The Japanese Grand Prix didn’t produce an action-packed epic but it did show just how crucial being a great and fast driver can reward on track.
Max Verstappen took an unlikely victory for Red Bull following a very difficult start to the weekend, in which he was half a second off Oscar Piastri’s McLaren in practice.
Things progressed throughout the weekend, but it was Verstappen’s blistering lap on Saturday which sealed him pole and ultimately won him the race. McLaren was too conservative with strategy, but Lando Norris and Piastri settled for second and third.
Elsewhere Isack Hadjar put in an impressive performance in the Racing Bulls, while Oliver Bearman finished in the points for a second race in a row.
Suzuka always brings out the best drivers due to the technical and unforgiving nature of the circuit, but there was one driver whose display let himself and his team down.
Aston Martin must consider replacing Lance Stroll after abysmal Japanese GP
Lance Stroll’s Japanese GP was effectively sealed in qualifying when he made a mistake exiting the T6 chicane, going off track and setting the slowest time.
Some of this can be mitigated by the challenging wind conditions that faced drivers throughout the session, even catching out Piastri and George Russell.
Starting from P20, Aston Martin decided to put Stroll on the alternate strategy on the Soft tyre. Jack Doohan followed suit and the pair were able to make early progress by passing Gabriel Bortoleto off the line.
From there Stroll failed to make any progress, being the first driver to pit after 10 laps on the Soft and then later pitting again for a set of Medium tyres to finish the race.
Suzuka is a high degradation circuit but it wasn’t as high as expected during the race, which means Stroll was pushing his tyres too much and gaining zero performance. He finished the race in last place having been the only driver not on the lead lap, 21 seconds behind Bortoleto.
By contrast, Doohan who was only in his fourth F1 race, progressed up to P15. Discussing what happened after his race in Aston Martin’s post-race press release, Stroll offered no mitigating circumstances as to why he was so far off the pace: “Ultimately there wasn’t much we could do today – we tried to make up some positions at the start, but it wasn’t possible.”
It was simply not good enough from the Canadian and should make Aston Martin start to consider other options if they want to challenge for titles beyond 2026.
Who could replace Lance Stroll at Aston Martin?
A lot of work is going into Aston Martin’s assault on the 2026 regulations, having brought in legendary F1 designer Adrian Newey and ex-Mercedes man Andy Cowell, who oversaw their domination as an engine manufacturer between 2014 and 2021, as team principal.
Stroll has simply shown that he is no longer a viable option, having made the same mistakes as he did with the tyres during his days at Williams and finishing behind Bortoleto, Liam Lawson and Doohan whose combined experience is 22 races.
Even though he is the son of team owner Lawrence Stroll, the Canadian has already shown that he is costing the team millions in potential prize money earnings by not matching Fernando Alonso.
There are a few F1 drivers out of contract for 2025 and one of them is Yuki Tsunoda, who pending the outcome of Red Bull’s assessment, could find himself without a seat.
This is because Honda primarily pays for his seat and they will be breaking up with Red Bull, as they switch to their own power units for 2026. Tsunoda is already within three-tenths of Verstappen over a lap and had it not been for a difficult qualifying, he would have been mixing it up with the top five.
It makes sense given Aston Martin is switching to Honda power for 2026, although it does depend on whether Red Bull decides to renew.
Even though Stroll sits 10th in the Drivers’ Championship ahead of Fernando Alonso, who has yet to score a point, his form in the Japanese GP was clearly a sign that a change should be on the horizon at Aston Martin if they want to be considered a serious threat from 2026.
