A lap of Suzuka with Button
The upcoming GP of Japan is the home Grand Prix of the BAR Honda Team. Jenson Button took us for a ride on the Suzuka circuit at the wheel of his BAR Honda. Suzuka is one of the most challenging tracks on the F1 calendar.
"Turn 1 is one of the most difficult corners to get right. It's a corner where you make up a lot of time in qualifying, because you're pushing that extra bit. The reason why it's so difficult is you need to carry a lot of speed through it for the second corner. It's just a confidence thing.
Turn 2 is a third gear corner. It's quite interesting, because when you turn you've got quite a bit of grip, and towards the exit it's off-camber, and you run out of grip and get a little bit of oversteer. It's very important to be positioned correctly for Turn 3, which is the first part of the snake, as we call it! It starts with a left-hand corner, which is third gear.
In this section it's very important to find the right line. Again, it comes with time. It's third gear for the first part and fourth gear for the second part, which is a righthander. You get the car right over to the right hand side for the second 'chicane'. The turn-in is pretty easy, and towards the exit it's off-camber again, so you get a little bit of oversteer. The you're down one more gear into the last part of it, a righthander. It's quite a long corner, reasonably slow, but it's very important to get a good exit there because you've got Dunlop, the double lefthander, to follow.
It's pretty much flat-out. You normally get a little bit of oversteer at the apex, so it's a confidence thing again. Then you get to Degner One, which is a small lift, maybe down one gear. You've got to be very, very careful not to hit the kerb too hard on the apex, because it can send you off the circuit. Then you're braking down to Degner Two.
You haven't got much time to slow the car down. It's a second gear corner, pretty tight, 90-degree angle. In qualifying last year I ran a bit wide an ran over the kerb into the tunnel, losing quite a bit of time. Make sure you don't do that! So you're under the bridge, up a gear, and there's a right hand turn before the hairpin. A few years ago you had to lift, but with the cars and tyres we have now you're able to carry full speed. Then you hit the brakes for the hairpin, which is first gear, very, very slow.
It's not so important to be right on the kerb at the apex, as you've got to carry a bit of speed through there. You have to get a good exit because you've got a long straight, but it's also a right hand corner, which is no trouble for us at all. Then you're down into Spoon, a double lefthander. You brake down to fourth gear, and the entry is very fast. It's one of the quickest corners on the circuit. At the apex and exit you're slowing the car down a little bit for the second part of it, which sometimes is down one gear to third.
You've always got to be thinking about the exit, which is the most important thing. You've got a really long straight after that, heading down to 130R. You get a good exit, and go up to seventh gear. On that straight you're normally checking what's happening, and you might make a change to the diff or the TC (Traction Control), and check in you mirrors.
They you come up to 130R. At the entry you're going over the bridge and there's a big bump, so the car gets a little bit unsettled. Even though they've changed the circuit, it's still not an easy corner to take flat, although the changes last year made it better. I wasn't taking it flat, but it was actually quicker not to go flat, because you can scrub off some speed.
You get a good line through 130R, try and stay smooth with as little steering angle as possible. Then you're braking down into the new chicane. It's quite strange because you're over the brow of the hill, and you're so use to the old chicane. It comes up on you very, very quickly. It's a second gear corner. The kerbs are very, very big and you take as much kerb as possible, especially in qualifying, on both apexes. Then you've got to hope for good traction onto the main straight that takes you across the finish line."
