SEPTEMBER 9, 2005

A race at Fuji in the spring?

The word on the street in Japan is that Toyota is pushing hard for a Grand Prix at Mount Fuji early next year, presumably fitting it in with the plan to hold the first three races in Bahrain, Malaysia and Australia.

The word on the street in Japan is that Toyota is pushing hard for a Grand Prix at Mount Fuji early next year, presumably fitting it in with the plan to hold the first three races in Bahrain, Malaysia and Australia. Logically-speaking if there was to be a fourth race on the early season swing to the Orient it would have to take place on April 16 when the teams would be on the their way back from Australia. This would mean that either the San Marino Grand Prix is dumped from the calendar, easy enough given the recent tobacco legislation decision in Italy and the poor crowd numbers at recent years, or the Imola race would have to be slotted into the calendar later in the year.

There have been two races in Japan in a year before but they were close together on the calendar and thus took spectators away from one another. With a race in the spring at Fuji and another in the autumn at Suzuka, Japanese fans would get the chance to see F1 twice in the same year.