Suzuka debut 10 years ago felt “intimidating” – Verstappen

Max Verstappen recalled feeling “intimidated” by his first experience of Suzuka when he made his debut in a Formula 1 practice session at the Japanese Grand Prix 10 years ago.

He set the 12th-fastest time in the first practice session for Toro Rosso three days after his 17th birthday. Verstappen lapped within half a second of the team’ regular driver Daniil Kvyat.

Now a three-times world champion and winner of the last two Japanese grands prix, Verstappen says Suzuka is “definitely one of my favourites” today, but found the high-speed course a steep challenge on his debut.

“It’s quite intimidating, I think, the first time you actually drive around the track,” he said. “That’s how I found it. It probably doesn’t help [that] it was also [my] first time driving a proper F1 car around here.”

Suzuka’s many medium-to-high speed corners make it an especially enjoyable track to drive, said Verstappen. “It’s a lot of fun when the car is also really hooked up.

“If you have a car that is not really well balanced in the first sector it makes it really, really challenging. But a car that is just very stable gives you a lot of confidence and then you can really push sector one, which for me is the best part of the track.”

Despite its many fast corners the track has little run-off in places, which Verstappen prefers. “Because it’s so narrow, if you make a small mistake, you can go off in the grass or gravel. It just adds a bit more to it than some other tracks where you can run wide, you take the Tarmac and you can come back on track.

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“So you definitely need to be really aware that if you maybe push a bit more, you risk a bit more that you can really go off and crash the car. So that makes it very special for me.”

The circuit is a favourite of many drivers. Verstappen’s former team mate Alexander Albon said its narrowness makes it more obvious how quick cars are around it.

“The immersion of speed when it’s narrow just feels more,” he said. “The precision has to be [greater] as well.

“For the most part, they’ve kept a lot of their kerbs original. It’s changing a little bit, but it for the most part stayed true to the character of the track.

“There’s undulations, cambers, all things which race tracks have and city tracks don’t really have anymore. And also, it’s just uncompromising. There’s really not much run-off. It’s white lines and grass. So you enjoy that as a driver to be able to feel that adrenaline when you’re driving and to know that to go quicker, you need to put a bit more on the line. That’s always quite fun.”

George Russell highlighted another difference which makes Suzuka preferable to some modern tracks. “I think the undulations as well and the cambered corners make it really nice,” he said. “I think all the circuits that have undulations – Portimao, Austin – that’s really fun to drive.

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“Corners that are banked into the apex are really nice. Some of the circuits have off-cambered corners, which all drivers hate, and it’s difficult to race. You can’t do different lines. So I think that combination of cambered corners and the ups and downs makes it pretty special.”

However Yuki Tsunoda said he found the track less enjoyable when he completed many laps of it in much slower Formula 4 machinery earlier in his career. “This track, I’ve driven like 1,000 laps,” he said. “More than [that], 10,000 laps, maybe.”

F4 cars lap around 45 seconds slower than F1 machinery. “Formula 4 has less downforce, so it’s just very sliding,” he explained. “Anyway, it’s fun to drive. I never get bored here. Every lap is very fun to drive. My favourite corner is I would say [Degner], the fast right.”

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