Comments on: Fuji gets better toilets but still needs a roof

By: Fixy

Fixy — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 15:30:37 +0000

The Brazilian GP was moved form March to November for this reason. That fixed it a bit IMO.

By: oliver

oliver — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 21:16:26 +0000

The problem with Fuji isn’t just the rain, but fog or mist engulfing the whole circuit. This makes for very very poor visibility. The practice sessions were canceled because of the fog.

By: Alianora La Canta

Alianora La Canta — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 19:19:16 +0000

Basically, holding races at Fuji in the autumn (typhoon season) is a silly idea due to the typhoon frequency. The trouble is that every month in Fuji has, on average, at least 20 days of precipitation…

By: milos

milos — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 01:58:25 +0000

a year ago I spent few days around the Fuji mountain area. The weather over changed 3-4 times a day. Sunshine, rain, warm, cool, cold and all over again

This is one of the areas where the weather changes will always be on cards. It is similar in Spa, there we sometime have different weather on different part of the track

I think that variable weather is a good thing for F1 and makes for exciting races. But … I am not that sure it is a wise idea to have races in a place where the weather is so likely to get extreme as is the case of Fuji. The mountain microclimate + the likely path of typhoons …

When you mentioned Suzuka and typhoon … Even Shanghai was affected by typhoon last year, but the race was lucky not to get the direct hit … The rain and wind was just enough to make the race very exciting Any races that are held in Japan and east coast of China during the typhoon season will always be at risk of typhoons

By: Nico Savidge

Nico Savidge — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 00:15:09 +0000

I totally agree with Robert – the first part of the GP might have been frustrating (I definitely shouted at the tv more than a few times), but after that it was one of the best races of the year. It had a brilliant drive by Lewis Hamilton, shock crashes (Alonso, Vettel and Webber), and fantastic battles [between Kubica and Massa and Raikkonen/Kovalainen].

Sure, the rain made for an irritating safety car farce, but I’d prefer that boredom followed by a great race to the parades we saw in Hungary and Belgium… and in Spain… and in America… and in Italy…

By: Gman

Gman — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 23:51:36 +0000

Also, is it just me as a newcomer, or would everyone prefer a race at Suzuka every season? Have conditions there been any better than the ones at Fuji?

By: Gman

Gman — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 23:43:47 +0000

While i’m sure a light rain at Fuji would make everyone happy and make for a great race, how about dropping the dry, dusty, boring Hungaroring altogether? At the time it was Bernie’s grand excursion behind the Iron Curtain, but the Cold War is long since over and he’s moved on to bigger and better ventures.

Just kidding, although I doubt many of us would miss the place. I’ve never been to Japan and can’t tell you anything about the weather, so a manner such as moving the race to a different weekend would be something for you F1 vets to comment on.

By: Robert McKay

Robert McKay — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 22:18:36 +0000

Maybe it’s just me, but a race where rain is more or less guaranteed should get protected status, in my view. How many really great dry Grands Prix were there last year? One, basically (Canada). But there were at least three brilliant wet GPs (Europe, Japan and China). The long SC-start was ridiculous, I can agree on that, but they were racing in worse conditions at points during the race, so that was just poor decision making (one hopes they would make better use of the red-flag suspension rules next time). And with it going the two-hour distance you still got more or less the usual 90 minutes worth of racing.

We need a Fuji to counter the dullness of a dry Hungaroring, etc. If it can just ease off a touch next time, that’ll be perfect

By: Ollie

Ollie — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 21:52:20 +0000

I appreciate that the weather was horrendously atrocious at Fuji last year, and that it may have been many times in the past. But what bugs me is not the circuit owners prioritising the toilets over the damn-boring track. Instead, my frustration is aimed at the tyre companies for not working harder at developing a tyre capable of running better in the bad weather. In the '90s there used to be a monsoon tyre, it was used once or twice I think. While it would be a massive cost for Bridgestone only to be used maybe once a year, it would help remove or minimise the safety car periods in these situations. Formula One does run in poor weather, which is such a huge plus point as it can produce some spectacular races. Sidepodcast pointed out today that teams don't appear to be doing enough to maximise their chances in a wet race. Maybe everybody involved needs to bang their heads together to improve the situation for everyone, fans included.

By: theRoswellite

theRoswellite — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 21:46:08 +0000

The place, Japan, isn’t a rain forest. They must have a dry or moderate climate at some time during the year (excuse me for not looking this up). As important as Japan is to GP in general, they should be granted a time slot that allows the race to be run. If this is inconvenient to some other track, so be it. No one would consider running the GP of Russia (coming to your theater soon) in Winter. Rain is just as, if not more, incapacitating as is temperature. Come on Bernie, make it happen.