From allies to rivals: JDJT seizes control of Williams’ D4 title fight

The constructors’ championship gave JDJT3593 and Higosh! a reason to look in the same direction. Suzuka changed that.

Williams still need to apply the finishing touch to their D4 team title at Monza, but the shared assignment is no longer the dominant story. Their two drivers are tied for the championship lead, the nearest outsider is 33 points behind, and the result in Japan turned a season-long partnership into a direct contest.

JDJT did not merely win at Suzuka. He waited until the final lap, passed the team-mate who had led the championship into the weekend and beat him to the line by 0.125 seconds. Five points behind became dead level in one move.

Only the points table says there is nothing between them.

Japan gave every immediate advantage to JDJT

The championship tie also conceals a remarkable season-long contrast from grid to flag. JDJT has gained a net 28 places across eight starts, improving on his starting position in seven of them. Higosh has lost a net 27 across nine races. That is a 55-position swing between the team-mates: Higosh has usually held the qualifying advantage, but JDJT has been considerably more effective at turning his starting positions into stronger finishes.

JDJT now has the latest victory, the advantage on countback and the psychological value of having taken all of it directly from Higosh. He also has control of the conversation.

Asked what the pass had changed, JDJT called it “timed to perfection” and said Monza would become a battle of strategy and management.

The answer carried none of the uncertainty that might be expected from a driver who had spent the previous round chasing the championship leader. JDJT sounded as though Suzuka had confirmed something rather than transformed it.

His response to Williams closing on the constructors’ championship was colder still: “Business as usual.”

That is the language of a driver who believes the collective work is effectively done. Williams may still need a small score to make the title mathematical, but JDJT has already moved on to the championship that can belong to only one of them.

Higosh had the aura; JDJT took the result

The chatter around D4 has often cast Higosh as its natural benchmark. His qualifying pace has been spoken about with the kind of expectation normally reserved for somebody racing below his true level. He has been treated as the obvious pole threat, a tempting fantasy selection and, in some quarters, a driver who should already be competing much higher up the IMS ladder.

JDJT’s reputation has always been less tidy. His pace and ceiling are respected, but the compliments tend to arrive beside jokes about limited preparation, optimistic moves and a habit of finding trouble. Where Higosh has carried the aura of the cleaner, naturally faster driver, JDJT has looked like the more combustible proposition.

That is what made Japan so damaging.

Suzuka did not follow the reputation. Higosh had the stronger starting position in the championship and the greater one-lap mystique, but JDJT was the driver who delivered the knockout blow. He did not need pole to beat Higosh. He needed one opportunity on the final lap, and he took it.

The result also pressed on the least flattering part of Higosh’s aura. For all the respect surrounding his speed, the occasional failure to convert a commanding position has not gone unnoticed around the league. A random spin at the final corner in Australia could have been so much more impactful had he not been 15s clear of the next car. One error is easy to dismiss. Losing the race, the championship advantage and the public initiative to your team-mate in the space of one lap is harder to wave away.

The man who promised “gloves off” has gone quiet

Before Japan, Higosh appeared ready for this moment. He said securing the constructors’ championship would mean “gloves off” between the Williams drivers after a season containing very little fighting between them.

Suzuka delivered exactly the kind of fight he had anticipated. It simply ended with JDJT ahead.

IMS News asked Higosh what he had taken from the defeat, what would change in his approach and how the pair intended to balance their team celebration against an intensifying drivers’ championship.

He declined to comment.

Silence can be deliberate, particularly when every sentence risks becoming fuel for the teammate who has just beaten you. But something about this silence seems different. Higosh was willing to discuss the gloves coming off while he held the championship lead; after JDJT landed the first clean blow, he chose not to discuss the fight at all. Whether he is rattled and needs a reset, we will only find out once the chequered flag falls in Monza.

Perhaps he intended to starve the rivalry of oxygen. Instead, he left JDJT to showcase his intent uncontested.

One garage, two incompatible ambitions

Williams’ seven victories and 12 podiums through nine rounds were built collectively. The partnership worked because both drivers benefited from the same result: every strong finish carried the team closer to the constructors’ crown.

That common purpose is almost exhausted. Once the remaining mathematical work is complete, there will be no shared version of success. Every point JDJT gains is a point Higosh cannot have. Every qualifying position, strategic preference and contested piece of circuit will matter to two drivers whose interests now point in opposite directions.

They can remain fair. They can remain clean. They can even celebrate the constructors’ championship together. None of that makes them united.

JDJT reaches Monza with the upper hand in every contest that Japan could influence. He won the race, won their direct confrontation, moved ahead on countback and emerged sounding ready for more. Higosh retains the reputation for raw qualifying speed, but reputations become vulnerable when the results stop reinforcing them.

For most of the season, Williams’ strength came from two drivers working towards the same prize. Now the team’s defining contest is the one taking place inside its own garage.

JDJT has already delivered his answer. Higosh declined to answer with words.

At Monza, he must answer on track.