Honda heads out to China and Japan

The Honda Racing F1 Team heads east to Asia next week for the final back-to-back races of the 2006 Formula One season, the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai followed a week later by Honda’s home race, the Japanese Grand Prix at the Honda-owned Suzuka circuit.

The Chinese Grand Prix made its debut on the Formula One calendar in 2004 to universal acclaim of the hugely impressive facilities. Designed by Hermann Tilke, the Shanghai International Circuit is built on three square kilometres of reclaimed marshland, and can seat up to 200,000 people.

“The Shanghai circuit is extremely impressive but more importantly it has a challenging track layout,” says Rubens Barrichello. “The venue holds some pretty special memories for me as I won the very first Grand Prix there from pole position in 2004 which was a great weekend.”

“The Chinese Grand Prix has quickly become one of my favourite races on the calendar,” agrees Jenson Button, “and the atmosphere at the race for the last two years has been fantastic. The circuit is very technical and quite demanding for the drivers but also fun to drive, with the stand-out feature being the length of the corners, particularly turn one which is tough on the neck.”

The 5.451 km track is shaped like the Chinese character ‘shang’ meaning ‘high’ or ‘above’. It comprises seven left and seven right turns with several overtaking opportunities, in particular at the multi-apex turn one and at the end of the back straight. Average speeds are approximately 200 kph, with the cars reaching their maximum speeds down the longest straight in Formula One, which stretches for over a kilometre in length between turns thirteen and fourteen