Race Notes: 2026 Japanese Grand Prix

The third race of the 2026 Formula 1 Grand Prix took place in one of the most famous race tracks in Japan, the Suzuka Circuit. With it seen as one of the most notorious circuits in terms of overtaking, many of us were curious about how it would pan out, and it was a fairly tame weekend in terms of incidents, but a lot of overtakes happened.

Kimi Antonelli, the youngest championship leader

Despite him having a bad start where he lost several positions, Antonelli managed to claw his lead back and also found himself in a provisional lead right before the Lap 22 crash of Oliver Bearman (Haas). He then found himself lucky to pit during the safety car and held the lead all the way to the end. Antonelli now leads the driver’s championship with 72 points.

As for his teammate, George Russell had a fairly “unlucky” race weekend, especially thanks to the timing of the safety car. Afterwards, he couldn’t hold off the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, who gave him one heck of a battle for P3, with an annoyed Russell finishing in P4.

McLaren (and others) finally find their footing

With the papaya team finally sorting out the issues that plagued both Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, we get to see the two stretch their legs. This was much more evident with Piastri, who jumped to the lead at the start and was able to hold off the Mercedes of George Russell until the safety car happened.

Piastri got a respectable P2, and Norris battled the Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton for a P5 finish, showing that there is a third player in the championship game. Ferrari still has a fairly solid footing in the game as they begin to wrap their heads around the new regulations. More impressive is that the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso managed to finish a race, even if he was pretty much at the bottom of the pack with the Cadillacs and Williams.

More disdain for the new regulations

While the majority of the grid managed to finish this time around (save for Oliver Bearman’s Haas and Lance Stoll’s Aston Martin), it was made even clearer that a lot of the drivers don’t like the new regulations.

For one, pretty much all of the drivers were super clipping on the faster parts of the circuits. Super clipping is the act of making the hybrid engines harvest energy to recharge the battery, even if drivers are on full throttle without braking. This is supposed to provide more energy for drivers to deploy in other parts of the circuits, which is why we see more frequent overtakes.

However, safety becomes an issue, as drivers were seen to lose as much as 50kph on straights. This is also what caused Oliver Bearman’s 50G crash as he went onto the grass at the Spoon Curve to avoid Franco Colapinto’s Alpine (which was super clipping), and the speed difference could cause even more horrific crashes if this happens again.

Drivers such as Lando Norris, Fernando Alonso, Carlos Sainz, and even Max Verstappen are some of the most vocal, with Norris even going as far as saying that it “hurts the soul” to feel his car lose that much speed.

We don’t know if anything technical will change with the gap between the current race and the next race, but we’re seeing some pretty big shake-ups. One is how Audi’s Jonathan Wheatley has suddenly left the team, Honda and Aston Martin saying they have resolved the vibration issues, and the FIA is to reassess the 2026 regulations following Bearman’s crash.

Formula 1 will return one month from now as it skips the Middle Eastern tracks due to the conflict, and will head on over to the other side of the world with the Miami Grand Prix, happening on May 4, 4:00am (Philippine Standard Time).

^{Photos by Julian Panlilio and Formula 1}