Welcome to the Japanese Grand Prix
Tsunoda told to be ‘as close to Verstappen as possible’
Red Bull CEO and team principal Christian Horner has set Yuki Tsunoda one target as he makes his debut for the team at his home Grand Prix, get as “close as possible” to Max Verstappen. The Japanese driver was announced as Liam Lawson’s replacement last week after the New Zealander was dropped just two races into the season.
Tsunoda partners four-time world champion Verstappen for the first time this weekend, when the Japanese driver races in front of a home crowd at Suzuka. It comes after a difficult start to the year with the team appearing to not have the car to fight with McLaren, however, Verstappen is still second eight points behind Lando Norris.
Tsunoda told BBC News, “In the end Red Bull Racing are focused on Max scoring a drivers’ championship. He has proven himself to have good potential to be a world champion – even though Red Bull seems to be struggling a little now.
“Performance-wise [Horner] wants me to be as close to Max as possible. In some races, I can help with the strategy but he also promised me in some situations that if I’m able to be in front of Max that he wouldn’t necessarily ask me to swap positions and make Max win.”
Lawson has been dropped because of poor performances in the opening two races, but this has been heavily criticised by fans and the media with the view being it takes longer than two races to get up to speed with a new team and car. Verstappen appeared to disagree with Lawson’s demotion by ‘liking’ an Instagram post, external from former F1 driver Giedo van der Garde that described it as a “panic move”.
Tsunoda added he had yet to speak to Verstappen since replacing Lawson. Saying. “I mentioned in the past quite a while ago but he’s a bit different from how he behaves in the car and outside of the car. I’m not really worrying about the relationship we’re going to have in both sides.”
Looking ahead to his home grand prix on Sunday, Tsunoda said he will be satisfied if he can finish in the top ten. Adding, “Obviously I want to say points or a podium or whatever But at the same time, realistically, you think about jumping into the new car straight away with limited sessions, that’s pretty tough.”
“Not a mistake” liking critical posts
Max Verstappen says it “was not a mistake” in liking comments by former driver, broadcaster and friend Giedo van der Garde on social media describing Red Bull’s decision to demote Liam Lawson as “a panic move” and “close to bullying”.
As reported above Red Bull moved New Zealander Lawson down to their second team Racing Bulls in a swap with Yuki Tsunoda just two races into the season. Verstappen said: “I liked the comment, the text, so I guess that speaks for itself, right?”
The four-time champion refused to expand in public on his feelings about the decision but added: “Everything has been shared with the team, how I think about everything. Sometimes it’s not necessary, you know, to always share and say everything in public. I think it’s better [not to].”
Verstappen was not the only driver to like the post, Oscar Piastri, Nico Hulkenberg and Pierre Gasly, himself dropped by Red Bull back to Racing Bulls, then Alpha Tauri mid-season in 2019, also liked the post. The decision has raised questions about the way Red Bull has handled teammates of Verstappen.
Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton described the dropping of Lawson as “pretty harsh”.
Verstappen said Red Bull had to “take a good look at ourselves and just keep on working and keep on improving the car”. Lawson struggled to come to terms with the wayward handling of the Red Bull car. Red Bull demoted him because they felt he was in a spiral from which he could not recover.
Verstappen explained the characteristics that had led Lawson to struggle, while he accepts Red Bull is the only car he has driven since May 2016, he says that this year car is more unstable and nervous.
Norris hits back at McLaren being the hunted
“Nonsense”, “random” and “crap” are three words Lando Norris used to describe recent comments made about McLaren by its rivals as they adjust to life as the hunted rather than the hunter. After securing their first constructor’s championship in a quarter of a century, the team has made itself the favourite for both the drivers and defend the constructors after winning the opening two Grands Prix.
Over the past month since the Sakhir test, the team has played down its perceived dominance over the rest of the pack. Mercedes’ George Russell has also enjoyed a strong start to 2025 but suggested recently that McLaren had a car that boasted a bigger advantage over the field than Red Bull had previously and could win every race of the year.
Meanwhile, Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur and both Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton have also spoken up the advantage of McLaren. Speaking to the media ahead of the weekend, Norris said, “I think the people that say that, like the ‘unbeatable’ stuff… it’s just nonsense. They just like to talk crap sometimes. It’s your job as the media to figure out these things, I think, and not just listen to what everyone says and write what they say.”
“You have to try and understand what they’re saying and prove that what they’re saying is a fact, rather than… I can just say a load of crap and you write it down. But it’s up to you, I think, to get across the facts of what is true, and not just write nonsense that people like to say.”
This however is the kind of thing we always hear as pushback when a team is looking dominant this early in the season, and it is not unexpected as in recent years we have seen similar things said about Red Bull and Mercedes. But the stronger they are at the start of the year, as last year showed, and the longer you can take advantage of that the more likely you are to win the championship.
Norris added “The car Red Bull had this time last year was a lot better than what we have now, compared to our competitors. I think you have to take that into account, but… I think we all feel good as a team, knowing that we have a strong car. It’s not always the easiest car to drive, but a very strong car and the strongest car on the grid.”
But he says it’s a nice thing to have a target on them, as it is motivation to continue to push forward.
Hamilton still faithful to Ferrari despite difficult start
Lewis Hamilton says he has “absolute 100% faith” in Ferrari despite their difficult start to the season. The seven-time champion won the sprint race in China last time out but struggled in the grand prix in Shanghai and the season-opener in Australia. He and his teammate Charles Leclerc were also disqualified in China for technical infringements.
Hamilton said: “I saw someone said something about whether I’m losing faith in the team, which is complete rubbish. I have absolute 100% faith in this team. There was obviously a huge amount of hype at the beginning of the year.”
“I don’t know if everyone was expecting us to be winning from race one and winning the championship in our first year. That wasn’t my expectation. I know that I’m coming into a new culture, a new team and it’s going to take time.” He has made it clear that it is difficult to adapt to Ferrari but is happy with how it has gone though there was more to be done to understand the technical side.
He added, “After analysing the last two races, you’ve got the first race (in Australia)… I generally didn’t feel great in the car at the beginning, but my pace wasn’t too bad in the first two days.” As Hamilton pointed out he has been on the backfoot from Abu Dhabi where he missed the test in December and technical issues in Sakhir in February which prevented him from doing a long run and wet running.
Despite the problems they have had so far, which leaves Ferrari sixty-one points behind McLaren in the constructors’ championship, Leclerc said the Italian team can “still have an amazing season”.
The Monacan pointed out last season started slowly with the opening race in terms of performance but then were fighting but narrowly missed out on winning the constructors’ championship for the first time since 2008.
Ferrari needs to “exploit the full potential”
Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur says the team must work to “exploit the full potential” of their 2025 car ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix after a difficult start to the new season. A fortnight ago in Shanghai, they went from the highs of a first sprint win to lows of a double disqualification from the Grand Prix.
That has left the team fifth in the constructors sixty-one points behind McLaren and needing a much better weekend in Suzuka. There have been flashes of potential in the Ferrari, but they have not yet been consistent with either Lewis Hamilton, who took that sprint win, or Charles Leclerc have finished in the top four in a Grand Prix.
He said in the teams preview for this weekend, “As for everyone in the team, now more than ever, we must focus on ourselves with the goal of enabling Charles and Lewis to consistently exploit the full potential of the SF-25, because so far we have only managed to do that on Fridays and during the Sprint in China.”
“Formula One is all about the details from race weekend preparation in the factory, to execution on track while adapting to changing conditions during the race. Once we have succeeded in doing that, then we will have a clearer idea of where we stand.” Vasseur says the goal is to enable both drivers to exploit the potential of the car.
He says F1 is about details in preparation for the weekends and execution when adapting to changeable conditions, adding once they have done that they will have a better understanding of the car.
The opening two races have been their worst start to the season since 2009.
Talking Points Suzuka
Round three of the season brings F1 to Suzuka in Japan with the order upended three months into the year. After two Grands Prix, McLaren has the fastest car as it currently stands at least at the start of the year after their dominant wind in Melbourne and Shanghai.
This despite attempts to play it down its best start since 2003 and would almost certainly have had a pair of one-two finishes too but for the spin on dry tyres in Melbourne rain that proved so costly for Oscar Piastri there.
Piastri, though, hit back immediately and impressively a week later in Shanghai to outperform Lando Norris across the Sprint weekend and reduce the early title deficit to his teammate by thirteen points to ten. On early evidence, it’s Norris and Piastri who are definitely going to be in the season-long title fight.
Already there are questions about how McLaren are going to handle their drivers fighting each other for the championship. Both drivers have won a Grand Prix each, Suzuka will see them as favourites having been best of the rest behind Red Bull in the last two years. But this triple header will give answers.
The Suzuka Circuit is one that McLaren have performed well at in the past, having taken a 2-3 finish in 2023 – but so has Max Verstappen, the man who beat them to P1 that day and has a total of three wins under his belt at the track. Can the Red Bull driver keep his title defence alive with a strong result?
Suzuka is iconic the figure-of-eight circuit may now be located at the opposite end of the calendar to where it became associated with some of the sport’s most famous title deciders but, as F1’s drivers will no doubt make clear in their interviews this week, whatever time of year they get to drive Suzuka is a good time.
Little changed since its debut in 1987 it remains a fine test of speed and precision thanks to the presence of the Esses, Degners, Spoon and 130R to name just four fast sections of Japan’s most-famous racing road. However, it has become less challenging than thirty-eight years ago because of the evolution of the sport.
While McLaren may consider the prospect of managing two title-contenting drivers a luxury problem to have down the road, rival Red Bull’s problems are currently more pressing and pronounced. The first centres on improving the pace and compliance of their RB21 car; the second on trying to turn around the fortunes of the driver in their revolving second seat.
Yuki Tsunoda steps into Liam Lawson’s seat at Red Bull, for his home race which has been controversial after just two races this season. Verstappen liked a critical Instagram post about the change is a reliable indicator, then the four-time champion apparently isn’t particularly impressed by what has unfolded.
But we don’t know why but we do know from what he said on Thursday it “was not a mistake”. There are rumours that Lawson has been scapegoated following a poor start and dip in form by Red Bull.
Ferrari need a good weekend after two difficult races they under performed in Melbourne but had a strong weekend in Shanghai results however were mixed Lewis Hamilton’s first win in red in the Saturday Sprint and then the double disqualification from the Sunday Grand Prix which took the Briton and Charles Leclerc out of the final classification.
It was the first time in the sports and teams seventy-five-year history that Ferrari have had a double disqualification. Hamilton had been the only driver in the top six to twice stop for tyres and, while Leclerc fared better for pace once his team-mate had suggested they swap positions, the Monegasque’s superior speed was somewhat confusing given he had carried a damaged front wing for all 56 laps sustained in contact with the sister car through the race’s opening corners.
Mercedes ‘excited’ by improved start
Mercedes has been buoyed with their promising start to the season thanks to a “much more predictable” car, but they are not expecting the “real order” to become clear until after the conclusion of this triple header in Jeddah on Easter Sunday.
For the first time since these regulations were introduced in 2022, the team has started the season with back-to-back podiums with George Russell. While rookie teammate Kimi Antonelli recording finishes of fourth and sixth in the first two races of his career, Mercedes heads into this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix holding second place in the Constructors’ Championship, twenty-one points behind title favourites McLaren.
Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes’ trackside engineering director, said on the team’s latest debrief video after Shanghai: “We’ve shown that we’ve got a car that works well over a range of circuits. What we’ve also seen, though, is that McLaren are probably the team to beat. Max [Verstappen] is pretty quick. Ferrari certainly don’t look like they’re far behind and they’ve had a bit of bad luck in the last few races.”
Shovlin added it’s tight at the front and they are working hard to close the gap and the cars are working well, with the drivers are enjoying driving as the car is more predictable. Last season though the team won four races, it was their worst season in over a decade with fourth in the constructors.
Their campaign was undone by a car which experienced wild fluctuations in form depending on track characteristics and weather conditions. Russell has yet to qualify or finish outside of the top five in any competitive session so far this term.
F1 is now heading to Japan’s legendary Suzuka which is staging the first leg of the season’s first triple-header, with F1 then heading to the Middle East from next week for consecutive races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.
Assessing the three events to come in turn, Shovlin said: “So Suzuka, that’s a fantastic track. Very flowing, very fast. A lot of drivers have that as their favourite on the calendar. First time for Kimi, though. And that’s quite a tall order for such a young driver to be going there on their third race. But he’s excited to drive that.
Albon meets Thai prime minister seen as step towards race
The chances of a race in Thailand continue to improve as Williams driver Alex Albon met with Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra. This follows a positive meeting last month between Shinawatra and F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali.
Thailand has been keen to land a place on the F1 calendar for some time, and previous prime minister Srettha Thavisin attended the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix last year to hold preliminary talks with Domenicali. Albon who holds both British and Thai citizenship but races under the Thai flag, could boost the bid.
But there are several races including Argentina and South Africa looking to return to the calendar, while Rwanda is looking to make its debut in the coming years. Thirty-five places are looking to fill twenty-four slots on a calendar, though some races have long term contracts or are seen as ‘historically important’ as the sport moves to certain races rotating, with likely exceptions being Monaco, Silverstone, Monza/Imola, for example.
Speaking to Sky Sports in March, Domenicali said, “We receive a lot of attention from other places in the world. By the way, I’m just finishing the race here in Melbourne, I’m going to Bangkok – there is a potential interest from the government to develop something there.”
“We have other places in Europe, and as you know there are interests in Africa, there are interests in South America now.”