Formula 1 News: 2025 Japanese GP Friday Practice Quotes

Red Bull

Max Verstappen – FP1: 1:29.065, P5; FP2: 1:28.670, P8

“Of course, it was quite chaotic out there for everyone with the red flags so, like everyone else, we couldn’t complete what we wanted to do. This meant that today has been quite difficult for us as we were trying different things in the car and a lot of things weren’t clicking as much as we would have liked. It is quite difficult to put the lap down: you need quite a lot of confidence and commitment around here and, at the moment, I feel like I still have a bit of work to do. I was on the soft tire, which requires a lot of management, and you can’t really push it so I only got about three laps at the end which wasn’t a great read. I think Yuki started off really well today even though FP1 and FP2 was very chaotic for everyone. Tomorrow in FP3 we can hopefully have a bit of a longer run but overall it hasn’t been an easy day.”

Yuki Tsunoda – FP1: 1:29.172, P6; FP2: 1:30.625, P18

“I think we can say today was ok, but it could have been better. FP1 was better than FP2, I gained a lot more learnings. We didn’t set a lap time in FP2 due to the number of stops in the session, you could maybe call the session a shambles for everyone. Overall, it is ok and I am happy to have confidence in the car. The car feels a bit different to what I felt on the simulator, a bit more than I expected in terms of car feeling, it is a bit more exaggerated in the real car. We still have some work to do and we have a lot to explore in the data before tomorrow.”

Racing Bulls

Isack Hadjar – FP1: 1:29.225, P8; FP2: 1:28.518, P3

“It was more than an encouraging Friday. I loved driving here today, and this car and track combo is definitely the best out there. It’s an impressive circuit to drive in a Formula One car, and it was something I was really looking forward since the start of the season, especially Sector 1 is really fast and satisfying. We had a good FP1 and FP2 and overall, it was an enjoyable day; it was the same in Australia and China, so we know what to work on. I felt good in the car and I think we’re on the right trajectory to get a nice result tomorrow, so we’ll give our best to qualify well.”

Liam Lawson – FP1: 1:29.536, P13; FP2: 1:28.559, P5

“It was a good day, it’s nice to be back, everyone’s been very very positive. I’ve spent a lot of time with this team, they’re a great bunch of people and it’s nice to feel welcomed back again. Also nice to be driving in Suzuka again, it’s a very cool track, with the resurfacing in sector one it’s even faster now; it just feels like it’s tearing your head off, which is quite exciting. All in all, a good day, but obviously tomorrow is the more important one. The car felt good, it does feel different, the window that the guys have at the moment is very very good, the car is pretty fast so far this season so hopefully we can replicate that tomorrow as well.”

Alan Permane, Racing Director

“A good day for us. A little bit frustrating with all the red flags, but that’s the same for everybody. We have a decent car here, it seems reasonably balanced. There’s still some work to do and we’ve got places where we can go faster with some tweaks to the setup. We go into tomorrow a little bit under prepared in terms of high fuel running, but again that’s the same for everybody. Liam has done a solid job in his first day back in the team, and the balance across the cars is very similar, so Isack and Liam are going to be able to help each other and improve both cars at the same time.”

Aston Martin

Fernando Alonso – FP1: 1:29.222, P7; FP2: 1:29.978, P17

“It’s always great to drive around Suzuka. It’s a fantastic circuit with a great atmosphere thanks to the amazing fans.

“The new surface is better. It’s very smooth in the first sector’s high-speed corners. In FP2 I lost the car into Turn 8 and I ended up in the gravel. We’ll have a look at what happened and let’s see what we can do tomorrow in Qualifying.”

Lance Stroll – FP1: 1:29.758, P16; FP2: 1:30.845, P19

“It’s nice to be back in Suzuka. There wasn’t too much running in FP2 due to multiple red flags, but we’ve been able to learn quite a lot and will analyze the data tonight. I’m looking forward to applying what we’ve learnt and getting back in the car tomorrow.”

Williams

Alex Albon – FP1: 1:29.392, P11; FP2: 1:29.023, P11

“I think we need the sprinklers out! We maybe weren’t as quick as we wanted to be but today has been very disjointed. We know where we need to improve though, so we’ll do some tuning overnight. I’m feeling good in the car, I’m confident and I hope we can score some points this weekend.”

Carlos Sainz – FP1: 1:29.333, P10; FP2: 1:28.832, P10

“An eventful Friday here in Suzuka. During FP1 we managed to test a few things on the car and do some good running. However, FP2 was very disrupted and I really couldn’t get a proper read of the things we wanted to try out, although it seemed we were working in the right direction. It’s going to be a hectic FP3 for everyone tomorrow, there’s a lot of things to try and the wind direction is going to change, so the cars may feel very different compared to today. I hope Jack is feeling well after his incident and tomorrow he can be back at it.”

Alpine

Pierre Gasly – FP1: 1:29.547, P14; FP2: 1:28.757, P9

“It is good to see that Jack is OK after his incident in Free Practice 2. Certainly, it was a heavy one and I am relieved to see he is fine after that. From our side, it was quite a busy day even with some of the stoppages and we managed to fit many things into our program. We tried some different set-ups and the car is feeling good and we have something to work with for the rest of the weekend. Of course, more running would be beneficial but we’re all in the same position and we will focus on maximizing what we have tomorrow. The midfield is close with only a few tenths between a number of cars. That’s what makes it exciting and we’ll give it our best shot tomorrow in Qualifying.”

Jack Doohan – FP2: 1:31.659, P20

“First of all, I am OK after the incident. It was a heavy one, something that caught me by surprise, and I will learn from it. I know the team has a lot of work ahead to repair the car going into tomorrow, so thanks in advance to them for their efforts. My focus is on tomorrow where we will have Free Practice 3 to get ready for Qualifying.”

Ayo Hirakawa – FP1: 1:29.394, P12

“It was a great experience to do Free Practice 1 at my home race in Suzuka. It’s a circuit I know very well so I felt quite confident to push straight away and really maximize the session and execute the team’s run plan. We completed everything we intended to do so and learnt some things which should benefit the team going forwards. The car felt quick, that was cool to experience, especially at this fantastic circuit and I’m very grateful to the team for this opportunity. Finally, I am glad to see Jack is OK after his crash.”

Oliver Oakes, Team Principal

“We are all relieved to see Jack walk away from his incident in Free Practice 2 and glad to see he is OK after his precautionary checks. It was a misjudgment of not closing the DRS into Turn 1. It is something to learn from and I know Jack and the team will be ready for tomorrow. His crew will work hard to have the car prepared after the damage. From a performance point of view today, there are some things for us to work on. Pierre had a good run in Free Practice 2, which bodes well for tomorrow, as did Ryo, who did a great job to run through the program this morning. We tried some set-up options between cars and we have a good direction to go in ahead of Qualifying.”

Kick Sauber

Nico Hulkenberg – FP1: 1:30.023, P17; FP2: 1:29.062, P12

“I think Friday was okay. FP2 was obviously very limited – we didn’t deliver as many laps as planned because of the four red flags. But that’s the same for everyone, it means we have a limited amount of data and limited information, but the car felt okay and a bit better than in FP1. Obviously, it was difficult to retrieve a proper read and understand everyone’s performance this afternoon. We‘re analyzing everything now to optimize the set-up for tomorrow.”

Gabriel Bortoleto – FP1: 1:30.147, P20; FP2: 1:29.335, P13

“Today has been a positive first day on track; I was really looking forward to driving in Suzuka, and I enjoyed every second of it. It’s possibly the most beautiful track I have ever been to. FP1 went smoothly and allowed us to go through our plan. FP2, on the other hand, has been pretty eventful, with several red flags. We didn’t manage to complete our program for the session, but I doubt anyone did – still, we’re going to be working on the learnings from today as we are trying to extract as much as possible from the data we gathered ahead of tomorrow.”

Haas

Esteban Ocon – FP1: 1:30.123, P19; FP2: 1:29.507, P14

“It was a difficult session; it was interrupted by many red flags so we couldn’t complete the run program we wanted. It’s more difficult compared to China currently, we’re lacking a bit here and there, there are things we need to work on, and there are things we’ve tested across cars. We need to dig into it overnight and choose the best for us, it’s all on us to find more performance. I think we’ve made progress with the floor; I think it’s going in the right direction.”

Oliver Bearman – FP1: 1:30.077, P18; FP2: 1:29.654, P15

“FP2 was tough, not getting many laps in with such an interrupted session. The track is tough with this wind, so it was no surprise that things happened – it was very gusty and inconsistent. I felt pretty good out there, so I’m annoyed that I couldn’t do a proper lap and show what we could do. I had a decent feeling in the afternoon, this morning was a bit more difficult, but we made some changes and we’re making small steps. The new floor seemed okay – we haven’t got a full read on it yet – we have to look overnight to make sure it’s all correct, but so far there’s nothing that has caught us out by surprise which is good.”

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal

“In FP1, in terms of the car balance window, we weren’t quite there but in terms of the issues we had in Melbourne, we didn’t see them. In FP2, we pushed the car a lot further, much closer to how we did in Shanghai and actually that gave us answers on the new floor which is pretty good – so it’s definitely better for the problem, and it was a good job done by the aero team and the design office to improve that. We improved the car balance as well, but with four red flags in FP2, it was a disrupted session so we didn’t complete the run program. I think especially on Ollie’s side, his car configuration is better, so we’ll look at the data and update Esteban’s floor to Ollie’s spec tonight, we just need to find a bit more performance.”

Pirelli

Simone Berra, Pirelli Chief Engineer

“In some respects, this was a difficult day to assess, because in the second session, no one was able to run with any continuity because of the four red flags. However, we were still able to draw some important conclusions. The first point is that the track proved to be significantly quicker than last year, considering that Piastri’s best time is already lower than the pole time from 2024. That’s down in part to the natural progression of the current generation of cars and also, significantly, to the increased grip from the new track surface, from the exit of the final chicane to the end of the first sector. In fact, over half the time improvement from last year to this one, can be attributed specifically to that first sector, based on FP1 times.

“Even though no one managed to do any long runs in the second session, we managed to gather some data from the first one, when several drivers did a long series of laps, split between different compounds. In general, apart from a few exceptions, we did not see any graining and it became clear that, on paper at least, all three compounds could have a role to play in the race. Furthermore, unlike in 2024, three quarters of the drivers opted not to save both sets of Hards.

“The level of degradation seen on the long runs today is lower than expected, which could suggest that a one-stop strategy might be more competitive than a two-stop, which theoretically was considered to be the quickest. We’ll see how the situation evolves, also taking into account the weather, as rain is forecast overnight from Saturday to Sunday.”