The Japanese Grand Prix is one of the big Formula 1 races. Teams use practice sessions to test how their cars feel and how fast they can go before the main events.
Formula One is the highest level of race car competition. Teams constantly adjust their cars, and practice sessions help them figure out what works best.
Suzuka is the famous race track in Japan used for the Japanese Grand Prix. Because it has lots of fast and slow corners, how the car uses its energy matters a lot.
The FIA is the organization that makes the rules for Formula One. In this case, they changed an energy rule that affects how the cars perform in qualifying.
130R is a famous high-speed corner at Suzuka Circuit in Japan, known for being taken flat-out in ideal conditions. Because it’s so iconic, changes to how cars can attack it (or how much they must lift) strongly affect fan perception of the session quality.
A chicane is a sequence of tight turns designed to slow cars down and create a technical driving section. In the context of 130R, losing speed into a chicane suggests drivers are struggling to maintain momentum after a high-speed entry.
An onboard camera shows the driver’s perspective, often including speed, throttle/brake inputs, and steering behavior. Comparing onboard data across sessions helps explain why a corner looks slower—like lifting earlier or failing to maintain top speed.
Downshifting is changing to a lower gear to increase engine braking and provide the right torque for corner entry or acceleration. In F1, hearing/seeing downshifts is often associated with how drivers manage traction and braking stability into complex sections.
McLaren Honda was a famous F1 team pairing. The hosts are using that history as an example of how partnerships can either work out well or get strained if things don’t go right early.
“Turn it around” in F1 usually means quickly improving results after a poor start through upgrades, better setup, and resolving technical issues. The hosts connect it to how quickly teams can recover once they identify what’s wrong.
“One lap” pace refers to short-run, single-lap performance—often measured during flying laps. The hosts say McLaren look on par with Mercedes around one lap, which suggests strong qualifying-like speed even if race consistency is still uncertain.
Flying laps are timed laps where the car is already at speed before the timing point, so the lap reflects peak performance rather than acceleration out of a slow corner. The hosts use flying laps to compare how teams perform on different tire compounds.
The podium is the top three finish positions in a race (1st, 2nd, 3rd). The hosts use it as a benchmark for whether McLaren’s improvement could translate from practice pace into race results.
Race wins are the ultimate goal in F1 and depend on more than one-lap speed—strategy, tire management, and reliability all matter. The hosts frame McLaren’s Friday improvement as potentially enough to fight for wins, not just qualifying positions.
Red Bull is one of the big Formula 1 teams. If they look fast in practice, it usually means they have a good chance to be competitive later that weekend.
A safety car restart is when the race restarts after a slower period. The speaker claims that at one restart, Mercedes looked unusually fast compared to everyone else.
Lewis Hamilton is a famous F1 driver who raced for Mercedes. The speaker brings him up to describe a past race where Mercedes looked extremely dominant.
“Pole” means you qualify first, so you start the race from the front. The speaker uses Austria as an example of how engine choices can lead to a big qualifying result.
“Chassis” is basically the car’s foundation and how everything is put together to handle. If the chassis isn’t working right, the car can feel unpredictable in turns.
“Aero” is how the car’s shape and wings push it down onto the track. If the aero isn’t right, the car can feel wrong in corners even if the engine is fine.
20 kg is a lot of extra weight for an F1 car. More weight makes it harder to change direction quickly, which matters on twisty sections like Suzuka’s S-curves.
They’re saying cars are still breaking down too often. If that keeps happening, it can ruin race results and the championship picture.
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Hello everybody and welcome back to the P1 Podcast with Matt and Tommy, Japanese Grand Prix Friday.
Let's talk about it. We've got some news. We've got some things going on in the world of Formula One in the lead-up to this.
And also some things to discuss now that we've seen the cars around the legendary Suzuki Circuit.
Tommy, you have literally just got back from holiday. You don't look tired at all.
Last time it was me that was in trouble. I'm still a little bit in trouble, but I'm getting there.
It's you now in trouble, Tommy, but with jet lag this time.
It's not even jet lag. No, it's going to say jet lag.
It may sound like a right deal, but literally the same time zone.
Was it an hour? Was it the same?
No, it's just that classic like being on an airplane with aircon and everyone coughing and good times.
But we'll make it through.
Stay away from me. Don't transmit it through the microphone, please. That'll be good.
Right now, so some things to talk about.
And look, first and foremost, before we get into it, let's absorb and enjoy every single second of content that we bring out and talk about with Formula One.
And we try not to complain too much because F1's going away for a month.
There is no F1 in April, which makes me feel very upset.
But of course, there are reasons for that that make absolute sense as to why we've not got two races in April.
So yeah, let's just try and enjoy Japan as much as we can before we head into almost the length of the off season it feels like in April.
So the first thing to talk about, because we mentioned didn't we previously coming into Suzuka that there might be some adjustments and changes to do with the battery?
The wonderful thing we love to talk about.
Let's not complain about it. And then immediately three seconds later we'll talk about battery and super clipping.
At least I said let's try not to and that's now out the window after 10 seconds.
But the FIA, you know, they've heard, they've listened to the F1 teams and perhaps the fans and made a small adjustment to the maximum energy recharge from nine megajoules to eight megajoules for qualifying.
Essentially taking away a slight bit of the reliance of the battery, which in turn is supposed to give slightly higher speeds towards the end of the straights.
We've seen Friday running.
Yeah.
And what was nine megajoules going to be like? That's what I'm going to ask.
Yeah, my thoughts exactly. It's obviously this was one of the worst circuits for it.
We're early in the season as well where they're still trying to work everything out.
So they've tried to do something to kind of save qualifying because that's been the big thing that we're all kind of upset about.
I feel like the start of the season is going to be very similar in the fact that we get after qualifying, we go, oh, that was rubbish and annoying.
They're super clipping. They're easing off. It doesn't feel like qualifying.
And then we have these brilliant races and that's everything that's happened so far.
And I've tried to kind of rectify that with this whole, you know, not making them harvest as much, but we have still seen an insane amount of super clipping.
I mean, 130R is one of the best corners in Formula One, the whole calendar.
And my word is literally like you've run out of petrol or something and you're just slowly, slowly, slowly losing speed into the chicane.
And I know it's only practice, but I saw an onboard with Max and that was about 50 kph he lost from essentially the top speed.
And we're used to them flying through 130R, you know, flat out.
Charlotte Clarke adjusting his mirror with one hand famously going around that corner and Alonzo's amazing pass on Schumacher and all those amazing moments.
130R, but yeah, it's a shame, isn't it?
It's a big shame, you know, downshifting, of course, as well, which is always lovely to hear.
Try not to complain, not to complain.
So they made the changes ish a tiny change, you know, a miniscule change, which is not for me.
I've not seen anything visibly different to the last two races that we've seen.
If anything, it's even worse because 130R is such an iconic corner and it is.
I know it was easy before, like last year, of course, they would take it flat, you know, a little bit of a turn of the wheel, easy stuff.
Now it feels like you could get out and walk around it at exactly the same speed.
And that's, of course, what they're trying to help with.
But surely everybody knew that this is more trying to save their blushes as much as possible rather than this is a fix because it's not going to be a fix until something much more drastic happens.
So look, Saturday is a problem.
We know that Sunday has been entertaining and I hope that it will continue to be that way.
So yes, let's see.
Let's see how the rest of the weekend goes because if we have great Sundays, then perhaps that is the trade-off that we're not used to giving, but the trade-off that we have to accept at least for this year whilst they figure it out.
OK, let's get into free practice one where the top three were George Russell, Kimmy Antonelli and Lando Norris.
A uneventful session, not much to go off apart from randomly Sergio Perez and Alex Albon having a crash.
If you actually watch that, you would be forgiven for thinking that was Sunday race day because Alex Albon just dives down the inside into the last chicane.
Perez just does not see him, does not.
That right mirror has not been used heading into that last chicane because it just turns in and there was a big impact.
Albon, of course, also involved in an off at Degna 2 and going into the gravel trap, but fortunately for him managing to get out.
Apart from that, of course, Jack Crawford was in the Aston Martin replacing Fernando Alonso.
I'm sure Alonso was absolutely devastated to not be in the Aston Martin before the spring breakers as they're calling it.
We can now officially crown another daddy of the podcast, Daddy Vowels.
I'm sure there are many other daddies that we don't call daddy, but Daddy Alonso.
I've always called Alonso Daddy Alonso anyway.
That's a different story.
Yeah, Fernando, I'm surprised even once you get back in that car.
I saw a clip, actually, of the whole vibrations and stuff, and it seems like the car, you can even see it on the onboard camera.
How much it's vibrating and it looked like it's even doing it just being idle on the grid waiting to do the start.
If I was Fernando Alonso, I'd probably is a racer, and this is why.
He's a multiple champion and a racing driver, but why you'd want to get back in that car?
I don't know, but congratulations, Fernando, but not congratulations on having to drive the Aston Martin for the rest of the weekend
because it still looks absolutely horrendous car to drive.
It probably hurts even more that it's at Honda's home track.
I saw Aston Martin for seemingly the first time.
It feels like a picture where they're kind of sat with a Honda engineer and they're kind of like,
McLaren Honda days and how they need to be careful to not blow the relationship up within the first two races because
they can turn it around. We saw that what they did with Red Bull.
Exactly, but it's just how much time is that going to take and how old will Fernando Alonso be when that is all sorted.
When he's racing his kid.
Now that would be something.
Let's head to free practice to the more representative session and it's Oscar Piastri fastest ahead of Kimmy Antonelli and George Russell.
So once again, two Mercedes and a McLaren.
Now, the big question from people on Patreon member Tony Soprano, are McLaren back?
What a what a Friday in terms of pace.
They still have their gremlins.
Lando had some problems today.
But in terms of the pace, it feels as though they've finally been given the final page of the instruction booklet that says how to actually turn it on.
Because they look on par with Mercedes around one lap.
They really do across FP1 and FP2.
Piastri, of course, being fastest in the second session.
It's really exciting.
It's awesome to see that McLaren have found something around here.
Now, it's not necessarily doesn't necessarily mean that it's going to be consistent throughout the season now.
But it's a huge step forward for McLaren.
And you couldn't even I don't think you could argue at least obviously it's only Friday running.
But I don't think you could argue that Mercedes have fallen back because then you look at the soft tire runs in particular in FP2 from Ferrari to Mercedes and the gap still seems massive.
I will say that for Ferrari, they looked much better on the mediums when they were doing flying laps.
But as soon as they put on the softs, they couldn't take that step that the Oscar managed to do and the Mercedes and of course, Lando was playing a little bit of catch up.
So yeah, for me right now, McLaren are right in the hunt.
Depending on the steps they take between now and tomorrow to challenge not just for pole, but perhaps even beyond the podium and race wins.
A good surprise, you might say.
Oh, no.
I was thinking about the predictions and I was regretting every like I literally.
And I was like, Matt, it's true practice to get over yourself.
But I was like, oh my God, and I forgot about your good surprise as well.
I've good surprise Red Bull.
They look shocking.
We'll talk about them in a bit.
I've gone for a Hamilton win and he's gone.
I don't have any confidence in the car.
I'm like, why can't concussion map from a few days ago have cooked?
But instead, I think I might be well on for zero points and you're on for about eight.
Yeah, McLaren look very nice indeed, particularly as you mentioned on the on the one lap pace.
And that's going to be important for them because obviously we've seen them a bit further down the order at the start.
But look, McLaren, I kind of said before in China, but then they ended up having a double DNS.
So they didn't back it up.
But in theory, if Mercedes have this big engine performance and that's where they're finding a lot of their time, McLaren have that same engine.
And we've said, joked about, you know, the instruction manual and how they just need to unlock it.
If this is three races in and they can, you know, we don't know yet, maybe Mercedes just turned the wick up in in main qualifying in the Mars ahead.
But McLaren have a great chance to challenge.
And I think by the end of the season, I wouldn't be surprised if they are a lot closer, maybe even challenging Mercedes for victories.
The problem for McLaren is they've had such horrendous reliability that they're already 80 points behind in the championship.
Obviously, Oscar, you know, great to see him in first place.
I just want to see him start a Grand Prix.
And I'm sure a lot of other Australians, like Australian people are watching wanting to just see him actually race for a change because their reliability has been absolutely shocking.
But it shows there's pace in the car.
Certainly does.
A good Friday for Oscar in particular.
Question from P1 patron member Kieran Mega.
Should Ferrari be concerned by McLaren's pace today?
I think so because I don't know what they should be more concerned about the gap to Mercedes that maybe you'd hope would be a bit closer attract like this.
Obviously, we saw in China that Mercedes were gaining so much time on the straights.
And Japan doesn't have a huge amount of straights, but it's obviously very quick corners.
And it doesn't seem like Ferrari have that same confidence, particularly on the soft tyres.
Hamilton, who's been very vocal in talking about how much he loves these cars now and they're amazing and he's having the best time ever.
And it feels like he's having the best racing and he's really enjoying it.
And now, yeah, saying that he's got very little grip, something doesn't feel quite right with Ferrari.
And the problem for Ferrari is their kind of secret weapon has been these starts and how they can get up into first.
It's not even like a case of getting into turn one first because they've got, you know, the way they can fire up their turbo with their smaller turbo quicker.
They can get into the lead and we've seen that a lot.
But if they're starting six, fifth and sixth, it's going to be a lot harder than when they were third.
So obviously.
And then another prediction in the bag for Tommy of Ferrari not leading that one.
We're snowballing. Maybe we just, let's just, you win the first three races, let's reset and then do the other 19.
I did joke that I might have to get my three-year-old daughter Grace to do the next lot of predictions.
For the next foreseeable.
Maybe it might have to be if I get a clean sweep.
So this will be tied in quite nicely with the question.
So Ferrari being concerned by McLaren, absolutely.
Now one slight saving grace is that we know that the chassis side of the Ferrari is very, very good.
And a lot of torque already coming into this weekend and for the first, I guess, cut off is around the engine regs and the catch up that teams can or engine manufacturers can play.
They play the little UNO, I need help card.
And essentially, I think after six races.
How many golden mushrooms will Aston Martin get?
A lot.
But basically how it works on a sort of basic level is that if you're 2% behind the best engine, you can unlock a little bit more of the cost cap and you can develop and improve your engine 4% even more so.
And the members are that Ferrari believe, obviously they're going to believe, and I firmly believe as well, that they are at least 2% behind the best engine.
That's where they're losing their performance.
So from a present standpoint, yes, concerned.
And I think Ferrari could well very easily slip into the third fastest team.
But there are glimmers of hope that with these new regs that teams can catch up and they can bring updates to their engine to be able to close that gap to which I think is astronomical for the Mercedes.
And it's interesting.
I don't know the exact way that they test this, but I also am sat here going like, Mercedes have a genuine reason to not show their full performance with their car.
With their engine because the more performance they show, the more the teams can catch up.
Now, again, there must be a way in which the FIA can test the engine to its full limits, regardless.
But I'm sure there are very, very clever ways in which that that can happen.
I did.
I did see that about, you know, that's a very big loophole that the Mercedes could essentially jump through where they could peg that back their performance to look like the teams are a lot closer.
You know, maybe let Ferrari in the lead at the start, for example, and then just be like, see you later.
We're off.
And, yeah, win the race and then say, well, look, we're not, we're not that far, far clear.
And, you know, it's something that we've, if you weren't watching in 2014, you know, there's this kind of famous theory and probably a very real one that that Mercedes half the time, we're never using their full engine potential because one race where Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg got to race.
On the safety car restart, they ended up, I think, clearing the entire field by about seven or eight seconds in a couple of laps, which if that is the case again, and Mercedes are like, pegging themselves back, of course, that they're playing that that game of the performance and making it look like,
well, we're not that far ahead. So the other teams don't need it. And then as soon as that is locked in, they can be like, cool. And because I guess you want to, if these are the rules to make people catch up, you want to win with the smallest margin possible to stop teams catching up.
And that's the same year where Williams turned up the wick a little bit too much on their Mercedes engine and got pole in Austria. That's that same year, isn't it?
But then, you know, we say that, but it's not based on race time. It's not based on that. It'll be done in the dinos and everything else. And I'm sure there are ways in which to get the maximum performance out of an engine.
But I also wouldn't be surprised if there are little things that can make sure that they don't go as as extreme in those tests. But, you know, that's just purely speculation and me and me thinking and coping, I guess, for Ferrari's sake, if they don't win any races this year.
Next question. P1P, do you remember Ellaria? Are Red Bull in serious trouble given their performance so far?
Yes. Yes, they're in massive, massive trouble. Right now, in Formula One, there are three top teams and then there's the midfield.
Red Bull are a midfield. We've joked about this before. We've joked about, well, if Max was in Red Bull, there'd be a midfield car. Well, Max is in Red Bull and it is still a midfield car.
I think Hadja's still doing a reasonable job in comparison when you look at the times between himself and Max. But that doesn't matter when they're fighting the Hasses.
Williams. I know he had a very scruffy Friday with a few different incidents, but he's up in eighth. And so there's progress being made by other teams.
And Red Bull, who I thought bringing upgrades to this weekend should be able to take a step forward because the idea and the understanding is that it's not the engine, it's the chassis.
That's the problem with the car is that the drivers don't have any confidence. I think Max even said in practice today that he's understeering so much he's just going to box, not even going to go for another flying lap.
So the car is fundamentally wrong from an aero side of things, but seemingly good from an engine side, which is the opposite for a lot of other teams.
Yeah, the opposite to what we thought would happen and they struggled so much in the corners in China. They're obviously absolutely woeful and they're way off the pace seemingly here again.
We saw a, you know, take it with a pinch of salt, but we saw someone in China think of VIP take some photos where the cars were getting weighed.
We saw the likes of, I think they saw three cars get weighed. They're all very similar. And then the Red Bull was, I think, like 20, 20 kilos heavier than everything else, which 20 kilos heavier when you're trying to go around the S's at Suzuka is going to, you know, feel a lot.
And they're really struggling here again, despite the upgrades. You know, the theory was there that maybe China was just an outlier because Australia, had you put it P3, you think, wow, this is a great base for Red Bull.
Actually very impressive to be, if they were indeed, you know, second best in qualifying because we thought their engine was going to be quite poor and that's why they'd be slower.
But yeah, they're well in that midfield. We've seen the likes of, you know, you're looking where Max is and he's among like, not just the V-Carbs, which of course have the same engine as him, but Williams and Audi seem to have like stepped up a little bit as well with Hülkenberg and Seventh and Albin and Eighth.
So yeah, it's going to be struggle town for Max Verstappen on this weekend and probably for the foreseeable future, fun times.
There you go. All right. Pretty much done and dusted, would you say, Tommy?
Yeah, just looking at the order.
Limblad having more problems once again. Thankfully for him, it's not a sprint weekend.
So at least he has some more time to be able to dial into Suzuki because of course back in China, he only had a literally a handful if that of laps before he had to go into competitive sessions.
So I'm hoping for Limblad's sake, he's not plagued with issues the entire year because he's impressed so far.
Yeah, and Audi as well. Another one to mention that continuing their game of only one car seems to be reliable.
Any given day or session because Bortoletto had a bit of a shocker, you know, only managed to get out the garage right near the end to put in some laps.
And yeah, reliability still seeming to be quite an issue for a lot of drivers.
I swear to God, if 22 cars start the race as well, predictions championships over.
Yeah, Gasly is looking quite floppy in 14th as well.
That's a very non-flop. I will be very strict.
OK, that is it. Thank you everybody for tuning in. We'll see you very soon.
Tomorrow, in fact, of course, for all of our watch alongs as always, make sure to come and join us on YouTube, Twitch and Dream 11.
And we will see you then. Looking forward to it. Adios. Goodbye. Sweet dreams. Lots of love.
Bye.
Bye.
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About this episode
Suzuka practice sparks debate as the FIA cuts qualifying battery recharge from 9MJ to 8MJ, but the super-clipping problem still looks severe—especially at 130R, where cars lose huge speed and the corner no longer feels flat. FP1 and FP2 are relatively calm aside from crashes involving Perez/Albon. Oscar Piastri tops FP2 ahead of Antonelli and Russell, with McLaren looking genuinely competitive on one-lap pace. Meanwhile Ferrari’s grip on softs worries the hosts, and Red Bull appears stuck in the midfield again, possibly due to aero confidence and even weight concerns. Reliability issues continue to loom.
With some alterations to energy deployment and changes at the front of the field, it's shaping up to be an interesting weekend at the Japanese Grand Prix...
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