Formula 1: Japanese Grand Prix 2023
By Camila Vasquez Onorato
On Sunday's Suzuka Grand Prix, winner Max Verstappen secured Red Bull’s back-to-back constructor championship. Verstappen, who started on pole position, was challenged by both McLaren drivers, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, at the start of the race but quickly pulled away to win his 13th race of the season. Not only did the win secure the constructors’ championship for Red Bull but his own third driver’s championship will follow shortly after. Verstappen was 19.4 seconds ahead of the rest of the field and is now one race win away from matching the record he set last year for the most victories in a calendar year.
Apart from Verstappen, it was a very exciting week for rookie Oscar Piastri. He impressed the whole F1 community by qualifying in the front row and scoring the first podium of his F1 career in his first year in Formula 1 racing.
The race had an eventful start with multiple collisions heading into Turn 1. The accidents resulted with debris on the track which brought out a safety car before a total of five cars eventually retired because of the damage. Valtteri Botas, who races for Alfa Romeo, was one of the drivers who had to retire from the race on the ninth lap due to a collision with Logan Sargeant, a Williams driver. Bottas had suffered from a puncture after running over debris when Sargeant locked up which led Bottas to go for the overtake but he ended up having Sargeant drive into the side of him and send him into the gravel. Bottas quickly went into the pit to have the Alfa Romeo team repair the car, but unfortunately Bottas reported that the car was “un-drivable” and ended up retiring from the race.
Sergio Perez, a Red Bull driver, was another driver that did not finish and had a ‘nightmare’ of a race. “It was a shocker of a race for him,” said team principal, Christian Horner to Sky Sports after Perez was involved in two collisions and was given two-five second penalties in just a matter of 12 laps. Perez initially retired with car damage at the end of the 13th lap but then eventually returned to the race again and completed three more laps before retiring again. Alexander Albon, Logan Sargeant and Lance Stroll were the other three drivers that eventually retired and gained no points.
The Mercedes and Ferrari teams had an exciting battle by taking the places from P4 to P7. Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc took P4 and Carlos Sainz took P6 and Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton took P5 and George Russell took P7. However, even though both drivers scored points, it was not a good race for the Mercedes team overall. Both drivers nearly collided on two occasions and suggested they should have been switched around earlier in the race. Hamilton said he was exhausted from the race but was trying to score the most points for the team because he knows how important it is to hold on to their current second place in the constructors’ title. Alpha Tauri’s Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson were not able to utilize their strong qualifying performances and ended the race with no points. Yuki Tsunoda, who was the home favorite, ended the race by placing 12th overall.
The fans for the Japanese Grand Prix were anxiously waiting for this race. They took their excitement to social media where they were sharing their predictions before the race took place.
They also took their excitement to the actual race where they showed up with different hat designs, backpacks and posters to show their support.
Lewis Hamilton has always been known as one of the most fashionable drivers on the grid. He was the only driver that showed up wearing a light blue set when arriving at the Suzuka Grand Prix paddock. Every other driver was wearing their respective team's shirt and caps.
Hamilton has always been very vocal about his passion for fashion and even has his own brand called plus44world. For this specific race, he collaborated with Hajime Sorayama, a Japanese illustrator, and debuted a helmet for the race. The helmet is silver and gold with a neon yellow light right in the middle. Fernando Alonso, who drives for Aston Martin, also wore a special helmet for this Sunday's race. He wore a white matte design that features Alonso’s number within a painted red circle symbolic of the Japanese flag. The back features an illustration of a samurai which is a copy of a samurai tattoo that Alonso has on his back.
Some formula one fans chimed in on social media to show their support for the new helmets, in which many showed their love for Alonso’s’ samurai helmet calling it “the best F1 helmet of the year.”
This year's Japanese Grand Prix was a special one because Lenovo, the title sponsor of the race, announced that the winner will receive the first kiss-activated trophy. Once the winning driver, Max Verstappen, kisses a sensor on the first-place trophy, the trophy will light up to display the flag of the winning driver’s country. Lenovo partnered with the design firm, Pininfarina, to create a trophy that resembles Formula 1 car designs. The Japanese Grand Prix is the first of two races that features the trophy. Lenovo is also the title sponsor for the United States Grand Prix that takes place on Oct. 22 and the winner will be given the kiss-activated trophy as well. Fans showed their excitement and concerns for the new trophy on TikTok. Many believed it is really cool and will add more excitement to the trophy presentation, while others called it ‘bizarre.’
