Sunday October 10th, 2004
Driver Playtime
Many of the Grand Prix drivers made the most of a Saturday together without any racing by doing what they know best - competing against each other! World Champion Michael Schumacher organised an impromptu programme and booked a five-a-side hall in Suzuka where he was joined by half of the field in a football knock around. They then took each other on in the Suzuka bowling alley and relaxed with a spot of lunch in the local Italian restaurant.
It was a rare occasion where all drivers had the chance to get together when they are not either arguing in a race briefing or waving to the crowd on the pre-race drivers' parade and Schumacher said: "It was a fun day for us, we did bowling, soccer, lunch, quite a lot of things, amongst the drivers together which I don't think has ever happened in that way." Australian Jaguar driver Mark Webber also joined in the fun and said: "We were all together, generally, well, most of us, about ten of us, so, yeah, we had a good day." Neither would reveal who was the bowling king or who was in the side that took the football victory.
Special Cake
Olivier Panis will bow out of Formula One racing after his 158th race this weekend to move into a new test driver role with his Toyota team, and the momentous event was commemorated in a special ceremony at Suzuka on Sunday. The president of the Toyota Motor Corporation himself, Fujio Cho, gave Panis a cake in the paddock but the sweet tasting treat probably failed to make up for the fact the team are cutting his career short by replacing him in the season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix with current test driver Ricardo Zonta.
Honda 40 Years
Honda celebrated the 40th anniversary of their first foray into Formula One with a special series of events this weekend, including a demonstration run of several key cars from the history of the company. One of the old white Honda machines was in action leading the parade with cars from the more modern era - the Williams FW11 from 1986, the Camel Lotus 100T from 1988 and the red and white Marlboro McLaren MP4/6 from 1991 - following behind. Former Japanese favourite Satoru Nakajima was present for the event and a history exhibition was also put on by the organisers, with eight cars set up at the circuit including a Williams FW11B from 1987, the Lotus 99T, McLaren's MP4/4 and MP4/5B cars from their championship-winning 1988 and 1990 seasons and the Larousse Lamborghini Lola 90, which Japanese driver Aguri Suzuki drove to third place in his home Grand Prix at Suzuka in 1990.
Typhoon Delight
The organisers of the Japanese Grand Prix were clearly relieved to see Typhoon Ma-on pass the circuit by on Saturday, because they quickly issued a press release in the afternoon which declared: "We are DELIGHTED to announce that Typhoon No.22, which was scheduled to pass over the area, has changed direction." They opened the gates to spectators at 5:00pm on Saturday but that failed to prevent hoards of fans driving into the circuit on raceday morning and the traffic was so bad that many journalists were forced to abandon the media buses and walk for 3kms to reach the circuit, leaving them with beads of sweat dripping down their foreheads after a frantic race to get there in time for the on-track action.
Published at 04:42:53 GMT
(03-11-2005): 
