Now, while we’re still over two seconds off the pole position time for last year’s Japanese Grand Prix, the current pace bears an interesting comparison with the same session in the 2022 event, the first year of the previous regulations.
There, Max Verstappen was fastest with a 1m30.671s. And this was with warmer ambients – 22C as opposed to 16C – albeit a lower track temperature owing to cloud (30C rather than 38C). Different time of year, of course – but the cars were maturer then than they are now, where the 2022 event was round 18 whereas this is just the third race weekend of the new regs.
NOTE: edited to cure earlier brain-fade-related factula…