2024 Japanese Grand Prix - Suzuka, April 05 - 07

[avantman]

What’s so wrong with Leclerc?? Bad mentality starting to creep in??

Nothing wrong, this is his level. Dude's favorite tracks are Monaco, Baku and Singapore. Lol. What do you expect from him at Suzuka? Unsurprisingly outperformed by Vettel there, now by Sainz.

[Sieper]

Max has just said that with the very aggressive surface here, it is not easy to get a perfect lap. Hard to get/keep the tires there. We have seen that all over the grid, almost all drivers had an outlier or two. All that psychological talk is maybe better to put in second place behind the technical talk.

[avantman]

Max has just said that with the very aggressive surface here, it is not easy to get a perfect lap. Hard to get/keep the tires there. We have seen that all over the grid, almost all drivers had an outlier or two. All that psychological talk is maybe better to put in second place behind the technical talk.

Max second lap wasn't perfect, wasn't near as good as his 2nd lap in Q3 last year. But, important to notice, he still was capable to drive it decently and improve. In fact he only made a small mistake in the final chicane, which costed him 0.12s. He was up 0.16s coming there, making minuscule improvements everywhere on the lap before that chicane. There was barely more in the car.
Meanwhile, Norris, Sainz, Hamilton, Piastri, Russell all went slower (some A LOT slower) on their 2nd run. Quite telling.

[AnotherAlex]

Where was the so-called 'fastest man in F1' and the 'best qualifier on the grid' again today? Has he already blamed the car, the team or the wrong tire strategy?

What’s so wrong with Leclerc?? Bad mentality starting to creep in??

Nothing wrong, this is his level. Dude's favorite tracks are Monaco, Baku and Singapore. Lol. What do you expect from him at Suzuka? Unsurprisingly outperformed by Vettel there, now by Sainz.

<yawn>

[chrisc90]

quite interesting looking back at both of Verstappens 2 years of pole laps.

[venkyhere]

https://ibb.co/JvDSprb

quite interesting looking back at both of Verstappens 2 years of pole laps.

Indeed. Running 'more wing' this year ?
For all the hullabaloo over the high speed corners, the sector1 "S's" etc, the real laptime gains come from 'not so fancy' areas like the T11 hairpin, the T14 of spoon corner and the T16-17 chicane.

[avantman]

https://ibb.co/JvDSprb

quite interesting looking back at both of Verstappens 2 years of pole laps.

Indeed. Running 'more wing' this year ?
For all the hullabaloo over the high speed corners, the sector1 "S's" etc, the real laptime gains come from 'not so fancy' areas like the T11 hairpin, the T14 of spoon corner and the T16-17 chicane.

yeah, sure, but the pole was won in the S's today. That's where Max gained most of the lap time against Checo.

[Cs98]

https://ibb.co/JvDSprb

quite interesting looking back at both of Verstappens 2 years of pole laps.

Looks like the wind was in the opposite direction this year. Matches basically all the places he was slower and faster. I also think the RB20 is a tiny bit draggier.

[chrisc90]

https://ibb.co/JvDSprb

quite interesting looking back at both of Verstappens 2 years of pole laps.

Looks like the wind was in the opposite direction this year. Matches basically all the places he was slower and faster. I also think the RB20 is a tiny bit draggier.

Headwind could be a good call. Would be easy to tell by the 2 middle section where the 2024 lap was quicker than '23 and working out the track/wind orientation.

[Cs98]

https://ibb.co/JvDSprb

quite interesting looking back at both of Verstappens 2 years of pole laps.

Looks like the wind was in the opposite direction this year. Matches basically all the places he was slower and faster. I also think the RB20 is a tiny bit draggier.

Headwind could be a good call. Would be easy to tell by the 2 middle section where the 2024 lap was quicker than '23 and working out the track/wind orientation.

Also the fact he is slower in the esses and faster on the exit of spoon.

[TFSA]

just shows how in fact average Russell really is.
Young, fast top form Hamilton has been mostly outperformed by both Button and Rosberg over the years at this track. Russell can't do anything against old Lewis at Suzuka. This fact speaks for itself.

Can we please stop pretending that age is such a big detriment in F1? Both Lewis and Alonso have proved time and time again that it's not the case - at least not yet at their age.

[venkyhere]

It would be very surprising if they are sandbagging. They rarely ever do this on a race weekend and the lack of FP2 and an upgrade package makes it even less likely imho

There is no chance Ferrari is 1s/lap faster than RBR.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Looks like engine-mode
https://i.imgur.com/MRoLAHd.png

I still keep going back to this picture. What if 'conservative PU' or 'fuel weight' is accounting for only 3 or 4 tenths ? What if Ferrari have genuinely setup their car balance purely for race pace, knowingly sacrificing quali ? That would mean a role reversal w.r.t last year where Ferrari now have 1/2 a second in hand of race pace against RedBull - it's a juicy prospect for a proper fight tomorrow.

[chrisc90]

There is no chance Ferrari is 1s/lap faster than RBR.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Looks like engine-mode
https://i.imgur.com/MRoLAHd.png

I still keep going back to this picture. What if 'conservative PU' or 'fuel weight' is accounting for only 3 or 4 tenths ? What if Ferrari have genuinely setup their car balance purely for race pace, knowingly sacrificing quali ? That would mean a role reversal w.r.t last year where Ferrari now have 1/2 a second in hand of race pace against RedBull - it's a juicy prospect for a proper fight tomorrow.

Dont forget that RBR are running very conservative on those runs too. Even if you compare lap 16 where the times were split by a hundreth, there is still lots left on the table.

There isnt any chance that Ferrari have a second over Red Bull in race pace; even matching them would be optimistic IMHO.

[Sevach]

What’s so wrong with Leclerc?? Bad mentality starting to creep in??

I don't know, but this isn't a nervous car or easy to heat up tires like he used(and maybe prefers) and he has been unable to shine so far.
In Australia his pace dissapeared after friday and here he was always slightly slower.

[Seanspeed]

just shows how in fact average Russell really is.
Young, fast top form Hamilton has been mostly outperformed by both Button and Rosberg over the years at this track. Russell can't do anything against old Lewis at Suzuka. This fact speaks for itself.

Can we please stop pretending that age is such a big detriment in F1? Both Lewis and Alonso have proved time and time again that it's not the case - at least not yet at their age.

That dude is determined to have a Skip Bayless-level hot take on every subject.