Why 2022 Japanese GP became another F1 farce: Mark Hughes

F1

It wasn't just the spray that clouded the 2022 Japanese Grand Prix: safety errors, points confusion and the rapidly approaching evening brought disarray. Mark Hughes explains why

Spray from the Aston Martin of Sebastian Vettel in the 2022 Japanese GP

Bryn Lennon/F1 via Getty Images

Mark Hughes

“The thing which makes it so difficult is, it’s not too wet to drive on track; it’s too wet to see anything. It’s two big differences. The conditions to actually go out and drive in qualifying for example would be completely fine, I would be very happy to. But when you’re 10th in the pack and you cannot see anything… the amount we risk, just trying to drive around the circuit in conditions like that, is insane. You can’t see literally five-10 metres ahead of you, even though there’s a massive flashing light. So when Carlos crashed, if I was one metre wider, I would’ve gone flat out into him.”

They are the words of Lando Norris about what it was like to race in the spray of Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix.  That’s how it was for everyone – except Max Verstappen who sealed his second world championship in the best way possible, with a truly dominant drive to victory in his Red Bull on Honda’s home ground. It was a short race, just 27 laps, during which he pulled out 26sec over his nearest pursuer. Red-flagged after a couple of laps because the rain was intensifying and Sainz’s Ferrari had already aquaplaned into the Turn 12 barriers, the two-hour wait for it to restart meant it timed out at three hours.

Max Verstappen leads at the start of the 2022 Japanese Grand Prix

Verstappen admires the view as spray snakes over the rest of the field

Antonin Vincent / DPPI

In between the moments of terror, the surreal nature of the race made F1 look farcical, this further emphasised at the end when it was announced that the race would carry full points despite barely getting past half-distance and as such Verstappen’s championship was sealed. This came as a surprise not only to Verstappen himself but every team in the pitlane. It all left us with many questions.

Should the race have started when it did?

There is only a narrow window between the scheduled 2pm start and the onset of darkness. There was perhaps a pressure to at least get it underway even as the rain which had been falling for a couple of hours began to intensify as the inters-shod grid took off on the formation lap.

As the lights went out Verstappen bogged down a little and Charles Leclerc surged down the inside and appeared to have won the corner but Verstappen simply used the long outside wet line and kept up momentum to go the long way around the Ferrari and into the lead. Leclerc snapped at his heels as they sped up the Esses and through Dunlop and the Degners, leaving Sergio Perez far behind already. They raced only for a few corners though, as the Sainz incident brought out the safety car and subsequently the red flag. There were some terrifying near-misses as Sainz sat side-on to the pack at Turn 12, the fast section of track between the hairpin and Spoon. Several drivers afterwards reported that they did not even know he was there as they sped past him at around 150mph. The hazard was only intensified by Alex Albon pulling his Williams off track with a dead engine.

Ferrari of Carlos Sainz is recovered from the side of the track at Suzuka at the 2022 Japanese Grand Prix

Sainz incident led to red flag, as Gasly passed alarmingly close to recovery vehicle

Bryn Lennon/F1 via Getty Images

Should the race have started when it did?

With the pack in a controlled queue behind the safety car it was deemed ok to bring a rescue vehicle onto the track to collect the Sainz Ferrari. It very much was not ok.

Although the safety car – and thus the pack – slowed to a crawl past the incident, that didn’t account for anyone, such as Pierre Gasly, who had pitted and was a long way behind, trying to catch the tail of the pack. He’d stopped to have the advertising hoarding he’d collected after Sainz dislodged it removed from his AlphaTauri and for a set of full wet tyres. So he was going much faster than the pack, though respecting the safety car delta time. The red flag came just as he was approaching the retrieval scene and he was shocked to see a truck loom up out of the spray, which inevitably triggered memories of 2014 and the Jules Bianchi tragedy. You may have seen Gasly’s impassioned angry reaction as he got out of the car afterwards.

He was later fined and reprimanded for his speed under red flag conditions on the straight after Spoon corner– but that was hardly the point and seemed like just a deflection from the real issue.

Why was a recovery vehicle on track along with F1 cars?

When Gasly questioned the stewards how could this even be possible he was told that it is routine for rescue vehicles to be on track with the pack behind the safety car. If so, it should no longer be. It seems incredible that the lessons of 2014 are not that rescue vehicles and F1 cars should never be on track together. The FIA is conducting a full inquiry into events. But F1 dodged a bullet here.

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Knowing this rain was on its way could the race not have been started earlier?

Global TV timings, the big time difference to Europe and the logistics of getting the spectators there at an unscheduled time made this idea a non-starter.

Could the race not have been started behind the safety car?

There is a stipulation – introduced after the farcical 2021 Belgian Grand Prix – that the race only counts for points once a set number of laps have been made without the safety car. But the safety car would at least have had everyone on full wet tyres rather than intermediates.

Why was everyone on intermediates?

Because they are so much faster than the full-wet tyre in anything other than monsoon conditions. The wet tyre is good only for clearing water when behind the safety car.

So with those questions hanging in the air, everyone waited and it looked for a time as if there just wasn’t going to be a break in the weather before darkness. But eventually at 4.15pm the safety car led the wet-shod pack around in the order they’d been as the race was red-flagged: Verstappen, Leclerc, Perez, Esteban Ocon, Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, George Russell, Daniel Ricciardo, Yuki Tsunoda, Mick Schumacher, Lance Stroll, Kevin Magnussen, Lando Norris, Valtteri Bottas, Nicholas Latifi, Sebastian Vettel, Zhou Guanyu and Gasly.

Aston Martin of Sebastian Vettel in the Suzuka rain at the 2022 Japanese GP

Early switch to inters reversed Vettel’s fortunes in the race

Clive Mason/Getty Images

An hour before, Vettel had been spun onto the grass at Turn 1 in the gloom by contact with Alonso. Zhou had spun out of the hairpin.

After three laps the safety car came in and it was clear already that despite a few no-go areas of standing water offline, the track was ready for inters. Latifi and Vettel followed the safety car into the pits as Verstappen and Leclerc took up where they’d left off, leaving Perez far enough behind that Red Bull didn’t even need to stack him as almost everyone pitted the following lap. In the Mercedes pit, Russell had to be stacked behind Hamilton which dropped him many places, only some of which he could make up before the end. Alpine had avoided this scenario by leaving Alonso out for an extra lap, which dropped him behind Vettel who, along with Latifi, had made up many places by that decisive early stop. Alpine’s solution’s for Alonso definitely worked out better than Merc’s for Russell though.

Only Schumacher stayed out on the wets, leading and hoping for a safety car. Verstappen passed him to retake the lead just before Turn 1, leaving the pursuing Leclerc stuck behind the Haas up through the Esses and thus giving Verstappen a handy gap. Leclerc pushed on, matching Verstappen’s times for three laps or so – but that did for the Ferrari’s front tyres. As Verstappen disappeared into a class of his own, increasingly far ahead of everyone, Leclerc lost big chunks of pace thereafter and was steadily caught by Perez, the beginning of a dice between them which would go right to the end.

Max Verstappen and Mick Schumacher side by side in the 2022 Japanese Grand Prix

Schumacher succumbs to Verstappen as the lead changes hand

LAT via Haas

Ocon and Hamilton had their own sometimes-thrilling dice some way back from there, the high-winged Mercedes unable to pass the low-downforce Alpine. They’d finish that way in fourth and fifth.

Russell, having passed a couple of slower cars between Turns 6-7 at the top of the Esses, was catching Alonso, who was stuck behind Vettel. So Alpine brought him in for fresh inters, which were around 4sec faster than the used items and he was able to catch and pass Russell and get himself onto the back of Vettel’s sixth place once more into the final couple of laps, the two champions giving a fantastic demonstration of wheel-to-wheel racing. They would cross the line side-by-side, Vettel 0.011sec  ahead.

With the race timing out on lap 27 because of the three hour window in which a grand prix must now be completed, Verstappen crossed the line 26sec clear. Leclerc, under intense pressure from Perez, ran straight on at the chicane, rejoined still ahead but was penalised 5sec. In dropping him to an official third the penalty ensured – together with the awarding of full points – Verstappen took the title.

Why the confusion about the points?

Safety car goes through Eau Rouge at the 2021 Belgian Grand Prix

Spa 2021 ‘race’ brought a rewrite of the points-scoring rules

DPPI

The points system for races which do not achieve full distance was revised after the Spa ’21 farce when points were awarded for a few laps behind the safety car. Where the race timed out – 27 laps – would normally have been good for half-points, and in the immediate aftermath of the race that’s what everyone assumed would be awarded.

The announcement from race control that full points applied led everyone to re-read this part of the regs. It was true that they stipulated the points score only for races which could not be restarted. This race had restarted, therefore full points. That’s not what the intention of the regulation was, but that’s what it said. So full points – and the regulation will be rewritten, properly this time, ahead of the next FIA World Council meeting.

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