🏁 Snoozuka

Japanese GP Recap, Bahrain GP Preview

Matthew Bailey
April 11, 2025

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PLP Season 3 Edition 6

Race Weekend

It’s a shame that we had to break out the sleepy pun title for last weekend’s race. The track is a classic, the fans are fervent, the race was… a bit of a dud. Sorry if you stayed up to watch, but that’s the way the tire degrades (or, doesn’t really seem to degrade much these days).

I was super tired all day and couldn’t make it to lights out, so I had serene early Sunday morning viewing instead. A nice leisurely Sunday drive if you will, listening to the distant vrooms, watching the cherry blossoms dance in the cool breeze. Like the Japanese say, “Inu mo arukeba bō ni ataru” which roughly means: “when you do things, stuff happens - sometimes trouble, sometimes opportunity.” Such is life in F1.

Times for this weekend in EDT:

FP1: Friday, April 11th @ 7:30am
FP2: Friday, April 11th @ 11:00am
FP3: Saturday, April 12th @ 8:30am
Quali: Saturday, April 12th @ 12:00pm
Grand Prix: Sunday, April 13th @ 11:00am

Quick Question!

Max won his fourth Japanese GP in a row. Which statement do you think is more representative of reality?

❓️ Last week we asked what you thought of the new condensed Driver and Constructor sections. About 2/3 of respondents were A-OK with the change. For those who want everyone represented, I’ll try to get as many drivers and teams in each week even if we don’t always make it to everyone.

Also, props to Mike for this clever comment that made me chuckle: “Is the Ferrari team upgrade to the floor - Floor of the race cars or the floor of the garages to add scales to ensure the cars are at the correct weight?” 🤣 They should probably upgrade their garage floor as well…

Race Recap: Japan

Podium: 🥇 VER - 🥈 NOR - 🥉 PIA

DNF: None

Fastest Lap: ANT

DoTD: TSU - Homer pick, though Yuki did have a good weekend up until Q2. He’ll need a little time to continue to learn the car, and I think will soon be scoring points regularly.

The highlight of the weekend was before the race even started - Max put up a blistering pole lap, dragging that RB21 into the first starting position ahead of the favored McLarens and setting a new circuit lap time record. Also, the grass around the track kept catching on fire during practice, which you gotta admit is pretty metal.

To get an idea of the (lack of) action: The top 6 finished in the same order they started for the first time in history on a permanent track, and the race featured just 15 overtakes. No flags, no DNFs. While it’s a great track - it’s a narrow one, and one stop races these days are bound to be less exciting. Especially when all the top runners stopped in close proximity of one another, and there were barely any split strategies.

The most actual racing happened at the pit lane exit, when Lando desperately tried to get the edge on Max by driving up on the grass alongside him. And while both McLarens only finished just over 2 seconds back of winner Max, it was never actually that close. Lando couldn’t quite get in DRS range, and the team didn’t acquiesce (I spelled that word correctly on the first try. I couldn’t believe it.) to Oscar’s request to have a go at Max, even though the young Aussie thought he had the pace to do it. When Max crossed the line you could tell this win was a big one for him, he talked a lot about never giving up after a tough start.

Gasly and Alonso was the only battle on the opening lap, but both would miss out on points. Sainz had the prettiest overtake of the day, besting Hulkenberg at the hairpin. Hadjar would pass Sainz later on to secure his points spot, while Bearman added a good result for Haas in P10 after what was looking to be a disaster weekend on Friday.

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Bahrain GP Preview

Well here’s the good news: Bahrain is a track that usually produces some good racing and provides plenty of overtaking opportunities. There seems to be slight surprises in who has the most pace each weekend between the top 4, and we’ve got a long season ahead so we’re not gonna crown anyone just yet.

Bahrain is a circuit which can be subject to high wind and allows for a good amount of overtaking so this one should be more exciting than last week. It can be difficult to get right car set-up due to the big temperature differences between sessions, but teams should have a better idea after testing there just over a month ago (even though it’s been unseasonably cool there lately). The downhill tight turn 10 is the most challenging, the sweeping fast turn 12 is a highlight, and degradation plays a big role with harder sets of tires are required to handle the track’s abrasive surface. The teams will have the hardest compounds available in Pirelli’s range, just like last weekend.

Says everyone’s favorite color commentator Jolyon Palmer: “The most challenging part of the Bahrain track is probably braking into Turn 10 because you’re approaching it with a fair amount of speed from the Turn 8 hairpin and through the Turn 9 kink, and you unload the front-left tire as you’re turning left. It’s easy to lock up, we’ve seen that so many times.”

What to Watch For:

Title Fight is ON: Four different winners so far - all from pole position. Some around the sport have said this season will be a quali championship - and I guess, so far… yes. Max has shown early he’s still got as good a chance as any, both McLaren’s will be near the top… can someone else join in on the fun? Russell seems likely. Ferraris? Maybe? Please?
Swapped Drivers: Yuki showed signs of life in the Red Bull, while Liam looked more comfortable in the Bull that Races. Look for both to continue to improve.
A Familiar Place: Drivers are intimately familiar with Bahrain, the site of many a testing session. With some upgrades showing up this weekend, don’t be too surprised if the pecking order at the top looks to shift slightly.
FP1 Reserves: A rush of rookies will take the wheel in the first practice:
- Dino Beganovic in for LEC at Ferrari
- Ayumu Iwasa in for VER at Red Bull
- Frederik Vesti in for RUS at Mercedes
- Felipe Drugovic in for ALO at Aston Martin
- Ryo Hirakawa in for BEA at Haas
- Luke Browning in for SAI at Williams

Driver Drama

Too Christmas-y?

▶️ Max Verstappen is now the first ever driver to win four races in a row at Suzuka, undefeated in Japan since 2019. He also said that the team “definitely needs to improve” if their going to fight for the title.

▶️ Lando Norris isn’t buying Red Bull’s underdog status this year: “Still leading [the Championship]. Could things have been slightly better? Yes. but Max and Red Bull have done a good job with a car that they say they've been struggling with.”

▶️ Lewis Hamilton thinks Ferrari is aware of an issue that is hurting his current pace: “We found something on the car that's been underperforming…I'm losing just over a tenth a lap with this issue…so I'm hoping in the next race it's fixed.”

▶️ Yuki Tsunoda said he had “mixed feelings” after his home Red Bull debut. “in Qualifying, I just have to do a bit better. I think the pace was there, I was just stuck in traffic all around…I feel like I’ve learned a lot of things in the 53 laps. I’m excited for the next one but, at the same time, it’s a home Grand Prix. It’s once in a year, so it was a bit tough.”

▶️ Carlos Sainz had one expensive bathroom break, which saw him fined 20K Euros for arriving late to the national anthem last weekend. He even got a doctor’s note to confirm his stomach issues. But the FIA said “tough s***”.

▶️ Kimi Antonelli set some records last weekend: Youngest driver to ever lead a lap, and youngest driver to ever set a fastest lap in a race. Believe it or not, by this weekend he’ll already be too old to break Max’s record of youngest ever to win a race. They grow up so fast…

▶️ Speaking of youngins, Isack Hadjar had his best weekend so far, qualifying 7th with a P8 finish. When asked if he would be ready to step up to the varsity squad if another driver swap were to happen, he replied: “Of course, it’s a huge challenge and I’m not really planning on it at the moment…But if I get the call, of course, I would say I’m ready. Even if I’m not, I would say I’m ready!” A total bait question, but what a difference two races makes.

▶️ Haas TP Komatsu was all praise on Ollie Bearman’s weekend: "He's looked very mature in the car. Obviously, Shanghai, he had a very good weekend. And Suzuka, it's pretty technical, difficult track. And they had lots of objectives in terms of assessing flow, etc, etc. But Friday, again, everything lap, he was faultless. And then he turned it up for qualifying. Again, really, really good race."

▶️ Unlike his teammate, Haas’ floor update didn’t seem to work for Esteban Ocon, who “just didn't improve as much” as he should have with the new floor and “still struggle[d] quite a lot with some of the issues seen previously.” They’ve looked to Ollie’s data to see where Ocon is missing time, but so far the team can’t tell why he was unable to extract the same benefits out of the same car.

▶️ It was a tough day at the office as Gabriel Bortoleto rues a “tricky start” that saw him drop to P20 after being overtaken by some soft tire starters, while Nico Hulkenberg left wanting more after being stuck in traffic most of the race: “The car didn’t feel too bad today, and I would have liked the chance to explore its full potential a bit more.” Fact of life that all vehicle operators need to realize: You’re not stuck in traffic, you ARE traffic.

▶️ Charles Leclerc is hopeful that upgrades will hope increase their pace: “I hope it will help us to be closer but it’s still quite a significant step. In Suzuka I think that this was the gap that there is between McLaren and ourselves which is three-tenths, and we need to work very hard in order to catch that.”

Quote of the Week

This QoTW brought to you by the Max Verstappen podcast:

If you don’t know - the MVP was a recurring meme back in ‘23 when Max was winning every race. The joke was he’d have two guests on his “podcast” in the cool down room, since he’d always be there after every race chatting with the 2nd and 3rd place finisher.

Sidenote: Hearing the drivers watch highlights and talk to each other after each race is still one of the best access points. You can hear them chatting freely and joking with each other (or sitting in awkward silence after an inchident) and not being measured for the media. Def keep the broadcast on after the checkered flag to catch it this weekend. Anyway, here’s what went down after Suzuka if you didn’t hear:

VER: [Watching Lando run on the grass alongside him while exiting the pit lane] That’s quite an expensive lawnmower.

NOR: We had a floor especially made for it.

[Highlights cut to Max crossing the finish line]

PIA: … That’s all the highlights? That’s all that happened in the race?

NOR: Nothing happened! I don’t think there was one overtake.

At least Oscar tried to make some highlights by wanting to get a shot at Max at the end.

Constructor’s Corner

Think Papa Stroll ever dressed up as Santa for Lance when he was a kid? You can see it, right?

▶️ McLaren TP Stella explains the lack of an alternative strategy call when it came to pitting their two drivers at roughly the same time in Suzuka: “The problem for Lando would be that he would have lost positions to some other cars, including Oscar because they had pitted and were faster. If you stay out for 20 laps on a used medium, you cannot be faster than somebody that has pitted onto a hard. The situation became very clear when Russell pitted and he was very fast on a new hard.”

▶️ The Racing Bulls Quali streak continues, as the second Red Bull driver has yet to out-qualify either junior team car this season.

▶️ Alpine, The only point-less team so far this year, isn’t too worried about chasing too hard: They feel their pace “not miles away.” But ultimately, it looks like they’ll need to wait until 2026 to have a real shot when the switch to Mercedes engines. They are decent in high speed corners sections but lose time on straights - seemingly due to engine performance.

▶️ Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso has a simple conclusion for the team: “We need to improve our car performance.” …“Those with better cars, will do better in the race.” Sounds like one of those obvious Will Buxton quotes from DTS that people like to make memes about.

▶️ Williams has 19 points after three races, already topping their 2024 total of 17 points - led by Alex Albon who has scored in three consecutive races for the first time since joining the team in 2022. “It just shows that even on days when we’re not that optimal, we’re able to score points. In that sense, I’m very happy.” Williams P5 this year, book it. Yes I know, hardly a bold prediction.

▶️ While Ferrari had their best points weekend so far, TP Vasseur acknowledges their start has been “not ideal”, highlighting they key crux of this generation of cars: “We are all spending the weekend on where is the limit and where can we run the car a bit lower and then you are too low. It is the same for everybody and we all know with this type of car, performance is a lot linked to the ride height.” Ferrari still seems to be mulling over the decision of whether or not to bring a reshaped floor, new diffuser, rear wing updates, and rear brake duct change this weekend - or try to solve separate balance issues first.

Tech Talk

2026 Power Units: There’s a meeting in Bahrain on Friday to discuss the targeted combustion/electrical power ratio of the new engines. The current split is 55/45, but some teams prefer 70/30 or even 80/20. It’s getting close to midnight for 2026 regulation finalization and these are big changes being discussed - along with all the active aero features as well. I get a funny feeling about all this tweaking when we’re already into 2025.
Red Bull’s Tweaks: To secure the victory, the team used a low downforce set up that increased rear-end stability on the RB21. They used a revised engine cover, and got rid of heat vents that were unnecessary in Japan’s cooler weather. Other changes included simpler suspension and brake duct diverters to improve tire cooling and overall airflow and aero performance.
F1’s Dirty Little Not-So-Secret is… still air. Following closely continues to be difficult in this car generation due to how the air comes off the back of the cars, allowing for less opportunities for exciting wheel to wheel action. There have also been calls for Pirelli to increase degradation on their tires to make the wear more of a factor in determining strategy and stops.

Off the Grid

No Ones Safe from Tariffs: Haas Automation released a statement that U.S. tariffs have caused a “significant decrease in demand for our machine tools”, which could have trickle down impact on the F1 team’s funding for this season. They must have been happy with the pause announced Wednesday then. How bout that market variability, eh?
Jeremy Clarkson has an idea for more exciting races: stop going to tracks where overtaking is difficult. Along with Suzuka those typically include Jeddah, Miami, Imola, Monaco, Barcelona, Hungaroring, Zandvoort, Mona, Azerbaijan, Singapore, Mexico, Qatar, and Abu Dhabi. So half the calendar at least… hmm… may need another solution.

Quick Question (My answer)

It’s Max doing Max things, the car isn’t the best. BUT, it looks like the team is slowly figuring it out and improving, so if it does become a top car… watch out.

We’ll be back again next week. AGAIN. Woohoo.

Sorry Carlos 🔽

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