Max Verstappen’s victory in Japan has clinched Red Bull’s sixth Constructors’ title. Photo / Don Kennedy
A week after his winning streak of 10 races came to an end in Singapore, Max Verstappen quickly righted the Red Bull ship to take what F1.com described as an “imperious” victory in the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka.
It was the perfect response to being knocked out of Q3 in Singapore by Liam Lawson in the AlphaTauri, the sister car to the Red Bull, and finishing fifth in that race.
Verstappen arrived in Japan determined to return to the top spot.
Red Bull adviser Helmut Marko revealed the Singapore result motivated Verstappen to perform at the level that has led to 13 victories out of 16 races for his team, and despite Sergio Perez not finishing the race, Verstappen’s win enabled Red Bull to clinch its second Constructors’ Championship, and sixth since the team began.
“Max was really motivated after Singapore and we have to say we still don’t know what really went wrong, but we proved that it was a one-off and we are looking forward to the rest of the season,” Marko said.
That motivation was confirmed by Red Bull team boss Christian Horner.
“Sometimes the races you lose are the weekends you learn the most at,” Horner said.
“I played paddle tennis with Max on Wednesday, and he was properly fired up. He made it clear, ‘I want to win the race by 20 seconds’. In fairness, he came within point seven of a second of achieving that, had it not been for a blue flag at the end there.”
Verstappen topped all three practice sessions in Suzuka and took pole position from the McLarens of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris.
The only threat to a race victory came at the very start after a bit of wheel spin off the line, which put Verstappen momentarily in a McLaren sandwich heading to the first corner, but he stayed ahead of Norris and Piastri, and fairly quickly built up what would prove to be an unassailable lead, even with a Virtual Safety Car intervention.
The first three would finish as they entered turn one, but with Norris nearly 20 seconds behind at the finish. Piastri was happy with third, which meant his first podium finish.
Ferrari was unable to match its performance in Singapore. Charles Leclerc finished fourth, and Sainz was sixth. Ferrari had to score 24 more points than Red Bull to stay in the Constructors’ battle, but that was never going to happen with Verstappen winning the race for a second consecutive time. He was understandably very happy with his team.
“It’s an unbelievable weekend,” Verstappen said immediately after getting out of the car.
“To win here was great. I think the car was working really well on every compound. But of course, the most important was also to win the Constructors. I’m very proud of everyone working at the track but also back at the factory, we’re having an incredible year.”
Horner was delighted to win the Constructors’ title again, following on from last year’s success and the four titles won between 2010 and 2013.
“Once again it was a phenomenal performance from the team,” a rejoicing Horner said.
“I have been saying it all year, but really, this kind of season would be impossible without the hard work that goes on behind the scenes from all the different departments, both back at Milton Keynes and here at the track.
“We will take tonight to celebrate and regroup tomorrow, as we look towards Qatar and a possible driver’s championship. Only a Red Bull driver can win it now so there will be more celebrations to come in what can only be described as a monumental season in the team’s history!”
While Perez will be part of those celebrations, he won’t be the Red Bull driver winning the championship. Verstappen will most likely become a three-time world champion in Qatar.
He is 177 points ahead of Perez with six races remaining. Perez has been under pressure to perform at Red Bull, yet Horner says he will be their second driver next year, despite his poor performance in Japan.
“I mean it was a shocker of a race for him today,” Horner conceded.
“It got off to a bad start where he sort of got concertinaed on the run down to turn one, he picked up some front wing damage, then we needed to change the front wing. He overtook Fernando [Alonso] on the way into the pit lane, then picked up a penalty and then came out and of course, then he dive bombed, I think one of the Haases [Magnussen] and so it was just one of those weekends.
“The only good thing was we were able to serve the penalty here, so he leaves it here in Japan,” Horner added in reference to Perez coming back out to do one lap so he could serve that penalty.
Norris was at one point shouting and swearing into his helmet during the virtual safety car period, because he was at that point behind Perez, who was going so slow, he reckoned he lost 10 seconds to Verstappen.
“If he has a problem, he should pull over and make it obvious that he has a problem,” Norris complained. But his second consecutive second-place finish was “less stressful” than Singapore’s.
Asked if he was expecting a deficit of 19 seconds to Verstappen, Norris joked: “No, I was expecting him to probably lap us two or three times!”
While the McLaren drivers were happy, the mood at Ferrari was more reflective following Sainz’s victory the week before in Singapore.
Leclerc, who finished fourth, at one point believed a podium was on because he thought he saw Verstappen slowing down and was out of the race. (It was Perez.)
He said P4 was the best result possible, given the McLarens were so strong. Sainz was undercut in the pit stop by Lewis Hamilton and lost fifth place. But Hamilton was far from happy being challenged by his teammate, George Russell.
The two were on different strategies and nearly came together at Degner corner, with Hamilton clearly forcing Russell off the track, but the stewards saw nothing wrong with it. Earlier in the race, Russell had questioned whether they were “fighting each other or the others”.
Mercedes communications chief Bradley Lord, standing in for an absent team boss Toto Wolff, said: “They’re obviously both racing hard in a car that was tricky, pushing to the limit.”
Late in the race, Hamilton and Sainz were catching Russell, who wanted Lewis to hold back Sainz.
“Why don’t we swap on the last lap, and he stays in DRS like last week? He pushed me off the track earlier, it’s the least he can do,” Russell suggested.
The team response was to let Lewis pass. “This is an instruction, George”. Hamilton said he and Russell would “talk offline” about it because that was “the best way to do it”.
No driver harmony over at Alpine, either. Pierre Gasly gave a one-fingered gesture as he crossed the line in 10th place behind teammate Esteban Ocon.
“Mate, what the ****, you’re kidding me, are you?” he said on the team radio when asked to concede the position to Ocon, which he did.
“Why are you saying that? I was faster. I’m on fresher rubber. If you had not passed me, I would have overtaken him anyway.”
Spare a thought too for Liam Lawson. As AlphaTauri’s reserve driver, the young New Zealander’s done a superb job substituting for the injured Daniel Ricciardo, giving the team its best result with ninth in Singapore.
Talk in the Singapore paddock had Ricciardo replacing Perez at Red Bull as early as next year, to make way for Lawson at AlphaTauri, the Red Bull young driver team. But we now know the decision to retain Tsunoda and Ricciardo was made in Singapore and conveyed to Lawson before Japan.
If he was hurt by that, he is not letting it show. Although Tsunoda started the race two spots ahead of Lawson, the latter came home 11th, where he started on the grid, with Tsunoda behind him.
He belongs in F1, no question, as Horner admitted: “He’s certainly turned heads and gave us plenty to think about, in particular following his Singapore drive. He’s doing everything possible to justify a case for a fulltime drive, but unfortunately, three into two doesn’t go.”
The only other possible drive is Logan Sergeant’s at Williams, but the American driver brings millions in US sponsorship to the team, and despite crashing quite often, will likely be retained. Lawson will have to wait until 2025, something he reluctantly accepts.
“I’m a Red Bull driver, all the Red Bull seats are filled and unfortunately for me that means for now I’ll be a reserve driver,” Lawson said.
He will get one more F1 start in Qatar next week, as Ricciardo is not yet ready to return.
Sources: F1.com; Red Bull Racing
OPINION: NZ needs a culture of encouragement and respect, not relentless criticism.