2026 Japanese Grand Prix - Suzuka, March 27 - 29

[DJ Downforce]

What a shitshow, and I cant stand the commentators who keep telling me how exciting it is. And every overtake is lauded and they keep acting surprised when the reovertake has taken place.

Yes, being a huge JB fan in the past, both as a driver and particularly commentator, I am especially disappointed with him.. sold his soul completely. Never expected anything better from talking heads like Chandhok, Crofty, Brundle or Davidson, who are just fulfilling their contracts….but not Jenson.

Have you considered that JB and other pundits may genuinely enjoy the racing?

Aside from the accident caused by Colapinto's aggressive swerve, today was a fine race! Piastri was holding on well for the first stint and would've troubled Kimi if not for that safety car!

I recommend some fans set aside their reservations and enjoy the show! Regardless of if their driver is having problems

[gandharva]

I mean energy management can absolutely be considered pure racing. It’s certainly wheel to wheel and strategic, but it’s not full pushing in the traditional sense.

[gandharva]

The "racing" is phony, pathetic and etc but I do see the point of the people who are loving it and are complaining for others to stop bashing it. They are right, if you´re not liking the show, turn it off and do something else. There is really no point in constantly bashing it, leave the F1 races for the people thrilled with the "show".

No, they’re not. It’s called freedom of speech.

And honestly... it’s just basic accountability. If a global sport claims to stand for competitive integrity, it should also be open to criticism, especially when it starts prioritizing entertainment over actual sporting merit.

[Rikhart]

I mean energy management can absolutely be considered pure racing. It’s certainly wheel to wheel and strategic, but it’s not full pushing in the traditional sense.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HEj0nBJbwAA ... name=large

This cannot be allowed to continue, someone will die.

[Vettel165]

I mean energy management can absolutely be considered pure racing. It’s certainly wheel to wheel and strategic, but it’s not full pushing in the traditional sense.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HEj0nBJbwAA ... name=large

Crazy....

[avantman]

I mean energy management can absolutely be considered pure racing. It’s certainly wheel to wheel and strategic, but it’s not full pushing in the traditional sense.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HEj0nBJbwAA ... name=large

Crazy....

Wrong word. It’s ‘exciting’, ‘proper’, ‘pure’.

[Waz]

Discussion in here is quite disappointing. For years, the narrative has been that races are dull and overtaking needs improvement.

It's not ideal right now, but the races have been a lot more interesting than last year and before.

Antonelli drove a great race after the SC and stamped his authority on it.

Behind him was uncertain right till the last corner for some drivers. Leclerc was incredible to keep George behind for so long. How is that not intriguing? Or his daring pass into Turn 1 on George to take 3rd back?

We had Hamilton vs Leclerc again, putting on a show of brilliant wheel to wheel, then Hamilton vs Norris was interesting.

Oscar was gradually losing time to Charles and George too.

Everyone hated DRS fly bys, but now suddenly they were amazing because the overtaking driver didn't need to worry about losing his place back?

[bananapeel23]

I mean energy management can absolutely be considered pure racing. It’s certainly wheel to wheel and strategic, but it’s not full pushing in the traditional sense.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HEj0nBJbwAA ... name=large

Dude it was a software bug, causing Colapinto to superclip while Bearman was deploying fully. High torque 1000 horsepower vs low torque 200 horsepower in a traction zone. A total recipe for disaster and extremely dangerous. But that doesn't mean that I don't find aspects of these cars and the racing they produce good, while still being well aware that superclipping is terribly dangerous and needs to go ASAP.

I'm just about the biggest superclipping critic you can find, and in no way am I defending that crash. I can be positive about the way the cars race as a whole, while still being extremely critical of how dangerous an AI-controlled, bug prone 330 horsepower engine brake is. I can be fairly positive about energy management and still be extremely critical of the obvious issues caused by high harvesting allowances combined with extremely low harvesting potential.

As soon as these regs were announced I was dumbfounded by the stupidity of a 9MJ harvesting allowance along with a 350 kW MGU-K with no MGU-H and front axle harvesting. That doesn't change

[gandharva]

Dude it was a software bug, causing Colapinto to superclip while Bearman was deploying fully.

Exactly. The same software that now decides who wins and loses. Back in the Pepperidge Farm days, drivers actually had that privilege.

[arunn]

In a way this race was better than the snooze fest we had last year, but I am conflicted because the action is almost entirely artificial. I don't know what they can do about it short term, but they seriously need to consider hardware changes on the PU side for next year. Cars are on a better place with their ability to follow and I think they're not far off in ultimate pace to the point where you're blurring the line between "pinnacle of motorsport" and the next best thing. However, the PU formula is absolutely cooked. It's horrible in quali and it's an inconsistent mess in the races. They need to do something about it.

A snoozefest last year when nobody could know a winner until the end? That was one of the best races of the season.

You need to pull some crazy mental gymnastics to call Suzuka one of the best races of 2025. It was literally more boring than Monaco to watch. There was nothing happening in it 90% of the time.

And I don't know for you, but I personally definitely knew who the winner would be. It should have been one of the McLaren drivers if McLaren actually split strategies and tried to win the race like a normal team. Since McLaren did not do that, Max had it in the bag as you couldn't overtake for sh*t at Suzuka with the cars last year. It was something like 15 overtakes the whole race after lap 1. Horrible.

It was the best race of the year for me too. We already had a miracle in the qualifying against the faster cars the day before but the race is 2 hours long and you have to be perfect in everything to get that win and I was laser focused on max fearing any mistakes or mishaps but it was just brilliance that we got from him. This is not football where the number of goals decide the excitement level the thrill of max being chased the whole race was nice. For me atleast.

[Mogster]

Discussion in here is quite disappointing. For years, the narrative has been that races are dull and overtaking needs improvement.

It's not ideal right now, but the races have been a lot more interesting than last year and before.

Antonelli drove a great race after the SC and stamped his authority on it.

Behind him was uncertain right till the last corner for some drivers. Leclerc was incredible to keep George behind for so long. How is that not intriguing? Or his daring pass into Turn 1 on George to take 3rd back?

We had Hamilton vs Leclerc again, putting on a show of brilliant wheel to wheel, then Hamilton vs Norris was interesting.

Oscar was gradually losing time to Charles and George too.

Everyone hated DRS fly bys, but now suddenly they were amazing because the overtaking driver didn't need to worry about losing his place back?

Agree, but everyone is entitled to have an opinion.

Enjoyed the race today, better to watch than the aero processions we’ve got used to at Suzuka. Overtake energy mode is better than DRS, it can be used anywhere and we are seeing overtakes in places we haven’t before. The aero and chassis regs seem to be working, the cars can run noticeably closer together.

I don’t like the slowing to charge but it is what it is. Other than re-instating the MGU-H (not going to happen) I don’t see a full solution. Allowing a higher fuel flow and more power from the engine would help but that moves away from 50:50. Charging from the front axle would help but could bring stability control by the back door, at least these cars look lively.

[Vettel165]

Real F1 fans would never like this rules, DTS fans will of course .

[Cold Fussion]

I fully agree. The good part in this regulation is the fact you can be tactical with energy use allowing you to become faster in various parts of the circuit. This allows drivers to open up opportunities to fight.

Super clipping and lift and coast harvesting is adding nothing. If they reduce the limits (or found other ways to charge) we would get best of both worlds. Tactical fights and cars on the limit. Imagine if you could drive hard and the only difference is where you choose to deploy boost.

I know some would call it a gimmick and dislike it but it is exactly what Formula wanted to do with DRS, allow fights between cars. Without a driver overtake aid this age of hyper reliable cars with thousands of sensors anddrivers which seldom make mistakes you will just end up with super boring races that come down to who overtakes through a single pitstop.

Easier overtakes allows for more race strategies as well.

The big problem with the energy management from the viewer perspective is that we have limited to zero visibility to the actual energy management part, and how that balance is affecting the battle lap after lap. What we mostly see is just seemingly at random, one driver decides they want to over deploy in one to try and force a pass, and when they then get repassed on the next straight it just looks pointless. As a viewer we lose all the nuance that would make the management interesting. This was also a problem in the last engine regulation but it's more stark now. FOM have a lot of work to do in order to properly communicate this during the race, the new halo overlay is an improvement of the previous one, without any multi lap, multi car visibility, it isn't enough to know what's actually going on.

And I don't know for you, but I personally definitely knew who the winner would be. It should have been one of the McLaren drivers if McLaren actually split strategies and tried to win the race like a normal team. Since McLaren did not do that, Max had it in the bag as you couldn't overtake for sh*t at Suzuka with the cars last year. It was something like 15 overtakes the whole race after lap 1. Horrible.

Overtakes are like lightsaber battles in star wars, there is no correlation with the number and the quality of the film, and in some cases can be entertaining with zero lightsaber battles. Even pure action films are not non stop action set pieces.

[AR3-GP]

I fully agree. The good part in this regulation is the fact you can be tactical with energy use allowing you to become faster in various parts of the circuit. This allows drivers to open up opportunities to fight.

The problem imo is that +50km/h speed differentials (or more with sudden superclipping) seems a bit dangerous to "normalize". This is real life, not the safety of a virtual game where we slingshot the drivers at one another like missiles because of an overtake button and derating because more kids think it's fun. There is no re-spawn button in F1. You crash and drivers get hurt. Oliver Bearman sustained a 50G accident because of the cartoonish difference in speeds.

A driver pushes the overtake button and doesn't know how many cars he could slingshot past by the end of the straight. This isn't real life, it is need for speed racing. It doesn't have a place in the pinnacle of motorsport imo. People have to have respect for motorsport and what these drivers do. Just because you can turn it to mario kart level antics in order to tickle our most juvenile sensibilities doesn't mean that you should. I am not going to say this race was "boring" because it wasn't. It was something else which made it interesting, but it shouldn't be Formula 1 in my opinion.

It is the difference between Mario Kart and an actual driving simulator. These guys have had their career turned into a wii sports game.

[bananapeel23]

Dude it was a software bug, causing Colapinto to superclip while Bearman was deploying fully.

Exactly. The same software that now decides who wins and loses. Back in the Pepperidge Farm days, drivers actually had that privilege.

Differences are exaggerated due to it being early on in the regs. Software will converge.

It’s an engine formula just like 1989, 2006 and 2014. Who cares if it’s engine software or pure engine power that propels you out in front, it’s still the same thing as all previous engine formulas.