As the 2018 Formula One World Championship enters the home-straight, this weekend sees a return to the world-famous Suzuka circuit. Haas F1 Team‘s Romain Grosjean is relishing the prospect of being able to drive at his favourite track on the calendar.
Suzuka and Japan are both widely recognised to be a firm favourite for all the drivers. The fans play a huge part in this, but the track itself is both demanding and rewarding, making it the perfect challenge for drivers.
According to Grosjean, it is essential to get the downforce balance just right as Suzuka, as too much or too little either way can result in poor lap times. It’s a case of very fine margins – probably one of the trickiest tracks to set up for on the calendar.
“Sochi is a particular racetrack – not one of my favorites,” he commented, referring to last weekend’s Russian Grand Prix.
In the tight midfield battle, Haas is looking to take the fight to Renault Sport Formula One Team again this weekend, with just eleven points separating the teams.
“Suzuka is definitely my favorite. I always look forward to going there. We want to do well everywhere. We’re going to fight as hard as we can everywhere to get those points and try to beat Renault.
“There seems to be a delicate balance at Suzuka in regard to downforce. Too much and you go slowly down the straights. Too little and you won’t have the confidence to attack the track’s twists and turns. Obviously, the level of downforce is predicated on how comfortable you are at speed.
“It’s one of those tracks where you need quite a lot of downforce and a really good car in the high-speed corners. There are some important low-speed ones, as well. It’s about getting the right confidence in being able to push to the limit in those tricky sector-one turns. It’s not an easy track to set up the car, but definitely a really good one to be on.”
