Just one week after the last race in South Korea, Formula One remains in Asia but goes to nearby Japan for the fifteenth race of the 2013 season.
The 5.807 kilometers (3.6 miles) long track has one of the fastest corners in the Formula 1 championship, with no less than three places where the high downforce cars can reach over 300 km/h (186 mph).
Nico Rosberg: “Suzuka is one of the most exciting circuits of the year and I love racing there. Our car has been fast in high-speed corners this season as we seem to have good downforce so I hope the fast layout of Suzuka will suit us this weekend. The Japanese fans are always very enthusiastic which is fantastic and I look forward to seeing them again. I would love to get the deserved good result that has eluded us for the last few races and I know that everyone has been working really hard to achieve that.”
Lewis Hamilton: “Suzuka is one of the few circuits we have left in Formula One with the authenticity of a real old-school circuit. I drove there for the first time in 2009 and it takes a while to pick up pace each year because of how fast-flowing it is. If you touch the grass at any point, it’s going to spin you off into the wall, so it’s a much more demanding circuit in terms of precision, positioning and turning points for each corner. It’s a real race track where you have to think ahead as a driver and it just needs crazy levels of downforce from the car. From my point of view, the car felt fantastic to drive in Korea when everything was hooked up, so I am excited to get to Japan and see what we can do there.”
Since the Korean race left the team with a bit of both sour and sweet, with the gap between the Germans and Ferrari now sitting at a single point difference, nerves are pretty stretched before the weekend.
Still, taking into account that the Mercedes-AMG cars were the fastest in the medium and high-speed corners in last weekend's race and upcoming Suzuka is prevalent with this type of corners, chances for an overall good finish are pretty high as long as reliability issues are kept under control.
Nico Rosberg: “Suzuka is one of the most exciting circuits of the year and I love racing there. Our car has been fast in high-speed corners this season as we seem to have good downforce so I hope the fast layout of Suzuka will suit us this weekend. The Japanese fans are always very enthusiastic which is fantastic and I look forward to seeing them again. I would love to get the deserved good result that has eluded us for the last few races and I know that everyone has been working really hard to achieve that.”
Lewis Hamilton: “Suzuka is one of the few circuits we have left in Formula One with the authenticity of a real old-school circuit. I drove there for the first time in 2009 and it takes a while to pick up pace each year because of how fast-flowing it is. If you touch the grass at any point, it’s going to spin you off into the wall, so it’s a much more demanding circuit in terms of precision, positioning and turning points for each corner. It’s a real race track where you have to think ahead as a driver and it just needs crazy levels of downforce from the car. From my point of view, the car felt fantastic to drive in Korea when everything was hooked up, so I am excited to get to Japan and see what we can do there.”
Since the Korean race left the team with a bit of both sour and sweet, with the gap between the Germans and Ferrari now sitting at a single point difference, nerves are pretty stretched before the weekend.
Still, taking into account that the Mercedes-AMG cars were the fastest in the medium and high-speed corners in last weekend's race and upcoming Suzuka is prevalent with this type of corners, chances for an overall good finish are pretty high as long as reliability issues are kept under control.