Japanese GP Thursday news blog
By: Matt Beer
Summary
And we'll leave you with this! There's a lot of love for Toto Wolff in Japan too but, as his namesake band once proffered, love isn't always on time. We'll see you tomorrow for free practice - weather permitting, of course!
If the weather is as bad as we expect this weekend, what's the betting that Murray "should imagine that the conditions in the cockpit are totally unimaginable"?
Ooh, ooh, we know this one! It's a 1994 Jordan, isn't it? No? This fan couldn't decide on a team, so just went for a combination of them all. But who's the driver?
Sky F1's Martin Brundle is a popular man, no doubt, and he's got his fans out in full force in Japan. Given he's not raced in F1 for over 23 years, he's still left an indelible mark on his fanclub.
With its array of fast corners and preference for grass and gravel over run-off, Suzuka is popular among the drivers.
"You have this narrow tarmac area," explains Kvyat, "and nothing should make you go over that, and you need to find the perfect limit for that."
"I've got a lucky charm from an elementary school kid", he explains. "She says I need to write her back, I promise to do that!"
He's also received a ton of drawings, a puppet of himself and a "DRS hat" with a rain-light on the back. With the reported weather, he may very well need it...
Renault is another team with new aero parts in Suzuka, having brought a new front wing. At the outboard section, the top element now has a larger-camber flap to increase the amount of downforce produced. This has a small Gurney flap added to the trailing edge to boost that.
Lando Norris track-walks with ex-flatmate and Japanese F3 champion Sacha Fenestraz, who presumably has some pearls of wisdom to offer...
Another spot from Giorgio Piola, an interesting comparison between Red Bull S-ducts for this weekend. Alex Albon has the old design (left), while Verstappen has the new, smaller duct (right). The S-duct is used to relocate any high-pressure air to the top of the chassis, easing the transition from the nose. Red Bull appears to have found a way to shrink it to minimise any drag impact it produces overall, while maintaining the same effect.
But with the championship over for Vettel, his battle is to overhaul Leclerc in the drivers' championship - Leclerc is third with 215 points, with Vettel on 194.
"Generally I like coming here," Vettel croons. "I love Japan, I love the track, so there's plenty of things to look forward to, and despite the weather forecast and the questions I have to face now, I'm still looking forward."
What do you mean, 'despite the questions'?! I thought all drivers loved media questions...
Benefitting from Leclerc's tow, Vettel squeaked into the lead at the start of the race - losing it after the pitstop shuffle, after which his MGU-K endured a failure.
Vettel explains that "it's pretty clear" and adds the old racing driver maxim, "we look forward".
Although he confesses "I don't think I would race it myself", he appeared to have fun before handing it over to ex-F1 driver Takuma Sato:
Kimi Raikkonen is the only driver on the grid who was in F1 during the 2004 cancellations, when qualifying was held on the Sunday morning.
"Hopefully tomorrow is okay, and then we see," Raikkonen explained typically. "It's out of anybody's hands and we'll see what happens with the conditions.
"We've had it somewhere else also, Sunday morning qualifying. It's better than nothing. We need to run the qualifying."
Having done Sunday qualifying before, Raikkonen wasn't too worried - if anything, he welcomed the thought - "otherwise the Sundays are a bit of waiting."
That all said, Raikkonen only managed 12th on the grid back in 2004 - but he won a year later after THAT pass on Giancarlo Fisichella...
But the rather lacklustre form of the Red Bull-Hondas since the Austria/Germany wins means things aren't as rosy for that team heading to Japan as they might've been.
And Max Verstappen's father Jos wading in recently to suggest Red Bull "has to change things to close the gap, otherwise next season will be a lost year as well" hasn't helped.
That meant Max was quizzed yet again about his long-term future today and how much patience he had with Red Bull.
He batted it off bluntly, saying he was "not worried about that" right now and just wants to win in F1.
But he did elaborate a little bit on his obvious displeasure at his muted fourth place in the last race at Sochi, saying "it would have been wrong to be happy to the camera" that afternoon - while leaving it open as to whether he meant that because it had been a "boring" race or because he was quietly internally seething over the gap to the front.
Your first glimpse of Super Formula's Naoki Yamamoto in Toro Rosso gear, as he replaces Pierre Gasly for FP1. Yamamoto is the reigning Super Formula champion, and leads the current standings with one race remaining.
Two fans show off their customised gremlins - we're not sure whose face that is sellotaped to the one in Mercedes gear...
Leclerc explained today that since then both he and Vettel had had individual meetings with team boss Mattia Binotto about what happened and "everything is clear now".
Does Vettel feel that too? He's talking to the media shortly, so we'll find out then...
He described it as a "misunderstanding" that came down to the two drivers not having the same view of the situation.
In 2004, Typhoon Ma-On caused similar cancellations, but running all went ahead on Sunday morning. Without a bundle of junior categories to cram in this weekend, there's more flexibility in the F1 schedule.
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