“Marathon. The piece, not the game.”
Welcome, to the biggest Dre’s Race Review I’ve ever written. Done so across the entire Japanese Grand Prix weekend and not just the Sunday for once. There’s a lot that’s gone on this weekend, including Max Verstappen vs the press, the changing narrative chat about the 2026 regulations, and the small matter of the race itself as Kimi Antonelli goes back-to-back with a little luck to make even more history in the sport. Buckle up. Make a drink, probably with caffeine given the early start in Europe. Let’s talk about it.
Max Vs The Media
As soon as this hit the socials, I knew this was going to be an explosive topic. During his personal media debrief, Max Verstappen threw out Giles Richards, a long-established journalist for The Guardian1. Why do you ask? It stems back to the end of the 2025 season in Abu Dhabi. Richards asked Verstappen as to whether the crash with George Russell in Barcelona, cost him the title, a title fight Verstappen would ultimately lose by two points. Verstappen had seen Richards again for the first time since then, claimed he had bad intentions, and said he wouldn’t be speaking until Richards left, which he did.
Of course, a lot of people immediately raised the pitchforks when this story went public. I’m guilty of that myself, making a Tiktok about the story a few hours after it broke. My employers at Crash saw a way into the story with an explainer and an opinion video of their own. I get why, on the face of it, on basic terms, it feels nasty. Driver feels entitled enough to deny a member of the media a chance to talk and it comes off as unprofessional, petty, spiteful etc. Not to mention, it’s Max Verstappen, who I would generously describe as “polarising” amongst the masses. I said it after Singapore in 2024, the last time he went on a media crusade – He’s never getting the benefit of the doubt with the masses ever again.
The problem is though, the more digging I did with the story, the more complicated it got. Allow me to explain. And a lot of this is coming from me, the perspective of someone who was a fan first, who’d later become a bit of journalist for it in my late 20’s/early 30’s. Lemme explain.
Verstappen explained his side of the story on Saturday, saying that he’d answered that question multiple times before earlier in the season, so clearly he wasn’t keen to answer it again. On top of that, Richards allegedly smirked at him when asking it, which could be perceived as malicious, fresh off losing a Championship by two points. I asked around and I’ve had it backed up by witnesses that this smirk was definitely true. Even Richards admits he may have had one in his Guardian piece he wrote about the incident.
The question itself is a bit tunnel-visioned too in my opinion. Now, this is always going to be a subjective topic in regards to the “quality” of a question, but it’s a little ignorant to determine that an entire, 24 race F1 Championship boils down to a flashpoint. This isn’t Doctor Who where fixed points in time are a key part of the plot. While yes, there’s a strong argument you can make that Verstappen whacked Russell on purpose in Barcelona, costing him five places and nine points, it’s not the only flashpoint across the season. Like in Austria, where Antonelli spun and crashed into Max at Turn 3, costing Max likely between 10-15 points depending on where he finishes and Red Bull being roughly the 2nd-3rd best car at the time.
Or the simple fact that for the first 16 or so races in 2025, McLaren were clearly stronger overall. But if you’re a journo, your way into the story is to go for what people perceive as the deliberate unforced error, rather than the “luck” element of it. If you’re more cynically minded, I can see how this could be taken rather negatively, even if you feel like you kinda have to ask it given the climate.
Next up, yes, you are allowed to remove someone when you’re hosting your own personal/team debrief. It was just done in a really sloppy way. I know Lewis Hamilton has done it, for very justified reasons. Usually a driver or team’s PR would take care of that beforehand rather than the public showdown that took place on Thursday. And that’s well known by all experienced parties.
If there was genuine beef here, the off-season would have been an ideal time to potentially clear the air and maintain that professional relationship. That clearly didn’t happen here. And Red Bull has always been sensitive when it comes to the media, they’ve largely coddled their star man in Verstappen a lot in the last decade he’s been in F1 (Media training? Ha), and even boycotted Sky F1 during the 2022 Mexican GP after Ted Kravitz said Hamilton was “robbed” in 2021 and the only reason Red Bull won was because of Adrian Newey. And on face value, that’s WAY harsher than anything Richards said here on paper.
If Max refused to take questions in an FIA Press conference, then he’d be liable for being in breach of media responsibilities, which FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem said last year would be treated as an act of bring the sport into disrepute, even if he’s loosened his stance on the draconian fines and potential bans he threatened last year.
Expanding the reach a little bit here, I think a big problem with how this story has been discussed is the very insular nature of F1 fandom. A lot of F1 fans only watch F1. Drivers walking out of media obligations are rare. Journos being shunned or kicked out is rocking horse shit in this world. But in the grander world of sports in general, it’s incredibly common.
In American Sports, journos being chucked out of locker rooms, walkouts, arguments, are ten to the dozen. Marshawn Lynch, famous former NFL running back became a household name when he famously only answered: “I’m just here so I won’t get fined” to every question he got in Superbowl Media Day. And even the media themselves had a conflicted moment of their own back in January 2026 when Jacksonville Free Press reporter Lynn Jones-Turpin took time out in an end-of-season press conference with Jaguars head coach Liam Coen to praise him for his hard work in a season-ending playoff loss, and was then criticised by her fellow reporters for wasting time.
Another easy example? Manchester United legend Sir Alex Ferguson boycotted the BBC for SEVEN YEARS because of a documentary made about his son Jason, and accusations he was using his surname to have greater influence in his role as an agent.
And it goes to show you how many people drift towards disliking Max, because we normally can’t stand journos either. I don’t even like calling myself one because those in the paddock do so much more than I ever will. They’ve spent years gathering information, forming relationships of trust and integrity from people within the industry, travelling a ton and working super long hours. It is a loveless, thankless task being the bridge of information between the subject we care about and being able to consume it. But the moment they make a mistake, we bury them. We abuse them, we think we know better, and call for their jobs or even worse. No, the media isn’t infallible, and access is always conditional, but it’s something I believe we all take for granted in this game.
The difference in Motorsport is the direct ties to sponsorship. A lot of the press are there on sponsors behalf (Increasingly so in the world of sponsored content2 and influencers), and a lot of the drivers or teams have to hold back because they have big name title sponsors they have to behave around. Remember when I was fortunate enough to cover the 2023 MotoGP British Grand Prix for The Race? That was because Monster Energy sponsored the experience and other colleagues I worked with at the time couldn’t make it. In F1, it’s a more vital cog in the system so when those gears grind, the noise is that much louder. And when you’re Max, whatever you think of him, he’s never come across as a “company guy”, you’re going to give it back if you don’t like how things are going because he hasn’t got something bigger to protect.
Having had a weekend to reflect on this story, the conclusion I’ve drawn is, everyone involved could have handled it better. Red Bull internally are pissed off and want to draw a line in it but Autosport only shared that publicly on Saturday night. It was originally a slightly redundant question that may have crossed the line into antagonism given the timing and delivery. It was beef that could have been squashed months prior before the new season started, but it wasn’t, for whatever reason on both sides. And it was petty from Max, the sport’s second most popular driver and currently biggest protagonist to take matters into his own hands when he probably didn’t have to or need to.
Put that in F1’s metaphorical food blender – An insular, territorial, football-ified landscape which has only exploded in terms of toxicity, tribalism and obsession in the last decade, hit frappe, and you get… this mess. A heated conflict that questions what we know about a media entity we’re supposed to trust vs the driver that a lot of people love to hate, whose more blunt force approach to said system rattles people. You be the judge.
Super… Struggling
The Superclipping chat just isn’t going away. After Max Verstappen’s explosive Chinese rant and others following suit on the battery situation in China, it was unanimously agreed between the teams and the FIA that Japan’s regen limit was reduced. Now, quick explanation, that regen limit is the amount of energy you can harvest over a lap to deploy, whether it be via regenerative breaking, or via the newly mentioned superclipping, bouncing off the rev limit to regen a small amount of energy, as engine power is diverted to the battery, rather than the wheels, even at full throttle. Japan had that limit reduced from 9 Mega Joules, to 8.
Now, why is this a problem? Without turning into a Temu Chain Bear (The GOAT), in this regulation set, the car’s battery only has a maximum capacity of 4MJ. So when you can regen 9 over a lap, the most efficient way of doing so is dumping and then regenerating that 4MJ (1.1 kilowatt hours for those with electric road cars) storage of battery (It’s about 11 seconds when full, fyi), multiple times over a single lap, hence all the superclipping. And the data guys on Twitter were incensed to see that cars were dropping anywhere from 40-70kph on the straight between the 130R and the Casio Triangle.
Is it lame? Kinda. The technical reasons are different, but briefly comparing to the World Endurance Championship, their hybrid LMP1’s, using KERS and allowing front-axle regen, were able to regen and deploy the same 8MJ of power over a lap of Le Mans, and deploy it all at once because their batteries were over the twice the size of F1. And they were doing this in 2015. Seeing F1 cars only being able to regen at 250kW, Gen2 Formula E Numbers (Yes, again, slightly different ball game given that was their only form of propulsion), just makes me think F1 as a collective was woefully underprepared for this entire regulation set.
The move from the FIA to drop the regen limit did what it intended to do, but it still wasn’t enough on the outside looking in to kerb the complaints from viewers and the drivers themselves. Especially given we’re at Suzuka, maybe the best technical and driver’s track in the world. And knowing the drivers can’t go all-out, let to so much backlash, a genuine technical problem with Kimi Antonelli’s onboard camera was wrongly community noted by Twitter3 users as a grand conspiracy to hide the superclipping on TV… even though they’ve been doing that with the live broadcast anyway.
Let me be clear – This is the smart thing to do. 95% of the viewing audience aren’t going to have a fucking clue about the first two paragraphs of this section. If you’re reading this, chances are you’re at least an intermediate fan when it comes to knowledge of this sport. We’re the most hardcore of audience members. Chances are, no matter what, you’re staying because you love this shit, even if it doesn’t love you back. Masking those shortcomings from the people who don’t know any better is understandable, because it doesn’t really take much away from the broadcast as a whole.
I stand by the stance I’ve always had – I can’t tell the difference between a car travelling at 170 and 200mph, so it doesn’t bother me that these cars make their lap time in a different, non-aesthetically pleasing manner. And as said, if we get better back and forth racing on Sunday as a result, I’ll take this trade. But I know a lot of people just cannot get over the V I B E S of battery management racing, and when their heroes say it sucks, chances are they’re going to agree.
So, what can we do? Well, the FIA has been the most pro-active i can remember with any early regulation set in recent times, already making on the fly adjustments during races (arguably too much with Australia), and it was a positive move here, even if it wasn’t drastic enough a step. We have a five-week break between Japan and the next race in Miami, and meetings are being hammered out during that off-time with qualifying being the top priority. But I suspect the more drastic changes will be for 2027, and I suspect the easiest fix will be allowing for bigger capacity batteries.
The problem with that though, will be as ever – team politics, with some teams thinking there’s a performance edge and not willing to compromise, and the other being it goes completely against one of the major points of the regulation change, and that was making these cars smaller and lighter. We were supposed to be down 30 kilos in these cars and most of the roster isn’t even close to that, let alone wanting to add weight back on. So as a compromise, we got stuck with these piddling batteries instead. We could also regen at the full 350kW, but again, some teams aren’t wanting to be exposed in that department. Great.
But for now, this sucks. Not because this regulation set sucks in my opinion. I can clearly see the potential it has, but it needs tweaks. I don’t think this reg set is the death penalty so many think it is. But now the tug of war and noise between both sets of fans across the battle lines are so hellaciously loud, it’s causing me as a fan far more stress than anything we’re actually getting on screen.
Haven’t You Got A Race To Review?
Oh right yeah, that. The reason I’m here. Right, let’s see if I remember how to do this.
This was a race that had two major flashpoints for the elite drivers to navigate. Both Mercedes got terrible starts from the front row and immediately handed control of the race to Oscar Piastri’s McLaren, and we got a good amount of passing as Piastri, Russell, Antonelli, Norris and Hamilton all had to work out how best to regen and where they could deploy their extra power to pass and make moves stick.
No surprise, Mercedes was the best at it, but it also goes to show you an old weakness they’ve had since the turbo-hybrids began, and that’s they struggle more than most under dirty air conditions following another car. Piastri had control of the entire first third of the race, with Russell trying every trick in the book to get ahead, but failing to do so. It forced Mercedes into an overcut strategy that didn’t work as McLaren boxed Piastri first and retained the lead after their respective pitstops.
And that gave way to the biggest issue with the new regulation set and something that’s not been spoken about as much, that makes a lot of the clipping talk redundant.
We got a Safety Car one lap after Russell’s stop. Ollie Bearman was closing in on Franco Colapinto as they headed into Spoon curve. Bearman has to dart to the grass to avoid Colapinto, who does veer slightly as he enters the braking zone. The problem here was the closing speed difference. Bearman was travelling at 190mph as he approaches Colapinto’s car, has to take to the grass, then ploughs into the outside wall at 50G’s. His closing speed was 27mph higher than Colapinto’s. For perspective, that’s a bigger disparity than the biggest of the DRS days in 2022. Bearman suffered a knee contusion but thankfully no fractures.
To a degree, we’ve buried the lede here. Carlos Sainz and the GPDA and others like Haas’ Ayao Komatsu, who completely exonerated Colapinto of blame have said that the differences between cars harvesting and those pushing was always going to be insanely high, and the consequences could be very nasty indeed. Find Sainz’ interview with Sky, he’s scathing on this point and it’s hard to argue with him. We’ve got to find a way to close off these huge differences in closing speeds or else we’re risking a potentially big accident.
Alas, with that Safety Car, Kimi Antonelli stopped and leapt to the front due to the 11 seconds saved under yellow. And with that, the Italian never looked back. He was three-quarters of a second a lap quicker at his fastest over Oscar Piastri and by race’s end, he had a comfortable fourteen second lead, pounding in fastest laps in a row.
Behind him, Piastri did a sensational job managing his older rubber and doing enough to keep Charles Leclerc at bay for second with McLaren looking like they’ve made a genuine breakthrough in terms of raw speed. And Leclerc did well to keep Russell behind him in what’s clearly a quicker car. The counter-attacking outside pass into Turn 1 late on was sensational, and his wheel-to-wheel fighting with his teammate Lewis Hamilton was again, great to see ala China.
Sometimes it’s better to be lucky rather than good, and timing is everything in life. With it, Kimi Antonelli breaks Lewis Hamilton’s 18-year old record for being the youngest man to ever lead the World Championship, and just the third man this century to go back-to-back for his first two wins, Hamilton in 2007 and Leclerc in 2019 being the other two. Just wait till he figures out how to actually start one of these cars!
The Lightning Round
No but seriously, it might be a weakness big enough where Mercedes could lose a GP in the wrong scenario if that keeps up. Between their drivers I think they’re at best, 1 out of 6 for good starts in GP’s so far this season, and this is a day where McLaren are going to be a satisfied but frustrated team that they didn’t win this one.
Pierre Gasly is driving his nuts off right now. P7 in qualifying and held it in the race by holding off Max Verstappen for the entire post-restart second half of the race. That Alpine isn’t half bad as a package this year, and might even be the fourth best car specifically in Gasly’s hands. Don’t tell Max though, according to Erik van Haren he’s genuinely considering retiring after 2026 is over. Expect more on that on Crash.net in the coming days methinks…
Aston Martin got a finish! A FINISH! Congratulations to Fernando Alonso for seeing the chequered flag, but also for becoming a father this week for the first time. That’s awesome.
Saying it again, despite the dramatics of Arvid Lindblad knocking Verstappen out of Q3, Liam Lawson very quietly is putting together the real results he needs.
Lando Norris is already on his final battery for the season because the failed unit from China was unsalvageable. Ouch. Dunno why we felt the need to only have two in the first year of a new regulation set but here we are.
Dre’s Race Rating: 7/10? (Good?) – This feels weird. I’m not going to lie to you, I’m mentally drained. I’ve been in too deep reading everyone’s thoughts on Twitter to the point where it almost feels dirty scoring this race the rating my gut tells me too. I genuinely enjoyed this race at face value. Even with Antonelli pulling away in the second half, we had a good fight between Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren, with good production to capture Gasly vs Verstappen and the Audi’s in the midfield too against Hadjar.
But the heavy cloud of that Bearman crash and having it rammed down my neck that “No, this is bad actually!”It made me genuinely second guess myself. Is it possible to be in both camps? It feels like I’m back in primary school, walking around in my Stone Cold T-Shirt, and then you deal with the inevitable jackass who says: “You know it’s all fake, right?”
Am I reading too much into this? I genuinely need to reflect on this a little bit. It’s been a long DRR, and I’m glad there’s 5 weeks until the next race. Till next time, thanks for reading, and I’ll see you in Miami.