2025 Japanese GP Preview | Everything You Need To Know

After a week away, Formula 1 returns as the ten sides head to the ever-popular Japanese GP where there are plenty of stories already developing.

FP1 Results:

P1) Norris - 1:28.549

P2) Russell +0.163

P3) Leclerc +0.416

P4) Hamilton +0.502

P5) Verstappen +0.516

P6) Tsunoda +0.623

P7) Alonso +0.673

P8) Hadjar +0.676

P9) Antonelli +0.735

P10) Sainz +0.784

FP2 Results:

P1) Piastri - 1:28.114

P2) Norris +0.049

P3) Hadjar +0.404

P4) Hamilton +0.430

P5) Lawson +0.445

P6) Russell +0.453

P7) Leclerc +0.472

P8) Verstappen +0.556

P9) Gasly +0.643

P10) Sainz +0.718

UK TIMES

FP1: Friday 03:30 - 04:30

FP2: Friday 07:00 - 08:00

FP3: Saturday 03:30 - 04:30

Qualifying: Saturday 07:00 - 08:00

Race: Sunday 06:00

Suzuka Circuit

Track Length: 5.807km

Lap record: 1m 30.983s, Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 2019

Laps: 53

Suzuka is one of the driver's favourite circuits of the year but certainly not because it's easy. It's high speed, tough on the tyres and features the iconic 'S' curves. It is worth noting a large part of the track has been resurfaced, from the end of sector 3, to the start of sector 1.

In terms of strategy, Pirelli is bringing their hardest compounds to Suzuka with the C1 making its season debut.

Last year the two-stop was the most popular strategy deployed by the teams, with the C1 and C2 used for the majority of the race as the C3 deteriorated quickly.

Pirelli speaking ahead of the weekend said: “It's worth noting that, starting on the medium and making only one change to hard, Charles Leclerc managed to make up four places from his grid position, to finish eighth.

“This year with what is on paper a big performance differential between the compounds, a one-stop could prove more complicated, although one must wait and see what influence the newly surfaced part of the track might have, as well as what the temperatures will be this weekend.”

There are also a couple of special liveries to watch out for this weekend with both Haas and Red Bull bringing unique versions of their cars.

The Red Bull is a nod to Honda with the race being the last Japanese race during the collaboration between the two.

Haas on the other hand have covered their car in pink to celebrate Japan's cherry blossom season.

But let's get into the talking points going into the weekend.

The big story coming into the weekend is of course home hero Yuki Tsunoda who makes his Red Bull debut. He spoke to the media ahead of the race:

"I have confidence. I'm not saying I have the confidence that I can perform straight away like Max, but I have confidence that I can do something different, hopefully, compared to the other drivers that have been in the car."

Yuki was also asked about the difficulty of the RB21 and whether he had noticed any of the problems in the simulator:

"In the simulator, I'm sure it's not fully correlating in terms of trickiness of the car, it didn't feel crazy tricky, but at the same time, I can feel why the drivers were mentioning instability or driver confidence things.

"I tried different setups, to make it a little bit better. Those two sim days were pretty productive, and at least I know what direction I want to start with."

There has been a lot of praise for Yuki coming into the weekend as well. Former Red Bull driver Sergio Perez said: "Yuki has the talent, he has the speed and more than that, you need the mentality to cope with it.

"I think he has the right mentality and the right attitude to cope."

Former teammate Pierre Gasly, who Yuki said has given him tips on the 2nd Red Bull seat, also had positive words to say about Yuki:

"I think he always had the raw speed. He was a little bit too hectic behind the wheel at times, on the radio and I think in that sense, he's matured enough in minimising the mistakes."

Max Verstappen however, has seemingly not been too impressed about the move and believes Red Bull may be looking at the wrong issue: "My reaction was shared with the team, but in general. Not only the swap but about everything. We discussed that already during the last race weekend and back at the factory.

"I think our main issue is that our car is not where we want it to be. Everyone knows that within the team as well and that's what I focus on, to be honest."

Last year, Max Verstappen headed a dominant 1-2 for Red Bull and the track characteristics on paper appear to play into the Red Bull's underlying strengths.

It should be Max's best chance of the season to win so far, whilst Yuki who of course knows the track well, should be given the best chance to succeed on his debut.

But of course with Yuki making his Red Bull debut, this weekend also sees the return of Liam Lawson to VCARB.

Liam spoke about the situation: "The discussions we were having weren't really leaning in this direction, so it was definitely not something that I expected.

"Obviously I would have loved more time.

"We had a rocky testing, we had a rocky first weekend in Melbourne with practice, and then China was obviously a sprint.

"But obviously, it's not my decision, so I'm here to make the most of this one."

Oscar Piastri spoke in support of Liam as he said: "I think two races is not long to figure things out. I've raced against Liam a lot in the junior categories and I think these two races were not representative of what he’s capable of."

Looking at McLaren, they'll be looking to continue their early season dominance, however coming into the weekend, Lando Norris made some bold comments when asked about the gap over Red Bull and Ferrari.

“People love to say there's a big gap but it's because we literally are the only team that has two good drivers at the minute. That's the big difference."

Lando's comments raise the question of whether or not Ferrari's lineup is as perfect as it appeared to be at the start of the season.

Last time out in China potentially highlighted an issue. It was confirmed that Lewis was given priority by the team, however at the expense of Charles who struggled all weekend up until the race. This is in contrast to McLaren who were comfortably 1-2 and didn't have any need to give priority to either driver.

Speaking of Ferrari, the pressure is already building on the team to deliver after a disappointing start to the season. The side suffered a double DSQ however this was only after a P5/6 finish showing the pace to compete at the top is still lacking.

The other stories to look out for this weekend are: