There was widespread criticism following the Japanese Grand Prix that the race was boring to watch, due to the lack of overtaking.
Although Max Verstappen, Lando Norris, and Oscar Piastri were separated by 2.1 seconds at the line, there was only one exchange of position within the top ten places.
Lewis Hamilton’s overtake on Isack Hadjar six laps into the race was the only position change, even though both McLaren drivers piled the pressure on Verstappen.
Fans were in agreement with Oscar Piastri’s assessment post-race, with some taking to social media to explain how Suzuka has lost its magic over the years.
Martin Brundle responded to Jeremy Clarkson’s criticism of the race, who claimed that F1 should look at visiting less tracks that are hard to overtake on.
Nico Hulkenberg blamed the return of dirty air on the lack of overtaking, which is what prevented Norris from getting close to Verstappen for an overtake. Fred Vassuer warned that F1 could end it being a ‘qualifying world championship’ for 2025 with all the races won on Saturdays.
Carlos Sainz has offered a solution, having agreed with Lewis Hamilton’s histroical comments made about the tyres when speaking in the Bahrain GP drivers’ press conference.
Carlos Sainz offers solution to F1 to fix the ‘mess’ it faces with Pirelli tyres
Hamilton has previously been critical of Pirelli’s approach to what it generates with the tyres, having told media in 2021 that drivers had been “talking for years and years” about making tyres that have higher degridiation to produce a performance offset [via RaceFans].
Sainz believes this was the main problem in the race at Suzuka and has been thrown up by Pirelli’s attempts to fix another solution that teams and drivers were complaining about.
“We’ve always asked Pirelli to do the tyres so they are less sensitive to overheating. This year we can push more in the races. Now we are back to one-stop races and are complaining there is not enough degradation,” said Sainz.
“I think F1 needs to get all together to kind of follow up with the same objective. It’s a bit of a mess if you ask me. What creates overtaken in my opinion, is to have a delta to the car in front. If you are only one-tenth quicker in F1, you’re never going to pass. You need to be five or six-tenths quicker than the car in front around Suzuka to overtake. And the only way to generate that in Suzuka is with degradation.”
“But if you go for the three compounds in a track like Suzuka, for example, you’ll have flat-out racing with the three compounds and the pit stop laps would be the same and I think you will not get a tyre delta or an overtaking delta. It’s more trying to make sure the races are always between a one and a two-stop, because like that, you will have teams trying to do one stops with high degradation, and other teams running faster on a two stop.”
F1 fans hate what has happened with Pirelli tyres
Taking to social media website X (formerly Twitter), some F1 fans have voiced their displeasure over the situation with Pirelli.
One fan believes lack of significant weight reduction for the 2026 cars will still be a problem for teams, and believes it will not lead to “multi-stop races & tactics.” Another fan commented: “Tyres are a huge problem for sure.”
Another fan agrees with Sainz: “F1 needs lighter, slimmer cars and better tyres,” while also pointing out the need for drivers to be able to follow more closely.
“Hamilton has been saying this for years,” commented one fan in response to the Sainz comments, and believes more manufacturers should get involved.
This fan believes Pirelli should be more aggressive with its tyre choices: “The last few races we could’ve had BETTER races if Pirelli wasn’t a coward,” while another fan pointed out “Drivers are now afraid their tyres might fall apart in sector 3 of Q3.”
Leave feedback about this