So often the venue for a dramatic denouement to the season but also so much more, the Japanese Grand Prix is one of the jewels in F1’s crown. As drivers and fans descend on Suzuka this weekend excitement and anticipation will be shared. Few circuits quite stir the heart as does the 3.6 mile, figure of eight challenge, whose configuration demands technical skill, touch, judgment and bravery, and rewards them with one of the greatest thrill rides.
There is a rich history to this grand prix, for so long the finale or penultimate race of the season. The championship has been decided at Fuji or Suzuka 13 times, more than in any other country. The former famously hosted the first Japanese Grand Prix in 1976 when James Hunt’s and Niki Lauda’s battle for the title reached its dramatic conclusion on the rain-drenched speedway and since then the latter has staged some of F1’s most gripping and decisive spectacles.
This year’s fight between Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel will not be decided on Sunday but it will be a race to savour. The drivers revel in it because to complete a quick lap is to have got the better of the most demanding, unforgiving but rewarding of trials.
Damon Hill won his world championship at Suzuka in 1996. “It’s a bit like our Everest or K2,” he says. “It was quite terrifying mostly. It is demanding, it is more like the Isle of Man TT for us than some circuits. You can’t make a mistake. If you do you are going to pay the price – it is going to bite you. But racing drivers are a bit weird like that, we like that sort of thing.”
He is not alone in his assessment. Elements of the circuit are sublime. Standing watching on the inside of the entrance to the S-curves, the precision required from the drivers to thread the needle and exit the sequence with maximum speed into the Dunlop curve is magnificent to behold. The car must be absolutely committed going into the first left-hander but drivers must keep their foot in for the right that immediately follows. Get it wrong, as Nigel Mansell did in qualifying in 1987, and Suzuka is unforgiving. Mansell’s crash and his injuries cost him his chance to win the world championship.
Nor does it get any easier. The double right-hander of the Degner curve follows the Dunlop. Carrying speed into it is crucial and the car becomes unsettled as the second right looms. The track dips into it causing compression and on exiting the bowl there is no run off on the left. Anything less than perfection means the lap is gone. The challenges follow thick and fast in its wake: the low-speed hairpin, the sweep through Spoon, the mighty high-speed direction change of 130R, and finally the chicane. Little wonder drivers rate success at Suzuka as one of the highest achievements in Formula One.
Hill says his finest moment was not that championship winning race, where a single point was enough to ensure the title, but his remarkable victory in 1994 when he mastered Michael Schumacher and the track in atrocious conditions.
“That was probably the toughest race of my life,” he says. “I had to beat Nigel Mansell, Michael Schumacher and Jean Alesi. I had to win that race or the championship would have been over. It was hugely special, the race where I drove to my highest level ever. I don’t think I ever got back there.
“It was more satisfying because it was at Suzuka. The degree of difficulty doesn’t get more difficult than that. To beat Michael in those conditions – I think I could hold my head up and say I reached the top.”
He had, and he had also made his entry among a host of unmissable grands prix. Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost’s battles in Japan are a fundamental part of F1 history. Senna won his first title in 1988 having chased down Prost in the wet, after stalling his McLaren from pole. The following year Senna had to beat his rival to stay in the fight, and Prost shut the door on him going into the chicane. They both went off and although Senna rejoined and won he was disqualified for having not made the corner. Alessandro Nannini inherited his one and only F1 win and Prost the title.
A year later in 1990 when Honda (who built Suzuka as a test track in 1962) were riding high supplying engines to McLaren, three million people applied for the 120,000 tickets on offer when the pair went head to head again to decide the title. The rivalry now bitter, led to one of Suzuka’s most controversial moments. As Prost took advantage heading down the hill into turn one, the Brazilian ploughed into a non-existent gap to take both cars out, their retirements guaranteeing his second world title.
Johnny Herbert, who took one of his seven Formula One podiums at Suzuka in his season alongside Schumacher at Benetton in 1995, knows the top drivers revel in proving themselves on the narrow, unforgiving circuit. “The challenge is keeping between the white lines,” he says. “For Lewis, Sebastian, Kimi [Raikkonen], Fernando [Alonso]– that’s what they enjoy, that’s what I enjoy, that’s the challenge. Running off and coming back on again without a penalty – you can’t do that at Suzuka.”
The best have long tested themselves against that challenge and a host of other drivers have made their contributions to the circuit’s memorable races. In the final round at Suzuka in 1998, Mika Hakkinen led Schumacher by four points and held his nerve to take the title. Two years later the pair fought all race long before Schumacher took the win and his third title by two seconds. In 2003, Schumacher fought back from 14th on the grid to take the eighth place he needed, while Raikkonen could not secure the win he required as Rubens Barrichello took the chequered flag.
It is not only the drivers or the layout that make Suzuka special but some of the most enthusiastic fans in the world. Their love of the sport is both broad and comprehensive. Herbert last raced there for Jaguar in 2000. He has not been forgotten. “I still have a superfan who turns up every year,” he says. “She is there to greet me and see me off in the bus in the evening. She’s back in the morning, she’s there on the Sunday before I get sent off to the airport. The Japanese have that passion for the sport.”
They will be there en masse this weekend to watch Hamilton and Vettel go up against one another on one of the great stages. It is not to be missed. “The very best get the most out of themselves and enjoy Suzuka,” Herbert says. “For race fans it gives you a buzz because you can see the guys on the ragged edge and pushing themselves. They are having fun doing it and you can see they are. Everybody gets the right vibes, it’s what F1 should be all about.”
