Mika Hakkinen Preview - 2024 Japanese Grand Prix

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It is incredible to think that Carlos Sainz Jr, the guy who won the Australian Grand Prix and brought Ferrari its second Grand Prix victory in 8 months, does not currently have a drive for next season.  It means that one of F1’s quickest and most consistent performers is now available to teams including Mercedes, Aston Martin and Red Bull Racing.  

Carlos has been in Formula 1 for ten years, he has huge experience, something which he showed perfectly with a tactically brilliant race win in Singapore last September.

He has not always had the best, most competitive equipment, but he has won a Grand Prix each year for the last 3 seasons and worked hard for Ferrari.  It’s clear the team’s focus has been on Charles Leclerc, who enjoys a long term contract, so the news that Lewis Hamilton will join the famous Italian team in 2025 raises some questions.  Will the team be able to give both Charles and Lewis the same genuine opportunity?  We have seen before how destructive equal-status can  be in a team.

Meanwhile Carlos is going to land somewhere else, and in my opinion he deserves a competitive drive in a team which needs the combination of consistency, speed and experience. Mercedes would benefit from this kind of talent as they seek to return to competitiveness. You could argue that Aston Martin really ought to be going for Carlos too, but let’s not forget that Carlos started his F1 career at Scuderia Toro Rosso. Red Bull know his abilities as well as anyone.

Take Note

Suzuka is normally a venue we visit in October, but while the date change to April is interesting, one thing is likely to remain the same.  Challenging weather!

With 90% chance of rain on Friday and Sunday, Suzuka likes giving Formula 1 drivers and teams a lot of unpredictability to deal with, so this weekend promises the same.

My memories of Suzuka are pretty good - I won my two World Championship titles there of course - and it’s a circuit which has brought us many famous races, dramas and incidents over the years.  Everyone loves it, I know Valtteri Bottas says it’s his favourite track, and of course he won there in 2019 for Mercedes.

It’s a fantastic challenge to get it right, you need a car that’s stable, consistent and enjoys constant change of direction at high speed.  

Mika’s Tip

After a difficult weekend in Australia we have to expect Red Bull to bounce back and be really strong all weekend in Japan.  Max Verstappen has won here for the last two years and, unless the team suffers another surprising technical problem similar to the brake issue in Melbourne, it’s hard to see him be threatened in a straight fight.

My tip is that Ferrari and McLaren will be battling very hard right behind him, and probably quick enough to give Sergio Perez a difficult time in the second Red Bull.  Ferrari have a quick car and the win in Melbourne will send both Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc to Japan in a very positive, motivated mindset.  There is nothing like winning to give a team a nice boost!

But McLaren were quick in Suzuka last year, and they too had a good weekend win Melbourne, so let’s see what develops in the Ferrari V McLaren battle for the podium places on Sunday.

Credits:
Written by: Mika Hakkinen, publishing origin: Unibet
We would like to thank the team at Unibet for sharing this post with us.
To read more from Mika and Unibet visit their website - www.unibet.co.uk/blog/author/mika-hakkinen