David Greenwood on the differences in the 2026 Suzuki cars

      The Alpine F1 Racing Director David Greenwood on the differences in driving at Suzuka between the 2026 and 2025 cars...

      David Greenwood: "When reaching a second at the detection point for the overtaking mode, located before the last corner, drivers will be able to gain additional acceleration when overtaking on the main straight. The effect will not be as powerful as with DRS, but still noticeable. If you overtake before the first corner, the opponent will not be able to immediately retaliate, as the next section is a series of 'esses', not the next straight where they could regain position.

      In the 'esses', due to the lower downforce of this year's cars, they will be slower at the apex – and drivers will choose a lower gear in the series of corners from 3 to 7, but by the start of the second sector, from the first Degner to the hairpin, the cars will be almost as fast as in 2025.

      Drivers will particularly feel the lack of downforce in the Spoon corner – the cars will lack grip, making driving more challenging, but we will see different trajectory options for exiting onto the next straight.

      The famous 130R will also become more difficult – there we will see the speed difference between cars from different teams. I think we will see drivers slowing down even before the chicane at corner 16. But exiting the hairpin and after the Spoon corner, the cars will be faster than a year ago."