ROUND 17: 🇯🇵 FORMULA 1 LENOVO JAPANESE GRAND PRIX 2023
| Circuit stats | |
|---|---|
| First Grand Prix | 1987 |
| Number of laps | 53 |
| Circuit Length | 5.807 km |
| Race Distance | 307.471 km |
| Lap record | 1:30.983 Lewis Hamilton (2019) |
| 2022 winner | Max Verstappen |
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To be fair, Mick Schumacher did show improvement in the second half of the season, scoring points, reducing crashes, and closely competing with Magnussen.
Logan Sargeant’s did nothing of these.
While Lawson shows promise, it’s doubtful he’ll secure the Williams seat. Red Bull’s decision to keep him in their development program after just three races suggests they’re avoiding a “de Vries moment.” Ricciardo’s selection for AlphaTauri’s race seat might be due to his marketability, crucial during the rebranding. Lawson’s role as a reserve driver for two teams positions him for future opportunities in 2025.
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Nah, it’s time for Mansell to make a grand comeback. He and Bottas can fight for best mustache.
Is this like a mazepin type situation where he brings in a lot of money?
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James made it quite clear that the number of crashes were having a detrimental impact on the teams ability to develop the car
Yeah, he’s like a Mazepin or Mick level of driver. And I had no idea Mick was their reserve! I assume he’s shared with Mercedes, kinda like how DeVries was last year.
Like I get he’s a rookie. Rookies make mistakes and should be allowed to. But this is too much.
I wonder who could get that seat. The Williams Drivers Academy is pretty thin. Mostly F3 drivers, none in F2. Their most experienced Academy driver seems to be their F1 development driver, Jamie Chadwick. She won W Series twice and now is in Indy NXT. (part of IndyCar’s ladder). If not her, they’d have to look outside their organization. Would Mick really make a come back? Seems less than ideal.
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What a time to be a papaya simp! Terrific turnaround from the beginning of the season to now.
Gratz to Max and RB I guess. Checo though…yikes
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Dunno about slowly, more like nowhere for ages then the huge Silverstone upgrade. The most recent upgrade seems to be keeping them in position, at least on these circuits.
Cautiously optimistic for next season though, we could see a RB, Merc, McLaren fight, with the odd Ferrari pop up. Or maybe Aston will take another step. They’d need another driver though.
Lawson to RB to replace Checo I’d be up for that
Hamilton can go 2nd on WDC. 33 points between him and Perez.
If Perez stays busy taking out backmarkers it should be smooth sailing for Hamilton.
He is taking gaps that don’t exist.
honestly at this point I’m rooting for him to get it
edit: or rather what I meant to say is that at this point I’m rooting for anyone who can take #2 from perez
Perez has obviously been told his '24 drive is in question unless he improves. And he’s not responding well to that kind of pressure.
Perez keeps fucking up Albon’s weekends. Like, I’m sure that Checo is simply under pressure and making dumb mistakes - but I fully understand that Albon seems to think it’s personal.
Perez is gone no matter what I think. I hope Hamilton gets the p2 in the championship it would so funny
Got a chuckle out of the idiosyncrasy of Bottas getting screwed up by both Williams within a couple of laps.
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And Aston Martin is the new McLaren
And Perez is the new Kvyat
Red Bull double DNF…Max still wins.
Safe bet, Sargeant is gone.
My thoughts:
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Perez is done. By far his worst race I think and really stupid mistakes. Plus getting out of a perfectly good car half way though the race is inexcusable. Do you know how much it costs the team to bring him and the car to a race? To have it just sit there when it has no issues is a massive financial drain.
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Max pretty much single handedly won the Constructors Title for Red Bull. His performances for them the title with little help from Perez. I’m sure Max is getting a nice bonus after this.
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Sargeant sealed his fate: he’s definitely out soon. He’s costing Williams much needed cash and simply can’t keep it together. Lawson and Piastri are making him look really bad.
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Mercedes is stronger than Ferrari. They’ve really bounced back in a big way and Ferrari needs to up their game.
Ferrari are still the worst of the front four for tire wear, until they fix that they can not compete at enough circuits to have a decent run at the title. They were faster than Merc when they had a small tire advantage (like Carlos with his 4 lap newer hards) but it went off way sooner than the other three teams.
If it gets closer between the top four teams next season then Red Bull are going to really struggle for the constructors as Merc, McLaren and Ferrari all have two high performing drivers each. I really cannot see Red Bull signing another top driver to sit next to Max, that’s not Max’s choice, but I just cannot see Red Bull wanting the drama or the potential for lost points to a team mate.
Red Bull really need to wangle Lawson into that second Williams seat, they have their own data for Albon vs. enough of their own drivers so they can use this to more accurately benchmark Lawson. I just do not see Danny or Yuki being the right replacement for Perez and there isn’t many options further down the field right now.
I agree with you. Except I think there is probably a large pool of drivers waiting to get into F1 to choose from.
Also all terms have reserve drivers that would be very happy to sign with Red Bull.
I don’t think RB are interested in unproven drivers otherwise we would not see their continued ownership of AT and its use as a proving ground for RB drivers. Even Danny is having to go back round the AT loop before they would consider him to replace Checo.
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