LOTUS RENAULT GP
Back In The Hunt At Suzuka
Suzuka, one of the favourite circuits of drivers who have sampled its sensuous curves, has the only figure of eight configuration on the calendar and offers a relentless challenge to cars and drivers alike.
Designed by Dutchman John Hugenholtz as a test track for Honda in 1962, Suzuka always excites., and after the sucker-punch of Singapore’s slow corners, Suzuka should play more to the qualities of the Lotus Renault R31.
“I expect us to be much more in the hunt than we were in Singapore,” says LRGP’s Technical Director, James Allison.
Ayao Komatsu – My Home Race
Ayao Komatsu, Vitaly’s Race Engineer from Japan, arrived in England in 1994 to read Automotive Engineering at Loughborough University. Twelve years later he began working at Enstone and remembers vividly returning to his homeland for his first Japanese Grand Prix. Five years later on he still looks forward to returning to the annual race which, this time around, could be more emotionally-charged than ever before…..
Vitaly Petrov: “Suzuka may be a famous circuit but it’s also quite a tricky one”
Vitaly prepares himself for the speedy track of Suzuka – a polar opposite of the tight and twisting Marina Bay Circuit.
VP: It was a challenging weekend for us and frustrating not to see our hard work translated into results. We didn’t perform at our usual level. We now need to show what we can do in the final five races.
I came back straight after the race. I went through my usual training routines, before returning to England to visit the factory, meet with my engineers and discuss what happened in Singapore. Of course, we have also been preparing for Suzuka and the engineers have given me some data from last year to look at, which should help stand me in good stead.
Suzuka may be a famous circuit but it’s also quite a tricky one. Everyone knows it well, and all motorsport fans love it. I’ve only been to Suzuka once before, but racing there really is quite special, it is challenging and very, very fast. The first sector is incredible: the ‘s’ curves are like a rollercoaster, flipping the g-forces from side to side through very long corners, and it’s tough to keep the correct line, particularly because if you get one corner wrong, you really suffer in the other corners.
I hope the car will be strong there. It’s important to have confidence in the high-speed corners because if your confidence is down you can lose a lot of lap time. There is a very small margin for error because there are very few run-off areas, But Suzuka doesn’t work like that - if you go off with one wheel, you don’t come back. It’s one of the most fearsome tracks, but when you get it right it gives you immense satisfaction.
Sodden in Suzuka
The FIA’s official preview to the Japanese Preview states that the Suzuka’s near-coastal setting “has often made the track susceptible to sudden changes in weather conditions”. Well, I’m pleased / not so pleased (please delete as necessary) to report that the heavens well and truly opened this morning, and it has been raining cats and dogs (no need to delete the cats or the dogs part) since. In fact as I write, the white awning under which I am sat feels as though it’s about to cave in due to the incessant raindrops falling. Thankfully the laptop is still in one piece (unlike in Canada, where my previous laptop succumbed to its fate after a Montreal-style downpour), and I am able to put a few words together before the first leak appears.
