We’re up at an absolutely criminal hour for the 2026 F1 Japanese Grand Prix watchalong, and yes — I’m eating my breakfast on stream because it’s 4:40am and I’m not pretending I’m a functional adult. The race start gets delayed 10 minutes thanks to a support race crash, so we fill the time doing what we do best: chinwagging about Suzuka, reading chat, and immediately getting suspicious about anything F1 does that feels “too convenient” — like onboard/telemetry cutting out right where the super clipping drama would be most obvious. Once we finally get going, it’s pure Suzuka chaos straight away: Oscar Piastri launches like an absolute menace and snatches the lead, the Mercedes start is weirdly poor for a team we’ve both predicted to be mega, and suddenly the whole race has “this could actually be fun” energy. We’re tracking the big storylines in real time — Russell vs Antonelli, Ferrari deployment looking iffy, Max farming points, and that constant fear that the racing is just going to turn into motorway battery passes. It’s classic P1: big opinions, instant overreactions, and a lot of “COME ON” directed at whoever we need for predictions and fantasy points.