- Mercedes still benchmark as Leclerc and Norris identify them still as ‘team to beat’.
- FIA reduces qualifying energy recharge limit from 9.0 MJ to 8.0 MJ for Suzuka.
- Reliability concerns dominate at Aston Martin, Audi and McLaren ahead of practice.
Thursday’s drivers’ press conference brought together Franco Colapinto, Lance Stroll, Charles Leclerc, Lando Norris, Oliver Bearman and Liam Lawson. Alongside comments made by the team principals, three main themes emerged: outright pace, reliability and energy management.
The FIA also confirmed a qualifying regulation adjustment. The maximum permitted energy recharge has been reduced from 9.0 MJ to 8.0 MJ this weekend, intended to ensure qualifying remains a test of outright performance rather than battery conservation strategy.
Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren
Mercedes are the team to beat. That much is clear. Charles Leclerc said Ferrari are “okay-ish” but acknowledged a “clear 4–5 tenths advantage” for Mercedes in clean air, attributing the gap primarily to the power-unit side.
Ferrari team principal Frédéric Vasseur said the team needs to “put everything together” at Suzuka before a development window at Maranello following this race.
Lando Norris said McLaren remains “still the third best team at the minute” but maintained that the car can become “the best car this year.” The double non-start in China was costly, though Norris said the team and HPP have now identified the cause of that power-unit failure.
He pointed to McLaren’s 2024 Constructors’ Championship recovery from a significant points deficit as evidence that the season is far from over.
Midfield runners
Alpine’s Franco Colapinto called their China result “really positive for me and for the team” and said the car showed it could “compete with the big teams.” He was cautious about what to expect this weekend, describing Suzuka as “very different on energy, on kind of corners, very long, very high speed.”
Haas appears to be among the more stable midfield operators in this early part of the season. Oliver Bearman said the car is “reliable” and represents “a big step up since pre-season testing.” His take on the new qualifying energy regulations was, “There are better ways of achieving the same thing”, as opposed to imposing compromises on the drivers.
Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson said his team “maximised everything in their control” in China and identified energy management as the defining trait of the new 2026 regulations.
Teams under pressure
Audi team principal Mattia Binotto said the Suzuka priority is “clean execution,” with both cars needing to “run their full races without disruption.” Drivers Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto both described the opening rounds as ‘missed opportunities.’
Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll said the team continues to face “engine side” difficulties and problems in high-speed corners. His target for Suzuka was: “Getting both cars to the chequered flag would already be a good step forward for us.”
He refused to speculate on Adrian Newey’s workload, saying the focus is on improving both the car and the engine.
At Red Bull, Max Verstappen told a journalist to “get out” of a media briefing before the Thursday session. He later said of the 2026 regulations: “This is the reality that we are in now. You just have to accept that at the moment.”
Friday practice will provide the first on-track data at a circuit that will likely test energy deployment as rigorously as it will test aerodynamic performance.
Watch this space.
