Suzuka preview: “The authenticity of a real old-school circuit”
The Japanese Grand Prix, Round 15 of the 2013 Formula One season, takes place at the 5.807 km Suzuka circuit on Sunday 13 October, seven days after the last race in Korea.

In the Esses, every corner sees lateral loadings of 3G or more with peaks of 4G in Turns 3, 7 and 8. The fastest corner on the circuit, Turn 15 (130R) is taken at 310 km/h (like Eau Rouge in Spa) and a lateral loading of 4G. The cars will top 300 km/h three times per lap, before Turns 1, 13 (Spoon) and 15 (130R). Since the Japanese Grand Prix returned to Suzuka in 2009, every race has featured one Safety Car deployment.

Nico feels that “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.”

For Lewis, “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.”