Fuji Speedway

Fuji International Speedway

Address: Fuji International Speedway Co., Ltd. 694 Nakahinata Oyama-Cho Sunto-Gun Shizuoka-Ken 410-1307
Oyama , Japan
Route type:	permanent race track
Opening:	December 1965
Formula 1 venue :	1976-1977, 2007-2008
Track layout
Route data
Important events:	Formula 1 , WEC
Route length:	4.563  km (2.84  mi )
Curves:	16
Curve superelevation:	1965–1974: north curve 30 °
Records
Track record: (Formula 1)	1: 18,426 min. ( Felipe Massa , Ferrari , 2008)
http://www.fsw.tv

Coordinates: 35 ° 22 ′ 21 ″  N , 138 ° 55 ′ 37 ″  E

The Fuji International Speedway ( Japanese 富士 ス ピ ー ド ウ ェ イ ), abbreviated to FSW , is a motorsport racetrack in Japan . The track is located in Oyama at the foot of Mount Fuji and is used by Toyota as a test track . The long start-finish straight allows speeds of up to 350 km / h and is therefore considered dangerous. Before the renovation of the Fuji Speedway, the so-called A-curve and the B-curve could also be omitted by a further route variant, which made the route even faster.

formula 1

Opened in 1966, the Speedway hosted the Japan Grand Prix in 1976 and 1977. Due to a serious accident in 1977 with two dead and nine injured spectators, there were no more Formula 1 races in Japan until 1987. It was not until 1987 that Formula 1 returned to Japan with the races on the Suzuka International Racing Course . In 2007 and 2008 the Japanese Grand Prix was held again at Fuji Speedway. The route also became famous when Niki Lauda declared the wet route to be too dangerous in 1976 and got out of his car. As a result, he lost the world championship by one point to James Hunt .

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  Variants: red until 1974, green 1974–1984

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  Former 30 ° steep curve

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  Fuji (volcano) in the distance

The four races held in Fuji were won by Mario Andretti, James Hunt, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso. The British McLaren team achieved two wins, Lotus and Renault recorded one victory each.

Renovation 2005

The main grandstand of Fuji Speedway

The Fuji Speedway was rebuilt in 2005. The route was defused and opposite to Honda belonging Suzuka Circuit made competitive.

As a result of the renovation work, the curves have been widened somewhat, the run-off areas have been paved and the route has been provided with more modern and safer curbs . The most important change, however, was the construction of a much slower and narrower stretch of track in front of the start-finish straight. In addition to additional safety, this should also create new overtaking opportunities and reduce the speed on the straight for safety reasons. In the past, the fast, long last corner, a parabolic , allowed a lot of speed to be taken onto the straight. Today the last corner is a very narrow and slow hairpin . The entire section can be overlooked from the grandstands.

Accidents

Since it opened in 1966, the Fuji Speedway has repeatedly hit the headlines due to serious accidents and was therefore one of the most dangerous racetracks in the world, due to the high speeds and low safety standards.

In 1977, two spectators died when Gilles Villeneuve did not slow down his Ferrari sufficiently when braking into the right-hand bend after the start and finish in his third Grand Prix race and ran into Ronnie Peterson , who was driving in front of him . Villeneuve flew over the Tyrrell des Schweden and the route boundary into a group of people standing in the safety zone. In addition to the two dead, nine other people were injured, some seriously.

In 1983, the Japanese Toru Takahashi had a fatal accident in a sports car race in the Fuji Grand Champion Series when his car took off after a spin in the target bend and hit the barrier on a natural grandstand and a spectator was killed.

In another accident during a Formula 3 race in 1997, Takashi Yokoyama died when his vehicle hit another car at high speed on the start-finish straight and was catapulted into a traffic light bridge over the track, and the vehicle was split into several parts broke.

During the 1998 Japanese GT Championship race, Porsche driver Tomohiko Sunako drove into the pouring rain behind the safety car . Seconds later, Tetsuya Ota lost control of his Ferrari when he passed the scene of the accident and hit the Porsche standing on the side of the track. Sunako, a marshal at the scene of the accident and several spectators were injured by the impact and the subsequent explosion . Ota sat in his burning vehicle for around 50 seconds before he could be rescued. He suffered severe burns from melting his helmet visor.

The route was mainly criticized because the safety precautions for drivers and spectators did not correspond to the current state of the art. In addition, the inadequate training of the marshals became clear when, after Ota's accident, it took around a minute for other racing drivers to rescue him from his burning wreck. Rescue teams were not at the scene of the accident until then.

In addition to these problems, the location at the foot of the highest mountain in Japan has a strong tendency to torrential rains. Two of the four Formula 1 races were practically determined solely by weather conditions in which regular racing is almost impossible to think of.

The Fuji Speedway in video games

The Fuji Speedway was the first real existing track in a computer racing simulation. It was first used in the arcade game Pole Position (Namco / Atari 1982). In 1984 Sega's arcade game GP World was released , in which the race track was displayed using a video recorded on a laser disc . The old version can be driven on the Playstation in DTM Race Driver . In Gran Turismo 4 and Gran Turismo 5, both the new and various old route variants can be used. The 2007 version is available as a free add-on for the games GTR2 , rFactor , GT Legends and Race07 . Since March 2010 the historical versions 1982, 1990, 1993 and the motorcycle version 1993 have been available for the rFactor simulation. For rFactor, the original route including a steep curve has also existed as an add-on since 2008. The racetrack is also included in the racing game Project Cars 2 .

statistics

All winners of Formula 1 races in Fuji

No.	year	driver	constructor	engine	tires	time	Route length	Round	Ø pace	date	GP of
1	1976	Mario Andretti	lotus	ford	G	1: 43: 58.860 h	4,359 km	73	183.615 km / h	Oct. 24	Japan
2	1977	James Hunt	McLaren	ford	G	1: 31: 51.680 h	4,359 km	73	207.840 km / h	23 Oct
3	2007	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren	Mercedes	B.	2: 00: 34,579 h	4.563 km	67	152.130 km / h	Sep 30
4th	2008	Fernando Alonso	Renault	Renault	B.	1: 30: 21.842 h	4.563 km	67	202.790 km / h	Oct 12

Record winner
drivers: –– • Driver nations: Great Britain (2) • Constructors: McLaren (2) • Engine manufacturers: Ford (2) • Tire manufacturers: Bridgestone / Goodyear (2 each)

Web links

Commons : Fuji Speedway  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website of the operating company (Japanese and English)
• 2008 Fuji Television Japanese Grand Prix website (Japanese and English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Toru Takahashi. In: www.motorsportmemorial.org. Retrieved October 15, 2013 . 
2. ↑ www.arcade-museum.com: GP World , accessed on October 15, 2013.
3. ↑ Virtua_LM Fuji Speedway V1.00 released
4. ^ Fuji Speedway 1970. In: rfactorcentral.com. Retrieved December 6, 2017 .