around a position in which he started. 

[coinlocket$]

we learned that redbull has already brought major upgrades to its cars during the race in japan while the other teams including ferrari have brought minor innovations.

for the reds the first big upgrade is not expected before the Imola race, so only small updates until that date.