F1 LIVE: Japanese GP updates as Max Verstappen looks to wrap up world title from pole

Daniel Ricciardo has confirmed he is not expecting to be on the Formula 1 grid next year and is targeting a return to the sport in 2024. Currently at McLaren, it was announced last month that Ricciardo will be replaced by fellow Aussie Oscar Piastri for next season.

Ricciardo’s options for a drive elsewhere were already limited before both Pierre Gasly’s move to Alpine and Nyck de Vries coming in to race for AlphaTauri were announced at Suzuka on Saturday.

With only two seats remaining on the 2023 grid – one at Williams, the other at Haas – Ricciardo admits he instead will be gunning for a drive the following year.

“To be honest, the Gasly news I was aware of, I knew they were talking for a while and I knew they were very interested in Pierre,” he said, shortly after qualifying 11th for Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix.

Lewis Hamilton has hinted he could race for another five years after Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff revealed the pair had recently spoken about his future. The seven-time world champion has one more year left of his Mercedes deal at the end of the current season.

Hamilton, 37, holds the record for the most wins, pole positions and podiums in Formula One history and is tied with Michael Schumacher for the most drivers’ championships. But he appears to be far from finished, Wolff revealing last weekend that “we sat down and he says ‘look, I have another five years in me, how do you see that?’”

Asked ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix if that was his plan, Hamilton replied: “I haven’t spoken to him (Wolff) about his comments but I can’t say just yet. Possibly, yes, I’m feeling good. I love what I’m doing. We have a lot of work to do, a lot to achieve still. So I’m not planning on going anywhere, any time soon.”

Wolff hailed Hamilton as the “shining star on and off track” in F1 and it was with one eye on his future out of the car where the Briton explained why he wants to remain in the sport for well beyond an additional five years.

Mark Webber believes that the rivalry between Toto Wolff and Christian Horner is “popping back up again” as speculation continues about potential breaches of Formula 1’s budget cap.

The Mercedes and Red Bull team principals regularly clashed during the 2021 season throughout a closely-fought title rival between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen.

The Drivers’ Championship was eventually won in contentious circumstances by Red Bull’s Verstappen, with the ill-feeling between Wolff and Horner coming to a head during the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix after the controversial intervention of former race director Michael Masi.

Relations between the pair and the two teams have been rather more cordial this season with Verstappen cruising to a second consecutive crown and Mercedes’ largely uncompetitive, but rumours that Red Bull may have breached the 2021 budget cap have inflamed tensions.

Wolff suggested ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix that it was well known that Red Bull were being investigated over a breach, leading Horner to threaten legal action after what he described as “a completely unfounded allegation”.

Nyck de Vries will race in Formula One next season for AlphaTauri after he was announced as a replacement for Alpine-bound Pierre Gasly.

The 27-year-old Dutchman impressed on his F1 debut as he stepped in for Alex Albon to finish ninth at the Italian Grand Prix earlier this season.

A champion in both Formula 2 and Formula E, de Vries has an impressive CV and is pleased to have landed a seat in F1.

De Vries replaces Gasly, who raced for AlphaTauri – formerly Toro Rosso – for five and a half years, having also spent half a season with Red Bull.

Having come through the young driver programme with Red Bull, the Frenchman now completes Alpine’s line-up alongside compatriot Esteban Ocon – with Fernando Alonso leaving for Aston Martin.

Max Verstappen hit out at Lando Norris as the Formula One champion-elect narrowly avoided a collision with the McLaren on his way to pole position for the Japanese Grand Prix.

The Dutchman will retain his title if he wins and takes the fastest lap in Sunday’s race and he gave himself the best chance of doing so by going quickest in qualifying.

But it could have been a different story after Norris took evasive action having sped up to the back of a slower Verstappen as the pair prepared for their respective flying laps; Norris called for Verstappen to be given a penalty afterwards but the Dutchman was handed a reprimand by the stewards and keeps his pole position.

“We were on our outlap and we were all lining up to create a gap to everyone and then somehow he still wanted to get me into the chicane,” explained Verstappen. “But I was on the point of accelerating and I was on very cold tyres, so I had a little moment and that’s why he had to drive around me.

“But if he had just a bit more respect for me, because everyone is anyway lining up and I don’t think anyone is trying to pass into that last chicane, so by trying to pass me you create that kind of thing.”

Daniel Ricciardo has confirmed he is not expecting to be on the Formula 1 grid next year and is targeting a return to the sport in 2024. Currently at McLaren, it was announced last month that Ricciardo will be replaced by fellow Aussie Oscar Piastri for next season.

Ricciardo’s options for a drive elsewhere were already limited before both Pierre Gasly’s move to Alpine and Nyck de Vries coming in to race for AlphaTauri were announced at Suzuka on Saturday.

With only two seats remaining on the 2023 grid – one at Williams, the other at Haas – Ricciardo admits he instead will be gunning for a drive the following year.

“To be honest, the Gasly news I was aware of, I knew they were talking for a while and I knew they were very interested in Pierre,” he said, shortly after qualifying 11th for Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix.

Max Verstappen failed to claim his second world title in Singapore last weekend but his seventh-placed finish still means he is in prime position to wrap up the Championship at the Japanese Grand Prix.

The 25-year-old has a 104-point lead to Charles Leclerc at the top of the Driver Standings, with only the Ferrari man and Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez (106 points behind) able to mathematically stop the Dutchman.

With the 2021 cost-cap saga being delayed to after this weekend’s Grand Prix, focus turns to action on track: here’s what Verstappen needs this weekend to wrap up a dominant title as F1 returns to Suzuka.

Verstappen has won 11 races out of 17 this season and leads second-placed Leclerc by 104 points heading to Japan, the first of the five remaining races.

There are a possible 138 points available until the end of the season – five race wins at 25 points each, a fastest lap point at each and eight points for the sprint race winner in Sao Paulo.