2024 Japanese Grand Prix - Practice & Qualifying Thread

[tifosi1993]

I was here .
I'm saying thos because we (and me mostly) where consider him a champion material. And now that supposedly he has the team-car on his likings, he doesn't deliver. He outpaced by Sainz .DONT care if it is 4-3 / 4-2 or whatever the score is between them. I expect to be 4-0 . The be hom who won in Australia and outpaced his teammate in almost every race. Do you see Ves loses more then 1 or 2 times in a year??? That's who I was expecting Lec to be but he disappoints me . And besides Ferrari I had become a Lec fan because I saw some creatness in him . Now.......

Sainz ain't Stroll/Perez/Bottas. People in the paddock rate him highly and there are plenty of reason for that, Sainz also beat Norris and people in the paddock also rate him highly.
Charles is leading every head-head battle against when both finished races. So your criticism of Charles is unfair.

Ferrari have all the information and they know who's better. That is why Sainz is gone after this season from Ferrari.

[tifosi1993]

LEC: "We need to improve in qualifying, it's as simple as that. The car seems to have good pace, but it's been a thing since the start of the season where we just struggle with our tyre warm up and can't maximise our performance in Q. I've tried several things throughout the session, some worked, some didn't, in the end I gave everything I had. Starting from P8 tomorrow, even if our race sims looked good, I'll be honest I don't think it's going to be easy for me."

Apart from Monaco and Mexico, I'd take a better race car over quali car every time.

[ntukza]

Disappointing.

[ntukza]

Apart from Monaco and Mexico, I'd take a better race car over quali car every time.

And come off second best every time, because you're competing with cars that are good in both.

[Aviamata]

And come off second best every time, because you're competing with cars that are good in both.

RB20 is still mile ahead

[Kyss4k]

I don't know, but except few races last year, Charles does not look like his "old" self. Something is wrong with him. He destroyed Vettel, in 2022 destroyed Carlos and then... he started to struggle to beat Sainz, makes mistakes... In 2022 if Sainz was .485s off pole, Charles would be in the front row. And Charles is my favourite driver btw.

[PURE PASSION]

I don't know, but except few races last year, Charles does not look like his "old" self. Something is wrong with him. He destroyed Vettel, in 2022 destroyed Carlos and then... he started to struggle to beat Sainz, makes mistakes... In 2022 if Sainz was .485s off pole, Charles would be in the front row. And Charles is my favourite driver btw.

THIS !!!!!

[nani_s23]

I don't know, but except few races last year, Charles does not look like his "old" self. Something is wrong with him. He destroyed Vettel, in 2022 destroyed Carlos and then... he started to struggle to beat Sainz, makes mistakes... In 2022 if Sainz was .485s off pole, Charles would be in the front row. And Charles is my favourite driver btw.

In 2023 too he started on the slower side, but after upgrades 2nd half he excelled as Sainz was no match to him. Basically SF-23 lacked front end.
SF-24 does have some weakness on bringing the tyres to the right temp. He struggling with that. I am sure, in couple of races he will get on top of that & you will see.

[PURE PASSION]

Me personally have this frustration on Lec ,because I rate him right on top. Right therewith Ves - Ham Alo. And for this reason it's hard to accept situations like today. He must always be the best to prove his value!!!!

[Cavallino]

if it rains tomorrow, none of this may matter


if it doesn't it's damage control. we need upgrades, and we will have other tracks that suit out car much more

[Silent Bob]

if it rains tomorrow, none of this may matter if it doesn't it's damage control. we need upgrades, and we will have other tracks that suit out car much more

You're right. Ferrari wait too long to bring in updates. The early races are where lots of points can be won. Constant upgrades should be coming at almost every track.

I'm not too worried about Leclerc. He'll turn it around. As the car evolves he'll find his form again. He should be pretty strong in the race tomorrow.

[DJTaurus]

I don’t know what to believe. But sainz again being faster:
https://i.postimg.cc/FsB8ZHmh/IMG-2179.jpg

[Cavallino]

I don’t know what to believe. But sainz again being faster:
https://i.postimg.cc/FsB8ZHmh/IMG-2179.jpg

well, i can tell you not to believe that idiot

[Cavallino]

You're right. Ferrari wait too long to bring in updates. The early races are where lots of points can be won. Constant upgrades should be coming at almost every track.

I'm not too worried about Leclerc. He'll turn it around. As the car evolves he'll find his form again. He should be pretty strong in the race tomorrow.

yeah 7th race of the season, even in a 24 race season is too long. even if it is the traditional race first european race and the traditional first race for upgrades.

it would truly have to be a b spec to be worth it. it would have to be worth half a second.

[Aviamata]

yeah 7th race of the season, even in a 24 race season is too long. even if it is the traditional race first european race and the traditional first race for upgrades.

it would truly have to be a b spec to be worth it. it would have to be worth half a second.

It should be , at the beginning of the season they said upgrade are coming in this race at Japan but then the car is better than expected and they move it to Imola . I expect SF-24 Imola will be a completely different car to SF-24 launch

[Msdiabl0]

I don’t know what to believe. But sainz again being faster:
https://i.postimg.cc/FsB8ZHmh/IMG-2179.jpg

It's because of these things Ferrari hasn't been able to support a driver outright. In 2019 leclerc performance was better than vettel and binotto like and idiot kept saying Seb is our number one driver putting more pressure. Then 2020 completely backed leclerc from thereon I expected a max type support for Charles but it wasn't to be. However I do also agree since 2022 Charles hasn't been the same.. he's got great one lap speed but mentally he isn't in the right place. No matter how well Sainz must have performed against his teammates if you are going to bank on a driver to win WDC it's Charles 10/10 but Sainz is definitely not making it easy for him especially this year so far.

[tifosi1993]

I don’t know what to believe. But sainz again being faster:
https://i.postimg.cc/FsB8ZHmh/IMG-2179.jpg

And Ricciardo is better than Verstappen!

[FerrariF60]

So the million dollar question is, HOW is ferrari gonna fix this tire issue? Is it something that can be done quick? Will the BIG upgrade coming in Imola take care of this? Or we’ll have to wait till 2025 now

[FerrariF60]

if it rains tomorrow, none of this may matter


if it doesn't it's damage control. we need upgrades, and we will have other tracks that suit out car much more

It won’t rain tomorrow

[Cavallino]

So the million dollar question is, HOW is ferrari gonna fix this tire issue? Is it something that can be done quick? Will the BIG upgrade coming in Imola take care of this? Or we’ll have to wait till 2025 now

the race is more important, qualifying doesn't matter, especially with DRS, and everyone knows that. We just need more outright pace.

[Cavallino]

the race is more important, qualifying doesn't matter, especially with DRS, and everyone knows that. We just need more outright pace.

whether or not that should be the case is another story, but that's just modern F1

[FerrariF60]

the race is more important, qualifying doesn't matter, especially with DRS, and everyone knows that. We just need more outright pace.

I know race pace is more important as last year we lacked big time in that dept. but even if we have better race pace this year, qualifying 4th or worse it’s gonna be hard to win a race. Unless that race pace is HALF a second a lap better than the rest, in which case we are NOT that much better in race pace compR3d to the rest, sadly

So we need both, qualify better AND have good race pace…..kind of like red bull, only then we’ll challenge for wins…..PERIOD

[PURE PASSION]

Does anyone has the race stints from FP3 ??

[ferrari1.8t]

So the million dollar question is, HOW is ferrari gonna fix this tire issue? Is it something that can be done quick? Will the BIG upgrade coming in Imola take care of this? Or we’ll have to wait till 2025 now

Our only chance has always been 2026, especially after Toto-39, I mean TD-39. We may get closer, and win another race here and there. But don’t expect anything exceptional to happen. Every rule cycle one team comes out ontop and the rest spend years trying to catch them. Ferrari-Schumacher, RedBull-Vettel, Mercedes-Hamilton, and now RedBull-Verstappen again. We got unlucky with rules changing to stop Schumacher’s dominance. Got unlucky again with rules to keep Hamilton’s dominance. And unlucky again with TD39 and an inept Team Principal who not only didn’t put up a fight, but backed the slower driver and sabotaged the quicker one any chance he got. Now we get to look forward to a year of Netflix fans battling on who the better driver is, followed by a washed up social justice champion next year. Oh joy.

[Schaun]

Looking at the weather, chance of rain goes from 10% to 30% in an hour. It would be interesting to see how it plays out.

[Aviamata]

It's sunny currently

[paolo lalli]

Looking at the weather, chance of rain goes from 10% to 30% in an hour. It would be interesting to see how it plays out.

Tyres will be the issue the quicker they can get them to operate at temp the sooner the race pace will kick in.Important for ferrari not to drop away.A fast clean start stay with the pack and hopefully it starts to work out.

[paolo lalli]

Tyres will be the issue the quicker they can get them to operate at temp the sooner the race pace will kick in.Important for ferrari not to drop away.A fast clean start stay with the pack and hopefully it starts to work out.

The result is as good as it can be and in this order.Once ferrari warm up the race pace is excellent,the gap is closing but ever so slowly.