“It was a bit of a sweaty one” say Leclerc as Ferrari battle with Mercedes and McLaren heats up in Japan

The weekend started off less than ideal for the Scuderia, as Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton ended both Friday practice sessions in P5 and P6, respectively. FP3 showed some improvement, with Leclerc making it into the top three, and both cars looked rapid in early sessions of Qualifying. They were, however, ultimately outmatched by Oscar Piastri, who took P3. Leclerc lined up in P4, with Lando Norris just 0.004 seconds behind in P5, while Hamilton took P6. Meanwhile Mercedes continued their domination, topping the charts in all four sessions, with Kimi Antonelli taking pole, and George Russell lining up beside him.

But things got even more precarious during the race itself. Although both the Ferraris and Norris all had excellent starts to get in front of the Mercedes duo, Piastri had the biggest gain, launching himself ahead of the field for the lead. He held on to that advantage for the first 19 laps while Russell and Antonelli climbed back to P2 and P3, respectively, leaving Ferrari out of podium positions. And Piastri would have likely retained the lead for the remainder of the race, had it not been for a critically timed safety car that opened the door for Antonelli to take the lead.

After several more position swaps, the race ended with Antonelli taking his second career win, Piastri in P2 and Leclerc on the final spot of the podium after an intense battle with a struggling Russell. Hamilton had a less fortunate weekend, ultimately finishing in P6 as Norris overtook him for fifth position in the final laps of the race. 

During trackside interviews with the top three, Leclerc commented, “It was a bit of a sweaty one, this one. Obviously with the safety car we got a little bit unlucky, so from that moment onwards, I knew I was a little bit on the back foot, especially compared to Kimi and Lewis.”

“But then I was like, okay lets keep pushing, lets try to keep those tires and bring them to the end. And actually it wasn’t as much of a disadvantage as I thought. The tires were actually pretty good. The few laps that I had done wasn’t so bad, it’s just that we lost a few positions.

“It was quite a fun race, but just not quite enough to get Oscar.”

Indeed, Piastri showed incredible pace throughout the grand prix. This all comes off the tail of two difficult race weekends for McLaren in Australia and China that have put them on a significant back foot early in the season. Piastri’s reconnaissance lap crash in Australia and electrical problems with both cars in China meant that McLaren went into Japan with a 49-point gap to Ferrari and an even more massive 80-point gap to Mercedes.

But with both cars looking quite pacy in Japan, if McLaren can continue improving their reliability, they could become a consistent thorn in Ferrari’s side sooner rather than later. The team has become known for their ability to develop and adapt quickly, going from the back of the grid to the very top in two years during the last set of regulations. This time they are starting much closer to the front, and with the incredibly powerful Mercedes engine in their cars, the threat is starting to feel imminent. 

That said, Ferrari is getting a better understanding of where they stand to gain some performance from their own design, as both drivers indicated earlier in the weekend.

“We are starting to have quite a clear picture on what are the characteristics of the car that we need to improve in order to get better,” said Leclerc during Thursday’s Driver Press Conferences. “But I think chassis-wise it is quite a strong car actually, and that’s probably our strength so far. Power unit is where we are lacking compared to Mercedes at the moment.”

Hamilton, too, commented on where he thought the car could use improvement after Friday’s practice sessions, saying, “The car doesn’t feel bad overall, but at the moment we’re just lacking a bit of pace and the balance is not quite where we want it to be.”

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Cover image via Ferrari Media Centre.

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