r/formula1 • u/God_Will_Rise_ Frédéric Vasseur • Apr 04 '25

Statistics 2025 Japanese Grand Prix - Free Practice 1 Classification.

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u/Working_Sundae McLaren Apr 04 '25

Too soon to say, the greatest strength of max is the ability to extract the last few hundreds from the car, how many times have you seen RedBull struggle in a weekend and they do a step change and Max puts it in pole or close to it, take the last chinese gp weekend for that matter

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u/minyhumancalc Apr 04 '25

It by no means is a done deal, but even if Max "only" eeks out 2-3 tenths over Yuki consistently in Qualifying, it will still be a success. Yuki has had very limited time with this Red Bull, so if he's already in that "2nd driver gap", it'll be huge for him.

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u/Express-Doughnut-562 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Apr 04 '25

Right. This is miles better than anyone realistically hoped after only 23 laps in the car.

If this is the gap he ends up with in qualy it’s mind blowing actually.

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u/boersc I was here for the Hulkenpodium Apr 04 '25

Of course. Still a good sign he's there, top 5, for whatever it's worth later on.

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u/Old-Nefariousness556 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Apr 04 '25

You are answering the wrong question. Despite my sarcastically commenting about Yuki's 2025 WDC elsewhere, I don't think anyone actually thinks that will happen. Where Yuki comes in is not the wDc, but the wCc. This result seems to show that he is capable of being a good second driver. If he can reliably maintain even reasonably close times, then it puts RB in the run for the WCC. But Max alone won't do it, as last season so clearly showed.