Japanese Grand Prix Race Review
- Matt Hylen
- 7 days ago
- 10 min read
Round 3 of the 2025 Formula One season is in the books, and though the action was minimal, it showed us a lot about where every car is right now. With the top 6 finishing exactly where they started for the second time in F1 history, the overtaking problem the sport is facing was on full display in Suzuka. With that being said, we have a lot to talk about regarding this one, so buckle up!
Before we get into the review, here's how the standings work:
Formula One has two main championship competitions. The first is the Drivers' Championship, which is a competition between the drivers' individual performance. On a non-Sprint style weekend, the drivers who finish in the top 10 in each race will score points (the higher you place, the more points you get). These points are added up, and whichever driver finishes with the most points at the end of the season will win the Drivers' Championship.
The next is the Constructors' Championship, a competition between the teams. The number of points the drivers within a team get each race is combined, creating the total points for the team (E.g., Lando Norris has scored 62 points, and Oscar Piastri has scored 49 points, giving the McLaren team 111 points in the Constructors' Championship). The team whose drivers accumulate the most points combined for their team will win the Constructors' Championship.
Now, here is a look at the standings for both Championships:
Drivers' Championship Standings:
Lando Norris 62 points
Max Verstappen 61 points
Oscar Piastri 49 points
George Russell 45 points
Andrea Kimi Antonellii 30 points
Charles Leclerc 20 points
Alexander Albon 18 points
Lewis Hamilton 15 points
Esteban Ocon 10 points
Lance Stroll 10 points
Nico Hulkenberg 6 points
Oliver Bearman 5 points
Isak Hadjar 4 points
Yuki Tsunoda 3 points
Carlos Sainz 1 points
Pierre Gasly 0 points
Fernando Alonso 0 points
Liam Lawson 0 points
Jack Doohan 0 points
Gabriel Bortoletto 0 points
Constructors' Championship Standings:
McLaren 111 points
Mercedes 75 points
Red Bull 61 points
Ferrari 35 points
Williams 19 points
Haas 15 points
Aston Martin 10 points
Racing Bulls 7 points
Kick Sauber 6 points
Alpine 0 points
Standings were found at F1.com.
Alpine
Alpine showed small signs of life throughout the weekend, and can leave with the hope that things or on the mend overall. Jack Doohan qualified 19th and finished 15th, while Pierre Gasly qualified 11th and finished 13th
Though Alpine missed out on points this weekend, the qualifying pace looked solid. Gasly barely missing out on Q3 (about a tenth of a second off) was a positive sign, and one that I think will carry over next weekend in Bahrain. For Doohan, it was hard to expect anything from him after the crash he had in practice. You could instantly tell that any confidence he had disappeared with the crash, creating a "just don't crash" mentality. That road of thinking will get you absolutely nowhere in this sport, however, after that collision with the wall, I don't really blame him.
During the race, Doohan did nothing of note, but Gasly was right there fighting alongside the likes of Ollie Bearman and Fernando Alonso for 10th place. However, an extremely slow pit stop ruined his race, giving him zero chance of regaining what he lost.
It was a shame that Alpine failed to help keep Gasly in the positions he put himself in, but nevertheless, the car seems to be going in the right direction.
Aston Martin
Aston Martin went back to exactly how we expected them to be going into the season, with Fernando Alonso outperforming the car and Lance Stroll making us question even more how he is still in F1. For the race, Alonso qualified 13th and finished 11th, while Stroll qualified and finished in last place.
Wow, what a horrible weekend for Stroll. After his great first two races, I was starting to regain a little bit of hope that Stroll could still be an ok driver. However, after this weekend, I am right back to where I was before. Stroll was not competitive all weekend long in both qualifying and the race. The team started him out on soft tires to try and help him gain positions, but that backfired. It backfired so much to the point they had to pit Stroll early, which put him roughly twenty seconds behind the car in 19th. What was really concerning though is that the gap of roughly twenty seconds never changed. Absolutely brutal showing from Stroll.
Alonso, on the other hand, finally bounced back from his horrendous start to the year, reminding us of the pace he still has. With the gap to a points-scoring position being just three seconds, this was a major win for Alonso, who had not finished a race to this point. Ultimately, it just came down to Haas having a better car than Aston Martin.
Overall, a lot of good to take away from this weekend for Aston Martin, but it will be another long season if Stroll goes back to the Stroll of old.
Ferrari
Ferrari still were far off the pace of the front runners but were still able to put together a solid weekend. Charles Leclerc qualified and finished in 4th, while Lewis Hamilton qualified 8th and finished 7th.
Leclerc had a relatively quiet race, basically driving in the same positions the entire time. It felt like once the front three pulled away from him, Charles was in no-man's-land, with the gap behind him also growing.
Hamilton was in a similar situation, however, the main concern for him is his qualifying. Hamilton's pace over a lap was the biggest question regarding him and his ability to fight for a championship. In the past few years, we have seen Lewis' qualifying pace decrease more and more, which is hurting his chances in the race. Suzuka was another example of Hamilton putting himself in a position where he could not even help himself. Hamilton's strategy of starting on the hard tires, outlasting the cars in front (who all started on medium tires), and hopefully being able to catch up by having the faster tire on the second stint. Unfortunately, it failed, and with the track simply being too difficult to overtake cars ahead, Hamilton had no chance of improving any more than he did.
I think the biggest issue for Ferrari after Suzuka is that it confirmed how far off they are from McLaren, Max Verstappen, and even the Mercedes at times. They need to upgrade their car, and fast, before things start to get out of reach.
Haas
First of all, I have to give the team kudos for the livery. That car looked incredible this weekend.
Anyways, Haas was a difficult team to review, as their roller-coaster of a season rolled on. Esteban Ocon qualified and finished in 18th, while Oliver Bearman qualified and finished in 10th.
The biggest takeaway after this past race weekend was Ocon's struggles. Similar to Stroll, Ocon had a horrific weekend. Granted, Bearman did seem to have outperformed the car tremendously, but as the experienced driver, you cannot be driving in the bottom three when your 19-year-old rookie teammate is scoring points. Yes, the car was not great this weekend, yet that is not an excuse to finish almost five-tenths of a second off your teammate in qualifying and 28.2 seconds behind in the race. After a fifth-place finish in China, I was truly shocked to see Ocon struggle this much.
Despite the lack of car performance, Bearman had a fantastic weekend. That Haas car had no business being in the top 10 this weekend, yet Ollie found a way to make it happen. He fought off Pierre Gasly and Fernando Alonso for basically the entire race, until he started pulling ahead after the wave of pit stops. Overall, amazing weekend for Bearman, who will surely take that momentum into next weekend as well.
Kick Sauber
I feel that I always write the least about Kick Sauber, but when the team is the worst car in almost every race, there is not much to say. In Suzuka, Gabriel Bortoletto qualified 17th and finished 19th, while Nico Hulkenberg qualified and finished in 16th.
Sauber was terrible this weekend however, I am not too surprised. Hulkenberg would have finished lower in the race if Liam Lawson hadn't gone in for a second pit stop, and Bortoletto lost positions early and never had a chance of gaining them back. I mean Bortoletto kept a twenty-second gap to Stroll, but that isn't saying much. The gap between the two drivers was only eight-hundredths of a second, thus concluding that the car is a dustbin.
Audi cannot come soon enough.
McLaren
LOTS to talk about here...
McLaren had a golden opportunity to come out of this weekend with a front-row lockout, but once again the team bottled it. Lando Norris qualified and finished in 2nd while Oscar Piastri qualified and finished in 3rd.
Honestly, after the drama last season where McLaren could not stop getting in their own way, I assumed they had learned from that experience. I guess I was wrong. For most of the race, the top three were clear of everyone behind them. McLaren's sole focus was on strategizing how to get ahead of Verstappen. It is their two drivers to Red Bull's one, so surely they could have tried something, right? Wrong. McLaren did absolutely nothing, basically letting Max win the race.
Now I want to be clear, I felt that Norris and Piastri did their job; however, the team completely blew this opportunity. With 15 laps to go, and the cars behind not even in sight, Oscar was right on Lando's tail and was even faster on some laps. Since Norris clearly did not have the pace to catch Verstappen, what should have happened is the team should have ordered Lando to let Oscar pass, allowing Piastri to make as big of a push to try and get Verstappen. Then, if Oscar does not catch him by the final couple of laps, switch the drivers back to their original position. I know I am no strategist, and they of course know better than me; however, as a spectator, you have to try something.
If McLaren wants to win both championships, which is the expectation, the NEED to stop making these mistakes. It cost them last year, and it will cost them again this year.
Mercedes
Mercedes may not have been in the fight for a podium this weekend, yet they still had a record-breaking weekend. Kimi Antonelli qualified and finished in 6th while George Russell qualified and finished in 5th.
First off, let's talk records. Kimi Antonelli not only surpassed Max Verstappen to become the youngest driver to ever lead a race (18 years, 7 months, and 11 days) but also set the fastest race lap ever recorded at the Japanese Grand Prix (1 minute and 30.965 seconds). He also became the third driver in the past sixty years to finish in the top 6 in their first three races. You simply could not have asked for a better start from Antonelli. What Kimi is doing so far this season is sensational, and he is currently on pace to beat Lewis Hamilton's record for the most points ever scored in a rookie season. Mercedes hit the jackpot with Antonelli; the sky is truly the limit for him.
Russell was also great this weekend, as he did all he could with the car he was given. This race marks George's best-ever start to a season, as he has scored the most points in his career after three races.
Russell, Antonelli, and the Mercedes team are right where they need to be after the third race of the season, and have a great chance to showcase their performance again very soon in Bahrain.
Racing Bulls
VCARB had a pretty solid weekend overall, showing their strong midfield pace and producing good points. Isak Hadjar qualified 7th and finished 8th, while Liam Lawson qualified 14th and finished 17th.
What a drive from Hadjar! Isak was spectacular this weekend, as he produced the best result of his young career. Hadjar has come so far already from his unfortunate start to the season. His pace has exceeded expectations, and his ability to push through when issues within the car arise is beyond his years. After a bad start where he lost two places on lap one, he had a brilliant overtake on Alex Albon on lap 30 that put him into 8th, and he never looked back.
I think this weekend for Lawson was more about getting him reaccustomed to the car rather than performance. Lawson would have finished higher if the team had not decided to pit him onto softs near the end of the race; however, Lawson looked a lot better than he did in the first two races. VCARB's car definitely looks easier to drive than their parent team, Red Bull, and it showed this weekend in Suzuka.
Red Bull
In a shocking turn of events, Red Bull defied the odds and came out on top this weekend in Japan. Yuki Tsunoda qualified 15th and finished 12th, while Max Verstappen started on pole (1st), and won the race.
Max simply drove a perfect race. He could not have done any better than he did this weekend. Going into it, everyone, including Max, felt that McLaren was the favorite. However, when you count out Verstappen, he makes you pay. Not only did he make McLaren pay, but he also went ahead and set the fastest lap ever driven at the Japanese Grand Prix (1 minute and 26.98 seconds) in the third qualifying session.
Tsunoda was solid this weekend as well. Though I felt the expectations for him were not met, I also felt they were a bit high. For his first ever race driving for Red Bull, a car which is extremely difficult to drive, he was not bad at all. I think Japan was a great learning experience for Yuki, and one he will take into the future as he hopes to make it into the top ten.
Williams
Williams was just able to tally some points this weekend thanks to a stellar drive by Alex Albon. Albon qualified and finished in 9th, whereas Carlos Sainz qualified 12th and finished 14th.
The biggest takeaway from this weekend for Williams is that they need to get their car together. Albon was HEATED with the car's problems, voicing them on the team radio multiple times. He managed to put together a good result; however, he really had to struggle in order to do it. On the other side of things, Sainz still has not figured the car out. This is the third race in a row where Sainz has not come close to scoring points. Williams has proven so far to be a point-scoring caliber car; however, they need to figure out how to make it easier for both drivers to drive.
The team also made a huge mistake that cost Albon a chance at catching Isak Hadjar. Albon was ordered to pit a lap sooner than Hadjar in order to achieve what is called an undercut. An undercut is basically when a driver who is close to the car ahead pits a lap earlier than anticipated in hopes that the new tires will make up enough time to pass the car in front once they pit. However, the track temperature was too cold, causing Albon's tires not to heat up in time, which ultimately took away the opportunity to undercut Hadjar.
The fact that made this a mistake was that the had already seen the undercut not working for other drivers, yet tried it anyway. Williams needs to be better in this facet of the race; simple mistakes like this, especially when the car is not at its best, will cost you valuable points with the midfield so close.
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Until next time!
-Matt Hylen
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