Formula 1 in Japanese - just who was the greatest of them all?

And so the season begins. Formula 1 is a love it or hate it sport. If you hate it then the trick is don't watch, stop moaning and go and do something you find more rewarding with your time. If you love it, the race for the title starts today. And before we go further I have to confess, I've been a die hard fan since Alan Jones won the Championship all the way back in 1980. And Japan is often front a centre to events.

The Suzuka circuit is one of the drivers' favourites (though access for fans has significant opportunities for improvement). The sport itself here often follows the success of Japanese involvement and this year Honda is back. Or more to the point, at the back. Let's see how they improve through the season though, early days yet. If they start to win, with Jensen Button at the wheel (an ex-World Champion married to a Japanese super-model), the sport will go stratospheric again. The only issue though is that, despite many examples to the contrary, it is only broadcast in Japanese. 

You can watch in real time on SkyPa 613 or you can view an hour out of sync on Fuji TV. But whichever you choose, you're going to be language limited. There are two alternatives though. You can go to one of the many foreign sports bars and join the crowds enjoying the spectacle, beer in hand and time delay out by just a few seconds. Or the second option (allegedly) is to get a VPN and listen on a foreign radio station (allegedly Five Live Sport for example). And (allegedly) you can enjoy your race in English whilst watching with the TV on mute. It's March. Let the race begin!

The Greatest of all Time (note the absence of a question mark)

When it rains….the Japanese Grand Prix won't be far behind

September / October is dead centre of the typhoon season in Japan. The storms do come at different times in the year but if you were to organise a major sporting event with one hundred and fifty thousand spectators you'd be hard pushed to find a more unreliable time. Obviously the Olympics are scheduled for September but that it many years away but today is the Japanese Formula 1 Grand Prix. And typhoon Phanfone will make landfall a little further south at about the same time the drivers start their engines.

The Japanese Grand Prix is not unused to heavy rain. In 2007 the heavens opened and the first nineteen laps were a slow procession behind the safety car as I sat freezing in the stands. It was eventually won by Hamilton with his race engineer commenting "I guess we can tick off racing in the wet then". In Ron Howard's superb dramatisation of the 1976 Grand Prix season, Rush, you experience what it was like for the drivers in extreme conditions. And of course James Hunt winning the World Championship.

The Japan race has historically been a pivotal one in the F1 calendar being so late in the season with thirteen champions being crowned here over the years. However with the increase in dates this won't be the case this year and with four races still to be held following Japan it's unlikely to be again in the future. The wets will be on every car today, each moving sixty litres of water a second which is the equivalent of over five tons per second on the grid. Have a great Japanese Grand Prix, I hope you have an umbrella. 

Formula One - The Legend of Suzuka

It's the Grand Prix weekend in Japan. Suzuka is not only the oldest circuit on the F1 calendar but also claims to be the drivers and fans favourite. And it has to be said it's produced many a great race. Senna and Prost saw the decisive crashes here in '89 and '90; the first seeing Prost take the title and the second seeing Senna. I remember watching and thinking as they got our of their cars, if only they'd shaken hands.

Suzuka is actually the name of the city where the track is located and nothing to do with Suzuki; in fact it was built as the test track for Honda. It remains a nightmare to access requiring the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Nagoya followed by a local train followed by a long, long walk. Alternatively, once you reach Nagoya have a car arranged to take you to the circuit, wait for the day and bring you back. I actually met Fernando Alonso together with Damon Hill this way once.

The Formula One weekend also leads to a series of parties and events in Tokyo claiming one or more of the drivers will be there. This inevitably leads to an excellent turnout but rarely a showing by one of the few on the face of the planet capable of driving those machines properly. In the case of Jensen Button it always rings slightly true as his fiancé is Japanese/Argentinian. And that's why he shouts "YATTA" when he wins a race. It's the Japanese for "DID IT!" 

And back at the track, if you're tickets are for the main stand, take your sun cream. At 2.00PM on a Sunday afternoon, when those engines start and the sound rips into you, you're face on into it. However this weekend you may be saved from this by the effects of typhoon Phanfone. Though I'm not sure that's a good thing.

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