Looking Back at Japan

By Matt Jones
October 13 2006

Matt Jones, a regular RealHondaF1.com reader, gives us his view on the penultimate race of the season - the Japanese Grand Prix. With the title race as good as over, and Honda secure in fourth, just what is there to discuss...

The Japanese Grand Prix was the final race to be held at Suzuka, at least for the near future. With the championship race promising to go to the wire it was going to be absolutely vital in qualifying for both the championship contenders to get a decent slot on the grid.

During the week rain was threatening but, unfortunately for Honda Racing F1, there was not a drop over the course of qualifying and the race.

Ferrari managing to lock out the front row of the grid on Saturday, although it was Felipe Massa was on pole and not Michael Schumacher. Things were looking very good for Ferrari. Unsurprisingly, Toyota ran on fumes in qualifying for their home Grand Prix to steal the headlines for 24 hours, locking out the second row of the grid.

Unfortunately for Renault they could only manage to get both cars on the third row, and faced being stuck behind the two Toyotas for the entire first stint while the two Ferraris ran away with the race. Honda took the fourth row of the grid, quite a way off the pace, but hopefully in a good position to challenge for a double points finish.

Once again Bridgestone seemed to be the tyre to be on, with blistering speed in qualifying for all of their teams, which is probably part of the reason Toyota also looked quite quick. Ferrari and Bridgestone had found the sweet spot and they looked unstoppable!

In the race Ferrari did not look quite as quick as they had in qualifying, only being able to pull away marginally from the Toyota of Ralf Schumacher, who was holding up Fernando Alonso. We saw Ferrari taking no chances, swapping their drivers around on the main straight, putting Schumacher ahead. Obviously no team orders were given over the radio, but I’m sure someone had a quiet word in Felipe Massa’s ear prior to the race.

Unfortunately for Ralf Schumacher, no one had a quiet word with team mate Jarno Trulli, who held him up in the final parts of the race costing Ralf a very decent scoring opportunity. Once again Trulli was seen to be struggling for pace after the first stint, perhaps losing interest in the race. It’s extremely surprising that Toyota have signed him for next season.

Another driver who was struggling to overtake was Rubens Barrichello, after damaging his front wing with a coming together with Nick Heidfeld in the first corner. His race was ruined as it’s so difficult to overtake, though he did well to fight back from 22nd position after his stop.

Without the rain it was an uneventful race at a circuit where overtaking is extremely difficult without big mistakes being made. Mark Webber made such a huge mistake, running wide onto the grass and losing control of his Williams, ploughing it into the wall on the pit straight.

Once again the championship race took another turn, with Michael Schumacher retiring with an engine failure just 17 laps from the end, leaving Fernando Alonso to go on and grab a very unexpected win. That win would see Renault once again with the advantage in both the drivers’ title and the constructor’s championship.

Ferrari will be absolutely devastated to have lost such a great opportunity to win another world championship. The win looked certain, and Ferrari looked to have had things completely wrapped up. The constructors’ championship is still very open, and the drivers’ championship is technically still open - all it needs is a mirror image of Japan to happen for Ferrari to win it.

Renault will take the turn of luck and run with it. It was an excellent drive from Fernando, coming from fifth to win at a circuit where overtaking is so difficult. Giancarlo Fisichella had a fairly solid day too, scoring some nice points for the team in the constructor’s championship and putting them at a very nice advantage for the final round at Brazil. I still cannot believe that Fisichella can lead Renault on to win a championship next season though.

Honda Racing F1 were best of the rest once again. A solid display from Jenson Button saw him driving from seventh to a nice point’s position once again. A very consistent scoring record from mid season has ensured that he has established himself quite well over team mate Rubens Barrichello.

McLaren had a superb race with Kimi Raikonnen, from 11th on the grid up to fifth. Unfortunately Pedro de la Rosa could do nothing from 13th on the grid. It’s looking highly likely that McLaren will not win this season, something that has not happened for 10 years. We will also see next season if the team will be missing Adrian Newey who made the switch to Red Bull to design their car for next season. There is also speculation that Lewis Hamilton may well get a drive at the Brazilian Grand Prix which would be interesting to see.

Red Bull Racing are obviously frustrating David Coulthard for not building a better car than last years, which ironically is beating them out on the track. Obviously there is uncertainty regarding next season as to how good the chassis will be and whether all the high profile signings will indeed gel together to make a good team and package.

BMW-Sauber didn’t look particularly quick. It was a disappointing weekend for both drivers who ended up fighting each other for the final point’s position. It was all a very different story a few weeks back when they were challenging for podiums, and their drop in form has seen constructor championship rivals Toyota close in on them considerably.

Williams, after finally scoring last week, found themselves once again well down in the midfield. Nico Rosberg failed to make any impact on the point’s positions from a good grid spot, while Mark Webber retired and will now surely be counting down the days to his final race in a Williams car. Poor Nico is stuck there next season, no doubt scrapping further down the field!

Super Aguri were, once again, pretty impressive under Takuma Sato, with another solid race seeing him finish ahead of Tiago Montiero in the Spyker car. The car is obviously a step up from the previous chassis and the team have done a fantastic job to be able to challenge the renamed Midland team.

With one round left to go, it looks like Renault have bagged up the drivers’ title for Alonso. Surely Alonso now is looking at McLaren and wondering if he can make it three championships in a row, although that looks unlikely. It’s also looking unlikely that the team he will be leaving will be challenging for anything, as they seem very average without him. Can Honda Racing F1 mount a challenge next year? Surely we can muster up another race win somewhere along the way...

The season has flown by and we’re off to Brazil next, where hopefully we will get some unpredictable weather to give us another thrilling race!