Formula 1 News: 2025 Japanese GP Post-Race Quotes

All ten Formula 1 Teams plus tire supplier Pirelli provided quotes after the 2025 Japanese GP at Suzuka won by Max Verstappen.

Red Bull

Max Verstappen, 1st

“We couldn’t have wished for a better result today in our final race with Honda here together. It’s been amazing and I’m really proud of what we have done this weekend. We made all of the right calls during the race, were constantly pushing and our tires weren’t overheating so much due to the colder tire temperature which helped us. Yesterday was a beautiful day for us and the key to the win was to start from pole. We maximized everything we could and to follow this up with the win is fantastic. We know our limitations and still have work to do. We are just finding where we can push the car to the limit and need to maximize everything that we can to get the best out of the car and make it more balanced. Finally, this is a perfect send off for Honda and our relationship is something I will never forget. I’ve enjoyed my time with them and how they work: they are so professional and dedicated and they have given me so much. Together to win four Driver’s Championships and two Constructors’ Championships is unbelievable. It did cross my mind whilst driving that it would be insane to win here today and at a home track for Honda, so that gave me a bit of motivation as well. It’s a proper send off and we couldn’t have wished for a better weekend.”

Yuki Tsunoda, 12th

“It’s tough today because I wanted to at least finish in the points. I am happy with the race in terms of what I have learnt but not in terms of result, so it’s mixed feelings. I was feeling a lot of support from the crowd, every lap it felt more and I wanted to give something more back to them. At least I know I did the maximum I could in the race and these 53 laps gave me so much to learn about the car. I now know what kind of things I need to work on. I was stuck behind cars all day in traffic so it’s hard to know the full race pace of this car but, every lap of the 53, I was building up my confidence in the car. That confidence level is now completely different from the beginning of the weekend to now, I feel positive about that, but I am still disappointed because it is a home Grand Prix and it’s only once a year. I need to reset before Bahrain and I am sure compared to what I was feeling, in terms of car and in terms of confidence it will naturally be better there. I will understand more about the car, and I am excited for the next one, I just need to do better in qualifying. A big congrats to Max, it is good to see one of the Honda engines win at our home Grand Prix, in their final year of collaborating with Red Bull. And finally, a special thanks to the Japanese fans, I feel like there were more than ever at the track and I feel very honored to represent them. I am very happy to be able to drive in front of them as an Oracle Red Bull Racing driver, with a Honda engine.”

Christian Horner, Team Principal

“What a race! An imperious drive from the front secured a fourth consecutive win at Suzuka for Max, the Team and of course our engine partners Honda who we owe a debt of thanks and gratitude for their support over the years. In reality though the hard work was done yesterday. It has to be one of the best weekend’s of Max’s career, one that further underlines Max as the best in the world currently. Suzuka is a driver’s circuit and boy did Max deliver. Equally, credit has to go to the engineering Team as well for turning things upside down after Friday and pushing together to get the job done. It was a solid performance for Yuki. The nature of the race meant overtaking was hard to come by throughout, but he made some ground and will only improve as he continues to settle into the Team the next few races.”

McLaren

Lando Norris, 2nd

“A tough race today, it was flat-out from start to finish but the pace was too similar to do anything. Max drove a good race with no mistakes, and it ultimately came down to Qualifying positions today. It’s still been a very good weekend for the team securing more points together, but we will continue to work hard as we head to the next one in Bahrain.”

Oscar Piastri, 3rd

“A good haul of points and a nice result for the team. I think the pace today was really good and I was very happy with that. We got close for the overtake a few times, but track position around here is just so important. I think yesterday was the day where you effectively won the race, and we just didn’t put it all together, so I’ll absolutely take the podium. We go to Bahrain with a lot of positives, and ready to challenge again.”

Andrea Stella, Team Principal

“A double podium finish is a positive result for the team. We felt the victory was possible but yesterday, we missed out on Pole Position by a few milliseconds, and today the Qualifying order was the dominant factor for the final outcome of the Grand Prix. We will review to see if there were some variables we could have played with this afternoon, but degradation was low and a one-stop race didn’t give us many strategic options. Thanks to the trackside team, and everyone back at the factory. We’re now looking forward to Bahrain.”

Ferrari

Charles Leclerc, 4th

“It was a bit of a lonely race for me today. P4 is not a result we are ever satisfied with, but looking at the positives of this weekend, the work we did on Friday in terms of set-up adjustment and the learnings we take into the next races have paid off. We made good progress, but we have to keep our heads down and keep working before we come to any conclusions. The front runners still have quite an advantage in terms of pace. For now, we have to focus on maximizing the points we bring home, which we did today, and hopefully later in the season we can fight for the top positions.”

Lewis Hamilton, 7th

“That was a tough race for us today. We didn’t have the pace to challenge the top three, and that’s something we’ll be working hard to address ahead of the next rounds. I went with a setup that felt good overall, but it just didn’t give me everything I needed out there. The team’s been doing an incredible job, and we’ll keep pushing together to find those gains. The fans have been amazing all weekend – their energy and support means a lot.”

Fred Vasseur, Team Principal

“Today’s race result reflected what we saw in qualifying yesterday. With the car that we had we probably could not have done more. We were two to three tenths off the quickest in qualifying and it was pretty much the same today in the race.

“We are struggling with some aspects and we must keep working to try and extract more from the car for Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. We know there is room for improvement and we need to work on car balance and tires management. For next week in Bahrain, we and in fact all the teams, will have some baseline data from pre-season testing, so we will be able to get a clearer picture of where we stand and of what we need to do to improve.”

Mercedes

George Russell, 5th

“Today’s race was a frustrating one. With the top six cars all finishing where they started, it was a Grand Prix dictated by yesterday’s qualifying performance. It was a relatively easy one-stop strategy and, on a circuit that is very difficult to overtake at, there were few opportunities to make forward progress. We tried our best to make the undercut work on Leclerc at the end of our first stint. Unfortunately, we didn’t quite have the pace to pull it off with the traffic that we had to clear in those two laps. Whatever strategy we had attempted though, I think we would have ultimately finished P5.

“Our frustration mainly comes from the fact that we didn’t optimize qualifying yesterday. With the pace we showed over practice, we had a car that could have been competing for the front two rows of the grid. It is the first qualifying session of the year where we haven’t maximized our full potential. That was a shame, but we can bounce back straight away in Bahrain. It is a very different track to Suzuka, much hotter and a more abrasive circuit. It will be fascinating to see where everyone’s relative performance is and is going to be another test for everyone.”

Kimi Antonelli, 6th

“Today was a good race from my side. I am happy with how it went and the speed we were able to show. Once I got in free air, the pace really improved, and I was able to extend my stint on the Medium tire. That was a good feeling. Once we switched to the Hard tire, the car still felt positive. I was able to put in some consistent lap times. I was catching the cars ahead but ran out of time in the end to get on the back of them. It was also a nice feeling to lead the race for a few laps and become the youngest driver in F1 history to have done so. The next goal is to do that on the only lap that matters: the final one!

“It has been a good weekend overall. It’s a great track and one that I felt that I was getting on top of by the end of the weekend. Every time I get in the car, I am building my learning and feeling more comfortable with the W16. I am looking forward to heading to Bahrain. Hopefully we can keep improving and begin to fight for some of the positions further forward than we managed today.”

Bradley Lord, Team Representative

“We come away from Japan with solid points but ultimately feeling that there was the potential for more this weekend. Suzuka is a difficult track to overtake at and today’s race was a good example of that. George looked to have the pace on the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc in the opening stages but didn’t quite have enough speed to make a pass. Being in the dirty air likely hurt his tires and he therefore couldn’t deploy the necessary pace to make the undercut work before his stop. The positive is that, had we started further forward and where we believed our qualifying pace was, we likely could have competed for the podium.

“Kimi meanwhile ticked off several more milestones today. He has built his confidence over the weekend at a demanding track and achieved a solid result. He also led his first laps in F1 and took his maiden fastest lap, becoming the youngest driver in history to achieve these feats. His development is encouraging to see and it’s a third consecutive strong race performance from him.

“We now head to Bahrain and will be aiming to be amongst the fight for the podium there. It is a very abrasive circuit and will be another good test of the progress we have made with the W16.”

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

“Today’s race was a case of what might have been for us as a team. We had shown promising pace all weekend, but Suzuka is a track that is heavily biased towards qualifying, rather than race pace. Failing to optimize our session yesterday therefore meant we knew we would be fighting an uphill battle to make significant progress today from P5 and P6. We had one eye on the weather this morning but ultimately it proved a dry Grand Prix, which limited opportunities.

“The second limiting factor was the durability of the tires, which made it a comfortable one-stop strategy for most. With George, having sat in the Ferrari’s dirty air for a good portion of his first stint, we attempted the undercut. We were close to making it work but just fell short. That left him running in a frustrating fifth to the flag.

“Kimi meanwhile ran longer on his opening stint and then showed good pace in clean air to extend. That helped him not only cover the undercut from Lewis (Hamilton) but create a tire offset to those ahead. He used that to close onto the back of George by the end of the race and take fastest lap in the process. It was another mature performance from Kimi as he continues to build his experience.

“Bahrain is a very different type of circuit to those that we have raced at so far this season. The abrasive tarmac makes it a real challenge for the tires, and it will be a good yardstick of the progress we have made with our car since last year. Hopefully, we can put in a solid performance and be back in the fight for the podium once again.”

Racing Bulls

Isack Hadjar, 8th

“That was a long and exhausting race, but we did the maximum we could have done today, and honestly, I feel like we executed a perfect race, so a very well done to the team. Achieving P8 was our target today as Lewis was out of reach. We put it all together maximizing our performance, and therefore we’ve been able to achieve this result on merit, without benefitting from any issues of the others. I couldn’t be happier to be rewarded with my first points in F1 here in Suzuka after a weekend like that. I felt comfortable in the car and I think it suited me very well. Today there was almost no degradation on track, so I was flat out all time and I didn’t really leave anything on the table. Now we look at racing in Bahrain next week, and it gives us confidence as I think we can be up there too.”

Liam Lawson, 17th

“Firstly, a massive well done to Isack for getting his first points in F1 today, he did a great job. On our side, it was a tough start, lap one was pretty tricky; I went a little bit wide in turn 13, and then it was just a train from there. It was hard to overtake, but I don’t think from where we were it would have been possible to move from there. There’s been positives to take from this weekend, in general, the car has been pretty good, obviously it takes some time to adjust and get used to it. It’s been a pretty crazy few weeks and months, I just want to get into a groove and get racing. We get to go again next week with a new style of track, so we’ll keep chipping away.”

Guillaume Dezoteux, Head of Vehicle Performance

“Solid race from the team securing a P8 for four points and confirming the strong pace shown in Qualifying yesterday. Isack had the race under control, drove consistently and managed the car and his tires very well. Liam was starting further back on the grid, so we tried to extend him to grab any opportunity. Unfortunately, nothing happened and he finished in P17 in a train of cars. This result rewards a competitive weekend straight from the outset on Friday and this is boosting all of us ahead of the next race in Bahrain.”

Laurent Mekies, Team Principal

“A good Sunday here in Suzuka, it’s been an amazing weekend, especially from Isack, with P7 in Qualifying and P8 today in the race with some seriously fast cars behind him. That was quite something in only his third Formula One race at such a difficult track. He confirmed that talent today with a faultless race: 53 laps perfectly executed between him and the team and his first F1 points in the bag. Our car has been strong all weekend and it’s encouraging for the races to come. All the teams will now be entering into an intense development race and we know we will have to work very hard to keep fighting for these good positions.

“There were also plenty of positives for Liam. He had to learn the car live during the race, with only three free practice sessions to prepare himself; he was just one tenth off Q3 yesterday. With such a tight field, and no happenings providing opportunities, it was not easy to move up the field. With a full race distance now under his belt, we are sure he will be stepping up in Bahrain.”

Williams

Alex Albon, 9th

“We’ve been experimenting with shift settings all weekend and we thought we’d finally landed on something we were happy with. Turns out, it actually felt much better in Qualifying than it did in the race. The car wasn’t easy to drive in the conditions either. In Practice on Friday, the wind suited us more, but it was completely different today. We still scored points though! It just shows that even on days when we’re not that optimal, we’re able to score points. In that sense, I’m very happy.”

Carlos Sainz, 14th

“Unfortunately, as expected, it was a difficult race stuck in traffic after a costly Saturday, with some details to polish in Qualifying and then the penalty. On a positive note, I think the pace was there today. I was comfortable with the car, managed to do some good overtakes and overall learnt a lot out there on track. Now the focus is to carry the positive feeling of this weekend on to the next GPs and build from here. Once I start putting everything together, I know better results will come. On to Bahrain!”

James Vowles, Team Principal

“It’s great to add another two points to our championship tally, with another strong and consistent performance from Alex. Near enough all cars finished in Qualifying order and my reflection on the weekend is we didn’t get it all right with Carlos in traffic yesterday and that’s on us as a team. In positive news Carlos’ performance is in a strong place and I can’t wait for next two races to see how we as a team perform and bring it all together. It’s clearly an incredibly close championship battle around us and a few milliseconds is making all the difference, so we’ll do everything we can to dig deep and find everything for the next few races.”

Haas

Esteban Ocon, 18th

“The aim was to pick up a Safety Car as we started on the hard compound – we didn’t have much to lose trying this strategy – and still managed to get a good start. Sadly, without a Safety Car it wasn’t the best strategy and we knew that, we tried our best – but it is more data, and more information to compare for next race. The important thing is that we transfer the good performance we saw on Ollie’s car, so a big well done to him, and to the team for bringing updates after Australia.”

Oliver Bearman, 10th

“I think we achieved the maximum today, not quite enough pace to fight the Williams or the VCARB so P10 it is, but I enjoyed my lonely race. Australia was a big shock, and China was an even bigger shock for all of us as to come back with such great pace without changing anything on the car. This weekend we brought a slightly different floor to help the bouncing we’ve been struggling with and it seems like so far, so good. We have a lot of positives from this weekend so we’ll take a point and look forward to Bahrain.”

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal

“It was a really good job from everyone to get Ollie finishing P10 with one point. It’s only one point but that makes a world of difference and it’s a big reward for everyone’s effort. We knew this was going to be a huge challenge considering the issue we had in Melbourne, but the new parts we brought to Bahrain worked and the engineering team worked hard across the three days and found a good set-up to get the most out of the tires and qualifying. Today, execution of tire management was very good and communication was good. With Ollie, we maximized everything we could’ve today. With Esteban starting from P18, it was going to be difficult to overtake in a one-stop race, so we couldn’t do much. It’s about fine margins, so we need to get to the bottom of why we couldn’t get Esteban to perform yesterday, and then look at today’s race data to try to get both cars up there in Bahrain.”

Aston Martin

Fernando Alonso, 11th

“It was a difficult race today at Suzuka and despite our best efforts we missed out on the points. The first half of the race I had Pierre [Gasly] within one-second and then Yuki [Tsunoda] close for the second half of the race, so I couldn’t make a mistake. Suzuka is a great circuit, and I really enjoy racing here, but it’s very hard to overtake on this track. We need to improve our car performance going forward and I’m looking forward to that development.”

Lance Stroll, 20th

“Ultimately there wasn’t much we could do today – we tried to make up some positions at the start, but it wasn’t possible. It was still an opportunity to learn what we could, with set-ups for Bahrain, and we’ll take that forward. It was just one of those days and we will see what we can do next weekend.”

Andy Cowell, Team Principal

“Today’s race had its challenges. We tried to seize available opportunities where we could, but in reality, there were very few. We gave our best effort with Fernando, our strategy was strong, but we ultimately finished in eleventh – just outside the points – which was the maximum we could achieve.

“Lance’s starting position made it really difficult to progress through the field, especially at a track like Suzuka where overtaking is notoriously tough.

“The race has highlighted other areas we can improve; it’s part of the learning and building process and we’ll take these lessons forward as we head into Bahrain next weekend.”

Alpine

Pierre Gasly, 13th

“It was not our race today and there are definitely a few things for us to analyze. It felt like we did everything we could in terms of performance. The car felt good, well balanced and we know where we are lacking a bit of pace. It was an intense first lap, quite dicey with Fernando [Alonso] and we missed out on a place there even if it was a fun battle. We lost a bit of time at the pit-stop so we’ll review what happened there and we know how important track position is around here in terms of traffic and pace management. We gave it our best and it was not enough to be near the points. We have a good chance next week in Bahrain where the car seemed to perform well in pre-season testing. Conditions will be different to then, though, but it’s a chance to reset and hopefully we can come away with a much better outcome.”

Jack Doohan, 15th

“It was good to get another full race distance under my belt and continue to gain experience and understanding of the package. Given our starting position, we went more aggressive with tire strategy with the Softs at the start, which allowed us to attack and gave us the best chance to move forward with the undercut. That also meant we ran a longer second stint on the Hard tires [38 laps] and had to defend towards the end. I think we did well to keep Nico [Hülkenberg] at bay, but it was a pity we could not keep Carlos [Sainz] behind on the newer Softs. It was positive to move forward at a track that’s difficult to overtake and the race pace also felt strong despite no high fuel running. We will take a couple of days between races to rest and recover. I’m looking forward to going again in Bahrain where the conditions will be completely different again.”

Oliver Oakes, Team Principal

“It’s not been the smoothest weekend for the team here in Japan. We found some good steps in performance compared to the first two rounds. Still, it is not enough for us to score points with Pierre finishing thirteenth and Jack fifteenth. Jack did a good job to climb a number of positions. We go to Bahrain knowing we had a good pre-season test there and aim to continue making steps forwards.”

Sauber

Bortoleto was the big loser at the start, struggling to get the hard tires up to temperature and getting some wheel spin as he found one of the puddles still out there. That dropped him to last place, and left the rookie with a difficult afternoon. As for Hulkenberg, he yo-yoed up and down the order a little bit, but on the preferred medium-hard strategy, could not make much progress as he finished where he started.

Nico Hulkenberg, 16th

“The car didn’t feel too bad today, and I would have liked the chance to explore its full potential a bit more. But Suzuka is a track where overtaking is notoriously difficult, and that really defined the race. I spent most of the time in traffic, which made it hard to make any real progress and ultimately turned it into a fairly uneventful race. That’s obviously a bit frustrating. We know there’s still work to do – both in terms of overall pace and car characteristics – and today’s race underlined that once again. It‘s still early in the season and we continue to learn with every race weekend.”

Gabriel Bortoleto, 19th

“Even though I was obviously aiming for more than the final result, I’m leaving Suzuka satisfied with how the weekend unfolded. I have learned a lot – it’s been a steady learning curve since Melbourne, and I am feeling more in control with each session. I want to thank the team both trackside and back at base in Hinwil for this, as they are always by my side with their unwavering support. Unfortunately, I didn’t get off to the best start today and found myself at the back of the pack. Climbing back through the field proved difficult, especially at a circuit like Suzuka where overtaking is notoriously tough. I’m taking all the experience and learnings with me as we head to Bahrain for the second leg of this triple header.”

Jonathan Wheatley, Team Principal

“There are a lot of positives to take away from this race. Despite an unfortunate start from Gabriel, he gained competitive speed during the race and together with Nico, both cars kept pace with the lower mid-field pack. Nico had another solid race and given the challenges of overtaking at Suzuka together with getting stuck in the DRS train behind Jack Doohan, he kept pushing to the very end. I want to recognize the great teamwork this weekend and in particular some encouraging pitstop times. That is a good start to the triple header and I want to thank the race team and everyone back at the factory for their support and contribution.”

Pirelli

Mario Isola, Motorsport Director

“When the top six on the grid take the checkered flag in the very same order, it’s easy to characterize the race as boring. While I wouldn’t go so far as to say we witnessed the most thrilling show in the sport’s history, there was still some close racing. You only have to look at the top three, separated by just 44 thousandths in qualifying and then finishing within two seconds of each other in the race.

“After a fairly cautious first part, especially through the first sector, the most demanding from a tire perspective, in the second part, all the drivers pushed all the way to the end. In fact, 14 of the 20 drivers set their fastest lap in the final five laps. It’s worth noting that Antonelli’s time of 1’30”965 was 2”741 quicker than last year’s fastest race lap, set by Verstappen, which shows just how much the performance has improved compared to 2024.

“On a track where thermal degradation has traditionally played a major role, today we saw virtually no drop in lap time performance with the Hard and Medium compounds, even over long stints. That was down to the low ambient and track temperatures, actually the lowest recorded at Suzuka since 2011. The other contributory factor is the improvements brought to the 2025 tire range, specifically aimed at reducing this type of wear. Another of our technical objectives was to limit graining and today, even with these low temperatures, we saw almost no signs of this issue across the field.”