Five Formula 1 Winners & Losers: Japanese Grand Prix

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I did it!

I stayed up and watched this live!

And it was a pretty good race!

A little odd, and the inevitable happened as it often does, but it was still a good race!

And now, I don’t need to stay up till 1 A.M. for a race this weekend again this year!

Looks up what time the Vegas F1 race starts.

Ah. Damn.

Whatever. That’s future Brian’s problem.

Here are this weeks winners and losers.

5. Pierre Gasly

Pierre got a point, but he had a post race meltdown over being ordered to move over on the final corner to let his teammate Esteban Ocon through.

I get why that would make him mad normally, but Alpine made Ocon get out of the way earlier in the race for Gasly so Gasly could try to catch Alonso, and if he couldn’t catch him then they would swap back.

So this was already decided upon before hand.

Why Gasly was so furious about it, I don’t really know.

4. Valtteri Bottas

Bottas got run into on the first lap which damaged his wing, and then got shunted by Logan Sargeant a couple laps later which sent him off track.

Bottas had to retire from a race even though he never did anything wrong.

Tough.

3. Williams

This was always going to be a challenging race for Williams.

Suzuka just does not suit their car.

Still, I bet they were hoping for better than a double DNF.

2. Lance Stroll

I didn’t notice any damage for Stroll, and I don’t remember hearing about any mechanical problems, but Stroll retired early on in the Grand Prix.

Maybe his injury from Singapore was still bothering him.

Regardless, it wasn’t a weekend to remember for Stroll, as many of them haven’t been.

1. Sergio Perez

Checo did not qualify well, he got damage on the opening lap, and then smacked into Kevin Magnussen with a ridiculous overtake attempt which got him a 5 second time penalty.

They then retired the car, before making him go out again later on to serve the penalty so they wouldn’t have to at Qatar.

A lot of this sport is mental, and Perez seems mentally fried right now.

Alpha Tauri has already announced their lineup of Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo for next year, and Liam Lawson has put in some good performances in relief for Ricciardo.

Red Bull have mentioned Perez’s contract runs out in 2024, and they are not short of options to replace him.

He’s got to get it right, and fast.

Winners

5. Liam Lawson

Suzuka might have been the last race for Lawson this year in Formula 1, but he no doubt made his impact felt in his short stint.

He didn’t get any points, but 11th ahead of some strong veteran drivers, and even his teammate, is a great way to make a statement for the 2024 grid.

Let’s see if he gets his chance.

4. Charles Leclerc

Charles started 4th and finished 4th.

It was a good race for Leclerc, and that’s all there really is to say about that.

3. Mercedes

The end of the race aside when they had Russell move aside for Hamilton, Mercedes actually let their drivers race wheel to wheel for most of the race!

It reminded me a lot of the old Lewis vs Nico days when Mercedes let their drivers fight.

Let’s hope for more of that in the future as well.

2. Max Verstappen

Formula 1 is all about entertainment.

They want races to be close and exciting, because then more people tune in.

That’s why Lewis Hamilton said that if Red Bull didn’t win at Japan by a landslide, something would be up.

After all, Red Bull was somehow nowhere in Singapore after dominating all year. Maybe they were sandbagging the rest of the season to make it seem as though the others were catching up, tricking the FIA to not make changes to the rules and regulations to level the playing field.

But that’s not how Max Verstappen roles.

In a season full of dominating performances, Suzuka was the most dominant of the bunch.

Nobody even came close to beating Verstappen.

I guess it’s good to see that they don’t care about possible rule changes.

That’s a confident bunch.

1. McLaren

Do you remember Bahrain this year? When McLaren was nowhere near the points and looked to be headed towards a horrid season?

Those days are long, long gone now.

A 4th 2nd place finish for Lando Norris this year, and a first ever podium for Oscar Piastri gives McLaren their first double podium of the season, and continued hope going forward and into 2024.

Because this was no fluke double podium.

These two deserved it.