Andrea Kimi Antonelli has become the youngest driver to lead the World Drivers Championship as he took the chequered flag at Suzuka, claiming back-to-back victories. Ferrari and McLaren aren’t far off the Silver Arrows but still have a lot of ground to make up. Here are the takeaways from the Japanese Grand Prix.
Kimi Antonelli is a contender for the Drivers’ Championship.
It’s only been three race weekends, but the young Italian is looking good. He got off to a poor start, dropping down to sixth, but he made his way upfield, overtaking Lewis Hamilton, Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc.
Made his way towards the front of the pack after George Russell had pitted. He then cashed in on a safety car after Oliver Bearman’s crash, didn’t lose out on race time, maintained his lead, and nailed the restart, checking out in front.
There was confidence in the 19-year-old after a first race win in China two weekends ago, having had a tough first season. Kimi Anotnelli, just three races in, is building momentum and is proving to be a contender for the World Championship.
He did have a bit of luck with the safety car, but the way he took that opportunity shows everything you need to know. Sebastian Vettel currently holds the record for the youngest driver to win the World Championship.
Keep an eye on Antonelli, who became the first teenager to win two F1 races, and the young Italian is on the hunt to make more history.
McLaren proves to be a threat to Mercedes, as Oscar Piastri roars back
After falling to start two races this season, Oscar Piastri finally managed to complete a full Grand Prix. He qualified third on the grid and got a great start off the line as he swept into the lead.
It wasn’t a comfortable lead, though, for the 24-year-old as he had Russell behind him, who overtook him in the chicane on lap eight, but the McLaren gained it back on the pit straight on the start of the following lap.
Piastri had started to build a gap as Russell dropped back and couldn’t get any closer.
Victory was on the cards for the Australian had it not been for a safety car, but considering the start to his season, second place is still a positive result and earns McLaren its first podium of 2026.
Ferrari had been the subject after the first two race weekends, but the Papaya showed real potential at Suzuka. If there hadn’t been a safety car, perhaps Piastri could have won this race and held off Russell.
Better weekend for Lando Norris, having missed out in China, salvaged P5 on lap 52. He suffered a few reliability issues over the course of the race weekend, but managed a solid recovery drive. He had more pace to offer, but he hadn’t done any runs on high fuel before the race.
Max Verstappen’s frustration is not a job for F1 to fix
The car just isn’t there for the 4X World Champion at the moment, another weekend where he failed to qualify higher than eighth. In China, he had to retire the car. Verstappen isn’t enjoying F1 in 2026 and has made it known.
Red Bull has dropped back from the other teams this season and did bring upgrades to Suzuka, but it hasn’t made a huge improvement, starting from 11th and finishing eighth, having spent most of the race battling drivers he hadn’t faced before his title-winning era began in 2021.
Now, if Verstappen wants to leave F1, that’s entirely his right too; he has spoken about his displeasure with these regulations and the energy management required by these new engines. But it should be known that it isn’t Formula One’s job to keep the Dutchman happy; it’s the job of his team.
Red Bull has built a powertrain with Ford, and at the moment, they are battling in the midfield alongside teams such as Haas and Alpine, far off the other top four teams, McLaren, Mercedes, and Ferrari.
A five-week break has come at a good time for all, as within this period, they can come up with a fix for the consistently poor pace that has Verstappen now considering his future in the sport.
Pierre Gasly is showing great improvement in Alpine.
He started in P7 and finished in P7, a good weekend for Pierre Gasly in the Alpine after a significant improvement back in Shanghai, the best of the rest in midfield in qualifying and in the race too.
Gasly did have a challenge from Verstappen, but he fended off the uncompetitive Red Bull and managed to finish in the position he started in. The Mercedes power unit is working for the French team, who needed these two positive results after the disaster that was their 2025 season.
Competitive within the midfield, and Gasly is starting to show his potential, providing the second-best drive out there, you could say, alongside Piastri.
Tweaks to regulations need to be discussed with F1 and FIA
Oliver Bearman’s crash is going to be a talking point over the five-week break and heading into Miami.
The TV cameras showed Bearman into the wall at Spoon, which is one of the fastest parts of the circuit. As he got out of the car, he walked gingerly and was aided by marshals as he went and sat behind the barriers.
Bearman had gained rapidly on Franco Colapinto, with a horrifying amount of closing speed on approach to Spoon, before going across the track and colliding with the barriers.
Bearman’s crash was revealed to have been a 50g impact, and this will only add to concerns for drivers, who had been vocal about some of the issues with these new regulations before the season started in Australia.
They still have trouble with the harvesting and the energy deployment. As is the case, there is a driver who will harvest and store energy, but on the other hand, you can have a driver who speeds up after deployment.
One incident has already happened, and, as Carlos Sainz put it in his post-race interview, it could be much more dangerous on tracks such as Jeddah or Baku.