The return to Japan was quite the show: the race crowned a new champion, many great battles, and a red flag! All these events should mean it was a success for the FIA and Formula One, but what happened in between left a sour taste in many viewers’ mouths.
I decided to rename the notebook to Post-Race Debris. This series is about what is left to talk about following a race. Let’s breakdown what happened in Japan!
Tire Degradation: Ferrari vs. Red Bull
Observing the tires at the end of the race, the tire wear of both cars is easily visible. The Red Bull tire has plenty of miles left on it. The groves are incredibly visible, and they still appear to have quite a few laps left until they reach the level of the Ferrari tire.
Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez were locked in a battle for second place, which ended up being title-deciding. Charles was ahead throughout the restart of the race, but his tires gave out early on. The gap closed lap after lap as Checo managed his tires while squeezing pace out of them.
The story of Ferrari’s season is about strategy mishaps, but tire wear was an underlying issue all season long. When the tires held up, Leclerc challenged Max and gave Carlos an advantage over Checo.
Ferrari will need a new strategy team season, that’s for sure. The second issue they need to address is the tire issue; Binnato’s job lies in the hands of addressing both of these issues. The car is fast and dances around slow corners, but more straight-line speed and a design less taxing on tires need to come next season.
If not, heads will roll at the Scuderia.
Ocon defends brilliantly against Hamilton
Compared to Fernando Alonso, Ocon’s performance this season is awe-inspiring. Ocon is up there on points and overall race pace as well. Many analysts regard Alonso as this great willy veteran, which he has been, but Ocon rarely gets his credit for being so close to Alonso.
It feels like Ocon got some of his flowers as he defended against Hamilton. Lewis was giving it everything in this battle for fourth place, trying to capture the slipstream, peaking down the left and right-hand sides, but Ocon constantly positioned his car where it needed to be.
In the clip above, Ocon shuts the down nicely on Hamilton, not letting him have a peek on either side. There was no opening on the inside, so Hamilton needed to go around. Mereceds’ pace meant Ocon was safe.
Ocon did not let Hamilton capture a clear slipstream. With the Mercedes car lacking straight speed this year, Ocon did not help Hamilton and used the Alpine’s straight-line speed to employ some clever defenses.
Defending a position against Hamilton so well, Ocon showcased patience and intelligent driving, even if the Alpine carried much more pace in their car.
Haas v. AlphaTauri
As a team who finished dead last in the previous season, Hass’ statement 6th place finish in Bahrain looked like Haas was going to make some serious noise. Since then, the season has been up and down. Mick Schumacher threw the car into the wall several times, and K-Mag became too aggressive on race starts, resulting in him losing good qualifying positions.
Still, Mick has recently come on and been much more competitive with Kevin. The Haas can still get into Q2 or Q3 now and then, giving them plenty of opportunities to score points.
AlphaTauri, on the other hand, started decently but is in a search for points after falling to 9th.
The race for 8th place is going to come down to these teams. Aston Martin is within range of 7th place, but that lead may be good enough. Haas needs the 8th-place finish much more than Alphatuari does. The team possesses limited funds, ultimately hindering how high they can climb up the standings. In a year with so much wind tunnel time due to their 10th-place finish, Haas needs to take advantage of their car performance.
Alpha Tauri must demonstrate its viability as a secondary to the Red Bull investors. The team finishing 9th place after the senior team is going to sweep the Constructor’s Championship and the Driver’s Champion could lead to them investing less money in their project.
I’d favor Haas to pull through due to their massive need for a climb up the standings. If not, Haas risk looking like a bunch of wankers to Gene Haas again.
FIA needs new Safety Car Protocols
In my Singapore Notebook, I trashed the FIA for handling the penalties. I want to avoid pilling on the FIA, but what happened in Japan was horrifying.
Pierre Gasly, attempting to catch up to the pack following a safety car, pushed the pace. He did not know or see a tractor on the track collecting the remains of Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari.
The tractor was not visible. The cars produced large amounts of spray, leading to a lack of clarity when behind a car or even in clear air.
The track tractor gave unsettling flashbacks to Jules Bianchi’s fatal crash a few years ago. The collision resulted in Jules losing control of his F2 car and going straight onto the tractor, picking up a car that crashed.
If Gasly had aquaplaned right around that tractor, which Sainz had already lost control of, he could have been seriously injured or worse.
The FIA needs a complete revamp of protocols; for starters, the tractor needs some clear, bright lights behind it so the drivers can see it. The safety car must slow down during certain corners or parts of the track to let the vehicles catch up safely. The drivers need communication about what is on track, from an FIA radio announcement or a mandated team warning.
I don’t want to see a scene like the one in Suzuka. I am lucky enough not to have seen the Jules crash live. Just watching the replay so many years later still makes my stomach wrench. I don’t want to see anything like that in the sport again, which is why I understand Gasly’s anger.
Should he of been going so fast? No. Does the FIA need to be held responsible and called to change its rules immediately? Yes. The FIA responded to the events. By punishing Gasly for speeding and launching an investigation into what happened. If the investigation does not result in new procedures, Formula 1 should look into another regulating body.
Point System Mayhem
Onto a less serious mistake by the FIA, the red flag after two laps meant the race was in jeopardy of not being finished. The heavy rain meant all the laps might not be completed, leading to an alternative points allocation.
This chart of points floated on Sky Sports broadcast. This point allocation meant Max Verstappen would not be crowned champion until the Cruicit of the Americas.
The broadcast, funny enough, operated as if these were the point allocations for the race. Max Verstappen was robbed of his Crofty moment as he crossed the finish line. Even Max did not know if he would become champion; when being interviewed after his race win, he memorably said, “No, I am not.”
Chris Medland, one of the more reliable Formula One journalists, tweeted out the same confusion of most F1 fans.
This thread captures the confusion so well. Leclerc lost so many tires that Perez overtook him for second place on the last lap. The position change should not have been enough, but with the total points awarded, it was enough.
The FIA needs more clear rules. There is so much room for interpretation on various regulations: if the drivers do not complete all of the laps, there must be differing points allocation. This scenario is not too consequential because Max was going to win the title anyways, but the days for these broad rules should be over soon.
Tweet of the Weekend:
Seb did Harry Potter cosplay so well. Someone tell him about Comic-Con!
The Free pitstop 