Five Takeaways: Japanese Grand Prix
- Mia Wallace
- 8 minutes ago
- 7 min read
Written by Mia Wallace, Edited by Meghana Sree
On the dawn of a one-month break from Formula One, the paddock received its final installment of on-track action this past weekend, with Suzuka marking the last opportunity to see the grid in competition until May. With an extended pause looming, the Japanese Grand Prix delivered in the categories of surprises, shock value and drama.
A dominant lion questions retirement, a Mercedes is left off the podium and a former championship contender finds his way back to the top after missing the first two races of the season.
Here are DIVEBOMB’s five key takeaways from the 2026 Japanese Grand Prix.
A dream for Antonelli, a nightmare for Russell
Up until now, the Mercedes pair have been relentlessly dominant. 1-2 finishes in both races, and standing alone at the top of the qualifying charts, yet this past Sunday only one of the two drivers stood on the podium.
Kimi Antonelli secured his second win in F1, with his victory in Suzuka coming right after his win in China — a second in a row for the young Italian. While Antonelli now claims the spot of the youngest-ever driver to lead the championship, his seasoned teammate, George Russell, is left forced to wonder how he missed out on the champagne spray following the race.
When the lights went out, both Mercedes cars suffered from disastrous starts, ones that proved costly as the McLarens and Ferraris blazed past into Turn 1.
Even though Antonelli fell back from pole position to P6 on the grid, the teenager was ultimately able to make the positions back up in quick fashion, with a Safety Car securing his lead. Russell, who had a slightly better start than his teammate, still struggled throughout the race to gain back track positions. In fact, where everything seemed to go perfectly for Antonelli, Russell was wildly unlucky.
“Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong,” he explained after the race Sunday. “Obviously we both made bad starts — mine was slightly less bad; Safety Car timing; [at the] restart, I got a harvest limit which meant I couldn’t recharge my battery, similar to what’s happened with some drivers at the race starts.
“I had no battery to restart, Lewis [Hamilton] passed me, and then I faced another battery problem when Charles [Leclerc] passed me.”
Russell finished the race P4, unable to overtake Leclerc for the final spot on the podium. With Antonelli now nine points ahead of him, Russell finds himself in a bit of an uncomfortable situation.
A championship title fight is a tall task in itself, let alone having to battle with your teammate for the top spot. Last year it was the McLaren duo, and this year it's looking like it's going to be Mercedes. Will there be two number one drivers, or will Team Principal Toto Wolff have a decision to make? It’s still much too early to tell, but for now, Russell can only hope that his luck will improve over the next few races.
Piastri returns to the podium
After two subsequent races missing the lights, Oscar Piastri finally returned to a venue he spent most of his time at last season. Hoisting the hefty trophy on the second step, the Australian relished in the whooping success of his first completed race since 2025.
The first glimpse at this victory for McLaren came early in the weekend when Piastri willed his MCL40 to a 1:30.133, out-pacing Antonelli and taking the top slot on the day.
Although Mercedes continued their front row lockout streak in qualifying Saturday, Piastri’s race start quickly placed him into the coveted lead into Turn 1. From there, he drove a clean race, with many speculating that if it had not been for the Safety Car, he very well may have won the race.
It’s no secret that McLaren has been struggling with not only reliability issues, but in understanding a power unit that Mercedes has mastered. Sure, winning is the sweetest victory, however the former Constructors’ Champions can find solace in the fact that their challenger was able to contest a dominant Mercedes for the win.
Following the race Sunday, Piastri commented on the bittersweet nature of being on the podium in his 2026 debut but missing out on the golden prize.
“Turns out we're alright once we start,” he said. “It would have been really interesting to see what would have happened without the Safety Car.
“I could keep George [Russell] behind and just before the stop we were actually pulling away a little bit again. A shame that we never got to see what would have happened but I think for us at this point to be disappointed about finishing second is a pretty good place to be.”
Going into the month-long break before Miami, McLaren will feel optimistic about Suzuka’s results. With Piastri’s podium finish, and Lando Norris securing fifth amidst constant technical issues, the team can rest a little easier as they maximise the racing hiatus in exchange for testing and upgrades.
Bearman’s crash sparks concern over the new regulations
The sole Safety Car of the race was at the centre of much discussion following the weekend. The cause of it? Oliver Bearman’s Haas plummeting into the barrier, making a 50g impact.
Initially, Bearman exited the car clearly shaken and seemingly injured as he ultimately fell to the ground unable to walk away from the scene. Following the race, both Bearman and the Haas team released statements reassuring fans that the young driver was unharmed.
Bearman spoke to the media, supplying his thoughts on what exactly went wrong.
"It was a massive overspeed, 50kph, which is a real, you know, it’s a part of these new regulations that I guess we have to get used to," he said.
The aspect of the new regulations that Bearman is referring to is the fact that his crash only happened because he was attempting to avoid Franco Colapinto on track. The Alpine driver was forced to slow to an uncharacteristic speed in order to recharge his depleted battery, an action that is new and necessary along with the new regulations.
As a result of this incident, the FIA is facing the concerns of fans and drivers alike, hoping that changes to the rules are made soon to uphold the safety of the competitors. Ultimately, it is the duty of the sports’ leaders to ensure that drivers can compete in a safe environment.
While talks are set to be held in the coming month to potentially reform the regulations, Bearman will spend his break building his physical and mental health back up to 100% before Miami.
Red Bull, retirement… and the midfield?
For the first time in a long time, Red Bull is being seriously considered as a midfield team instead of a top contender. Despite having a driver pairing with four-time champion Max Verstappen at the head, even he can’t bring the team back to the top at the moment. But what does this mean for the world champ?
The word “retirement” has certainly been living in the same sentences as Verstappen in discussion of late, and the performance of the Red Bull is only fanning the flames. Verstappen has been extremely vocal in his disdain for the new regulations, even referring to the new challengers as “Formula E cars”.
In Japan, Verstappen ultimately finished P8, within the top 10 but crucially behind Alpine driver Pierre Gasly. Despite coming close on many exchanges, Verstappen was unable to will his Red Bull around the Alpine.
After the race, he spoke to the media, effectively sparking the idea that retirement could come as soon as the end of this season.
"Privately I'm very happy,” he said. “You also wait for 24 races. This time it's 22. But normally 24. And then you just think about is it worth it? Or do I enjoy being more at home with my family? Seeing my friends more when you're not enjoying your sport?
"And of course you can look at it and make a lot of money. Great. But at the end of the day it's not about money any more because this has always been my passion.”
Verstappen continued, expanding on how ‘having fun’ is pivotal to his F1 experience:
“I want to be here to have fun and have a great time and enjoy myself. At the moment that's not really the case.”
Not only does Red Bull face the challenge of developing a better car, but also the challenge of keeping their star driver in the sport.
Leclerc holds back a wolf
Once again, the Ferrari pair put on a show in terms of close battle with each other. Leclerc ended up on the podium in P3, successfully holding off Russell, but before he could deal with the Mercedes he would also have to battle with his own teammate.
Leclerc, alongside Piastri, had a monstrous start at the beginning of the Grand Prix, quickly boosting forward to overtake the Mercedes duo into second place. Following a pit stop and the Safety Car, Leclerc lost his second place position, taking on the task of fighting for the final slot on the podium.
His teammate Hamilton led the charge up until Leclerc pushed him into a tense fight. Eventually, the Monégasque overtook his teammate for good, securing his third place finish despite claiming that the pair made minor contact on the track.
Leclerc spoke to the media after the race, hinting on what Ferrari will likely need to focus on when searching for areas to improve:
"There’s a clear thing that we need to improve and this is surely the power unit," he said.
"There’s putting the tyres in the right window, there’s the aero, there’s the chassis […] On that we’ll work flat out in order to try and close the gap as much as possible to the Mercedes and to hopefully keep behind the McLaren."
Mercedes is ahead of the curve, this is a fact that all the teams know and understand. On that same note though, the gap between the other top teams and the Silver Arrows is shrinking with each race weekend. With an entire month before the next meeting, Ferrari will be looking to implement some of the changes Leclerc mentioned in order to continue putting pressure on the top contenders.
Looking Ahead
With the Japanese Grand Prix done and dusted, drivers and teams are now faced with a month-long hiatus from on-track action with the Saudi Arabian and Bahrain Grands Prix called off. During this time, they’ll turn their focus to development, regrouping, and fine-tuning performance ahead of the next phase in Miami.
F1 will return in May, with the Miami Grand Prix set to headline the next phase of the calendar.
