After the big winter billing, the new Formula 1 season has certainly provided no end of early drama and surprise on and off track after the opening two rounds of the campaign.
With the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka next up live on Sky Sports F1 this weekend, we delve into some of the biggest topics heading into round three…
Norris vs Piastri set to present different McLaren challenge
Two grands prix, two wins.
Any further confirmation needed after pre-season testing that McLaren have the fastest car and are the team to beat at least at the start of the new season duly arrived across the opening fortnight of F1 2025, however much they may attempt to play it down.
The reigning constructors’ champions have opened a season with back-to-back wins for the first time since 2003 and would almost certainly have had a pair of one-two finishes too but for the spin on dry tyres in Melbourne rain that proved so costly for Oscar Piastri there.
Piastri, though, hit back immediately and impressively a week later in Shanghai to outperform Lando Norris across the Sprint weekend and reduce the early title deficit to his team-mate by 13 points to 10.
Max Verstappen and George Russell are currently between the McLaren pair in the drivers’ standings, but on early evidence it’s Norris and Piastri who are definitely going to be in the season-long title fight.
Norris and Piastri’s win apiece has led to early questions about how they and the McLaren team would handle the pair going head to head for the drivers’ crown deep into the campaign, as the pressure and stakes ramp up.
Norris said after the race they were “nervous but excited” about such a prospect, while team principal Andrea Stella said while they have “tried to be ready for that for a long time now”, they would still inevitably have to adapt to situations as they evolve.
“Like all the things in Formula 1, it would be very arrogant to say ‘oh, now we are ready’ or ‘we were ready’,” said Stella.
Lando Norris held onto second spot at the Chinese GP after critical braking issues left George Russell breathing down his neck.
“You learn because the scenarios are very complex, they never manifest themselves in the same way so you just have to continue learning and, like you do on performance, on reliability, on operations, you also do in the way you manage a team.”
A further head-to-head duel is likely between the pair at Suzuka, a track McLaren have already performed well at in the previous two seasons when Red Bull still remained the pacesetters. The question we’ll start to learn a little more about across the Japan-Bahrain-Saudi Arabia triple header is how many other contenders will keep pace with them.
The many unanswered Red Bull swap questions
While McLaren may consider the prospect of managing two title-contenting drivers a luxury problem to have down the road, rival Red Bull’s problems are currently more pressing and pronounced.
The first centres on improving the pace and compliance of their RB21 car; the second on trying to turn around the fortunes of the driver in their revolving second seat.
Craig Slater takes a look at if the second Red Bull seat is cursed after Liam Lawson became the fourth driver to leave since Daniel Ricciardo in 2018.
It has taken just two troubled weekends from Liam Lawson for their end-of-2024 confidence in the New Zealander being the driver in their stable to step up to the challenge to disappear, with Yuki Tsunoda given the promotion many – including the Japanese driver himself – thought should have been his all along once time was called on Sergio Perez’s sustained struggles in the seat three months ago.
Red Bull’s driver U-turn after China was as sudden as it was shocking and so hearing from all the key players at the heart of this story – Tsunoda, Lawson and team boss Christian Horner – for the first time in person across the Suzuka weekend will inevitably be fascinating.
As will hearing Verstappen’s take on it all.
If his, or at least his official account’s, ‘like’ of a critical Instagram post about the change is a reliable indicator, then the four-time champion apparently isn’t particularly impressed by what has unfolded.
Craig Slater explains why Liam Lawson has been swapped with Yuki Tsunoda after just two races of the Formula 1 season from next week’s Japanese Grand Prix.
But what aspect of the decision might he be unhappy with? The simple fact that Lawson hasn’t been afforded more time? That the latest change of team-mate comes creates fresh instability when they should be prioritising getting a better car for both drivers?
And what, if anything, does it all mean for his future at the team?
All intriguing questions which we should get crucial answers to this week…
Ferrari in need of big weekend
Their rivals keep talking them up, but Ferrari’s start to the season has certainly underwhelmed compared to pre-season expectations. They arrive at Suzuka already in need of a strong weekend to kick-start their title challenge.
For two very different reasons, Ferrari were at the centre of the big two news events of round two – Lewis Hamilton’s first win in red in the Saturday Sprint and then the double disqualification from the Sunday Grand Prix which took the Briton and Charles Leclerc out of the final classification.
Ted Kravitz reveals he missed a big detail when doing his usual notebook following the Chinese Grand Prix at the Shanghai Audi International Circuit.
Ferrari’s embarrassment of seeing their two cars excluded for different technical infringements – the first time in the 75-year history of the world championship that the famous Scuderia had suffered a double DSQ – was one thing, the other was that losing their fifth and sixth-place finishing positions underlined that it had already been a disappointing race day.
Hamilton had been the only driver in the top six to twice stop for tyres and, while Leclerc fared better for pace once his team-mate had suggested they swap positions, the Monegasque’s superior speed was somewhat confusing given he had carried a damaged front wing for all 56 laps sustained in contact with the sister car through the race’s opening corners.
In any case, Leclerc was eventually overhauled by Verstappen for fourth and finished 23 seconds behind race winner Piastri before the disqualification for his car being 1kg underweight.
The double exclusion stripped Ferrari of 18 points, relegating them behind resurgent Williams to fifth place in the standings and creating a large 61 points deficit to dominant championship leaders McLaren already.
Bernie Collins looks closer at how Ferrari suffered a double disqualification at the Chinese Grand Prix and how costly that will be for the team this season.
Speaking soon after the race before it was known his cars had failed post-race scrutineering checks, team boss Fred Vasseur stressed it was no time to panic so early in the campaign.
Vasseur pointed out that Leclerc’s race had showed promise, that the up-and-down China weekend had shown all the big teams were suffering a level of inconsistency with tyres, and they just needed to work out how to consistently extract the best from the SF-25.
“I think the gap with McLaren is the gap that we had with Red Bull last year, that they did one-two in the first two races,” said Vasseur.
“I think if I come back to the press conference of the race two last year, I had the question, ‘do you think that they [Red Bull] will be champion in June?’
“It’s why we have to take it with a pinch of salt. I’m sure that they are in good shape, they are doing well. The pace is strong, this is clear, and I think they are a step ahead, but it’s not the end of the championship.”
All true, but Ferrari certainly cannot afford many more difficult weekends anytime soon if they are not to lose touch with McLaren.
Suzuka: The timeless drivers’ challenge
The race at Japan’s iconic figure-of-eight circuit may now be located at the opposite end of the calendar to where it became associated with some of the sport’s most famous title deciders but, as F1’s drivers will no doubt make clear in their interviews this week, whatever time of year they get to drive Suzuka is a good time.
F1 now races in Japan during the country’s picturesque month of cherry blossom, or sakura, and that definitely adds an additional allure to its annual visit.
One thing that has barely changed since the sport first visited Suzuka back in 1987, though, is its 3.6-mile, 18-corner layout itself.
Look back on some of the most exciting title deciders to take place at the Japanese Grand Prix.
If aspects of another of the drivers’ favourite track – Spa-Francorchamps – have become less of a challenge over recent years due to the evolution of modern F1 cars, Suzuka remains a fine test of speed and precision thanks to the presence of the Esses, Degners, Spoon and 130R to name just four fast sections of Japan’s most-famous racing road.
Monaco’s narrow barrier-lined street track may be widely considered F1’s ultimate ‘lap’ to watch drivers at work in low-fuel qualifying, but a look at the onboard 360-degree camera footage at the top of this page from Verstappen’s pole effort from last year is strong evidence that Suzuka surely can’t be far behind.
Well worth getting up a little early then to watch qualifying at 7am on Saturday, live on Sky Sports F1, and then, as you’ll be in the alarm-clock wake-up groove, the full 53-lap Grand Prix on Sunday at 6am too!
Thursday April 3
- 5am: Drivers’ Press Conference
Friday April 4
- 3am: Japanese GP Practice One (session starts at 3.30am)*
- 5.30am: Team Principals’ Press Conference
- 6.45am: Japanese GP Practice Two (session starts at 7am)*
- 8.15am: The F1 Show*
Saturday April 5
- 3.15am: Japanese GP Practice Three (session starts at 3.30am)*
- 6am: Japanese GP Qualifying build-up*
- 7am: Japanese GP Qualifying*
- 9am: Ted’s Qualifying Notebook*
Sunday April 6
- 4.30am: Japanese GP build-up: Grand Prix Sunday*
- 6am: THE JAPANESE GRAND PRIX*
- 8am: Japanese GP reaction: Chequered Flag*
- 9am: Ted’s Notebook*
*also live on Sky Sports Main Event
Formula 1 heads to the iconic Suzuka Circuit for the Japanese Grand Prix on April 4-6, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW – No contract, cancel anytime
