Every year, the F1 calendar includes a race at the Suzuka Circuit in Japan. Usually, that race is near the end of the season, and it’s vital to determining who gets the championship. But not this year. It’s only round four, and F1 went to the land of the Rising Sun a lot quicker than a lot of people predicted. Red Bull dominated the prior year’s race at Suzuka, giving fans strong hopes and detractors strong fears that this race would be another runaway. The fans got their way, as Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez finished one-two to extend their lead over the other constructors. 

Ferrari v. Red Bull

While the Red Bull one-two finish may have been an extreme negative for Ferrari, they did the best they could with that outcome, filling out a three-four finish from Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc. While they aren’t out of the running yet, this is a medium set back for Ferrari. They’ll need to keep making top two finishes to keep pace. 

Leclerc, in comparison to Sainz, had more obvious improvements in the race. He started the race in eighth after the red-flagged restart and outpaced Lewis Hamilton, Oscar Piastri, Fernando Alonso and even Lando Norris, finishing in fourth to complete the second-row finish for the prancing ponies. While that red-flag restart may have helped Ferrari, it also put a big dent into the efforts of a team that didn’t need it. 

Williams’ chassis problems continue

Coming into the race, there was a lot of scrutiny surrounding Williams after being without a driver on the grid in Australia due to manufacturing problems with their chassis. They did not get off to a comfortable start in Japan. After getting off the line well, Daniel Riccardo incidentally pushed Alex Albon onto the grass in the middle of the Essess, sending both cars into the Aramco barrier at the end of the portion of the Essess.

 This meant that, if Logan Seargent crashed and damaged the chassis, it might have put even more pressure on the team to make copies of the chassis. The team has had a hard time with that recently, especially in Australia two weeks ago. Fortunately for Williams, Logan managed to finish the race out on the track and keep the car within the barriers. He had a scare at Lap 42 when he ran into the gravel after locking the brakes up. He kept the car moving and got  out of the gravel trap. 

That isn’t much though, considering that he finished last among the running cars. Williams may have to think about resigning from Seargent given his difficulty with finding pace in the car. 

Tsunoda excites the home crowd

It’s always a treat when an F1 driver gets to their home grand prix, and Yuki Tsunoda didn’t disappoint the fans or the RB team. After Daniel Riccardo spun out on the first lap, it put the pressure on Tsunoda to get the only points they could get in the race. He delivered, only just, by finishing 10th and scoring a single point for the RB. That result did not come without significant effort, however. 

After the first lap crash and the red-flag period that followed, Tsunoda fell in the restart at 10^th after taking a tire change to softs. After his quick stop six laps later onto hard tires, he fell back to 16^th where he stayed, eventually maneuvering his way up to 14^th.

The key to his final positioning came on Lap 23 when the lower pack came in to serve their pit stops, with Tsunoda coming in behind Kevin Magnussen, Valtteri Bottas and Logan Sargeant. Thanks to the speed of the RB mechanics, he managed to beat them all-out of the pits cleanly, putting him up to 11^th. On lap 33, Tsunoda made another outside run through the Essess to get past Nico Hulkenberg and he didn’t lookback. He earneda single point for the RB while thrilling the fans.

Aston Martin differences

As of late, many fans have criticized Lance Stroll for his performances over the past couple of weekends compared to what his much more experienced teammate has put up. 

Fernando Alonso has proven himself to be the primary driver for Aston Martin, with a top 10 finish in every race so far this season. He has shown that the car this year can perform well against the top three teams. 

Stroll, on the other hand, has disappointed overall compared to what his counterpart has done. He fell out of the top 10 this week and has finished, for the most part, in the lower top 10, while Alonso has consistently kept his car within the top five. 

Fans are starting to get frustrated, with some even calling for a change in drivers. However, that isn’t very likely to occur, given how Stroll’s father, Lawrence Stroll, owns and is very involved in running the Aston Martin team. For now, his seat is secure. 

That difference in performance was highlighted over the weekend. Alonso  finished sixth, while Stroll was lapped and finished in 12^th place and out of points. Aston Martin needs to figure out what to do, otherwise it may tank their chance at getting a top 5 finish in the constructor’s championship. 

With the trip to Japan finished, the next stop on the F1 Calendar is a short 2-hour flight across the Yellow Sea to Shanghai for the Chinese Grand Prix in two weeks. With Japan finalized, Formula One stands as follows. 

Drivers Standings Through Round 4 (Japan):

1. Max Verstappen (Red Bull) – 77 pts.
2. Sergio Perez (Red Bull) – 64 Pts. 
3. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) – 59 pts.
4. Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) – 55 pts.
5. Lando Norris (McLaren) – 37 pts.
6. Oscar Piastri (McLaren) – 32 pts.
7. George Russell (Mercedes) – 24 pts.
8. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) – 24 pts. 
9. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) – 10 pts. 
10. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) – 9 pts. 
11. Yuki Tsunoda (RB) – 7 pts. 
12. Olvier Bearman (Ferrari Reserve driver) – 6 pts.
13. Nico Hulkenburg (Haas) – 3 pts. 
14. Kevin Magnussen  (Haas) – 1 pts. 
15. Alex Albon (Williams) – 0 pts. 
16. Zhou Guanyu (Kick Sauber) – 0 pts. 
17. Daniel Ricciardo (RB) – 0 pts. 
18. Esteban Ocon (Alpine) – 0 pts.
19. Pierre Gasly (Alpine) – 0 pts. 
20. Valteri Bottas (Kick Sauber) – 0 pts.
21. Logan Sargeant (Williams) – 0 pts.

Constructors Standings Through Round 4 (Japan):

1. Red Bull Racing – 141 pts.
2. Ferrari – 120 pts.
3. McLaren – 69 pts.
4. Mercedes – 34 pts.
5. Aston Martin – 33 pts.
6. RB Honda – 7 pts. 
7. Haas – 4 pts. 
8. Williams – 0 pts.
9. Kick Sauber – 0 pts.
10. Alpine – 0 pts.