- 🏆 Kimi Antonelli — Won the Japanese Grand Prix after a comeback from P6 to lead following a Safety Car; became first 🇮🇹 driver since 1953 (Alberto Ascari) to win two Grands Prix in a row; first teenager to lead the Drivers’ Championship. #Antonelli
- 🥈 Oscar Piastri — Finished P2 (McLaren’s first podium of 2026); started weekend strongly with P3 in qualifying and led at the race start before losing track position due to the Safety Car. #Piastri
- 🥉 Charles Leclerc — Finished P3, his first Suzuka podium since 2022 and his second podium in three races; sits P3 in the Drivers’ Championship, eight points ahead of Lewis Hamilton. #Leclerc
- 🥐 Pierre Gasly — Finished P7 after Alpine fixed understeer; qualified P7 and held position through the race, marking a 100% scoring record after three races for the first time in his career. #Gasly
- ✅ Liam Lawson — Scored P9 (points) despite front wing damage in qualifying; stronger on hard tyres and benefited from Safety Car. #Lawson
- 😭 George Russell — Qualified with issues, had a poor start, pitted the lap before the Safety Car which cost positions; finished P4 after early-race problems and unreliability that have hampered his title campaign. #Russell
- ⚠️ Ollie Bearman — Eliminated in Q1 and suffered a 50G crash at 308 km/h in the Grand Prix; cleared medically after the incident. #Bearman
- 🔻 Red Bull — Both cars scored only 4 points combined; Max Verstappen finished P8 (no podium in first three races for first time since 2018); Isack Hadjar finished P12, struggled with deployment. #RedBull
- 🔻 Williams — Overweight car struggled on Suzuka’s high-speed sweeping turns; Carlos Sainz reached Q2 but the race pace was insufficient for points; Alex Albon ran a test programme late in the race. #Williams
- 🔻 Audi — Both cars started for the first time this season but had poor starts; Nico Hülkenberg recovered from 19th to P11 (near points), Gabriel Bortoleto gained places but finished outside the points. #Audi
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I had to shakeup my team. We are in last.
Wait for the forced "spring break" if they tweak the rules act on it
I know they are off for a bit now due to race cancellations but what rules changes are they considering?
The power unit ratio of electrical usage, right now is 50/50 so cars are almost stopping in race to recharge batteries, caused the collision of Oliver i think they'll do something about it, in that case Mercedes clear advantage may take a hit
Per The Athletic
Ollie Bearman’s 50G crash during the 2026 Japanese Grand Prix seemed inevitable to the Formula 1 drivers.
They’d previously warned that a big wreck would likely feature in the 2026 campaign, given the nature of the new car design technical regulations introduced this year.
“We’d spoken about that being a possibility since these cars were conceptualized,” McLaren’s Oscar Piastri said during the postrace news conference, after he finished second in the contest won by Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli.
“It’s what we’re stuck with, with the power units. There’s no easy way of getting around it.”
The drivers warned this could happen. Now it’s a matter of what action to take to help them.