ROUND 17: 🇯🇵 FORMULA 1 LENOVO JAPANESE GRAND PRIX 2023

Circuit stats
First Grand Prix 1987
Number of laps 53
Circuit Length 5.807 km
Race Distance 307.471 km
Lap record 1:30.983 Lewis Hamilton (2019)
2022 winner Max Verstappen

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  • danielfgom@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6·
    1 year ago

    My thoughts:

    1. Perez is done. By far his worst race I think and really stupid mistakes. Plus getting out of a perfectly good car half way though the race is inexcusable. Do you know how much it costs the team to bring him and the car to a race? To have it just sit there when it has no issues is a massive financial drain.

    2. Max pretty much single handedly won the Constructors Title for Red Bull. His performances for them the title with little help from Perez. I’m sure Max is getting a nice bonus after this.

    3. Sargeant sealed his fate: he’s definitely out soon. He’s costing Williams much needed cash and simply can’t keep it together. Lawson and Piastri are making him look really bad.

    4. Mercedes is stronger than Ferrari. They’ve really bounced back in a big way and Ferrari needs to up their game.

    • tankplanker@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      Ferrari are still the worst of the front four for tire wear, until they fix that they can not compete at enough circuits to have a decent run at the title. They were faster than Merc when they had a small tire advantage (like Carlos with his 4 lap newer hards) but it went off way sooner than the other three teams.

      If it gets closer between the top four teams next season then Red Bull are going to really struggle for the constructors as Merc, McLaren and Ferrari all have two high performing drivers each. I really cannot see Red Bull signing another top driver to sit next to Max, that’s not Max’s choice, but I just cannot see Red Bull wanting the drama or the potential for lost points to a team mate.

      Red Bull really need to wangle Lawson into that second Williams seat, they have their own data for Albon vs. enough of their own drivers so they can use this to more accurately benchmark Lawson. I just do not see Danny or Yuki being the right replacement for Perez and there isn’t many options further down the field right now.

      • danielfgom@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        I agree with you. Except I think there is probably a large pool of drivers waiting to get into F1 to choose from.

        Also all terms have reserve drivers that would be very happy to sign with Red Bull.

        • tankplanker@lemmy.world
          1·
          1 year ago

          I don’t think RB are interested in unproven drivers otherwise we would not see their continued ownership of AT and its use as a proving ground for RB drivers. Even Danny is having to go back round the AT loop before they would consider him to replace Checo.