F1 Digest - Japan Preview
- Length: 9:22
- Size: 8.6 MB
- File: digest61.mp3
- Transcript: digest61.pdf
- Torrent: digest61.torrent
Heading into the last three races of the season, and Fuji hosts the next round, where we will see who can make it to fight for the championship yet another day.
Vital Statistics
- Date: 12th October
- Circuit: Fuji Speedway
- Length: 4.5km
- Laps: 67
- 2007 Winner: Lewis Hamilton
Preview
We’re coming off the back of a fabulous race in Singapore, and can only hope that Fuji will deliver something similar. After torrential rain scuppered a lot of strategies last year, we take a look at how the drivers are preparing for what could be yet another wet race.
October 9th, 2008 at 12:13 pmScott Woodwiss said:
Excellent stuff
Check this out - Force India and McLaren/Mercedes are in talk with supplying the former with engines and technical cooperation for next season!
Force India-Mercedes sounds awesome!
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/71239
October 9th, 2008 at 1:20 pmSteven Roy said:
It is a smart position for FIF1 to take. No-one knows who will have the best package under the new regs and with the thaw of the engine freeze so get into talks with all of them and pick the best when the data is available.
October 9th, 2008 at 1:25 pmChristine said:
Apparently Glock’s using his joker card for a fresh engine in Japan. I thought we’d see more doing this, so that they’d also have fresh for Brazil.
Unless they all do have fresh for Brazil anyway. I haven’t looked at the stats.
October 9th, 2008 at 1:31 pmSteven Roy said:
Great show Christine.
Lewis hopes it will be dry for the fans. How can anyone take a driver seriously when he thinks about the fans? No doubt the Hamilton haters will find a way to spin that.
October 9th, 2008 at 1:33 pmme said:
he must’ve said that before he saw the “eco” tyres.
October 9th, 2008 at 1:36 pmSteven Roy said:
I would have thought any driver who is on his engine’s second race and hasn’t used his joker already would use it for this race. There is a rule apparently which says you can’t use it for the last race. So the choice is don’t use it at all and have one fresh engine for the last three races or use it this weekend and have a fresh engine for two of the last three races.
October 9th, 2008 at 1:40 pmStuart C said:
C Kolles was in a right strop this morning. It was getting a bit raucous downstairs last night, it seems (there’s no bar, just a couple of vending machines, so celebrations continue until the stock runs out). He and various Williams people were complaining.
I had nothing - well, not very much - to do with it. I was assisting other people in another hotel in their efforts to deplete the machines. The receptionist actually left and turned the lights off in an (ultimately fruitless) effort to get rid of us. Having excused myself from there I encountered the shenanigans in my own hotel lobby. Very bizarre. McLaren people in fancy dress, etc…
October 9th, 2008 at 1:46 pmSteven Roy said:
Maybe he was hypnotised by them. I hope none of the drivers develops a bad vibration in a front wheel. It could be too much for them to take.
October 9th, 2008 at 1:49 pmme said:
it’s going to be a long weekend for him then
i had them down as the biggest party animals?
am betting suzuka would be more prepared.
October 9th, 2008 at 1:52 pmSteven Roy said:
It must be about the ultimate culture clash. Japanese reserve and rampaging F1 journalists and party animals.
McLaren people in fancy dress? Does Ron allow that or does fancy dress for McLaren mean anything that isn’t grey or white?
October 9th, 2008 at 2:04 pmme said:
hold on a second… honda are introducing pit lights??
http://www.autosport.com/gallery/photo.php/id/116574
http://www.autosport.com/gallery/photo.php/id/116575
October 9th, 2008 at 2:15 pmFlibster said:
The Merc is a very popular car in India. You can fit 30 or 40 people in one.
Wonder if they will get sponsorship for it and change the engines name? Maybe Force India - Tata?
October 9th, 2008 at 2:21 pmStuart C said:
Perhaps, perhaps not. I was staying at the Holiday Inn in Shiroko for the 2004 Japanese GP - the one with the typhoon - and I was so convinced that the apocalypse was going to be unleashed that I stocked up with food and beer (mainly the latter) to the extent that I had to force the fridge door shut. The apocalypse was not unleashed but it did rain a lot and the single machine in the lobby ran out very early on. I was sitting pretty.
It’s the engineers. The mechanics are in a different hotel.
I think they operate on the principle that what Ron doesn’t know can’t hurt him. One bloke was telling me about an occasion in Monaco when they were all in some bar being quite raucous when someone spotted Ron approaching. Apparently you’ve never seen so many grown men (and women) dive for cover at once.
In other news: I’d always been led to believe that the banking at Fuji was demolished during the refurbishment, but it’s still there. I was told this morning that it was fenced off, so I asked the circuit people if it was possible to get in. They actually laid on a bus so that a group of us could go. It was getting quite late by then (it gets dark very early here) so I struggled to get pictures but I’ve put a couple up on Flickr:-
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sc_pix/
It turns out that access isn’t that difficult, but it’s a bit time-consuming, so I might go back after practice or quali. Some people had parked their cars on it, which rather spoiled some of the shots. D Heath was getting very irate.
It’s very steep. I can only guess at the speeds people would arrive there at, but it’s no surprise that many drivers died there. It was infamously lethal. A Japanese scribe who came with us said that the English-speaking world probably only knows about a fraction of the casualties because the Japanese racing scene wasn’t widely reported upon in that era.
October 9th, 2008 at 2:23 pmJourneyer said:
This will be Ross Brawn’s way of telling Ferrari, “Lads, this is how it SHOULD be done! And you would’ve done it this way too, if you bothered making me team principal.”
October 9th, 2008 at 2:41 pmSteven Roy said:
Honda must be winding up Ferrari. They can’t be seriously considering using lights.
The Fuji banking looks tame compared to Brooklands.
October 9th, 2008 at 3:04 pmStuart C said:
It’s in the ballpark – and the preceding straight would have been quite a bit longer. Owing to the general darkness and parked cars I couldn’t get a pic of the steepest bit.
I was talking to Geoff Willis today (for a feature that probably won’t see the light of day until the January issue) and he reckoned that Japan is in the wrong time zone. It should be at least an hour further on. He may be right - it gets dark very early.
October 9th, 2008 at 3:12 pmRobert said:
http://live.autosport.com/commentary.php/id/52
Only Saturday with a chance of rain they say.
October 9th, 2008 at 3:56 pmJordan Allen said:
More proof that Button is overpaid. Honda, with its massive budget gone, has to resort to raiding Ferrari’s garbage bins for a replacement pit system. Sad.
I really do wish Max would not be so modest in his goals to reduce costs in F1 by 50% for 2010. Honda can reduces its cost by 95% by getting rid of a one-race winner…..
October 9th, 2008 at 7:45 pmSteven Roy said:
I decided I should have a look at the session times for this weekend so that I can organise my sleep. Looks like I am getting none tonight.
FP1 02:00
FP2 06:00
FP3 03:00
Quali 06:00
Race 05:30
So I have to stay up for FP1 then get 2 hours sleep and get up early for FP2.
I wonder why the race starts 30 minutes earlier than quali. Must be for European convienece?
October 9th, 2008 at 8:31 pmr.g (my fuji, i managed to break sidepodcast.com) said:
how is it for european convienence? wouldn’t it be worse for us?
thinking of setting the alarm for 5.45 for qualy, either that, or play on fm all night then qualy and then bed. then sunday, since i have a match, can’t decide wheter to get up at 5.15 or sky + it then watch it when i wake up? thoughts.
October 9th, 2008 at 9:18 pmme said:
we’re staying up, but don’t let that sway you
October 9th, 2008 at 10:24 pmScott Woodwiss said:
I won’t make FP1 with you guys, or FP3 on Saturday, but FP2 and qualifying, and the race should be ok.
October 9th, 2008 at 11:47 pmScott Woodwiss said:
you’re staying up all night to watch it live?
October 9th, 2008 at 11:54 pmSteven Roy said:
Yes. We always watch all sessions live so a minor time change is not going to be allowed to interfere. I am sure there will be a few of us. Whether anyone tomorrow will be able to decipher the comments is another matter though.
October 10th, 2008 at 12:01 amme said:
hehe. yeah, that’s gonna be fun.
it can’t be any harder than the le mans live commenting though can it?
October 10th, 2008 at 12:10 amSteven Roy said:
That was one night. This is three and then the same again next week.