F1 2022-Round 18 JAPANESE GRAND PRIX 2022

A bit different than last year.....

Congratulations to Max on becoming a Two time World Champion. Well deserved. I can see him going on to win at least 6 more.

Latifi actually had a very good race today. Probably his best performance in a long, long time.

Vettel also did well.

I think he and Red Bull will surpass them both and I would have no problem with that if he did. Better to have Max with 8 or 10 WDCs than crybaby Hamilton.

Anyone know who performed the monoglogue at the end of the Channel 4 highlights package. Thx

David Harewood, he was in Homeland.

Awe that's why I could not find him. I heard David Alwood.

Wdc is over since the summer break, if max gets champion today or next week who cares. Was purely hypothetical already with Max no points in the last races and Leclerc winning all with fastest lap every time.

Decent race worth the wait with people not knowing the rules confusing each other.

Every broadcaster and the teams all thought the same thing.

Yes but there's the whole fact that Bernie is a Hitler admirer... The sport is better off without that repulsive human being at the helm.

He cracked under pressure a few times this year. But he's still young and has shown that he's adaptable. He might have it in him to improve an become a bit tougher under pressure.

I certainly wouldn't write him off. Ferrari are a bit of a clown show. Terrible team given their resources and totally unfair advantages like the extra prize money off the top and a veto on rules. Hopefully Mercedes, mclaren or Appine can challenge Red Bull next year.

Was definitely a bit of an anti-climactic way to win the title with so much conflicting information and Johnny Herbert outright telling Max he hadn't won the title in the post race interview even though he had. Hopefully that's the last time Herbert is ever given that job.

The race itself was good though, and Max really showed what a champion he is with the way he completely outclassed the entire field in extremely tricky conditions. It's a shame the FIA made such a mess of the delays though so the very first racing lap was already ready for inters. What a fascinating strategic race we could have had if they'd actually raced in the wet and had to make the call when to switch over a bit later. As it was the inters couldn't quite last the race distance but the race was also too short to really justify a pitstop - those that tried like Alonso just ended up back where they were.

Well deserved driver of the day for Vettel. He was easily driver of the day on Saturday too. Obviously he was the bravest driver to jump on inters first which gained a slew of places, but even after that his pace was also very good, as he stayed within 5 seconds of the much faster Mercedes in front for the entire race, and defended well and held off a faster Alpine too. Rain can be a leveller and you really see the most talented guys on the grid like Vettel show what they can do despite having the slowest car in the field, similar to how Max was able to run away with it at the front by a much wider margin than he would in the dry.

Another painful mistake for Leclerc. Honestly Perez didn't seem to be giving him that much trouble as he was faster but not where it mattered and never made a real overtaking attempt, Charles just threw it away on his own ultimately. Not that it matters that much as the championship was a foregone conclusion, but it's just another in a litany of mistakes from him and his team that all add up. I expect Charles will learn and grow from this, but it must surely be time for Binotto to go now that the championship result is settled, he's been an absolute disaster of a team principal from day one making bad decision after bad decision since taking up the role. Yes, they developed a good car under him, but they bloody well should have given that they sacrificed the previous two years and invested vastly more resources in this year's car than RB or Mercedes who were busy winning races and titles while Ferrari were nowhere in those seasons. And after all that pain they once again have nothing to show for it.

Is this the start / continuation of a Verstappen / Red Bull era? I don't know. Max is certainly the class of the field like no other driver since Schumacher, that is beyond question. But you have to have the machinery to stay at the top. And Ferrari did have the faster car this year, they just failed to use it. While Mercedes still have the FIA on a leash and they've got the ride height changes they demanded for next year which should make their car a lot more competitive. The field spread is also much smaller than it was in the hybrid era, with the aero concept being so new that there will no doubt be major gains with next year's cars that could see a significant change in the competitive order. Cost caps mean other teams might have the opportunity to break into the top 3 if they find an innovation. Then of course we're only a short few years away from the next generation of engines and a new formula with a new reset (and a new challenger in Audi)

So it's a significantly more challenging landscape than anything we've seen recently, so it would be a very tall order for Max to achieve record breaking stats. He certainly has it in him if things fall his way though.

I disagree Binotto didnt do it wrong. They should just learn from RB. Ferrari needs peace and calmness they arguably have become a cursed brand since Shumii left

Ocon was superb yesterday keeping a hard challenging Hamilton behind him.