All You Need to Know Before the 2025 Japanese GP Starts

The third race of the 2025 Formula 1 season will be the 2025 Japanese Grand Prix.

Lando Norris arrives in Japan as the World Drivers' Championship leader with 44 points, eight points ahead of Red Bull's Max Verstappen. The most recent winner, Oscar Piastri, is fourth in the WDC with 34 points, behind Mercedes' George Russell (35).

Suzuka saw Red Bull dominate the last three races with Verstappen. Is it the perfect track for the team to bring results and quiet the talk about their drivers' lineup? Possibly. However, McLaren are the favorites again.

The Woking-based team has recorded two Pole Positions and two Grand Prix wins already in 2025, which only happened in 2024 after the 13th race of the year.

There's pressure on McLaren to continue performing well, especially if the other top teams get closer. While Mercedes seems content with their package, Ferrari and Red Bull are struggling, but showing some good signs.

Ferrari won the Sprint in Shanghai with Lewis Hamilton, while Charles Leclerc performed well in the early stages of the Chinese Grand Prix. Meanwhile, the Red Bull looks decent when it can hold some life on the tyres, as Max Verstappen showed late in Shanghai.

Can Red Bull and Ferrari step up this weekend? Last year, Red Bull won at Suzuka with a 1-2, followed by Ferrari with their both drivers.

2025 Japanese GP Facts & Figures

The 2025 Japanese Grand Prix is next in the Formula 1 calendar and the event will be the 39th Japanese round as part of the F1 World Championship.

The first World Championship Japanese Grand Prix took place at Fuji in 1976. Mario Andretti won the race for Lotus, and James Hunt famously won the Drivers' title for McLaren after Ferrari's Niki Lauda (as others did) withdrew due to the seemingly impossible weather conditions.

Teammates Senna & Prost's worst moment in Japan 1989

The race was again held at Fuji in 1977, with Hunt winning for McLaren in what was the final win of his career. Logistical issues meant the race was scrapped from the calendar and returned in 1987.

As in the first Grand Prix, title-deciding races became usual in Japan. Until today, the Formula 1 World Drivers' Championship has been decided 13 times in Japan, starting with Hunt in 1976 and Max Verstappen sealing the title in 2022.

Ayrton Senna reached his three titles (1988, 1990, and 1991) in Suzuka, which has hosted the Japanese round since 1987 (Nelson Piquet did the same in the 1987 event).

Alain Prost also sealed one of his titles in the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka (1989), while Damon Hill (1996), Mika Hakkinen (1998, 1999), Michael Schumacher (2000, 2003), Sebastian Vettel (2011), and Max Verstappen (2022) joined the list later.

Moreover, Schumacher sealed his 1995 title (his second with Benetton) at the Pacific Grand Prix, also held in Japan. Japan has seen a title decided 14 times in Formula 1 history, more than any other country since 1950 (Italy is second with 12).

Apart from some controversial title deciders and tremendous races for the championship, the 2005 Japanese Grand Prix also stands out, with Kimi Raikkonen winning from 17th on the grid for his most famous win with McLaren.

In recent memory, Jules Bianchi's crash in the 2014 round is heartbreaking for Formula 1 fans, as the young French driver later died from his injuries.

Max Verstappen driving the Red Bull Racing RB20 on track during the 2024 F1 Grand Prix of Japan at Suzuka International Racing Course on April 07, 2024

The last three events in Japan were won by Verstappen, who joined Michael Schumacher as the only two drivers with three consecutive wins in Suzuka.

The most successful driver in the Japanese Grand Prix is Michael Schumacher with six wins (one with Benetton and five with Ferrari). Among the current racers, Hamilton leads with five wins in Japan (one in Fuji with McLaren and four at Suzuka with Mercedes).

Sebastian Vettel, who retired in 2022, was another multiple champion who was successful at Suzuka, winning four times for Red Bull between 2009 and 2013.

Among teams, McLaren leads with nine wins, ahead of Ferrari and Red Bull (seven each).

Suzuka Circuit

Suzuka is one of the most beloved circuits in the world, with drivers and fans agreeing that it is one of the best race tracks in the history of motor racing.

The circuit's current layout is 5.807 km long with 18 corners. The twisty sectors and the high-speed sections of the track have remained quite similar since 1987, with some small changes made in certain corners and the last chicane, known as the Casio Triangle, being moved further or closer to the 130R curve.

The track was 5.859 meters long in 1987 when it was introduced to F1, but small changes to make the sector-one corners faster and tighter have shortened the track a bit.

SUZUKA, JAPAN - APRIL 05: Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-24 during the Japanese GP at Suzuka on Friday April 05, 2024 in Suzuka, Japan. (Photo by Zak Mauger / LAT Images)

Suzuka has hosted the Japanese Grand Prix 34 times since 1987. It held the event without interruption from 1987 to 2006 and then returned in 2009. The 2007 and 2008 races were held at Fuji.

The 2020 and 2021 events were not held due to issues generated by the Covid-19 pandemic, while its return in 2022 presented a shortened race due to rainy weather and a dangerous situation at the start due to the FIA deploying a recovery vehicle while the Formula 1 cars were still on the track, which almost resulted in a huge crash for then AlphaTauri driver Pierre Gasly.

There will be one DRS zone in the event, as usual, in the main straight.

The current records around the 'Figure Eight' layout are the following:

Outright record: 1:27.064 min by Sebastian Vettel in 2019, driving the Ferrari SF90 at an average speed of 240,113 km/h.

Fastest Lap during a race: 1:30.983 min by Lewis Hamilton in 2019, driving the Mercedes W10 at an average speed of 229.770 km/h.

2025 Japanese Grand Prix - Tyres

The dry tyres for the 2025 Japanese Grand Prix will be the C1 as P Zero White hard, C2 as P Zero Yellow Medium, and C3 as P Zero Red soft.

Pirelli's views for the weekend were explained in a press release: "The C1, the hardest compound of the 2025 range, makes its season debut at this the third round, joined as usual by the C2 and the C3. That’s because Suzuka is one of the toughest tracks on the calendar when it comes to tyres and Pirelli has therefore always selected the hardest trio of compounds.

Something new for this year is the fact that a large part of the track has been resurfaced, from the exit of the last chicane to the end of the first sector. This is an important section, as it features medium and high speed corners, some of them long ones, such as the first two after the start-finish straight, where tyres come under a lot of stress.

Pirelli also has something new to offer this weekend. On the Suzuka podium, as was also the case in Melbourne and Shanghai, the drivers will wear a special edition Podium Cap, designed by Denis Dekovic and taking its inspiration from the culture of the Land of the Rising Sun. The cap is part of a collection produced by Pirelli Design, consisting of 14 different versions out of the 24 Grands Prix on the calendar and is on sale on a dedicated e-commerce platform.

SHANGHAI, CHINA - MARCH 20: Pirelli tyres in the Pitlane during previews ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of China at Shanghai International Circuit on March 20, 2025 in Shanghai, China. (Photo by Sam Bloxham/LAT Images)

For Suzuka, the three hardest compounds in the range will be available. It is worth noting that, of the three, the C1 is the one that most closely resembles its 2024 iteration, while the C2 especially and the C3, have undergone the most changes in terms of performance, being softer than last year.

Therefore, it will be interesting to see how the teams will manage their tyre allocation over the course of the three free practice sessions as they try to establish the best-set up for their cars, with a focus on race strategy.

Pre-event simulations, carried out using data supplied by the teams, suggests that lap times will come down thanks to the combined effect of the additional grip from the new surface and the increase in performance from the 2025 cars, which is reckoned will be around the one and a half seconds mark.

That figure will be checked right from Friday during the first two hours of track activity. Also based on data from the teams, the Pirelli engineers have slightly modified the required minimum start pressures across both axles, with the front coming down by a half psi from 25 to 24.5 and the rear increasing by the same amount from 23 to 23.5.

As always, Friday’s data will be analysed immediately, to check the correlation between the simulation and the actual figures, before making any necessary adjustments. It will be important to check if, as was the case in China for the second round, the new track surface will have a very significant effect on performance and also how quickly the track will evolve, given that Suzuka is one of the busiest circuits on the calendar, having already hosted two major events so far this year."

The minimum starting pressures for the tyres will be 24.5 PSI (front) and 23.5 PSI (rear).

2025 Japanese Grand Prix - Weather Forecast

Friday, Apr 4th - FP1 & FP2

Conditions: Mostly sunny

Max. temperature: 15°C

Chance of rain: 0%

Saturday, Apr 5th - FP3 & Qualifying

Conditions: Cloudy

Max. temperature: 16°C

Chance of rain: 10%

Sunday, Apr 6th - Race

Conditions: Partly to mostly sunny

Max. temperature: 19°C

Chance of rain: 25%

Who will be on the 2025 Japanese Grand Prix Podium?

SUZUKA, JAPAN - APRIL 07, 2024: Race winner Max Verstappen of the Netherlands and Oracle Red Bull Racing and Second placed Sergio Perez // Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool //

No driver has won four consecutive races at Suzuka, a feat that Max Verstappen will be aiming to achieve in this weekend's Japanese Grand Prix.

McLaren, on the other hand, are looking for their third win of 2025 in the same number of races. In the recent past, such a start to an F1 season is a massive sign of dominance.

Norris will have some pressure on him to show that he is, in fact, the team leader on the track. He's coming off a mixed weekend at Shanghai. He did not perform well in the Sprint and then couldn't pressure his teammate throughout the race.

Meanwhile, Piastri should be tasked with maintaining his consistency and faultless performance from China, which was not the case at the season-opener in Australia.

The prediction for the top three of the 2025 Japanese Grand Prix is 1. Lando Norris, 2. Max Verstappen, 3. George Russell.

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