Suzuka played host to Formula 1’s final race before its unexpected spring break, with the cancellations of the Bahrain and Saudi Arabia races opening up a five-week gap in the calendar.
Kimi Antonelli recovered from a poor start to win the 2026 Japanese Grand Prix. It was his second successive victory and he became the first teenager in F1 history to lead the world championship standings.
The timing of the race’s safety car period — called after Ollie Bearman’s 190mph crash from which he thankfully escaped relatively unscathed — played straight into Antonelli’s hands and simultaneously ended his Mercedes teammate George Russell’s win hopes. Russell crossed the line fourth after a challenging end to the race.
Four-time world champion Max Verstappen spent much of the Suzuka weekend in the headlines. After ejecting a journalist from his media session, he then teased that he was giving thought to life outside of F1 before doubling down on this post-race, and leaving question marks over his long-term future on the grid.
We get into that, plus more of your questions, in our third F1 mailbag of the 2026 season.
Editor’s note: Questions have been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.
Is George’s facade cracking? It seems like the pressure is getting to him. Is it a realization of the threat Kimi poses to his assumed procession to the title, or are things still tense between him and the team after they tried to replace him with Max last season? — Luco O.
George Russell may have been the bookies’ preseason favorite, and he was a logical choice given the strength of the Mercedes engine and his near-flawless 2025 season. But Antonelli has come roaring back after a roller coaster debut campaign last year.
It’ll be interesting to see how the teammates match up against each other when there are no outside factors interfering.
Mercedes Team principal Toto Wolff felt “the race went against (Russell), starting with the qualifying setup decisions.” Those calls did hurt Russel’s pace, and his start didn’t help matters, with Oscar Piastri and Charles Leclerc getting ahead — though Antonelli’s start was worse.
Then came the pit stop calls, and Russell pitted a lap before Bearman’s crash and the subsequent safety car activation, whereas “luck fell on Kimi’s side,” Wolff said, given he was yet to stop at that stage.
George Russell (left) and Kimi Antonelli after qualifying at the 2026 Japanese GP. (Clive Rose / Getty Images)
It didn’t help matters that Russell couldn’t recharge his battery when the restart occurred, resulting in Lewis Hamilton passing him. And, last but not least, there was the “software glitch,” as Wolff described it, that meant Leclerc was later able to re-pass.
Here, Russell’s engine started unexpectedly super clipping (when engines start recharging while the driver is at full throttle, slowing the car) when the bug was triggered by him pressing a button and shifting gear at the same time.
We’re still in the early days of the season, with just three races out of 22 completed, and now entering a long break. It’ll be a reset for everyone, and we’ll see where the momentum sits at Mercedes come Miami.
— Madeline Coleman
Given the break until Miami and the regulations being heavily criticized from numerous angles, what can the FIA change in such a short space of time, or at least propose for the 2027 season? — Adam M.
From the moment these new cars hit the track in preseason, it was obvious there would be plenty of discourse between the teams, the FIA, and the F1 organization over potential rules tweaks.
Concerns over engine energy deployment and sudden differences in closing speeds were being discussed during the second and third tests, which took place in Bahrain in February. The teams agreed to give it a few races, evaluate the data, and then consider what may need changing. The message from F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali was “don’t panic.”
Australia, China and Japan all yielded slightly different experiences for the drivers, and this gap now gives the perfect opportunity for further talks over changes. But the terrifying Bearman crash has only increased the calls for change.
A meeting is scheduled for April 9, which includes the five engine manufacturers and F1’s Technical Advisory Committee, a body involving the teams that works with the FIA over such matters.
One topic on the table will surround engine energy harvesting. One idea is to increase the rate at which the battery is topped up through super clipping to help reduce the need for drivers to lift and coast so much through a lap.
Bearman’s crash was sparked by the speed differential to Alpine’s Franco Colapinto in front, whose engine was not being supplied with electrical energy at the time, lowering his top speed at the point of the track where the crash occurred.
Realistically, we’re talking about small adjustments here and there. F1 won’t be taking a sledgehammer to the rules. The other complicating factor that limits wholesale in-season changes is that these engines are homologated — where designs get locked in — for the year, meaning it’s only the software, not hardware, that can be tweaked.
Looking to 2027, a possible option would be to review fuel usage. If the engines are able to burn more fuel — which is already fully-sustainable, remember — then they can produce more power via the internal combustion engine system, which may help soothe some of the drivers’ concerns. The existing near-50/50 split between internal combustion and battery power is also sure to be up for debate through the upcoming talks.
— Luke Smith
Has F1 made any noise about allowing teams to use the upcoming enforced break to actually get some additional track time? — Ch S.
While the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian GPs aren’t being replaced, the regulations do allow for some track running outside of a competition. But it is heavily regulated, and teams can’t simply put the 2026 cars on a circuit and test any time they choose.
According to the 2026 F1 sporting regulations, teams can only complete 620 miles of testing in older cars in a given year, in a process known as Testing of Previous Cars (TPC).
The maximum number of TPC days allowed per year is 20. Only one car can run in such a test, and it must have been designed or used in the 2022-2025 car design rules era.
Testing the current cars on track is limited to five different categories under the 2026 regulations: The preseason testing, the post-season test in Abu Dhabi, out-of-competition tire testing (organized by Pirelli), and substitute driver testing.
Outside of these scenarios, teams can utilize dyno hours at their factories to optimize engine performance, and drivers can hop into the simulators to develop 2026 cars during the break.
It may be a break from competition, allowing the paddock to have some respite from travel, but the teams will still be working and developing during this April stretch.
— Madeline Coleman
Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso during the 2026 Japanese GP (Mark Thompson / Getty Images)
Has Aston Martin made any progress with its vibration problem? What is it in the engine that seems to be causing such an odd and unexpected issue? — Anon
Fernando Alonso reached a landmark for Aston Martin in 2026 at the Japanese GP, as the team completed its first race distance with the beleaguered AMR26 car.
Alonso was 18th, one lap down on race winner Antonelli and only ahead of Valtteri Bottas and Alex Albon out of the cars that finished. But it was still a sign that Aston is moving in the right direction after such a torrid start.
“We have many boxes to tick and this was one of them,” Alonso said after the race. “We didn’t manage (it) in Australia, China, or at testing — it’s the very first time. Hopefully, the team has enough data now to understand the car a little bit more and get in a better place for the next one.”
On the vibrations, which have been a major reliability issue for Aston so far this year, Alonso said there were still some through the race and they wouldn’t disappear overnight. “But (it was) more manageable,” he said. He felt things had even improved compared to qualifying the day before.
Aston and Honda have stayed coy on the cause of the vibration problem, which flared concerns with the drivers at one stage that they may be left with permanent nerve damage by running too many laps, according to team principal Adrian Newey in Australia.
They’ve repeatedly spoken of “countermeasures” being implemented at each race to help remedy the problem, which was damaging the battery on the engine. By Suzuka, that was less of a problem than what was being felt in the cockpit.
Finishing a race may not seem like a big deal, but it’s a good indicator that Aston and Honda are, at last, moving in the right direction.
— Luke Smith
