How Ferrari’s “mega” pace paid off in tactically complex Japanese GP

The Japanese Grand Prix was a feast for strategy fans as teams explored a variety of routes to the chequered flag.

The change of date for this year’s race, which shifted from autumn to spring, was the backdrop to this, as it meant the weekend was held in generally lower temperatures. It warmed up on race day, however, but began to cloud over during the race, causing dips in track surface temperature which further frustrated teams’ efforts to pick which tyre to run on.

The upshot was one-third of the field took soft tyres for the original start, the rest on mediums. As we have seen before, however, large variations in tyre choice at the start can lead to incidents, and sure enough Daniel Ricciardo’s medium-shod RB tangled with Alexander Albon’s soft-tyred Williams and the pair crashed out together.

That triggered a stoppage and standing restart which gave teams a chance to change tyres produced even more variety. Mercedes and Alpine switched their drivers, as did Williams with their sole remaining car. All five were in the same position of having two sets of hard tyres to use and only one medium, and were hoping to reach the end of the race with only one further tyre change.

None of them were able to pull it off. The only driver who managed a near-one-stop strategy was Charles Leclerc, who switched to a second fresh set of medium compound tyres during the stoppage.

Lewis Hamilton especially struggled with his car’s balance, and kept cranking on more front wing angle at his pit stops. “It took us two stints to finally dial more and more wing in to make up for that loss,” he told Channel 4. “In the last stint I was better, but it was too late. I had 10 seconds to regain.”

Hamilton’s lap times on the medium tyre at the end of the race, and to a lesser degree his second stint on hards, support team principal Toto Wolff’s view that the car’s pace improved after its “atrocious” opening stint.

But even the Red Bull drivers were still chasing a better balance in the race. Max Verstappen was unhappy with his initial front wing level – having gone against the recommendation of race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase – and Sergio Perez dropped back far enough from his team mate that Red Bull allowed him to pit first, thereby gaining the advantage of fresh tyres sooner.

“Unfortunately, I think we got caught out with the increase of temperature. With the balance, we just couldn’t get on top of that in the first stint, which meant that the degradation was a little bit higher.”

Lando Norris, who was frustrated to be ‘undercut’ by Leclerc in Australia two weeks ago, pitted three laps before any of the cars ahead of him this time, eventually provoking Perez and Carlos Sainz Jnr to react. But he was in the same position as the Mercedes drivers, with two fresh sets of hard tyres, while the Ferrari and Red Bull duos had extra sets of mediums.

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

“With Lando having two sets of hards it compromised a little bit our race more than I wanted to,” said Perez. “But I think already on the second stint things were a lot back under control, We were able to get a better read to the balance. By the time we got to the third stint things were a lot better.”

Norris was ultimately unable to contain the Ferraris, though despite making his second pit stop before half-distance he did not have to resort to three-stopping, as Red Bull suspected he might at one stage.

That was partly thanks to Fernando Alonso behind him, whose especially unconventional strategy helped him out-run the other McLaren plus both Mercedes. Having gambled on taking a fresh set of softs into the race, he started on them, and impressively waited until lap 13 before changing them – two laps further than Norris went on his mediums.

The race underlined Ferrari’s much improved stint pace compared to last year. Both drivers finished higher than they started.

“We kind of knew our race pace was better than our qualifying pace,” said Sainz. “Still probably not enough to go for a win because obviously starting P4 and given how good the race pace of the Red Bull is, it’s almost impossible to think about a win.

“But I was hopeful of achieving a podium that in the end we managed to achieve, even if it was a very tough race, very strategic.

“The track condition changed a lot through the race. We went from a very sunny track that we hadn’t had all weekend to a very cloudy track. The degradation went down a lot and you could push a lot more on the tyres halfway through the race. This changed the whole situation quite a lot. At one point, I thought the podium wasn’t possible, but then with a new hard, the pace was mega and I could get back onto the podium.”

2024 Japanese Grand Prix lap chart

The positions of each driver on every lap. Click name to highlight, right-click to reset. Toggle drivers using controls below:

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

2024 Japanese Grand Prix race chart

The gaps between each driver on every lap compared to the leader’s average lap time. Very large gaps omitted. Scroll to zoom, drag to pan and right-click to reset. Toggle drivers using controls below:

2024 Japanese Grand Prix lap times

All the lap times by the drivers (in seconds, very slow laps excluded). Scroll to zoom, drag to pan and toggle drivers using the control below:

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

2024 Japanese Grand Prix fastest laps

Each driver’s fastest lap:

Rank	#	Driver	Car	Lap time	Gap	Avg. speed (kph)	Lap no.
1	1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull-Honda RBPT	1’33.706		223.09	50
2	55	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Ferrari	1’33.841	0.135	222.77	46
3	11	Sergio Perez	Red Bull-Honda RBPT	1’33.945	0.239	222.53	35
4	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1’33.952	0.246	222.51	41
5	63	George Russell	Mercedes	1’34.404	0.698	221.44	39
6	14	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin-Mercedes	1’34.726	1.020	220.69	53
7	81	Oscar Piastri	McLaren-Mercedes	1’34.802	1.096	220.51	35
8	2	Logan Sargeant	Williams-Mercedes	1’34.900	1.194	220.29	43
9	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1’35.044	1.338	219.95	53
10	4	Lando Norris	McLaren-Mercedes	1’35.186	1.480	219.62	51
11	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Haas-Ferrari	1’35.325	1.619	219.3	52
12	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin-Mercedes	1’35.798	2.092	218.22	41
13	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine-Renault	1’36.232	2.526	217.24	52
14	22	Yuki Tsunoda	RB-Honda RBPT	1’36.342	2.636	216.99	51
15	77	Valtteri Bottas	Sauber-Ferrari	1’36.608	2.902	216.39	25
16	10	Pierre Gasly	Alpine-Renault	1’36.642	2.936	216.32	48
17	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas-Ferrari	1’36.654	2.948	216.29	24
18	24	Zhou Guanyu	Sauber-Ferrari	1’37.160	3.454	215.16	9

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

2024 Japanese Grand Prix tyre strategies

The tyre strategies for each driver:

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

2024 Japanese Grand Prix pit stop times

How long each driver’s pit stops took:

Rank	#	Driver	Team	Complete stop time (s)	Gap to best (s)	Stop no.	Lap no.
1	81	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	22.848		2	32
2	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	22.911	0.063	4	34
3	11	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	22.956	0.108	2	33
4	11	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	22.99	0.142	1	15
5	63	George Russell	Mercedes	22.991	0.143	3	37
6	14	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	22.998	0.15	1	13
7	4	Lando Norris	McLaren	23.049	0.201	1	11
8	10	Pierre Gasly	Alpine	23.102	0.254	3	32
9	55	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Ferrari	23.136	0.288	2	15
10	14	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	23.157	0.309	2	33
11	1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	23.177	0.329	1	16
12	4	Lando Norris	McLaren	23.232	0.384	2	26
13	1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	23.234	0.386	2	34
14	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	23.238	0.39	3	22
15	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	23.285	0.437	2	26
16	2	Logan Sargeant	Williams	23.287	0.439	4	41
17	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	23.333	0.485	2	23
18	22	Yuki Tsunoda	RB	23.358	0.51	2	7
19	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	23.358	0.51	2	12
20	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	23.394	0.546	2	19
21	81	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	23.42	0.572	1	12
22	22	Yuki Tsunoda	RB	23.486	0.638	3	22
23	63	George Russell	Mercedes	23.577	0.729	2	22
24	55	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Ferrari	23.591	0.743	3	36
25	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Haas	23.622	0.774	1	5
26	10	Pierre Gasly	Alpine	23.844	0.996	2	16
27	24	Zhou Guanyu	Sauber	23.91	1.062	1	7
28	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	23.956	1.108	3	39
29	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Haas	23.993	1.145	2	33
30	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	24.181	1.333	3	33
31	2	Logan Sargeant	Williams	24.22	1.372	3	34
32	77	Valtteri Bottas	Sauber	24.824	1.976	1	6
33	2	Logan Sargeant	Williams	25.53	2.682	2	22
34	77	Valtteri Bottas	Sauber	25.946	3.098	2	22
35	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	26.198	3.35	2	22
36	24	Zhou Guanyu	Sauber	26.653	3.805	2	11

2024 Japanese Grand Prix

• “Am I in a race here or what?”: How Ferrari aced their Suzuka strategies
• Suzuka showed Mercedes “have a more stable platform” now
• Ferrari’s strategy gains in 2024 are “purely down to the car” – Sainz
• Tsunoda ‘at Verstappen and Alonso’s level’ with Suzuka performance – Marko
• Japan was first race where Red Bull’s winning margin was bigger than last year

Browse all 2024 Japanese Grand Prix articles