Suzuka is Verstappen's stage, but he's never faced a challenge like this

The Nürburgring was a reminder this weekend of what Verstappen looks like when he’s racing on his own terms. He took pole by two seconds in qualifying and effectively won the NLS2 four-hour race by a minute, co-driving a Mercedes-AMG GT3 with Dani Juncadella and Jules Gounon as preparation for his Nürburgring 24 Hours debut in May — before a post-race disqualification for a tyre infringement stripped the result away.

It’s nothing new at this point, but that he is spending a free weekend competing in a four-hour endurance race at the Green Hell says something about where his head is at. GT machinery around the Nordschleife is, self-evidently, the so-called “distraction” (his words) he’s chosen.

Verstappen has been candid about that. The “Mario Kart” characterisation of the new Formula 1 cars, the references to exploring options outside of F1 aren’t throwaway remarks from a man who’s not prone to making them.

Suzuka is a circuit that rewards feel and commitment as much as raw pace, which is precisely the kind of track that tends to flatter a driver extracting more than his car’s baseline.

Verstappen did exactly that in 2025 and has previous form here when conditions, weather or otherwise, have required improvisation over outright speed.

His worst result at Suzuka, aside from a DNF in 2019, is a third place in 2018.

He is undefeated in both qualifying and the race since Formula 1 returned to Japan after the pandemic in 2022.

But 2026 may represent a more fundamental problem than anything he has navigated before in a Red Bull car.

Suzuka has always been Verstappen’s stage. The two questions the weekend will ask are if Verstappen can still make a difference in the struggling Red Bull, and whether he can still find joy in driving the 2026 cars at one of his favourite tracks.

Who’s under pressure?
Honda

There are difficult home races, and then there is whatever Honda is facing this weekend at Suzuka.

Aston Martin hasn’t managed to complete a single grand prix in the first two rounds of the season, and the problems run deeper than reliability, as the violent vibrations emanating from the Honda power unit have made it impossible for the drivers to think about going the distance.

Onboard footage from China showed Fernando Alonso having to lift his hands off the steering wheel momentarily while travelling down the start/finish straight, a sight that was as alarming as it was extraordinary.

Asked after qualifying in Shanghai whether the team had made any progress since Melbourne, Lance Stroll‘s answer was a single word: “No.”

All of that baggage has now arrived with the team at Suzuka, in front of an audience that has been cheering for Honda in Formula 1 for decades.

Battery reliability improved in China following a reduction in the vibration affecting the systems, but the root cause has not yet been fully established, and the effects are still being felt.

While drivers who can’t feel their hands or feet will make it impossible for Aston to finish a race, the power unit’s energy management remains the most pressing performance deficit, and Suzuka, with its sustained high-speed sections and limited opportunity to recover energy through braking, is among the most demanding circuits on the calendar for exactly that.

“Suzuka circuit is a tough track for this,” Shintaro Orihara, Honda’s trackside general manager, admitted, “so we have been using the learnings from Australia and China to prepare better for the Japanese Grand Prix.”

Honda is not arriving at Suzuka with a definitive fix, instead hoping for some progress to give its fans something to look forward to.

Whether Honda can give them something to cheer about is a different question.

Historical highlight: A two-part race

Formula 1 has produced stranger finishes than Suzuka in 1994, but few as procedurally bewildering, and none since that used the same method to determine the result.

Michael Schumacher arrived in Japan leading Damon Hill by five points, meaning victory with his rival any lower than second would be enough for the German to clinch his maiden title.

In a proper deluge, Schumacher led initially and was 6.8 seconds clear of Hill when the race was red-flagged after 15 laps, following Martin Brundle spinning off and striking a marshal who was attending Gianni Morbidelli‘s car.

The marshal suffered a broken leg, and the race was red-flagged.

Officials then decided to resume the race, running the result on aggregate time, adding the two segments together to form a final classification.

Schumacher’s 6.8-second lead from the first leg carried forward, meaning Hill needed not just to pass him but to pull out a bigger gap than that.

Benetton‘s gamble of carrying less fuel than Williams, banking on a two-stop strategy, unravelled when conditions improved and a second stop became unavoidable.

Schumacher reacquired the aggregate lead on lap 36, and it appeared normality had been, belatedly, established. Then Benetton’s lap 40 stop left him 14.5 seconds to make up in 10 laps.

Schumacher’s deficit decreased to 2.4 seconds with two laps remaining, but Hill’s lead not only remained intact on the final tour but actually increased.

Hill was declared the winner by 3.3 seconds on aggregate.

It remains the last instance of aggregate race time being used in Formula 1 to determine the winner.

Pirelli form guide: Japanese GP