Arriverderci Suzuka

Another great circuit bites the dust. No race at Spa this year and now comes the news that we are losing Suzuka after this year's race. Looking back to last year, the Japanese race was possibly the highlight of the season. Remember Alonso passing Schumacher round the outside of 130R? Kimi passing Ginacarlo on the first corner of the last lap?

Sunday's race at Bahrain was great. The track is really wide and seems to allow racing. But at the end Schuey admitted that there was no way he could get close to Alonso.Maybe that's a feature of the Ferrari but it seems a shame that one of the greatest tracks will be removed from the calendar.

Fuji has been rebuilt and I guess that the facilities there are up to Bernie's high standards. And I suspect Fuji might have better transportation links. Personally I don't turn on the TV to see really well turned out pit buildings. They're covered by ll the team paraphernalia anyway. Nor do I care about the time it takes the average Japanese fan to get to the circuit. But these are important issues for Bernie so the GP moves to Fuji. Let's hope the weather is better than when the World Championship was decided in 1976 on one of the two occasions the Japanese GP was held there. Four drivers refused to race if memory serves me, but then it's rained at Suzuka too. The 1994 race was particularly damp, and in 2004 qualifying was completely washed out. I suspect the circuit at Fuji will be fine, after all it's not designed by Hermann Tilke. But Suzuka is a classic and it's not right that we will lose it.