[BBC]
Japanese Grand Prix
Venue: Suzuka Dates: 4-6 April Race begin: 06:00 BST on Sunday
Protection: Dwell radio commentary of observe and qualifying on BBC 5 Sports activities Additional, race reside on BBC Radio 5 Dwell. Dwell textual content updates on the BBC Sport web site and app
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We’re solely two races into the 2025 Components 1 season and there has already been a serious driver change with Crimson Bull selling Yuki Tsunoda to exchange Liam Lawson.
Tsunoda competes at his residence grand prix in Japan this weekend as team-mate to world champion Max Verstappen for the primary time, with New Zealander Lawson demoted to Racing Bulls.
BBC Sport F1 correspondent Andrew Benson solutions your questions on the Crimson Bull scenario and extra earlier than the race in Suzuka.
What can be a very good season for Yuki Tsunoda after the current driver change? – David
Crimson Bull’s resolution to demote Liam Lawson after simply two races and alongside Max Verstappen is nothing lower than a profession lifeline for Tsunoda.
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The 24-year-old Japanese was staring on the seemingly finish of his profession this season.
That is as a result of he owed his seat on the second Crimson Bull workforce to Honda, and it’s transferring to Aston Martin for 2026, the place there is no such thing as a seat out there to Tsunoda and no sensible prospect of 1.
With out Honda, the possibilities of Racing Bulls maintaining Tsunoda for 2026 had been slim, when there are different Crimson Bull juniors coming alongside the conveyor belt.
So a seat alongside Verstappen this yr offers him the chance to point out as soon as and for all that he deserves a long-time place in F1.
However what stage of efficiency would try this?
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The actual fact stays that Crimson Bull have a minimal stage of expectation for his or her second driver – and that is to be inside about 0.3 seconds a lap of Verstappen on a constant foundation.
That is what Tsunoda must do to persuade Crimson Bull that he deserves to be thought of as a contender for a seat in 2026.
And realistically if he doesn’t try this, he’s unlikely to persuade anybody else that he’s value investing in both.
If Max Verstappen leaves Crimson Bull are they in even higher bother than simply dropping their star driver? It looks like they’d be dropping the one one that can drive their automotive, a scenario that is seemingly self-inflicted. Are they prone to be making their 2026 automotive extra driveable to mitigate this danger? – Tom
Some of the attention-grabbing elements of the Lawson-Tsunoda driver swap is that it offers one other perspective on the state Crimson Bull are in with their automotive.
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Verstappen believes it’s the fourth quickest automotive in F1 in the meanwhile – so behind the McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari. Though on common qualifying tempo within the three periods to this point, it’s really second quickest behind the McLaren.
However it might be that it is just each of these issues with Verstappen in it.
The problem for Crimson Bull is that they’ve one genius-level driver and one common one, in F1 phrases – and that is still the case with Tsunoda within the second seat, or at the least that is what most would consider proper now.
So it is virtually a case of cut up the distinction between the drivers to evaluate the extent of the automotive.
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The underside line appears to be that the brand new Crimson Bull is solely not that good a automotive, and definitely one which is unpredictable and doesn’t generate confidence in a driver. Even Verstappen finds it troublesome to drive – however he’s so good that he’s in a position to coax a very good lap trip of it.
Verstappen is regarded by most as the perfect driver in F1 in the meanwhile – so if that is true, it stands to cause that the automotive can be worse with just about anybody else in it.
It appears Crimson Bull have chased peak aerodynamic efficiency on the expense of drivability – which is ironic, as a result of that’s precisely the other of the philosophy that Adrian Newey has championed all through his profession.
Legendary designer Newey, who stopped engaged on Crimson Bull in F1 final April, and has simply come to the top of his first month with Aston Martin, has all the time believed that it was higher to have barely much less downforce that the motive force can use all of, than extra theoretical downforce that may’t be accessed as a result of the automotive is simply too “peaky”. Or, as Lawson put it, the “window” is simply too slim.
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Like all groups, Crimson Bull designed the perfect automotive they may for the brand new season. The query that hangs over them now’s, do they know easy methods to repair it?
After one other very dry dash race in China I’m wondering once more why F1 does not give the groups tyres that permits the drivers to race by way of a dash. Absolutely the purpose of the dash is it’s quick, thrilling and filled with motion? – Richard
This can be a query about tyre administration. The actual fact is that – with a couple of very restricted exceptions – drivers have by no means been in a position to race flat out since Pirelli entered F1 because the tyre provider in 2011.
That is not how their tyres work. Pirelli tyres must be managed to remain inside a temperature window.
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Drive them flat out they usually overheat. And in the event that they overheat, they hardly ever come again to optimum grip stage. Typically that is even the case over a single qualifying lap.
Pirelli has been requested earlier than to offer tyres that may be pushed flat out, however to this point it has not carried out so.
Is that this season a write-off for Aston Martin? – Carlos
It is not trying good to this point, is it?
On common, the Aston Martin is the seventh quickest automotive over a single lap over the primary three races of the season, together with the China dash. Solely the Alpine, Sauber and Haas have been slower.
It is honest to say that Fernando Alonso has not had his greatest begin to a season, and errors in qualifying at each races to this point have damage the workforce’s final potential.
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So, it isn’t fully clear but what the automotive’s ceiling is.
Aston Martin got here into this season with two important goals – to provide a extra drivable automotive, and to show that they may clear up the correlation points they’ve had between simulation and the actual world and design upgrades that carry out as anticipated.
The drivers say that it’s extra drivable than final yr – it is simply not that fast.
If they’ll show their upgrades work, then the season can be at the least a certified success, whatever the efficiency of the automotive to some extent.
So it’s most likely honest to attend for at the least the primary improve bundle – which might sometimes be anticipated round Could a while – earlier than forming any agency conclusions.
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Is there a circuit(s) you’d really need on the calendar that presently is not on there? And on the expense of which present circuit(s)? I really like Fuji and I am not a fan of road circuits – RAP
The F1 calendar has a reasonably good number of circuits in the meanwhile.
There are some apparent candidates in the US – Street America and Laguna Seca are each nice circuits. However then so is Austin, and each Miami and Las Vegas work for the game on a monetary stage.
Bathurst in Australia is superior – however not appropriate for F1, sadly.
As for Fuji, nice backdrop, when the clouds should not protecting Mount Fuji, however as a circuit it isn’t a patch on Suzuka.
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The one massive miss when it comes to the calendar is France. By some means, it appears flawed to not have a grand prix within the nation that gave start to motorsport and hosted the primary race with that title, even when Monaco is thought to be a type of proxy French race.
The issue is that France’s solely circuits with licences for F1 are Paul Ricard and Magny-Cours. Uninspiring each.
But when the Sarthe circuit at Le Mans may very well be introduced as much as F1 commonplace and host a grand prix, that will be fairly one thing.
