Japanese Grand Prix: Podium Example

Like the recent round in Singapore, the Japanese Grand Prix is ​​returning to the calendar after a three-year hiatus. The last race at Suzuka was held in 2019, it was won by Valtteri Bottas – then super typhoon Hagibis intervened at the weekend, canceling third practice and delaying qualifying to Sunday morning.

The following year, the stage was canceled due to Covid-19 – border crossing rules made the race impossible. Honda really wanted to keep the race in 2021 when the company announced its exit from Formula 1 and their engines confidently won, but during the Olympics disease statistics went up and after the close of the Olympics they again announced the cancel the stage.

Nothing should stand in the way of the race this year. Honda became title sponsor of the Grand Prix, in which Max Verstappen can win a second consecutive championship title. To do this, it is enough for him to win the race and show the best lap, or else be ahead of Charles Leclerc by eight points and Sergio Perez by six points.

In addition to Max’s championship title, one of the topics of the Japanese weekend will be the continuation of discussion of the results of the teams’ financial audit for 2021, when the budget cap first surfaced in Formula 1.

Many teams had to cut staff numbers to accommodate $147.4 million, because at the same time there was a development of cars for 2022 that had an unreserved priority. And at the time, Red Bull and Aston Martin were actively stripping staff from other teams, earning them huge salaries.

The situation for Formula 1, where everything revolves around victory, is not new, but for the first time it happened in a situation where the teams agreed to cut costs and agreed on the role of the FIA ​​​​in the role of an independent arbitrator.

At Aston Martin they limited themselves to a few key figures and at Red Bull they created the Red Bull Powertrains engine building division from scratch, with 300 employees, including the best engineers from Honda and Mercedes. According to unofficial information, fifty engineers from Brixworth went to them.

Then the head of Red Bull Racing Christian Horner happily said in an interview that “there are a lot of people who want to work with us.” Now Horner categorically denies the team’s connection to this hire, arguing that they were hired not by the team but by other divisions – Red Bull Powertrains and Red Bull Advanced Technologies, although the second company makes cars for the team.

Rumor has it that the trio of FIA financial inspectors initially found no violations, but employees are switching teams and sharing their knowledge of how their former leaders are solving such problems.

For FIA President Mohammed bin Sulayem, this crisis will be the first serious test. In the days of Max Mosley, the FIA’s position on violations was tough, but Max always acted alongside Bernie Ecclestone and now there are already serious contradictions between Sulayem and Liberty Media’s Formula 1 owners.

The issue of possible FIA ​​sanctions against Red Bull, which owns two teams and its own podium, is becoming very sensitive. But it’s unlikely anyone would want to pull out the dirty linen, as was the case with an internal deal between the FIA ​​and Ferrari a few years ago, when questions arose over the regulatory compliance of engines from Maranello. Then, under former FIA president Jean Todt, the controversial situation was hushed up. It will probably be the same this time.

Just as the circuit at Imola is forever associated with the death of Ayrton Senna, just as flowers are carried at Spa to the site of Antoine Hubert’s fatal accident, the race at Suzuka is associated with the death of Jules Bianchi in 2014 .

Now the Frenchman could be a partner of Charles Leclerc in Ferrari, and this, without compromising Carlos Sainz’s merits, would be a glorious pair of drivers. A kind of “Formula 1 Musketeers”.
A few months before that tragedy, two weeks before his 25th birthday, Jules said in an interview with F1News.ru: “I am here in Formula 1 and I want to build a successful career. I want to prove that I am worth something and I hope I will spend many more years in the championship, but no one can predict the future…”

Jules found eternal rest in the cemetery of Nice and a street in his honor appeared in the city. He was just a racer.

Since then, Formula 1 has introduced a virtual safety car that allows you to determine the speed when yellow flags appear on the track. At Turn 7, Suzuki installed a stationary car evacuation crane, rather than a mobile one, which Bianchi’s car then crashed into. The FIA ​​has introduced a rule according to which the start of the Grand Prix must be given at least four hours before sunset or sunset so that visibility is at a good level during the race. Since 2015, the start time of the race in Suzuka has been moved up by one hour and will be given at two o’clock in the afternoon local time.

Possible rain again in the course of the Japanese Grand Prix. And if at other tracks race management is often criticized for being indecisive during heavy rain, then in Suzuka it’s better to leave everyone in the pits until the sun comes out. In memory of Jules.