2024 Japanese Grand Prix - Suzuka, April 05 - 07

[chrisc90]

A bit OT… but has anyone seen the times for the chines GP… ?

Sprint Quali - Friday 8.30am UK
Sprint Race - Saturday4am UK

what a rubbish race to make a sprint weekend

Yep, savage. Not bad for quali and the race, but 4am for the sprint.

[atanatizante]

One of the few opportunities when we could see the real pace of the cars was here when:

- PER did a 1.33.945 on his fastest lap of the race on the H tyre, a lap after his second pitstop
- RUS did a 1.35.1.. his fastest lap on the same H tyre and second pit-stop
- PIA did 1.34.803 in the same conditions hence NOR could do a 1.34.6...
- SAI did a 1.34.4.. after the same second pitstop and H tyre and LEC did 1.35.044 but racing with a poor setup and only a 2-stop strategy race

So we could take the following conclusion about the race pace order here with the caveat that some cars suit better this track such as Red Bull and Macca:

1. Red Bull
2. Ferrari +0.4 to 0.45 sec
3. McLaren +0.6 to 0.65 sec
4. Aston + 1.1 to 1.2 sec
5. Mercedes +1.2 sec

Then based on the finish times and the fastest times, we could see the following order:

1. Red Bull
2. Ferrari +0.4 sec
3. McLaren +0.6 sec
4. Aston +0.85 sec
5. Mercedes +0.9 sec

For me the first conclusion is more accurate regarding the pace between cars coz we could take into account that the front runners and other drivers at the front were cruising most or some parts of the race.

[DChemTech]

A bit OT… but has anyone seen the times for the chines GP… ?

Sprint Quali - Friday 8.30am UK
Sprint Race - Saturday4am UK

what a rubbish race to make a sprint weekend

Well, yes, the days of the British empire are somewhat over; it's not that strange that the timing of global events is not tuned to the timezone of a relatively modest country in Europe by default...

[DGP123]

Abysmal formula this. Routine 1-2 for RB, with Max never threatened. Even the ‘racing’ between the Ferrari/McL is boring, with straight forward DRS overtakes settling the positions. Merc nowhere with that horrific strategy.

Don’t worry about China’s race times. You won’t be missing much

[the EDGE]

A bit OT… but has anyone seen the times for the chines GP… ?

Sprint Quali - Friday 8.30am UK
Sprint Race - Saturday4am UK

what a rubbish race to make a sprint weekend

Well, yes, the days of the British empire are somewhat over; it's not that strange that the timing of global events is not tuned to the timezone of a relatively modest country in Europe by default...

What a stupid comment. The times are UK… but it’s pretty much the same for most of Europe where f1s main market is. Most of the world will be at work on Friday

[dialtone]

One of the few opportunities when we could see the real pace of the cars was here when:

- PER did a 1.33.945 on his fastest lap of the race on the H tyre, a lap after his second pitstop
- RUS did a 1.35.1.. his fastest lap on the same H tyre and second pit-stop
- PIA did 1.34.803 in the same conditions hence NOR could do a 1.34.6...
- SAI did a 1.34.4.. after the same second pitstop and H tyre and LEC did 1.35.044 but racing with a poor setup and only a 2-stop strategy race

So we could take the following conclusion about the race pace order here with the caveat that some cars suit better this track such as Red Bull and Macca:

1. Red Bull
2. Ferrari +0.4 to 0.45 sec
3. McLaren +0.6 to 0.65 sec
4. Aston + 1.1 to 1.2 sec
5. Mercedes +1.2 sec

Then based on the finish times and the fastest times, we could see the following order:

1. Red Bull
2. Ferrari +0.4 sec
3. McLaren +0.6 sec
4. Aston +0.85 sec
5. Mercedes +0.9 sec

For me the first conclusion is more accurate regarding the pace between cars coz we could take into account that the front runners and other drivers at the front were cruising most or some parts of the race.

SAI fast lap was on lap 47. VER was on lap 50 about 0.15s lower.

Race pace was roughly 0.35 because NOR compromised the first stint from SAI.

[JordanMugen]

Hmm.. something about this formula that is wrong.
The cars are boring to watch and the races are not exciting.

Yup. Heavy, and the handling characteristics of these ground effect cars are terrible

People wanted to give ground effects a try. There's no reason the flat floor rule had to be introduced in 1983.

Think of it as an alternative history, active suspension, mass-dampers, front rear interconnect, and inerters still being banned when they were, but the flat underfloor rule never being introduced.

[Spacepace]

Hmm.. something about this formula that is wrong.
The cars are boring to watch and the races are not exciting.

Yup. Heavy, and the handling characteristics of these ground effect cars are terrible

People wanted to give ground effects a try. There's no reason the flat floor rule had to be introduced in 1983.

Think of it as an alternative history, active suspension, mass-dampers, front rear interconnect, and inerters still being banned when they were, but the flat underfloor rule never being introduced.

Why did they decide to ban inerters and front rear interconnected suspension?

[JordanMugen]

Yup. Heavy, and the handling characteristics of these ground effect cars are terrible

People wanted to give ground effects a try. There's no reason the flat floor rule had to be introduced in 1983.

Think of it as an alternative history, active suspension, mass-dampers, front rear interconnect, and inerters still being banned when they were, but the flat underfloor rule never being introduced.

Why did they decide to ban inerters and front rear interconnected suspension?

It was too hard for the FIA to scrutineer the systems and decide the legality of whether a given design contravenes active suspension ban IIRC. I.e., the systems and their functionality was too complex to scrutinise, hence requiring more simplified suspension systems that can be easily scrutineered.

[venkyhere]

Takeaways from the race for me :

I got carried away by the long run pace numbers from FPs. The 1s advantage Ferrari seemed to have, tricked me into thinking that Ferrari has a realistic 0.2-0.3 advantage in race pace. In the actual race, Max was consistently 0.5 per lap faster than Ferraris. Talk about mega sandbagging in FPs.

Alonso drove brilliantly, despite the poor availability of tyres.

Piastri is yet to learn the art of building up a DRS overtake when pace delta is small.

Hamilton has zero motivation to turn up for Mercedes anymore - "should I give up the place to George?" when not asked. Says it all. Painful months in the pipeline until end of season.

Well done Tsunoda.

LeClerc drove the more accomplished race than Sainz, IMHO. He simply got the short end of the strategy stick. Why does Ferrari always have to "split their strategies" ? What's wrong with both drivers getting same strategy ?

[Farnborough]

At least the bad Mr Alonso didn't frighten poor delicate Mr Russel into turning his car upside down this week

Although the nice Mr Herbert could arrange a penalty for Mr Alonso ...... just to be on the safe side, you'll understand

Saying that, there are more straight bits for Mr George to twiddle with his knob in relative safety around here

[dialtone]

Takeaways from the race for me :

I got carried away by the long run pace numbers from FPs. The 1s advantage Ferrari seemed to have, tricked me into thinking that Ferrari has a realistic 0.2-0.3 advantage in race pace. In the actual race, Max was consistently 0.5 per lap faster than Ferraris. Talk about mega sandbagging in FPs.

Alonso drove brilliantly, despite the poor availability of tyres.

Piastri is yet to learn the art of building up a DRS overtake when pace delta is small.

Hamilton has zero motivation to turn up for Mercedes anymore - "should I give up the place to George?" when not asked. Says it all. Painful months in the pipeline until end of season.

Well done Tsunoda.

LeClerc drove the more accomplished race than Sainz, IMHO. He simply got the short end of the strategy stick. Why does Ferrari always have to "split their strategies" ? What's wrong with both drivers getting same strategy ?

LEC called his strategy and there was nothing else to do to get 4th.

I think RBR has tuned the engines down a lot in FP, even further than last year, because they are on engine 2 with both drivers and really have to save them.

[DChemTech]

A bit OT… but has anyone seen the times for the chines GP… ?

Sprint Quali - Friday 8.30am UK
Sprint Race - Saturday4am UK

what a rubbish race to make a sprint weekend

Well, yes, the days of the British empire are somewhat over; it's not that strange that the timing of global events is not tuned to the timezone of a relatively modest country in Europe by default...

What a stupid comment. The times are UK… but it’s pretty much the same for most of Europe where f1s main market is. Most of the world will be at work on Friday

The rest of the world thanks you for your compassion.

Of course, everyone must accomodate their schedules to the convenience of the UK at all times.

But I can imagine that if you are only exposed to F1 through British it may feel like the whole sports solely exists to service the UK.

[ispano6]

Well, yes, the days of the British empire are somewhat over; it's not that strange that the timing of global events is not tuned to the timezone of a relatively modest country in Europe by default...

What a stupid comment. The times are UK… but it’s pretty much the same for most of Europe where f1s main market is. Most of the world will be at work on Friday

The rest of the world thanks you for your compassion.

Of course, everyone must accomodate their schedules to the convenience of the UK at all times.

But I can imagine that if you are only exposed to F1 through British it may feel like the whole sports solely exists to service the UK.

There are more people watching F1 outside Europe than inside Europe, you know, like in China, India, and Asia during their regular time zones. And they are ahead of Europe timezone-wise. Europeans should wake up early and stay up late to show their dedication to the sport just like any other F1 fan.

Most sprint race weekends spice up the racing so calling China rubbish is premature.

[renault rs26]

Alonso DOTD, this was the easiest weekend to chose one. Outperformed three significantly faster cars driven by very strong drivers and destroyed his teammate in the same car totally. Incredibly strong performance again, congrats! The level of understanding of modern fans voting for Leclerc, who got comfortably beaten by his teammate and finished P4 in clearly and easily 2nd fastest car, is just pathetic. Who are all these people?

It's driver of the Day not weekend and Leclerc was goog today, Sainz beat him yesterday.