The circuit can be used in five configurations the car full circuit, the motorcycle full circuit, the "Suzuka east," "Suzuka west car," and "Suzuka west motorcycle" configurations.
In 2003, the chicane was made slightly faster and closer to the 130R.įollowing the death of Daijiro Kato at the 2003 Japanese motorcycle Grand Prix, Suzuka reconfigured the motorcycle variant of what is now known as the Hitachi Automotive Systems Chicane before the final turn, and added a second chicane, between the hairpin and 200R. In 2002, the chicane was slightly modified, 130R (marked as 15 on the diagram) was also modified and some of the snake curves were made a bit straighter and faster additionally, the runoff area at the Dunlop Curve was doubled from 12 metres to 25 metres, and the corner itself was made slightly tighter. The Degner curve was made into two corners instead of one long curve, and more crash barriers, more run-off areas were added, exposed vegetation was barricaded off and straw bales were removed (but still used for the Japanese motorcycle Grand Prix). In 1987 the circuit was brought up to F1 and Grand Prix motorcycle standards for both Japanese Grand Prixs of their respective championships, the F1 Grand Prix being the first held at Suzuka. In 1984 the first part of Spoon was made slightly slower and the corner was brought closer to the track to expand run-off area there, and in 1985 the first corner was made slightly slower. In 1983 a chicane was inserted at the last curve to slow the cars into the pit straight the original circuit was an incredibly fast track with only one slow corner without the Casio chicane some cars would go through the final long right-hand corner flat out and then would go past the pits at more than 200 mph (320 km/h). The circuit has been modified at least eight times: It is one of only two FIA Grade 1 licensed tracks to have a "figure eight" layout, the other one being the Fiorano Circuit. Designed as a Honda test track in 1962 by Dutchman John "Hans" Hugenholtz, the most iconic feature of the track is its "figure eight" layout, with the 1.2 km (0.75 mi) long back straight passing over the front section by means of an overpass. Soichiro Honda decided to develop a new permanent circuit in Mie prefecture in the late 1950s. Suzuka Sākitto), is a 5.807 km (3.608 mi) long motorsport race track located in Ino, Suzuka City, Mie Prefecture, Japan and operated by Honda Mobilityland, a subsidiary of Honda Motor Co, Ltd.