Topic: Motosport General discussion tread --- Formula1, MotoGP, WTCC, ETCC, DTM..... - page 25. (Read 133036 times)

I was expecting a strong McLaren as the last laps of Australian GP they were making fastest laps in a consecutive way and it was only Leclerc last lap that made those fastest laps disappear,the fact that also Piastri is there it shows that they have made some better configuration to the car as I don't know yet of an upgrade package from McLaren and I think it is good that also are there fighting for the podium at least while they may have also a go at winning the race if we have rain,safety cars or tire degradation from Redbull which we have seen in the first two races so far,they were not great with the tires.

We have left the qualifying behind. Verstappen didn't surprise anyone and took pole position. However it wasn't the easiest one though. Perez was also really close to pole position.    I wasn't expecting to see Norris up there truthfully. I'm wondering how good his racing pace will be already now. It wasn't one of the best qualifying days for Ferrari on the other hand.

While Sainz was doing pretty good Leclerc was having big issues with the car. He didn't look like he was comfortable with it. I think the best position he can finish in would be the 5th or maybe 4th place but I expect him to finish behind Sainz in the circumstances.

Some more news this time coming from Germany:

It seems that Mercedes has a 3 year list and that Vettel's rumors are partly wrong.

According to them the list has been reduced to Verstappen, Antonelli (gp2 driver) and Alonso for 1 year deal
As for Vettel, a sensational return to Redbull could be configured for next year aswell

Apart from Bagnaia who has extended his contract with the Ducati factory until the 2026 season, today I saw another rider, namely Fabio Quartararo, who is doing the same thing with the Yamaha factory where he has also signed his contract until 2026. I don't know what caused Fabio Quartararo to continue his career with Yamaha in the next two seasons, because in general Yamaha motorbikes still find it difficult to compete with other factory motorbikes on the current MotoGP grid.

Source: https://www.motogp.com/en/news/2024/04/05/quartararo-extends-yamaha-contract-until-2026/494140

Strange tests this morning in Japan where rain was not expected. However, in the first hour we had several possible answers.

-Sainz seems to be at ease in this Ferrari, more than Leclerc.
-Sainz is very close to Redbull in all sectors of the track, even in the most technical ones and this is an excellent confirmation of the huge steps forward made by Ferrari from the past year.
-Even in the race pace it is very close, between 2 and 3 tenths of a second, Redbull will probably win unless there are variables such as greater tyre degradetion.

The forecast is obviously for Max to win with a margin of 15-20 seconds.

Of course Hamilton is not having any motivation to bring it to race like he used to when he was dominating the sport,as long as there is no real motivation for what you are fighting for meanwhile you have already signed a contract with another team it is only normal to suck more than Russell who fights for improving his place at Mercedes or going to some new better team will perform better.I also think Vettel in the same car can easily beat Russell.

^  Whoa there...  Lol.  Wdym beat Lewis Hamilton and win his first driver's championship?    Nothing of that sort is happening as long as Hamilton is around.  There was that one year with Nico Rosberg but that was about it.  Rosberg called it quits and ran with his tail between his legs.  Lol.

As for George Russell, the only reason why he's beating Hamilton this year is cos Hamilton has been sucking more than Russell is improving.  I think even Vettel could beat Russell with the same car at any given week.  But that's just me...

Rainy day Suzuka and one the drivers who couldn't even make 1 lap in Q2 was Russel and does anything goes well for this kid lately ? because he surely has a big voice and ego but when it comes to actually delivering , he is nowhere to be found. Now , I know Mercedes has a crappy car this year but Russel really believed when he made the jump from Williams to Mercedes that he will still have a championship car , he will beat Lewis and win his 1st F1 title but he was so wrong. I also have my personal believe that it will take more than a decade to see another Britain driver winning an F1 title....maybe Norris can prove me wrong but Piastri is way better and skilled than him.

We only was able to watch FP1 today as the FP2 was hindered by rain throughout the track and most drivers,most of the important ones didn't finish a single lap.The FP1 though showed once again that Redbull is still the top team having finished 1-2 although the good news is that Ferrari specifically in the hand of Sainz is there to try and fight it out,just 0.213 away from Verstappen.In the race with a bit of rain and the right strategy they can win this.

Bro wrong thread.  


If he doesn't get the second drive at Mercedes there's another option for him and it's Red Bull since Perez will be leaving at the end of the season if he isn't given a new contract.  I think if Horner stays as team principal then there's prolly some chance Vettel goes back to Red Bull.  And I def wouldn't mind it imho.  He'll prolly even do a lot better than Perez.

Here are FP1 and FP2 results...

2024 F1 Japanese Grand Prix FP2 Results

Max Verstappen   1:30.056      
Sergio Perez   1:30.237   +0.181s   
Carlos Sainz   1:30.269   +0.213s   
George Russell   1:30.530   +0.474s   
Lewis Hamilton   1:30.543   +0.487s   
Charles Leclerc   1:30.558   +0.502s   
Fernando Alonso  1:30.599   +0.543s   
Oscar Piastri   1:31.165   +1.109s   
Yuki Tsunoda   1:31.230   +1.174s   
Lando Norris   1:31.240   +1.184s   
Esteban Ocon   1:31.935   +1.879s   
Alexander Albon   1:31.943   +1.887s   
Nico Hulkenberg    1:31.958   +1.902s   
Valtteri Bottas   1:32.054   +1.998s   
Lance Stroll   1:32.055   +1.999s   
Ayumu Iwasa   1:32.103   +2.047s   
Pierre Gasly   1:32.277   +2.221s   
Zhou Guanyu   1:32.638   +2.582s   
Kevin Magnussen  1:32.803 +2.747s   
Logan Sargeant    1:33.204   +3.148s   

2024 F1 Japanese Grand Prix FP2 Results

Oscar Piastri   1:34.725      
Lewis Hamilton   1:35.226   +0.501s   
Charles Leclerc   1:38.760   +4.035s   
Yuki Tsunoda   1:40.946   +6.221s   
Daniel Ricciardo   1:41.913   +7.188s   
Zhou Guanyu
Valtteri Bottas
Alexander Albon   
Kevin Magnussen
Nico Hulkenberg   
Carlos Sainz
Lando Norris   
Esteban Ocon

The rain stopped FP2 short.  :/

It is really nice to see Japanese Grand Prix not being cancelled.    We have already left 2 practice sessions behind also. There was a Red Bull dominance in the first one and Mercedes drivers looked really good too. On the other hand the second practice session didn't last long due to a rain burst. Drivers were able to go for only 7 laps the most.

I'm really wondering whether we would have another interesting race with surprising results but I'm pushing my luck there I guess. 

It will probably be under Verstappen's dominance and Red Bulls can take the first 2 spots at the end of the race I think. Do you think Sainz would see another podium? 

Bruno Guimaraes is likely to leave Newscastle as the club needs to get financial fair play in order.

Several teams are interested in the player including PSG, CITY and Arsenal.

Arsenal don't stop there, they seem to also be interested in Isak and Zikzee, actually at Bologna on Loan from Bayern

In fact in this track I don't think Ferrari will suffer that much.I have seen the races during all the years here and most of the time Ferrari have a good feeling with this track,in the hand of good drivers like Leclerc and Sainz if they manage to get Pole position and get out first out of the first corner things can be manageable for the Ferrari team.

Of course Max Verstappen is eager now to score as many points as he can as he comes from a 0 points race in Australia yet for me this track is not the most suitable one for Redbull,they had problems last year or the year before that if I remember correctly although they managed to win the race,it was difficult for them,this time maybe even more difficult since Ferrari form is great.

We will have good weather in Japan for the duration of the Grand Prix and tests.

Red Bull should be favored but Ferrari has already said it will use an aggressive approach for this race too.

honestly I think they could fight for pole but not for victory (if max doesn't have mechanical problems)

In fact not only there have been news about a possible cancellation of this grand prix but if you check the official F1 Instagram page you will see there many posts of drivers having a whole lot of fun by exploring Japan thoroughly,only tomorrow they start the free practice which makes them fully concentrated on the race weekend.

As for Vettel I would love a come back from him even if the performance of Mercedes assuming he will be driving for them will just be average,a driver like Vettel can make them feel much more powerful,in fact the only true dominating car Vettel had was Redbull where he won 4 titles.

It looks that Japan wasn't affected by this terrible earthquake, I didn't even saw serious tals anywhere that Japanese GP can be cancelled. And yeah, this is early race for people in Europe or Africa, but fortunately not that early as Australian GP .
And Vettel - I don't believe that we will see him in F1 again. I see more likely that he can go to other racing series.

It seems Suzuka GP will going on according to plan so nothing really changed and hopefully nothing will change within next hours too.

Now , I also hope that Redbull will come with that white-blue livery because that combination of colors are really looking amazing + it's their 2nd home GP after Austria.

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.

There is no update on the future of Japanese Grand Prix yet but I hope things aren't very serious there.    If the conditions are okay I would really love to watch this race like many other people. It is once again an early race for the most part of the world but there is nothing to do about it. F1 lovers would set their alarms to watch it anyway.

The news about Vettel makes me excited as well. I wouldn't expect him to return this quick to F1 honestly. Maybe he got bored in his normal life and wanted to get into the action once again. Watching him race for Mercedes in 2025 would be awesome.  

There is a place free at Mercedes during 2025 as Hamilton is leaving and for me if Vettel is remotely thinking in F1 he should do it with a Mercedes as I don't see any better option than Mercedes which has free slots from the teams running,the other 3 strong teams have their line up most likely fixed for the upcoming season.So it would be great to see Vettel back in driving a great car like Mercedes which I assume would be running a good performance.

The last time an earthquake or disaster happened that directly affected racing activity happened in 2011[1]. I believe if the damage is severe enough, including uncertainty of a follow-up earthquake or something similar, they will postpone or use other circuits to hold the races. I doubt fixing a public road and a circuit is the same thing though, so even if they can do that the race will likely get postponed anyway. Even if an earthquake is a normal occurrence, it would be stupid to proceed with a race when there's no certainty that it will be safe imo.

[1] https://www.espn.co.uk/racing/racing/news/story?id=6219190