A familiar question was raised in the aftermath of Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix: Does Formula 1 have an overtaking problem?

Japanese Grand Prix may not have been an edge-of-your-seat thriller, but it did remind us about the sport's fickle nature

McLaren remains the team to beat in Formula 1, but Max Verstappen’s victorious drive for Red Bull at the Japanese Grand Prix Sunday proves only excellence is good enough. 2nd and 3rd placed Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri still have the fastest all-round car for McLaren on the F1 grid.

This is The Athletic’s twice-weekly F1 newsletter. Sign up here to receive Prime Tire directly in your inbox on Tuesday and Friday. Welcome back to Prime Tire, where we have a lot of Formula One to cover: A big rookie mistake,

Yuki Tsunoda’s Red Bull Racing F1 debut didn’t deliver the 2025 Japanese Grand Prix podium finish he dreamed of. In fact, the results were the stuff of nightmares as he qualified only 15th and failed to score points in 12th place.

Honda was very happy that Yuki Tsunoda made his debut for Red Bull Racing at his home race, the Japanese Grand Prix. A debut without points, does not dampen Koji Watanabe's outlook. Honda Racing's president thought their driver did 'fantastic' in his first ever outing for the Austrian team - something the fans agreed with as they chose him as the driver of the day.