Kimi puts pressure on George + McLaren fight back - 2026 Japanese GP Review

23:11It must be, I ran the track on Friday night and that was good enough for me. So in a Formula One car.

23:17Lawrence Barretto:I ran the track as well on Saturday night in the daylight for the first time. I've been coming here for 10 years and it is a phenomenal venue. The undulation here is something I don't think you really appreciate on television. Yeah, of course, you can see it's going up and down, but it's a stunning track. And yeah, to get your first opportunity around here in a 2026 car must have been incredible for Jack. Yeah. Now, look, we were talking about the midfield fight. Jack was just giving us his thoughts on on Gasly driving out of his skin. Yeah, I mean, honestly, through testing, I thought Alpine were going to be best of the rest.

23:50Lawrence Barretto:I thought they had a car that was capable not only of just fronting the midfield, but chasing after, at the time, what we thought was a big four. Red Bull have dropped down into the midfield. And then they had a pretty awful first race by their own metric, Australia. But I think the job that Pierre has done in galvanising the team, finding a good set-up direction very early in the weekend, than building through practice and into qualifying and into the race and making no mistakes. It's exactly why Alpine spent so much money to keep him at the team. It's his third contract I think he did with the team.

24:26Lawrence Barretto:The job that he's doing to take points at this point in the season, which will be crucial come the end of the year, Alpine made a big gamble when they decided to turn off resources on the 2025 car for this year, and they had to deliver, really. It was super important, and Pierre getting two successes of P7s is delivering on that. And I think actually they are the team for the first time in a long time that I see are in a really good position to start catching the front runners. And it's been a long time, Tom, hasn't it? Since we've talked about, but they are doing such a good job. The Mercedes power unit seems to be working well for them at least.

25:03Lawrence Barretto:And the way that they are talking to each other, the chassis and the power unit. And I think the fact that Franco, I think has stepped up this year and Pierre is still gapping him quite impressively is a stunning achievement. That car has been struggling with understeering the high speed and yet they managed to dial it out and Pierre has found a way to take this car around this demanding circuit. And to add to all of that, he held off Max Verstappen towards the end, which is a no-mean feat whether or not that Red Bull is a difficult car to drive. That is going to do wonders for his confidence.

25:41Lawrence Barretto:and I think it will do wonders for the team. I was chatting to Steve Nielsen on Friday night, managing director there, and he was talking about the understeer you've just referred to and how it really kills you around this racetrack. So that race team, that engineering team is obviously doing a cracking job because he said it's really hard to dial it out around here when you've got so much understeer, which they had. So that kind of will build confidence for every track, right? Oh, absolutely. I think because that was the one weakness, I guess, of the car that they identified coming out of Bahrain testing so if they have found something in the understanding of how to dial that out here and here it will really hurt them then yeah I agree to them that I think going forward it bodes really well but it also bodes well for like the overall direction of the car and the development pathways because they don't have to make any shock decisions or shock moves in a different direction they've kind of already in range three dialled something out that was so significant that was holding them back and we saw today it was evident that they've made that step forward and now they are probably clearly the fourth best team in Formula One which is pretty impressive and they've got people joining them so they're starting to sort of rebuild it's gone from being a team that's had real problems and now it's a desirable team people want to join it and you build momentum don't you as a racing team look What about Max Verstappen?

27:04We touched on him there. Gasly comes home, P7. Verstappen just behind him. It's been a pretty wild weekend for Max, hasn't it? Right from Thursday, which, you know, it was well publicised about him kicking a British journalist out of his press briefing for something that happened at the end of last season. He then gets out-qualified. You know, OK, on paper for the second time this year, but let's park Melbourne for a bit because, you know, Max crashed out with a problem. He was out-qualified on merit by Hadjar here.

27:36Lawrence Barretto:I think he's thinking that he's in the worst spot that he's been in for quite some time. And what I mean by that is that it isn't like one thing. It isn't immediately clear where it is that it's lacking. It feels like everything they're trying is lacking. Red Bull tried this strategy last year. Laurent Mechies was really supportive of the theatre. when you're suffering a problem just throw everything at lots of different directions and kind of see what sticks and you know that had some negative impacts but the majority of it was positive and actually they found a way forward they developed the car and obviously developed his way into a championship fight to the decider this year in the first three races they've been trying everything they are trying extreme setup choices they are trying to understand why on earth this car is not dialing in in the way that it should do with the changes that they're making and nothing is working and we got so used to Red Bull you know struggling on a Friday Max was having been quite critical on the team radio on a Friday and then them curing it on Saturday and the car being fine and that has not happened so far this year and I think that is concerning for Max because while you know the power unit is really strong and very reliable they got four power units to the flag here this weekend and they haven't really had any problems this weekend.

28:59Lawrence Barretto:That isn't good enough in the sense that the performance isn't there and it feels like now it's maybe more on the chassis side of things that they are lacking and Max will know that that might take time to recover over the course of this year. And I think the fact that Hajar's been so close to him this weekend, he's been within two tenths basically the whole weekend, obviously beat him, like you said, in quality will be of concern to him, not in his own ability, but it will outline how tough it is for him at the minute. Do you think Red Bull are paying the price for developing so late into last season?

29:36You were just saying how Alpine turned the taps off last year's car very early on to focus on 26. We all know that Red Bull developed very late because they could sniff a chance at the World Championship. Do you think that is the root cause of where they are today?

29:51Lawrence Barretto:it's a great point tom i think but i think when they made that decision by the way i think they accepted that this might happen that they might struggle but i think what they would have hoped to have done is have a better baseline car so even if it was very underdeveloped like mclaren's i think they would have hoped that they would have had this this foundation this very flat foundation whereby it was very clear what they had to do and it would just take time to have performance but at the moment what they seem to have is a chassis where they don't quite know how to get the best out of it. And therefore, it's not as simple as just having an underdeveloped chassis.

30:26Lawrence Barretto:It's an undeveloped chassis that they're not sure what to do with next. And we've talked about it already in the sense that this next update package that everyone will be bringing to Miami, it's going to be significant for a lot of teams in terms of size, but obviously the impact on the rest of the season. If that package doesn't take a step forward, they might not have much budget left, to your point, to then develop and catch up for the rest of this season. And then they're going to have some big decisions to make because it is impossible that they can't suffer from the development that they ploughed onto the car last year.

31:01Lawrence Barretto:Yes, OK, there were some learnings that they could make. I remember Laurent saying, if you learn what is wrong with the car, that will help you in your learning for 26. But Willits, who am I to question Laura Meckes? Of course, I'm no one, except we get told by other engineers is that not a single bolt has been carried over from last year's car the philosophy of these cars is completely different because the ground effect is gone i'd love to know what learnings you can carry over so i think we've seen a little bit with mclaren in that i think the methodologies that they used to get the very best out of that last generation of car worked and so that's why they were able to relentlessly develop that car to the point where they became a world championship winning team they tried to apply those same methodologies to the 2026 spec and it didn't work in the way that they anticipated they maybe went round the roundabout a couple of times to realize oh we need to get off at this this exit and this is where we need to go i think what with red bull was doing and i understand what laurent was trying to do is from an engineering perspective i understand why we're struggling now because we don't want to go down the same path with the 26 car if we're struggling what's transpired is these regulations are very difficult and it wasn't immediately clear to the reigning world champions how to tackle the car so i think that actually i don't think he was wrong in that sense it all that it's meant is that they've entered into this year on the back of having less money now to develop their way out of it because of the the strategy they took last year which on one side worked because it almost won max was up in the world championship but on the other side has left them wanting from a performance searching perspective but what has actually gone wrong for Red Bull or it appears to be is that they've just ended up with a car that isn't doing what I think they assumed it would do from the the various data points that they got from the wind tunnel and the CFD and I think that is hurting them and I've talked to a couple of technical directors over the first couple of races and I think I think what they've learned is they need on track experience with these cars they can't rely on simulation as much as maybe they could do with the last generation of cars and i think that is why you're seeing teams like red bull and and many others you know aston martin williams who are struggling a little bit because there is nothing that makes up for real world running of cars and that is very different to the last regulation set where i think they were in a world where cfd was enabling them to develop the cars and i think that's why we've seen quite a difference in performance.

33:34If we can grab a positive for Red Bull this weekend, Hadjar getting into Q3 and out-qualifying Verstappen on merit, what will that do for Hadjar? And do you think it'll change somehow the intra-team dynamic within Red Bull? Just does it give, in his own mind, will it give Isaac a little bit of credibility maybe? Oh. And confidence?

33:59Lawrence Barretto:Absolutely, it's going to give him credibility within the team. I think it will give him confidence, not that the guy needs it, because in a really positive way, he really believes in his own ability. But I think it will give him credibility within the team that they will believe that if they make a set-up change or if they give Isaac some part to test or they give him a program, what he delivers is going to be close to the limit that Max normally delivers. And I think that is what that team has been craving for a long time. So I think that is super encouraging. I think it will be a relief to the board because they made the decision to promote him into that seat.

34:32Lawrence Barretto:And I struggle to see how that can be perceived to be a bad decision. I think on Max's side, I don't think it will affect him because I think, Tom, you and I have interviewed him so many times over the years. He's bulletproof, I think, from a perspective of he's got this utter self-belief in himself. But I think he will be frustrated with the way that it is unfolding because he's got used to a way where he can work with his team. He knows everyone there like family. and that they find solutions quickly, this team. And at the moment, that isn't there. So I think that will probably be of the greatest concern to Max, that the light at the end of the tunnel seems further away than it has been now for quite some time.

35:20Elsewhere in the midfield, Lawrence, who stood out? I mean, just looking at the back end of the top 10, Liam Lawson coming home ninth, That's another great performance by him. Ocon back in the points in P10. Lawson just keeps quietly delivering. Is that a good summary of how it's gone so far for him?

35:40Lawrence Barretto:Absolutely. And he made the point in the TV pen today that actually the car hasn't been that performant the last couple of races, and yet he's still in the points. And I think he's doing a really impressive job. Forgive me for the plug, but I wrote a feature heading into this weekend about what a difference a year makes for Liam Lawson. obviously this time last year in China he'd just been let go from Red Bull he's rebuilt his career at Racing Bulls to a point where they renewed him for this year and he's come into this year and I remember talking to Alan Perman about this and he was like there's so much potential in Liam but no one's been able to get it out of him yet and if I can just kind of like narrow the pathway that he needs to go down like settle him down a bit there's so much to come and I think we've seen that in China and we've seen that again today that even if he hasn't got the best car or he hasn't got ultimate pace in the car he can find a way to grind out results and i think that is one of the is one of the strings of the bows that he was missing i think and so liam lawson deserves props for the jobs that he's doing at racing balls and again it's another example in the red bull family of he's rewarding the faith that they've shown in him and i think he's showing great mental resilience it must have been a hard moment for liam when the new guy the young guy comes in and has a stunning debut as Arvid did, to then bounce back in China with the points finish and do it again here will really bolster him, I think.

37:05Lawrence Barretto:Yeah, and I think the jury was out in all honesty as to whether or not he would be able to rebuild his mental strength. But actually, he's levelled up in a really positive way. I think the way he reacted to Arvid coming in has been strong. But even throughout testing, I remember talking to him and everyone was going, you know, how are you feeling about this new kid who's coming in? and we know what Red Bull drivers do, and that kind of thing. He never seemed perturbed by it, and that was the mental strength, or that fragility that he had shown in the past had disappeared a little bit. But he has done a good job, I think, of just pulling himself out of it.

37:36Lawrence Barretto:Like, he wouldn't entertain it. If you try to get him to rile him up, or to try and entertain the prospect of someone maybe threatening his seat, he doesn't entertain it anymore, and I think that is a real step forward that he's made. He's still got the belief in his ability, and he believes that he can do the job. But what he's been able to do is take a step back and not let himself get affected by things. I'm just here to plug your work, Lawrence, because... Thank you. I'll be here for that too. So let's continue. Because I want to now talk about Audi. And I know you sat down with Mattia Benotto, the team principal and CEO, after Jonathan Wheatley departed sharply after the Chinese Grand Prix.

38:18let's just talk about that situation before talking about performance on track what did you learn from Matia just about this what looks like to be an evolving situation because Matia confirmed didn't he that they are going to replace Jonathan

38:34Lawrence Barretto:I think the nature of how sudden it was became clear when in the press release they said we're just going to figure it out Matia is going to take on the duties to when I talked to him here in Japan where they're like I do need someone to come and take on the duties that Jonathan Wheatley was carrying out as team principal which was essentially running the race team on a race weekend while Mattia would focus on running the project you know running the factories at Hindeville in Neuburg where the power unit is as well and I think what's become clear to Mattia is he can't do it all himself and I think the model that McLaren operate which is Andrea Stella as the team principal, Zap Brown as the CEO, is evidence that you do need two strong personalities, experience, hands on the reins effectively.

39:22Lawrence Barretto:And so I think the fact that it's happened so suddenly shows that Mattia realises, look, I'll take over for now and I'll run the ship and steer the ship while I can, but we need to figure this out because we are Audi and we've made good progress in these early couple of rounds, but we need to make progress quickly and I might not be able to do that if I don't have someone to help me at the race weekends. Any ideas who it might be? It's tricky. I think, at the minute, I don't think they are sure who they want, whether they look to promote from within and they've got a lot of talented people in that team.

39:55Lawrence Barretto:Alan McNish, for an example, who's running their junior driver programme. And has a great history in sports cars with Audi, actually. Exactly. So it would make sense to bring him into the fold if they want to. or did they find that actually the pilot with Jonathan Wheatley worked very successfully? You know, he'd spent 20 years at Red Bull. That experience at a world championship winning team, do they need to go out and find that kind of experience? If they choose that solution, it's not a quick solution because they'll have to wait for Ghana leave. If they promote from within, that's a much quicker solution.

40:28And in terms of performance, I mean, I thought it looked pretty good, actually, earlier on in the weekend.

40:34Lawrence Barretto:I thought Audi did a great job. you know let's not forget that actually they haven't been able to start two cars yet come into this weekend in japan so they were able to do that i know the starts were not ideal they lost several positions both gabriel bortetta and nico hulk at the start but they started and they got both cars to the finish and yes okay they weren't able to score as they were able to do in the first race of the season but i do think they are making progress and i think in this new reg set and then taking into account new manufacturers like Audi bringing power units like Red Bull as well we have to focus on these as being ginormous tasks that they have to deliver so being able to get two cars to the finish is a significant milestone and I think the job that Audi have done particularly on the power unit side is super encouraging to the point where they are at the thick end of the midfield so on their day they are able to get into Q3 they are able to score points and it's why Mattia is very keen for them not to lose that momentum.

41:30And Hulkenberg just coming in. What is he? Just behind Ocon in P11 with Bortoletto back in 13th. Painful one for Williams. Do you know what? This is a racetrack that really punishes weight, doesn't it? Through all the quick corners, particularly in sector one. And there's no secret that the car is very overweight. So it was always going to be a difficult one for them, wasn't it?

41:53Lawrence Barretto:Williams knew it was going to be painful coming here to Suzuka for the points you've just made, Tom, but also because they've got a car that is underdeveloped because they missed the Barcelona shakedown, so they are essentially lacking track running. But I think what Williams knew is that also they weren't going to bring any updates to any of these races while everyone else has, you know, these first three races, so that was going to compound the problem. So that Carlos Sainz got into Q2 yesterday was a phenomenal job, but I think the fact that Alex Albon turned today into a test session, you know, later on, the team admit that they were evaluating things for Miami shows the position that this team is in when you're turning a Grand Prix into a test session you have got big things that you need to fix now look fair play to Williams they're getting the job done they're working through the problems they're being pragmatic about it and they're using the running that they could get here in Japan to learn about Miami but I think it does show how much of a hill that they've got to climb just to get back to the front of the midfield when actually where they should have been was chasing the top team so a lot of work to do and Carlos said something quite telling in the pen where he was like if the update doesn't work and they don't make the kind of step forward that they hope to in Miami relative to the other teams they're going to have to probably consider looking at next year because it might be unrecoverable you know this year and that's a decision a lot of teams actually are going to have to make this year once these big updates come in Miami so that weekend for not just Williams but a number of teams is going to be significant so Williams know what a mountain they have to climb whereas let's just finally talk about a team that is that is not near the summit of what they're capable of but they've had a cracking start to the year let's talk about Haas Ocon in the points a relief for him I will say I was surprised by Oli Behrman's struggles in qualifying and then of course he had that horrendous accident in the race 50g thank goodness he was able to walk away from that but tell me about give us your thoughts on on their competitiveness this weekend i think has have been one of the most impressive overall packages this year and what i mean by that is they seem to have a car where if they get everything right they should be able to get at least one car into q3 they should be able to score points on a sunday and actually as ollie behrman has shown be able to take the fight for actually some of the bigger points, you know, in that kind of P5, P6 region.

44:19Lawrence Barretto:They weren't able to do that this weekend for a number of reasons. But actually what I think was encouraging was they're not panicking about that, where they might have done in previous years. Oli, I think they're not entirely sure why they struggled so much in qualifying yesterday. So that's something that they need to go and work through. With Esteban, he managed to recover from missing out on Q3 to getting a point today, but wasn't able to hold on to some better points paying positions. But I think what that team have got at the minute, which I'm not sure has to have had for maybe since 2018, is a car that on any given weekend, on any given track characteristics, can perform if they deliver.

45:01Lawrence Barretto:And I think Oli's done that in the first couple of races. I think Esteban's done a good job to do that here. And to be fair, if they didn't have the problem in qualifying where they weren't quite sure what went wrong with Oli, he would have almost certainly qualified inside Q3 or on the fringes off and challenged for points. I talked to him on the way to the grid this morning, and even though he was way out of position, he still fancied points. And that is telling, I think, of the position that he is in personally from a confidence level, but actually where that team is going forward. And so do you think their P4 in the Constructors' Championship is an accurate reflection of their competitiveness?

45:37Lawrence Barretto:Absolutely. I think so. While they might not have, say, the raw pace that Alpine delivered today, I think they have got that consistent pace. And crucially, they've got two drivers who are performing on a high level. So actually, they very much deserve that P4 in the construction of shamanship. You know, let's not forget they are beating Red Bull. You know, they are beating Audi. They are beating an Alpine team that turned off development way earlier than they did. And I think we need to make sure that we remind people they are the smallest team on the grid with the smallest budget. and they do not have the capacity like others do when they have a problem to fix it quickly.

46:11Lawrence Barretto:So I think they're doing a phenomenal job. Well, long may it continue. And Lawrence, thank you very much. I love talking about Formula One with you. Look, before we go, driver of the day, Oscar Piastri got it on the telly. Who was your driver of the day? This is tricky because I really did want to give it to Oscar because I think the job that he did today, having not started a Grand Prix before coming to Japan, was phenomenal. And so I understand why the fans voted for him. but I think it is potentially this year's world champion, Kimi Antonelli, who's my driver of the day. You know, I think dropping to P6, it could have been wound.

46:47Lawrence Barretto:It could have just gone completely wrong and he didn't allow that to happen and he fought back to find a way to win. And Tom, how many times have we said the great drivers find a way to win when they shouldn't do and Kimi did that today and the pace that he showed in those final few laps was phenomenal and that was a signal, I think, to his teammate George Russell of the performance that he's got and what he can deliver. It was outstanding. What about you? Yeah, well said on that. I can only agree with you on him and I think Oscar had a great race as well. So did Charles. But I'm actually going to give my driver of the day to Pierre Gasly.

47:24I love what he's doing. He's fearless. He's not succumbing to pressure. He had Max Verstappen breathing down his neck for most of the race. So a phenomenal race by him. Lawrence thank you very much enjoy the break

47:38Lawrence Barretto:that's coming up yeah thanks very much Tom I always love these chats and obviously what a great race to chat about and for more reaction and analysis from Japan please go to f1.com the official f1 app and at f1 on social media and don't forget to check out f1's other official podcast my guest on f1 beyond the grid this week is Red Bull team principal Laurent Mechiez that's out on Wednesday you can also watch our chat on the f1 YouTube channel and the latest episode of f1 explains is all about the new tyres in this new era of Formula One with Pirelli's head of motorsport, Mario Isla. That's just below this episode on the F1 Nation feed.

48:14And with the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grand Prix not taking place in April, the next race isn't until Miami at the start of May. But don't worry, F1 Nation will be back next Monday. So I'll speak to you then. Thank you very much for listening. F1 Nation is produced by Formula One and Audioboom Studios.

48:42Transcription by CastingWords