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"What’s the best thing at the
Japanese Grand Prix? Well, some might say doing the 130R corner flat, some
say the Log Cabin and some will say the flight home. But for me, the best
thing in Japan is the tiramisu. Since my first trip to Suzuka, I’ve been
eating the tiramisu in the Italian place at the circuit hotel. Every year it
looks the same, has the same shape and tastes the same - better than in
Italy.
 On
to the track, though…the first corner is flat through the entry, then you
brake and control the car with brake pressure and gentle steering movement.
Sometimes you have a bit of throttle on at the same time to stabilise the
rear. Then that’s followed by the third-gear, banked right-hander, turn two.
Out of there, it’s up to fifth, and then you enter the snake combination
with all its high G-forces and 140mph speeds. It’s a bloody good corner
combination which the land of the rising sun offers us here.
The snake corner section is over, but the fun is not finished. Unlike a
decade ago when, for Ron and Gerhard, it all ended here in their first
McLaren road car outing. Now we’re in the long uphill Dunlop Curve. I guess
this year it might be flat. It’s a mighty corner, a neck killer, a balls
tester and, of course, hard on the front right tyre.
OK, after this long left-hander, we come in sixth to a third-gear, right
hander - a rhythm breaker really. Understeer has a different name here - I
would call it nightmare. If you don’t understeer off the planet, you then
come to the second Degner (in second gear) which is a little banked and
exits just under the bridge. We accelerate up to fifth before the always
slippery hairpin. Hard on the traction control out of there we drive easy
flat around two right-handers, which are just a little bumpy, and we arrive
in seventh at the Spoon Curve. The first part of Spoon is quite nice but, in
the second part, we are sometimes back to the nightmare understeer. In fact,
sometimes the car is also quite nasty on the rear on the entry.
Next thing is a long, uphill straight arriving at130R which should be flat
this year. And last, but not least, the chicane before the start/finish -
the famous place of Championship deciders! Oh, I used to love to waking up
really early in the mornings as kart driver and watch the Senna-Prost
battles, basically just waiting to see the big bang happen. Now I will watch
Alonso and Schumi with a smile.
Oh, for the ones who are still reading and haven’t yet turned the page,
Suzuka has an old fashioned surface, so front tyre graining is a real issue.
Otherwise, the track is not too hard on the equipment. But it’s very
difficult to get a good set-up on the car because so many variations of
corner. An efficient aerodynamic package is key to quick lap times. Power
helps, like always, or bendy wings would do it also. And Williams might have
to change the weight distribution – ah, the tiramisu!” |
