2022 Japanese Grand Prix - Suzuka, Oct 07 - 09

[chrisc90]

Bit of a odd one from Norris to drop that far back, then go flat out past Max. Rightly investigated but id'd be very surprised if there is anything other than a warning/little ticking off.

[ENGINE TUNER]

Usual stuff before starting the flyer. Norris behind, decided to suddenly overtake him.

doing burnouts and sliding in the middle of the track while norris was pulling up? either he was completely oblivious or his race engineer failed to tell him about his deltas.

By the time you are in 3rd sector, drivers generally don't overtake each other when starting a flyer. That's a gentleman's agreement between drivers. Norris did otherwise.

Verstappen was nearly stationary and pointed towards the wall, Norris was almost forced to pass him, and then was forced to go off track to avoid a collision. When will the FIA act on Verstappen's constant dangerous acts?

[GrizzleBoy]

Mercedes is a second behind! I thought they would be close, like within 6 tenths. They seem to be fighting with Alpine here.

I hope Merc have gambled on rain tomorrow. And I hope it will rain...

What's the forecast though?

Also Merc have used more inters than anyone so if there are many safety cars (which there certainly will be at Suzuka in the wet) they'll be at a disadvantage there too.

[search]

Mercedes is a second behind! I thought they would be close, like within 6 tenths. They seem to be fighting with Alpine here.

I hope Merc have gambled on rain tomorrow. And I hope it will rain...

What's the forecast though?

Also Merc have used more inters than anyone so if there are many safety cars (which there certainly will be at Suzuka in the wet) they'll be at a disadvantage there too.

as mentioned yesterday, pretty sure they used them on purpose because they expect it to be an advantage for them in exactly that situation.

Here's the complete picture, btw. Based on my noted only, but should be fairly accurate:

[LM10]

Bit of a odd one from Norris to drop that far back, then go flat out past Max. Rightly investigated but id'd be very surprised if there is anything other than a warning/little ticking off.

I’d also be surprised, but not because what Max did was not unbelievably stupid and dangerous and should be penalized without any doubts. Rather because it’s the incompetent FIA.

[atanatizante]

Both Merc drivers were some 10kph slower in S2 (the sector in which we could see how they set up the cars for the race) than RB drivers and some 8kph slower than both Ferrari and Alpine ones ...

Then, after the qualy session, HAM spoke to Bono on the radio feed asking if his time was down to top speed ... the latter confirmed and in addition, said that tomorrow they`ll be stronger in the slow-speed corners ...

So, bearing in mind that on Accuweather it`s a 65% chance of rain tomorrow at the start of the race, I think they were setting the cars more towards a wet race or maybe for an M-H tyre 2-stop dry race knowing the car tends to be kinder to the tyres.

In contrast, the RB, Ferrari and Alpine cars I think they were set up for a 3-stop dry race strategy knowing the abrasive tarmac characteristics here at Suzuka... will see tomorrow had my predictions are wrong or not ...

[mendis]

Both Merc drivers were some 10kph slower in S2 (the sector in which we could see how they set up the cars for the race) than RB drivers and some 8kph slower than both Ferrari and Alpine ones ...

Then, after the qualy session, HAM spoke to Bono on the radio feed asking if his time was down to top speed ... the latter confirmed and in addition, said that tomorrow they`ll be stronger in the slow-speed corners ...

So, bearing in mind that on Accuweather it`s a 65% chance of rain tomorrow at the start of the race, I think they were setting the cars more towards a wet race or maybe for an M-H tyre 2-stop dry race knowing the car tends to be kinder to the tyres.

In contrast, the RB, Ferrari and Alpine cars I think they were set up for a 3-stop dry race strategy knowing the abrasive tarmac characteristics here at Suzuka... will see tomorrow had my predictions are wrong or not ...

It's a very optimistic way of thinking. Despite knowing there is a good chance of rain, no team would set up the car for dry. Everyone would go a compromise, some go more wet than others. Mercedes was 10+ kph down from the first lap of FP1 to Red Bull. I don't think it has so much to do with setups. Considering Mercedes has trouble in bringing temperature to tyres, they might have gone a bit aggressive on tyres to help tomorrow as they would struggle more than others. Most likely, Red Bull has done same as they were overheating the tyres and had to go extremely slow on the outlaps.

[Juzh]

Warming up tyres by doing a burnout in the middle of the track? Never seen that before in qualifying.

I don't think he was doing a burnout. Burnouts are done by intentionally breaking traction which I doubt Verstappen was intentionally trying to do there

I don't think there will be a penalty for this

Watch the video you’ve sent. He sees Norris approaching and steps on the pedal making the tyres spin and at the same time steering left - unintentionally or intentionally is anyone‘s guess.

If you watched you'll see he doesn't do any of that, corner is going left that's why he's turning left. Also norris was a dick there, as erratic as anyone. going slow then suddenly deciding to overtake.. and he did it on final lap as well.

[Ben1980]

Lando went round a corner and had to take evasive action away from the red bull. Its clearly Max fault. Not deliberate but still dangerous.

[LM10]

I don't think he was doing a burnout. Burnouts are done by intentionally breaking traction which I doubt Verstappen was intentionally trying to do there

I don't think there will be a penalty for this

Watch the video you’ve sent. He sees Norris approaching and steps on the pedal making the tyres spin and at the same time steering left - unintentionally or intentionally is anyone‘s guess.

If you watched you'll see he doesn't do any of that, corner is going left that's why he's turning left. Also norris was a dick there, as erratic as anyone. going slow then suddenly deciding to overtake.. and he did it on final lap as well.

It should be obvious I mean the erratic steering to the left in combination with wheel spin, having to countersteer right after that. We know this would have not happened, if he had not seen Norris approaching. Max simply wanted to hold him up or show his anger on him because he was about to break the gentleman's agreement.

100% avoidable situation and 100% on Max.

[organic]

Max's explanation:

" I was warming up the tires and I lost the rear of the car when accelerating, at the moment he was overtaking me. It was not on purpose.
I couldn't improve my lap because I lost a part of the car when I went long in a corner."

[organic]

Watch the video you’ve sent. He sees Norris approaching and steps on the pedal making the tyres spin and at the same time steering left - unintentionally or intentionally is anyone‘s guess.

If you watched you'll see he doesn't do any of that, corner is going left that's why he's turning left. Also norris was a dick there, as erratic as anyone. going slow then suddenly deciding to overtake.. and he did it on final lap as well.

It should be obvious I mean the erratic steering to the left in combination with wheel spin, having to countersteer right after that. We know this would have not happened, if he had not seen Norris approaching. Max simply wanted to hold him up or show his anger on him because he was about to break the gentleman's agreement.

100% avoidable situation and 100% on Max.

I'm sorry but this is genuinely just so false.. Max was doing exactly what he always does on his prep laps on that run but slightly overcooks it. Feel like you're looking for anything to justify something you want to be true

[mendis]

Lando went round a corner and had to take evasive action away from the red bull. Its clearly Max fault. Not deliberate but still dangerous.

The whole sequence is important. Lando comes out of Pits, around 36 seconds behind Max. While Max was trundling along, Lando comes at 200+ speeds on most sections. Prior to reaching 130R, Lando ends up right on Max's back. Then he backs off! Max reaches 130R and starts weaving and all of a sudden Lando decides to overtake Max. A few hundred meters earlier he had the opportunity to do that, but he doesn't and then he goes for it slightly later, having given a feeling that he isn't interested in overtaking and willing to stat the lap behind Max. No idea what he was trying.

[LM10]

Max's explanation:

" I was warming up the tires and I lost the rear of the car when accelerating, at the moment he was overtaking me. It was not on purpose.
I couldn't improve my lap because I lost a part of the car when I went long in a corner."

I so would have not expected this explanation by Max.

Seems like he forgot how to accelerate when it makes him drift across the track, even needing him to countersteer.

[LM10]

If you watched you'll see he doesn't do any of that, corner is going left that's why he's turning left. Also norris was a dick there, as erratic as anyone. going slow then suddenly deciding to overtake.. and he did it on final lap as well.

It should be obvious I mean the erratic steering to the left in combination with wheel spin, having to countersteer right after that. We know this would have not happened, if he had not seen Norris approaching. Max simply wanted to hold him up or show his anger on him because he was about to break the gentleman's agreement.

100% avoidable situation and 100% on Max.

I'm sorry but this is genuinely just so false.. Max was doing exactly what he always does on his prep laps on that run but slightly overcooks it. Feel like you're looking for anything to justify something you want to be true

I would have believed him and also you, if he did not look into his left mirror before, ackowledging that Norris was coming and if he did not steer to the left while accelerating to the point his wheels spun.

There's nothing to discuss, really. These drivers are good enough and know their cars good enough to not do what just happened. Especially Max.