We travel to Suzuka, Japan for the 4th stop on the 2024 Formula One circuit for our racers. Some pre-race news: The Williams team has decided that Logan Sargent will drive the repaired car that Alex Albon crashed in Melbourne, and Alex will drive Logan's car. Kinda rude! Also learned that at least 2-3 teams have not brought an extra "tub" (chassis) to Japan...hmmm.
Also, based on an idea from my pal in Ohio, every zoom zoom post will have this graphic of all the drivers and the teams they race for, so you can reference the names to the faces! (At least at the time of this posting!)
Teams from the top: Red Bull, Mercedes, Aston-Martin, Ferrari, McLaren, Alpine, Williams, Haas, Sauter (no longer Alfa-Romero), RB (Red Bull's "junior" team). Also, I'm going to post a random eye candy pic of one of the drivers...today somewhere in this post! :)
So P1 (Practice One) in Suzuka, my first impressions of this track...not impressed on a visual scale compared to say, the Melbourne track from last race. it looks like it's going to be a chilly, cold weekend in Suzuka, for this P1, its 60 degrees, which has teams thinking a medium or hard tyre (for that grip to the track). This race will have teams junior drivers racing in the practice sessions, and for RB, Ayuma Iwasa is racing in place of Riccardo for RB. So we have two Japanese drivers (foodie Yuki Tsunoda being the other), on track for RB. Since I already dissed the visual of the track, from what the commentators are saying, fans of F1 in Japan are LOYAL to either a driver or team...lots of creative team helmets on the fans, and no, these fans will not jump to another team if a driver switches, or will stay with a particular driver if he does go to another team. Back to the P1 practice, part of Stroll's rear wing of the car fell off, will see how much damage the car took, not too much, as Aston-Martin replaced the rear wing. Also, both Red Bull and Aston-Martin come into this race with big upgrades (will define later). Also this isn't a street circuit, this track was built for racing.
Poor Logan Sargent is cursed ( see opening paragraph) , as in this 60 minute P1 session, at about the 27 minute marker, Logan, racing in the car that is not his, that had its chassis (tub) totally revamped after Albon crashed it hard, Logan on turn seven (of 18) just spun out and hit the barrier...he is ok, but if you can't tell by know in this sentence, I'm very not happy his team, Williams, has put Logan in this position!
A technical note I have not mentioned (my bad!) when with Logan's crash, a red flag comes out, and all the drivers have to leave the track and pit, the one thing I forgot to mention is that the clock keeps on ticking during the red or yellow flag, hence if its five minutes or 20 minutes, less time for drivers once the flag is lifted, to get in practice/lap time (Puts chalk down from the board!) :)
Restart at 19 minutes to go....and Nico Hulkenberg of Haas team has been tagged with a black and white flag! (Colby goes back to the chalkboard) for disobeying the racing rules by jumping the white line to get out of the pit lane onto the track. That white line...think of it as a concrete wall...hence this black and white flag for "unsportsman-like conduct". For what its worth, this flag was new to me! So the race stewards (judges) will be having a chat with Nico after this P1 session and assess if any penalty should be applied. At this point of the practice, teams are now trying the soft (fastest, but degrades easily due to tyre graining- anybody who drives a car, not just an F1 or Nascar, will know about that tyre degradation) tyre to get their laps in. ( I feel another Professor Colby moment coming!) And thats a wrap for P1.
Professor Colby time! As a relative newbie to this sport myself, I'm learning just as you brave readers are, so before we get to P2, chalkboard time. So in the three practices, teams/drivers are getting a feel for how the car works with the track of the circuit they are on, in this case, Suzuka. So in practices and especially in Qualifying, lap times count! In this practice, Verstappen had the fastest lap time of the 18 turns and 2.5 miles of track, of one minute, 30 seconds and most importantly, (break out the decibel math thingie) milliseconds, so 1.30.533....next driver at 1.30.688 in a single lap. How is that determined besides the obvious ? In this P1 session, Max did 16 laps, and basically the other drivers were very close to that amount of laps. This hardcore comes into play for Qualifying, which will determine the race grid for the actual Grand Prix the next day. I've recommended to you if you want to actually want to watch an F1 race, but in a shorter amount of time, Qualifying is for you! And now I put the chalk down. :) (thanks to a reader who brought this up, as I had not clarified the race times and laps and how it relates!).
Dang, Melbourne did not have the busyness that this P1 had! I need to come up with some eye candy before we hit P2! :) I'll cheekily mention if you should meet someone who mentions Formula One (F1), excuse yourself, hit these Zoom Zoom posts, and you will score points with your new acquaintance! ( i won't tell, but rib you endlessly!) :)
Eye Candy/Thirst Trap ALERT! George Russell of Mercedes- no helmet, no race suit!
So P2, it's raining, so some adjustments need to be made. And to no one's surprise, Logan Sargent's car is not going to be in this practice. The winds are now a factor at about 10 MPH, but the commentators are really talking about the cold, which may very much be a factor on this weekend. Lots of shots of the cherry blossoms, as we wait for conditions to clear. And basically not much happened, as drivers only got a few laps in.
It's a home race for Yuki Tsunoda in Japan!
I wasn't able to see P3, but from what I read, not much to report as the teams/drivers were getting their final practice laps in before Qualifying. Less typing for me- yay! Oh, it is McLaren's driver, young Aussie Oscar Piastri's 23rd birthday, so "Team Papaya" celebrating. A note on how Qualifying works: There are three quick races to determine grid position for the GP on Saturday. First quali the last five drivers are cut, second quali again, last five drivers dropped, and 3rd and final quali determines the top ten on the grid and the ever important pole (1st) position.
Quali 1: Weather is 62 degrees, track temp 82, winds light and for the Qualis, 18 minutes of race, all drivers using the the soft tyres. Some teams and drivers on these 18 turns are having some problems with the rear tyres/rear wings, causing some veering on those turns. And after Q1, the bottom five are Zhou/Saber, Sargent/Williams, Magnussen/Haas, Gasly/Alpine, and Stroll/Aston Martin. Surprise here is Stroll getting bounced to the back row for tomorrow's race.
Quali 2: 15 minutes this round. Bottom five are Albon/Williams, Bottas/Sauber, Ricardo/RB, Ocon/Alpine and Hulkenberg/Haas. This has been an awful 2024 for Alpine.
Quali 3: 12 minutes this last round to determine the top 10 grid and pole position. Red Bull locks up P1 and P2 front row with Verstappen and Perez; Perez really pushed Verstappen for P1, and Norris pushed hard as well. Surprises being the slow cars that Mercedes have had, and LeClerc's time in Q3 wasn't up to expectations. Verstappen is now 4 for 4 on snagging the P1 position.
Japan 2024 F1 Grand Prix Day. Before I break this race down, I was pleasantly shocked to get a video call from a classmate from my San Francisco State Video Production days, because he was AT the Suzuka track, LIVE, and because of the joy of catching up with him, I was literally hearing the race LIVE! And ( btw, I am not a fan of starting a sentence with And!), I was literally able to hear the racing at Suzuka! (slight boner!) .
LIGHTS OUT for the start of the Japan 2024 F1 Grand Prix! 53 laps, estimated two pit stops, temperature 65 degrees and humid...it appears that the wind is not a factor. Tyre allocation appears hard, mediums and soft to end the race. time is approximately around an hour, maybe a bit more if red or yellow flags pop up.
And just as my friend witnessed, BOOM ! On turn two of the 53, a collision/crash has occurred with Albon and Riccardo! Red Flag time! This collision is deemed an "incident" , ie now faults, no penalties. Both driver s ok. Due to this red flag, it seems to me there is a little bit of chaos in the pits, especially what tyres that want to run out on. I should make it clear this red flag happened on Lap 2. Hmm, after the red flag, teams may have a "free" pit stop, and teams are now riding on medium and soft tyres. Take 2 LIGHTS OUT! (after only 2 laps!). After 15 laps, we now have three DNF's (Did Not Finish), Riccardo, Albon, and Zhou. The Red Bull and Ferrari teams are racing on medium and hard tyres, which tells me, after those teams 2nd pit stop, they all going to the hard and medium tyres. On lap 17, Norris overtook Hamilton for 4th place with a slick move at turn one, but in the end it was for naught as Verstappen cruised to another victory by 12 seconds over Perez, with Sainz behind Perez for another podium finish. Norris finished fifth from a raging battle between Alonso, Piastri and Russell.
Charles LaClerc was named by the fans as Driver of the Day, as he was the only driver who pitted only once and managed his tyres quite well to come in at 4th place. Onto China after a five year absence, in two weeks.Oh, and Yuki was able to score a point for his team in his home country!
Drivers Standings after four races:
# | DRIVER | TEAM | POINTS |
1 | Red Bull Racing | 77 | |
2 | Red Bull Racing | 64 | |
3 | Scuderia Ferrari | 59 | |
4 | Scuderia Ferrari | 55 | |
5 | McLaren Racing | 37 | |
6 | McLaren Racing | 32 | |
7 | Mercedes AMG F1 | 24 | |
8 | Aston Martin F1 Team | 24 | |
9 | Mercedes AMG F1 | 10 | |
10 | Aston Martin F1 Team | 9 | |
11 | Visa Cash App RB | 7 | |
12 | Scuderia Ferrari | 6 | |
13 | Haas F1 | 3 | |
14 | Haas F1 | 1 | |
15 | Williams Racing | 0 | |
16 | Stake F1 Team | 0 | |
17 | Visa Cash App RB | 0 | |
18 | Alpine F1 | 0 | |
19 | Alpine F1 | 0 | |
20 | Stake F1 Team | 0 | |
21 | Williams Racing | 0 |
Constructor (Team) Standings after four races:
FORMULA 1 STANDINGS 2024
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