FORMULA 1 ARAMCO JAPANESE GRAND PRIX 2026

China showed that the new regulations can be exciting if the cars are more evenly matched. Of course, that could be said for anything from Pinewood Derby to mine-themed rollercoasters. NASCAR has made a lot of money by forcing teams to run variations on a theme. I'm not sure that'll work in F1, but Liberty Media appears to be willing to give it a try.

Two races in, a fuller picture is emerging. Ferrari again showed better race pace than qualy pace, Mercedes is still leading the whole shebang going away, and Aston Martin is trying to kill Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso. I still don't know what's happening at Williams. However, in my defense, I'm pretty sure no one at Williams knows what's going on there either.

The Shanghai International Circuit was much better suited for the cars than Australia, but we can't count on the circuit suiting the cars throughout the whole season. What happens at Monaco? Monza? Miami? (Any track that starts with an "m" actually.) I think tweaks to the rules are coming with the caveat that Ferrari will defend its starting advantage to the death.

Notable highs-
-Kimi Antonelli first pole and win! The Italian became the youngest pole sitter in F1 history and the first Italian driver to stand on the top step in 20 years!
-Ferrari team battle! Charles and Lewis put on a great show for us, and their racing is what gives me hope for the future of these regulations. Once the slower teams achieve more parity with the leaders, we can expect this kind of racing at every track. Of course, by the time that happens, new regulations will go into effect the next season, and the cycle will start all over again.
-Toto's drivers. If you didn't get a little choked up seeing Toto comment about having three drivers on the podium, I don't even want to be your friend.

Notable lows-
-As mentioned earlier, That AM is a hazard. I don't know what's going on there, but it is worrisome on all levels.
-McLaren didn't get a car to the grid! What the hell? World champion to DNS. That's some scary stuff.
-Did I mention Williams already?

What can we expect going forward? More winning from Mercedes, more whining from everyone else, and a couple of minor tweaks to the rules from the FIA. Really, the egos involved in the championship oversight are not going to cave into a few pointed barbs from a driver with one foot out the door. Even if he is a multi-time world champion.

We're still trying to figure out the whole "AppleTV" situation, so I'll be hosting a delayed watch of the race at my place on Sunday morning. Details will be emailed out on Saturday evening before the race. Hope to see you there.