#F1 MSC Cruises #JapaneseGP 2024 Preview. #Formula1 #JapanGP

After Carlos Sainz lead home a Ferrari 1-2 victory on the streets of Albert Park as disaster struck championship leader Max Verstappen, round four of the 2024 FIA Formula One World Championship returns to the fast and flowing Suzuka International Racing Course this weekend for the Formula 1 MSC Cruises Japanese Grand Prix 2024. This will be the 47^th Japanese Grand Prix, the thirty-eighth edition as part of the Formula 1 World Championship since the sport began in 1950 and the thirty-third time the event has been held at Suzuka. On 5 July 2023 it was announced that the Japanese Grand Prix was moved from its traditional September/October date as it was in previous years, to a spot in April for the 2024 calendar, between the Australian and Chinese Grands Prix as part of the sport’s regionalisation efforts.

 

 

2024 Japanese GP Preview – A look at the Suzuka International Racing Course

 

 

Suzuka circuit is a permanent racing circuit located Suzuka City, Mie Prefecture, Japan and operated by the Mobilityland Corporation a subsidiary of Honda Motor Co. Ltd. Located in a theme park with the big wheel dominating the Suzuka Skyline, the circuit was designed as a test track for Honda in 1962 by John Hugenholtz (most notable designer of the Zandvoort, Zolder, Jarama and the stadium section of the Hockenheimring circuits), Suzuka is one of the few circuits in the world to have a figure-eight layout with the 1.2km back straight passing over the front section by an overpass. The circuit features some of the most challenging corners on the calendar including the Esses, the high-speed 130R and the famous Spoon Curve. The circuit has been modified four times during its time.

 

In 1987, having hosted sportscar racing and Formula 2 and having lost out initially to Fuji Speedway in the race to host the Japanese Grand Prix, Honda finally succeeded, and Formula 1 had a new Japanese home (2007-2008 aside when the race was held at Fuji Speedway), the circuit has stayed ever since and has provided the scene for many nail-biting title deciding finales including the famous collisions between Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna in 1989 and 1990. These moments added to Suzuka’s appeal with fans around the world and of course the circuit is a favourite amongst the drivers due to its difficult and demanding challenges. Suzuka is also one of the most demanding circuits on tyre wear.

 

The Suzuka Circuit is 5.807km (3.609 miles) in length with 18 corners and runs uniquely in both a clockwise and anti-clockwise direction.

 

Race distance is 307.471km (109.062 miles) in length with 53 laps in total.

 

Lewis Hamilton holds the fastest lap record with a 1:30.983 set in 2019 in his Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team F1 W10 EQ Power+.

 

Michael Schumacher holds the record for most victories at the Japanese Grand Prix with six.

 

McLaren are the most successful constructor at the Japanese Grand Prix with nine victories.

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2024 Japanese GP Preview – Onboard Pole Lap of Suzuka

 

 

Here is the onboard pole lap of Suzuka set at the 2023 event by Max Verstappen in his Oracle Red Bull Racing Honda-RBPT RB19 racer. The reigning two-time World Champion posted a 1:28.877. You can watch the video right here at the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tm8FFbIHnPk

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2024 Japanese GP Preview – The Last Five Winners

 

 

2023: Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing. 2022: Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing. 2021-20: Not Held. 2019: Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes AMG F1. 2018: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG F1. 2017: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG F1.

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2024 Japanese GP Preview – Tyres

 

 

Pirelli will be bringing with them to Suzuka, the white side-walled C1 Hards, the yellow-marked C2 Medium tyres and the C3 red-branded Soft rubber along with the green-branded Intermediate and blue-marked Full Wet tyre compounds in case of rain.

 

Drivers will have eight sets of the softs, three sets of the mediums and two sets of the harder compounds.

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2024 Japanese GP Preview – DRS Zones

 

As in 2023, there will only be a single DRS Zone at Suzuka which is on the main straight. The detection point is 50 metres before turn 16 and the activation point is 100 metres before the control line.

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2024 Japanese GP Preview – Pitlane Speed Limits

 

Pitlane speed limits will be 80km/h during practice, qualifying and the race.

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ICYMI: Australian GP Report: Sainz leads home Ferrari 1-2 as disaster strikes Verstappen

 

 

Carlos Sainz lead from team-mate Charles Leclerc to give Ferrari a one-two finish at the Australian GP as disaster struck reigning world champion Max Verstappen early on.

 

After the Spaniard took the lead from Verstappen on the second lap with a solid overtake around the outside of the Red Bull at turn ten, Sainz maintained the lead throughout the entirety of the Grand Prix – and his victory in the 58-lap race was secured a tour earlier when Mercedes’ George Russell crashed heavily at turn six deploying the virtual safety car.

 

After suffering from appendicitis and having his appendix removed two weeks ago, which forced him to miss the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Sainz returned to the top step of the podium for the third time in his career, following his triumph in Singapore last campaign.

 

When the 58-lap Australian GP began, although Verstappen preserved the lead from his pole position slot, waving away any attacks from Sainz on the opening tour, the championship leader was unable to break out of DRS range after lap one and thus gave the chasing Ferrari driver momentum.

 

Complaining that he’d “lost the car” briefly on the second tour alongside the Lakeside Drive section of the Albert Park Street Circuit, Sainz was able to push his way past the Red Bull RB20 with DRS activated and take the lead from his efforts.

 

Verstappen reported further problems with his Red Bull, which started to shoot out smoke from the rear, and intensified around the rear-right corner of his RB20.

 

The Dutchman began to slow significantly as it became apparent that his brakes caught fire, and the reigning world champion returned back to the pits as the hub started shedding debris to become the initial retiree of the race.

 

This blew the race complexion wide open, although Sainz had already taken the initiative and started to break-atone for missing out on pole yesterday, building a gap over McLaren’s Lando Norris to ensure he had a comfortable lead when it came to the opening pitstop phase.

 

Norris had been under pressure from Leclerc but, as the Monegasque driver stopped at the end of lap nine, focused on keeping tyre life and remained out on the C4 yellow side-walled medium rubber until the lap 14.

 

This gave Leclerc the undercut, putting the Ferrari duo in the top two places: Sainz pitted at the end of the 16^th lap to ensure he maintained his lead over his rapidly-closing team-mate.

 

The first virtual safety car deployment shortly after Sainz’s stop, was for Sir Lewis Hamilton as his Mercedes F1 W15 entry suffered an engine issue, and it brought Leclerc closer to Ferrari team-mate Sainz and the Monegasque driver had a look at the restart, but the Spaniard kept him at arm’s length before restoring his gap.

 

Sainz increased his lead to 8.7 seconds before Leclerc stopped again on the 34^th tour as Norris started to close in on the Ferrari driver, but the leader remained on track until lap 41 to make his own stop for a second set of hards.

 

Leclerc cut the gap to his racing leading team-mate down to five seconds, but Sainz stabilised and increased it back up to half-a-second on the other following tours to create another buffer. Although he complained that his tyres “did not feel great” with three laps remaining, Sainz had enough left to close the lead out – helped by Mercedes’ Russell’s shunt as he was fighting Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso.

 

Norris was unable to continue his hunt on Leclerc, having lost two places after his initial stop; Leclerc and home-favourite Oscar Piastri both got in-front through the opening stint undercut, but McLaren opted to switch Norris and Piastri around to give the Briton a chance to chase for second.

 

But Leclerc posted a string of strong laps towards the end to ease the threat of Norris’ McLaren, so the latter finished third, as Piastri settled for fourth to delight his home crowd.

 

The other Red Bull RB20 entry of Sergio Perez finished a distant fifth in an off-colour race, where the Mexican lost a position at the start then dropped down the field again after his initial stop. This forced the Red Bull driver to make up ground with DRS assistance, although came up against a hard-battling Alonso in the second half of proceedings.

 

Alonso took the opportunity to pit under the first virtual safety car when Hamilton retired, which put him ahead of Perez: although the Mexican driver got past, he was unable to shake-off the hard-fighting Alonso from his heel before the final round of pit-stops.

 

The second Aston Martin AMR24 entry of Lance Stroll placed seventh, moving up a position thanks to Russell’s heavy crash, whilst RB’s Yuki Tsunoda finished a quiet eighth place.

 

MoneyGram Haas F1 Team’s Nico Hulkenberg score more points for the Kannapolis-Banbury outfit after successfully overcutting Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon during the second round of pit-stops, as Kevin Magnussen also dispatched the Thai-Briton driver to ensure he made the points when Russell retired.

 

Albon ended the race outside the points in 11^th place after taking over team-mate Logan Sargeant’s Mercedes-powered FW46 entry for the rest of the Australian Grand Prix weekend after his FP1 shunt, with RB’s Daniel Ricciardo taking 12^th at his home race.

 

Despite being hit with a five-second time penalty for crossing the pit-exit line too early, Alpine’s Pierre Gasly was 13^th in the classification.

 

Sauber’s Bottas and Zhou ended the Grand Prix in 14^th and 15^th as Alpine’s Ocon brought up the rear.

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2024 Japanese GP Preview – The Situation

 

 

For the first time in the event’s history, the Japanese Grand Prix takes place in April and hosts the fourth round of the 2024 FIA Formula 1 World Championship schedule this weekend.

 

Last time out in Melbourne, Carlos Sainz lead from team-mate Charles Leclerc in a Ferrari 1-2 finish after the Spaniard returned from appendix surgery and ended championship leader Max Verstappen’s unbeaten streak.

 

Verstappen won the previous nine Grands Prix but suffered his first retirement in two years due to a brake problem. However, many people believed the Dutchman would not have won the race, or not as easily, had he reached the chequered flag.

 

McLarens’ Lando Norris who scored a third-placed finish at Albert Park meant he became the driver with the most podiums (14) without a win in Formula 1 and the Woking based-outfit should be strong once again in Suzuka.

 

Norris and team-mate Oscar Piastri took a double podium at the Japanese Grand Prix six months ago as their car suits the fast-flowing nature of the Suzuka International Racing Course.

 

However, there’s a lot of head-scratching going on at Mercedes as correlation issues meant the F1 W15 E Performance racer is not extracting the performance they are seeing in the Brackley factory.

 

Sir Lewis Hamilton and George Russell both failed to finish at the Australian GP and will be looking to respond hard in Suzuka, whilst Yuki Tsunoda will be driving on home tarmac for his Visa Cash App Racing Bulls Formula 1 Team..

 

Verstappen returns to the “Land of the Rising Sun” sitting on top of the World Driver’s Championship with 51 points and a four-point advantage over closest rival Charles Leclerc who is second on 47 points while Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez is third and a further five points behind the Dutchman on 46 points.

 

Oracle Red Bull Racing returns to Japan on top of the Constructors Championship with 97 points and a four-point lead over nearest rivals Scuderia Ferrari who are second on 93 points while McLaren Formula 1 Team are a further 42 points behind the Milton Keynes based-outfit in third on 55 points.

 

Click here for the 2024 Formula 1 World Driver’s (Top 10) and Constructor’s Championship Standings

 

The Formula 1 MSC Cruises Japanese Grand Prix 2024 weekend begins Friday April 5 with Free Practice 1 and 2, followed by Free Practice 3 and Qualifying Saturday April 6 and the 53 lap Race Sunday April 7.