Ferrari - previous Japanese GP

This year's Nippon Grand Prix will be the twenty fifth in its history and 2009 marks a welcome return to the Suzuka circuit, which rivals Spa-Francorchamps as a driver favourite. The very first race was held at Mount Fuji in 1976 and has gone down in history for its dramatic outcome: Ferrari’s Niki Lauda, who had nearly died earlier that year in a fiery crash at the Nurburgring, was still in the running for the Drivers’ title. Conditions were atrocious that Sunday, with very heavy rain making for treacherous conditions and the Austrian took the brave decision not to race, thus handing the championship to James Hunt, who also won the race a year later. However, that race was marred by an accident that claimed the lives of two spectators and the Japanese Grand Prix then disappeared from the calendar for a decade. When it returned in 1987, it was held at the Honda-owned Suzuka circuit, which the Japanese company used as a test track for its road cars. Designed by Dutchman, John Hugenholz, it provides a fantastic high speed challenge and is the only circuit on the calendar featuring a figure-of-eight layout, which sees cars pass over one another during a lap. For the past two years, the Grand Prix returned to the Toyota-owned and much revised Mount Fuji circuit, but from now on the race will alternate, year by year, between the two venues.

Usually taking place towards the end of the season, the Japanese Grand Prix has often proved to be the title decider, as was the case in its first year at Suzuka, when a practice injury to Nigel Mansell handed the crown to his Williams team-mate, Nelson Piquet, while Ferrari had the honour of recording the first Suzuka win, courtesy of Gerhard Berger. Most famously, Suzuka was the scene of an ongoing and acrimonious feud between Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna. In '89, the Brazilian tried to pass the Frenchman at the chicane: Prost retired immediately knowing he had the title, but his McLaren team-mate rejoined and retook the lead, but was disqualified. The following year, this time with Prost driving for Ferrari, the title fight was on again and the two men crashed at the first corner, handing the crown to Senna. There were other notable Ferrari-McLaren duels played out here, in a more sporting fashion, between Michael Schumacher and Mika Hakkinen. In 2000, the German won, to take his third world title, his first with the Scuderia, thus bringing the Drivers' title back to Maranello for the first time in twenty years. In 2003, Michael was again in the running for the championship, (his sixth) but having started from fourteenth on the grid, he faced a major challenge. He succeeded, by climbing up the order to take the one vital point that comes with eighth place. The Scuderia has won here a total of seven times, five times thanks to Schumacher, once with Rubens Barrichello and once with the aforementioned Berger.

In 2008, Kimi finished third and Felipe eighth, in an incident packed race at Fuji. Starting from second and fifth respectively, they were both forced off the track at the first corner, after a more than opportunistic move from Lewis Hamilton and in the closing stages, Felipe, the fastest man on track, was hit by Sebastien Bourdais, as the Frenchman came out of the pits. Both Felipe and Hamilton also had drive-through penalties in a very closely fought contest, as the title battle hotted up. For its 2009 comeback race, Suzuka will have undergone a variety of modifications to improve safety and the old-fashioned if charming paddock facilities are also due to be revamped prior to the race. Unchanged will be the Suzukaland Theme Park, originally built to entertain the workers and their families from the Honda factories in the town. It has always been a popular attraction for the F1 crowd, providing the unusual spectacle of seeing a fearless Formula 1 driver, white faced and shaking after getting off one of the rides!