Formula One Vault

PRIXVIEW – Japanese Grand Prix 2023

Round sixteen sees F1 head to one of the much-loved circuits by fans and drivers to Suzuka, a high downforce and technical circuit.  The 3.6-mile circuit is one of few and the only figure of eight circuit in the world making it challenging for drivers as well as its old school nature makes it one of the more demanding circuits.

Designed by the same designer as Zandvoort Hans Hugenholtz it shares many of the same characteristics, a mix of a high-speed straight, fast sweeping corners and more technical sections. The old school circuit owned by Honda was originally designed as a test track, with only one slow corner; without the Casio chicane, some cars would go through the final long right-hand corner flat out and then would go past the pits at more than 200 mph (320 km/h).

The circuit is one which drivers love as it’s an old-school circuit which punishes mistakes and where there is difficulty through the twisting corners for drivers to overtake. It’s a tricky circuit which requires drivers who can attack the circuit, and push themselves to the limits. But mistakes are costly as the barriers are close and not as much run-off areas as at modern circuits.

Suzuka has held all but four Grand Prix, 1976-77 and 2007-08, when they were held at Fuji Speedway the latter allowing for the circuit to be redeveloped before a failed alternation deal collapsed in 2009 with the race remaining at Suzuka from 2009, with 2020 and 2021 cancelled due to the pandemic.

Red Bull will be looking to bounce back, their dominance brought to an end last weekend when Carlos Sainz took victory in Singapore. Last year, Max Verstappen took victory and his second title, in theory, they should be strong here, the circuit I think favours Verstappen.

The first championship Grand Prix held at Fuji Speedway in 1976 is one of the most famous, of many title deciders in Japan. It put James Hunt and Niki Lauda as it was held during monsoon conditions. Lauda, who had survived a near-fatal crash at the German Grand Prix earlier in the season, withdrew from the race.

Despite conditions, Hunt stayed in the race finishing third claiming the title by a point after Lauda retired. The race was won by Mario Andretti when he managed to lap the entire field his victory the longest time between a first and second victory of a driver in the sport.

Although originally scheduled for an April slot in the 1978 season (which was cancelled), the race did not reappear on the Formula One calendar for another decade, and the race did not return to Fuji until 2007.

Until the mid-2000s Suzuka was often the final or penultimate race of the season, but from the mid-2010s a growing calendar moved it to late September/early October before the Americas and Middle East. In six months’ time, it will be held in April, the earliest in the season its been held.

After a decade the sport Returned to Japan, to Suzuka which has been a hugely popular circuit as it’s the only figure-eight racetrack to appear on the F1 calendar. Over the last three and a half decades the circuit has been the scene of some of the most dramatic and memorable moments in Formula One history.

The late 1980s and early 1990s would be defined by feuding McLaren teammates Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna. The height of the rivalry was the 1990 title decider, Senna felt that pole was on the dirty side, he didn’t yield and move over for the Frenchman with them both crashing out at Turn One. That gave him his second title by default.

That followed on from a crash the previous season at the final chicane, which handed Prost the title. Senna was off the racing line and it would be more difficult for him to make a better start. Frustrated and angry, Senna mimicked Prost’s statement of the previous year saying he would not move over if Prost attempted to overtake in the first corner.

1991 saw Senna win his final championship, as well as admitting to intentionally crashing into Prost the previous year. The 1996 race saw Damon Hill taking the win and the title after his rival Williams team-mate Jacques Villeneuve retired after losing a tyre at the start of lap thirty-seven. That made Hill the first son of a champion to become a champion. Villeneuve would take victory in 1997 but was disqualified for ignoring yellow flags during one of the practice sessions.

1998 saw another dramatic title decider between Schumacher and Finn Mika Häkkinen. The two drivers had duelled all season long and Häkkinen led Schumacher by four points heading into the final race at Suzuka. Schumacher started on pole for the race but stalled on the grid, giving Häkkinen in second a clear track in front of him for the start.

The beginning of the 2000s saw dominance by Schumacher and Ferrari, the German winning four out of five races. But 2003 was probably the most challenging, given the difficulties overtaking. Schumacher needed to come at least eighth, he started at fourteenth on the grid, but managed to secure the point he needed to take his sixth World Drivers’ Championship, beating the record held by Juan Manuel Fangio. His race also nearly ended in a collision with Takuma Sato and his brother Ralf.

2004 saw the first of three qualifying sessions at Suzuka run on Sunday due to bad weather, but it was another race where Schumacher took victory in his all concurring Ferrari.

Kimi Raikkonen won from seventeenth in 2005 after overtaking Giancarlo Fisichella at the beginning of the last lap, after Fisichella was blocked by a backmarker. In 2008, Michael Schumacher led until an engine failure virtually ended his chances of an eighth championship, which went to Spaniard Fernando Alonso.

The 2007 and 2008 races saw a brief return to Fuji, Lewis Hamilton took victory in torrential rain after Alonso crashed out allowing Heikki Kovalainen to finish second ahead of Kimi Raikkonen, the first time that two Finnish drivers were together on the podium. In 2008, the first corner brought trouble for both the title contending McLarens and Ferraris, and Fernando Alonso was able to take the victory in a Renault. Hamilton finished out the points while title rival Felipe Massa only finished seventh.

2009 saw the race return to a redesigned Suzuka in what was intended to be a bi-annual deal with Fuji but that deal collapsed amidst the financial crisis. Until 2019 and for the foreseeable future the rebuilt circuit. The 2009 and 2010 race were won by Sebastian Vettel.

The Red Bull driver took his second title with third in 2011, with  Jenson Button (the only driver in the field who had a theoretical chance of beating Vettel to the title) winning the race wearing a special tribute helmet to the people affected by the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, and the Fukushima disaster.

Kamui Kobayashi finished third the following year, holding off Button and became the first Japanese driver to finish on the podium in Suzuka since Aguri Suzuki in 1990. The 2013 race was won by Vettel for Red Bull, marking his fourth consecutive victory of the season as well as his fourth victory overall at Suzuka. Vettel’s teammate Mark Webber, who started the race on pole position, finished second behind his teammate, with Romain Grosjean taking the final podium position for Lotus.

2014 saw Hamilton take victory but was defined by the fatal accident of Jules Bianchi, in the closing stage Adrian Sutil spun off at Dunlop, as the crane came onto recover the Sauber. However Bianchi also spun in the same place and crashed into the crane, the race was then abandoned and the Frenchman died the following July, the first driver to be killed since Roland Ratzeberger and Senna at Imola in 1994.

That year saw the start of Mercedes’s domination, with six back-to-back wins before the pandemic. Four of them by Hamilton. In 2015, the Englishman won the race, having overtaken Rosberg at the start, who fell back to fourth but recovered to finish second. Rosberg’s deficit in the Drivers’ Championship therefore increased to 48 points. Sebastian Vettel finished third for Ferrari.

Last years race was mired in controversy and anger, in similar conditions to 2014 , the FIA dispatched a recovery vehicle while the race was under double yellow flag conditions, which meant that the vehicle was on the track at the same time as the Formula One cars themselves.

Bianchi’s compatriot Pierre Gasly narrowly avoided crashing into a crane under double yellow flag conditions, which meant that the vehicle was on the track at the same time as the Formula One cars themselves. Drivers and team bosses united to call the decision from race control “unacceptable”. Following the red flag several drivers took to Twitter condemning the situation.

Race & Circuit Guide

Fast facts

• The venue has had many title showdowns over the years, including Damon Hill’s championship triumph over Jacques Villeneuve in the all-Williams 1996 battle, not to mention those dramatic collisions between Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost.
• Until the 1999 Malaysian Grand Prix, Japan was the only country with Formula One presence in Asia. Before then, Suzuka and Fuji had hosted the Japanese Grand Prix, and the south Japanese circuit of Okayama was home to two Pacific Grands Prix.
• Last year’s race saw Max Verstappen win the race at the slowest ever speed at just over thirty miles an hour during the three-hour race.
• Ferrari has not won at Suzuka since Michael Schumacher’s last Japanese success in 2004. Schumacher won the Japanese Grand Prix a record six times and Hamilton, one of whose wins was at Fuji, can equal that.

Event timetable

What happened in 2022?

Max Verstappen beat Charles Leclerc to pole by a hundredth of a second despite making a mistake on his last lap.  The Red Bull driver lost control on the exit of the flat-out 130R while on a slow lap and trying to get out of Norris’ way. When the Red Bull snapped sideways, Norris had to take to the grass to avoid him.

Carlos Sainz put his Ferrari third within a tenth of Verstappen, earlier in the session he looked to have the pace of Leclerc but was left five hundredths behind as his pace vanished in Q3. He went three and a half tenths ahead of Sergio Perez, the Mexican had topped Q2, but opted not to do a second run in Q3 after complaining about understeer.

Verstappen won the race finishing twenty-seven seconds ahead of Perez, after Leclerc was given a ten-second penalty for cutting the chicane. Verstappen controlled the race to pull a twenty seven second lead over his teammate. However, while this race will be controversial, there is no question that the Dutchman won fairly and decisions by race control did not affect the outcome.

The Dutchman would have been denied the title if Charles Leclerc had come second, but the Ferrari driver’s final-lap error saw him given a five-second penalty – for leaving the track and gaining an advantage – that demoted him to third behind the other Red Bull of Perez.

Esteban Ocon finished the race fourth holding off the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton for the entire race, to finish eight tenths ahead of the seven-time champion. Sebastian Vettel brought his Aston Martin home sixth he gained position after Fernando Alonso made a late stop.

Alonso made a stop for fresh tyres with just fifteen minutes of race time remaining and dropped to ninth, reclaiming sufficient ground to finish the race right on Vettel’s tail, but unable to pass.

Race Result – 1) M. Verstappen, Red Bull, 03:01:44.004 | 2) S. Perez, Red Bull, +00:27.066 | 3) C. Leclerc, Ferrari, +00:31.763

What to watch for?

Red Bull had a blip in Singapore they didn’t win for the first time this season, that means that Max Verstappen and Red Bull cannot wrap the title up in Suzuka. I think that while we have seen the field close up in recent races and Carlos Sainz win in Singapore it was just an off weekend. Suzuka is a circuit which favours Red Bull, Verstappen won at Zandvoort another technical high-speed circuit which was designed by the same designer.

Suzuka is another high speed and downforce circuit, which requires more downforce but without compromising the teams on the straight in Turn One and then through the Esses you need downforce it’s a circuit about getting the balance right. This is an old circuit which means it carries the risk v reward factor when it comes to overtaking, that can lead to safety cars if drivers get beached in the race also about strategy as overtaking can be more difficult.

Aston Martin looked very good at Zandvoort, but we know their battle with Mercedes and Ferrari has changed on a weekly basis and we have seen them slip away following the break. But can they make another step forward following recent upgrades and they need it if they are to challenge for best of the rest.

I think with Red Bull out of the picture in Singapore it highlighted how tight the battle is between Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren. These teams look in recent races to be even tighter and I think Mercedes should suit this circuit given its high downforce sweeping nature. McLaren’s upgrades in Singapore are looking to see them move forward as well.

Suzuka is another difficult race for all the teams, we get plenty of action as mistakes can lead to safety cars as this is an old circuit with grass an gravel. Overtaking is possible but not without risks, it’s also aa hard circuit on the cars given the high speed and huge braking zones..

2022 vs 2019 Race Data

2022 Lap time comparison

Tyres