Following on from his fourth consecutive Suzuka pole, Max Verstappen additionally made it 4 straight Japanese Grand Prix wins in a row. F1Technical’s senior author Balazs Szabo delivers his technique evaluation after Spherical 3 of the 2025 F1 season.
It was a triumphant weekend for the four-time world champion, who has been completely dominant on Saturday and once more on Sunday at this monitor over all 4 years with the present era of automobiles.
The Hasselt-born driver took his sixty fourth profession win, Crimson Bull secured its eighth triumph in Japan, the 123rd general for the Christian Horner-led group.
Regardless of the slight disappointment for failing to win the Japanese Grand Prix, McLaren may have a good time a double podium with Lando Norris second and Oscar Piastri third, with the English group’s podium complete on this race now as much as 29.
Elsewhere, Lewis Hamilton’s alternative, Andrea Kimi Antonelli set two new information at Suzuka when he took the chequered flag in sixth place. He knocked Max Verstappen off the highest of the tables for the youngest driver to ever lead a Grand Prix and to set the race quickest lap.
Onerous compounds, single-stop technique
After two race weekends with softer compounds, Pirelli introduced the three hardest compounds of its tyre vary to Suzuka. It meant that the C1, the toughest compound of the 2025 vary, made its season debut at Suzuka, joined as traditional by the C2 and the C3. That was not stunning contemplating the structure of the Suzuka circuit which is likely one of the hardest tracks on the calendar relating to tyres.
As for the technique, a lot of the drivers elected to begin the race on the mediums which gave an affordable stage of grip off the road, however it additionally enabled drivers to increase their first stint.
In truth, 15 drivers, all on the highest eight rows, lined up on the beginning grid having chosen the the yellow-banded tyre for the opening stint. The one exception was Ferrari’s seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton who opted for the Onerous. On the again two rows, the locations have been break up between Onerous and Comfortable: Esteban Ocon and Gabriel Bortoleto selected the C1 whereas Lance Stroll and Jack Doohan the C3.
Virtually your complete subject made simply the one cease, the quickest strategic possibility in accordance with evaluation of Friday’s information. The Onerous compound was the close to common alternative for the second stint, though Sainz and Lawson ran the race with out utilizing the toughest tyres, going for a Medium-Comfortable technique as a substitute. Stroll was the one driver to run all three compounds.
The longest stint of all got here courtesy of Doohan who ran a set of Hards for 38 laps, whereas Sainz and Lawson went all the best way to lap 33 on the Medium earlier than pitting.
Requested to replicate on the 53-lap race from a tyre’s perspective, Pirelli’s motorsport director Mario Isola claimed that the Milan-based firm was barely shocked that there was “just about no drop in lap time efficiency” on a monitor the place thermal degradation normally play an vital function.
“When the highest six on the grid take the chequered flag in the exact same order, it’s straightforward to characterise the race as boring. Whereas I wouldn’t go as far as to say we witnessed essentially the most thrilling present within the sport’s historical past, there was nonetheless some shut racing. You solely have to have a look at the highest three, separated by simply 44 thousandths in qualifying after which ending inside two seconds of one another within the race.
“After a reasonably cautious first half, particularly by the primary sector, essentially the most demanding from a tyre perspective, within the second half, all of the drivers pushed all the best way to the top.
Highlighting the constant efficiency of Pirelli tyres, Isola famous that “14 of the 20 drivers set their quickest lap within the remaining 5 laps. It’s price noting that Antonelli’s time of 1’30”965 was 2”741 faster than final 12 months’s quickest race lap, set by Verstappen, which reveals simply how a lot the efficiency has improved in comparison with 2024.
“On a monitor the place thermal degradation has historically performed a serious function, immediately we noticed just about no drop in lap time efficiency with the Onerous and Medium compounds, even over lengthy stints. That was all the way down to the low ambient and monitor temperatures, really the bottom recorded at Suzuka since 2011.
“The opposite contributory issue is the enhancements dropped at the 2025 tyre vary, particularly geared toward lowering any such put on. One other of our technical targets was to restrict graining and immediately, even with these low temperatures, we noticed virtually no indicators of this problem throughout the sphere,” concluded Isola.
