Round Fifteen: Japan Preview.

Greetings internet,

Onward the series moves now leaving the night-time running behind and travelling into the far east, to the land of the rising sun and the home of small yellow animated creatures. Suzuka steps into the spotlight to host the next round in the calender in readiness for the Japanese GP, in a country devastated by the horrific earthquake and Tsunami earlier on in the year. Being in the south of the country the Suzuka region remained largely unaffected by the primary impacts of the disaster proceedings and infrastructure for the event will be intact

Aside from a backdrop of the events in the country this year, Japan is one of the more culturally entertaining venues the teams will be setting down in over the course of the season. A world where complete madness and the surreal becomes commonplace, even accepted as the norm. Sporting a plethora of spectacular and enthralling racing venues and at fairly close to the top of that list is the magnificent track we are visiting this weekend.

The Track

Credit to the FIA for the track map

When this end of the championship is populated by so many new ultra-modern race tracks it's nice to see a strong traditional style track remain. Standing in stark contrast to the likes of Korea, India and Abu-Dhabi joining the season in recent years, Suzuka has all the hallmarks of the European greats like Spa and the Nurburgring - with fast flowing undulating bends coursing up the hill and down the other side into the degner curves. 

But at the centre of this supreme facility lies something a little different that it's closer counterparts over here - the unique crossover section. An example of Japan wanting to do something innovative and exciting, the track sweeps over itself before entering the iconic 130R corner. A corner which has been somewhat beaten by the speed and downforce of the cars, but still manages to catch people out, the likes of Alquersuari in recent years have been victims of the wall. Then there was Di Grassi's accident last year where he binned it during the warm-up lap.

Amongst the flowing turns and undulation there are places to make overtaking manoeuvres as so expertly demonstrated by Kimi Raikkonen in 2005 going round the outside in turn one. But there are more conventional locations especially the Casio Triangle and based on last year the renamed - at least from the blog's perspective - Kobayashi corner. The hairpin following second degner was exceptionally put to use by Kamui and had bonus points been in operation then he'd have scored the top rank.

Now comes the time to unleash the recent video, where I drive around the tracks of the season several seconds off the pace - except in Singapore when I claimed pole by a couple of seconds, but that may have something to do with a track inaccuracy.  Anyway back to the point at hand and this weekend, ideally there would have been a section in it to reference the Bathurst 1000 from Mt Panorama but perhaps a separate entry for that.

What to expect 

Well the first thing that we can almost be certain this weekend is that German bloke may score that single point he needs to claim the F1 Drivers Championship. Which pales into insignificance when placed alongside the far superior Bonus Points Championship where Two-Cakes-Up Button has a commanding lead, but pretty much the entire field can claim the title with 50 points still on offer. 

Given the nature of the circuit it should play straight into Red Bull's hands, the high downforce configuration strongly suits their strengths there is almost an inevitable forecast of some more domination in the air and a degree of finality to this segment of the season. But as always Ferrari and McLaren will be close behind just waiting for anything to go wrong among the lead pairing. 

Further back the mid-field will be very crowded this weekend, as Renault Squadron should be back in the picture after a dismal performance in Singapore. Yet at the other end Mercedes will be wanting to reclaim their place in the void between two main divisions - as sort of division 1.5 which belongs to them alone. The contest for the final points places will be fierce with Renault Squadron in competition with Force India and Sauber with home hero Kobayashi fuelled by the local support.

Then there is the final three, these teams have began to fall further away from the established teams in front of them - despite Heikki beating Wing Commander Petrov in Singapore the newer teams have been losing ground. This could be attributed to the difference in development pace and a different focus possibly aiming more at the 2012 car.

On top of all that there is one second variable to add into the mix, the rain. Southern Japan has a tendency to experience typhoons - like the one that washed out qualifying last year resulting in 24hr all-nighter here with the Race, the qualifying session and the Bathurst 1000 in the interlude. Already from the team's twitter feeds rain has visited the area and the weekend could very well see some precipitation.

KERs and DRS

This weekend there will only be the one DRS zone positioned on the front straight, but what is interesting this  time is that the detection zone is located on the exit of 130R - oddly prior to the Casio Chicane - which means that if a pass happens in the chicane then the attacking driver will gain full use of the DRS un-impeded down the front straight. It's a similar issue that was encountered in Canada with the dual zone with the single activation point there. 

In terms of the zone itself it should provide some overtaking, as it does lead into a plausible overtaking area in turn one, if the attacking car manages to get alongside considering the shallowness of the breaking zone. But as has been shown in the past it is also possible to make overtaking manoeuvres round the outside of the corner given enough of a speed advantage offered by the DRS. 

Then there is the KERs, which does seem to only have a place in terms of overall lap time in qualifying but could have an impact should cars end up in the right place at the right time. Conveniently that right place could be on the run into the Casio Triangle Chicane - right between the two DRS lines. Additionally there is also a chance of KERs influencing the use of Kobayashi corner depending on the exit speed from second degner. 

The Japanese GP is one of the few events where both the country and the circuit are exceptional places, balancing the European style flow and speed to counter the eclectic and eccentric nature of the host nation. Throw in the threat of rain and an incident peppered qualifying session which have been a feature since Suzuka took over from Fuji. This is another one of the races that is worth looking forward to, ranking just behind Spa as one of the greatest tracks on the season.