McLaren set the pace on the opening day at the Japanese Grand Prix, and they appear to have slightly different aerodynamic configuration compared to their closest rivals, Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes. F1Technical’s senior writer Balazs Szabo delivers his latest analysis.
McLaren led the way on the opening day at the Japanese Grand Prix, with Lando Norris setting the benchmark in the first one-hour session while his team-mate Oscar Piastri flew to the top of the leaderboard in the second hour of practice.
Having led the field in the opening practice, McLaren continued to have the upper hand in the second one-hour practice session at the Japanese Grand Prix, with Oscar Piastri pipping his team-mate Lando Norris in what turned out to be a massively shortened practice.
McLaren’s Lando Norris did not look comfortable in his McLaren in the opening practice session at Suzuka, but he still managed to set the benchmark in FP1. The British driver was quick to stress that his car did not have any particular issues, but he only required “a little bit of time to get back in the rhythm of things around here because it’s so quick, but the car is in a reasonable place.”
The second practice saw the Woking-based squad set the benchmark once again, with Piastri fractionally beating Norris. However, the second session turned into a heavily-interrupted practice, with several incidents of different nature hindering drivers during FP2. Jack Doohan in the Alpine triggered the first red flag crashing heavily at Turn 1.
After a twenty minute break to repair the barriers, most of the drivers managed one flying lap, before another red flag, this time caused by Fernando Alonso, who ended up in the gravel at Degner Curve. When the pit lane light returned to green, drivers went back out, but soon after came another red flag, this time because the grass caught fire at the exit to turn 9.
It all meant that the practice day failed to deliver a real picture about the pecking order. McLaren obviously looked immensely quick despite some early balance issues that saw Piastri and Norris suffer a few moments. However, as they managed to fine-tune the setup of their MCL39, they demonstrated the performance margin over their rivals once again they enjoyed at the opening two rounds in Melbourne and Shanghai.
Mercedes driver George Russell, who has taken two podium finishes so far in 2025, continued to impress by having dominated the early part of the opening session. Although he slightly fell back later on, his race run in the dying stages of FP1 and FP2 looked very competitive, which suggested that he will be definitely a driver to watch out for when it comes to podium places.
Ferrari and Red Bull looked on a very similar level of performance which was not a big surprise given their pace from the Melbourne and Shanghai weekends. Both teams appear to be fairly competitive, albeit they seem to lack some downforce to take on the fight with Mercedes and McLaren.
In the previous seasons, Ferrari usually lacked the ultimate downforce in the opening sector of the Suzuka track which is dominated by long-radius high-speed corners. On Day 1 of this race weekend, the Scuderia once again looked to struggle slightly in the early stages , but setup changes enabled Leclerc to become very competitive in this very part of the circuit in a way that he set ultimately the quickest sector time in the opening part of the track.
However, his margin over his rivals was tiny, with five other drivers being within a tenth of a second of his best time. In truth, Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso was also part of this group of this drivers, albeit he set his best time in Sector 1 when he crashed out at the end of the timing line between the first two sectors which indicated that his eye-catching time came due to his “overspeed”.
Interestingly, McLaren built up their margin over the rest of the field in the middle part of the track. Norris was the quickest in Sector 2, with Piastri a tenth adrift. Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson was third quickest, with the two Ferraris and the Mercedes of George Russell and the Red Bull of Max Verstappen having been almost half a second slower than what Norris and Piastri managed.
The McLaren pair continued to dominate the short third sector which demonstrates the brilliant aerodynamic efficiency of the MCL39 which has the necessary downforce level through the high-speed corners in Sector 1, but it still managed to dominate the straights of the rest of the lap.
Interestingly, all top teams – McLaren, Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull – have elected to bring a lower-downforce aerodynamic configuration for this weekend compared to last season despite the weather forecast that predicts rain for Sunday.
McLaren and Ferrari have equipped their MCL39 and the SF-25 respectively with a spoon-shaped rear wing, albeit the Woking-based outfit’s design features a more loaded mainplane. It is therefore no surprise to see McLaren achieve the lowest top speed – similar to what Williams and Haas demonstrated on Friday.
However, while McLaren were brutally quick through the opening sector that is dominated by elongated, long-radius corners, Williams and Haas struggled through this very part of the circuit, which indicated a far less encouraging aerodynamic efficiency.
Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull achieved higher top speeds through the speed trap thanks to their slightly lower downforce setup. Leclerc was quickest through the first sector which was a result of his gain on the main straight. While it could also be related to the differences of energy deployment configuration between the cars, he was also aided by Ferrari’s slightly lower downforce setup compared to McLaren.
Sauber and Alpine were the quickest through the speed trap, with the Anglo-French outfit achieving a top speed that was over six kphs higher than what the field-leading McLaren managed to achieve.
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