From the culmination of James Hunt’s tense title fight with Niki Lauda in 1976 to the bitter battles between Formula One legends Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost from 1988 to 1990, the Japanese Grand Prix has seen its share of dramatic championship-deciding races over the years.
There wasn’t much in the way of drama Sunday as Red Bull wrapped up the constructors’ title and star Max Verstappen put one hand on his third straight drivers’ title with a dominant victory, but the 2023 race could still go down as the final time Suzuka Circuit sees a title secured on its iconic 5.8 kilometer track.
Japan had long held the coveted position of being among the last grands prix on the calendar, thus making it the scene of many title fights. But an expanded calendar in recent years, especially with new races added to countries in the Middle East, has moved the iconic Suzuka race to earlier in the season, lowering its chances of crowning a champion.
Next year, that possibility will be gone altogether: The 2024 Japanese Grand Prix will be held in April as Formula One reorganizes its schedule in a bid to streamline travel.
From the very start, titles have had a knack for being won — and lost — in Japan.
First it was Hunt in 1976, who finished third at Fuji Speedway in Shizuoka Prefecture to put him ahead of rival Lauda. The Austrian, who narrowly survived a fiery crash earlier that season, refused to race amid torrential rain, deeming conditions to be unsafe, opening the door for Hunt to clinch. The drama of that afternoon at Fuji Speedway was recreated in the 2013 movie "Rush" starring Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Bruhl.
After the 1977 race won by Hunt, the Japanese Grand Prix didn't feature on the calendar again until 1987 at the revamped Suzuka Circuit.
This time the stage was set for a title fight between Nelson Piquet and Nigel Mansell, with the two Williams teammates separated by 12 points in their Honda-powered cars. But a major crash in qualifying forced Mansell to miss the race and Piquet clinched the title before the race even began.
Then came the Senna-Prost years and a trio of thrilling, and controversial, showdowns between the two rivals for McLaren-Honda.
In 1988, Senna recovered from a stall at the start, storming through the field in wet conditions to eventually pass Prost and clinch the title.
A year later, Prost had the upper hand heading into the Japanese Grand Prix, with Senna needing victories in the final two rounds of the season.
Senna fell behind his teammate after the start but kept pushing until a daring move in the final laps of the race resulted in a collision between the two stars.
Prost got out of his car, assuming that the championship had been won, but Senna managed to restart with a helpful push from the track marshals.
Senna went on to take the chequered flag but was later disqualified for the restart in a highly controversial decision from the FIA, motorsports’ governing body, guaranteeing Prost the title.
A year later the two tangled again and this time Prost needed to win both of the season’s final two races to have any shot at the championship.
This time, the on-track action didn’t make it as far as the second corner, as Senna’s McLaren collided with Prost’s Ferrari at Turn 1 on the first lap, ending the day for both drivers and securing the championship for the Brazilian in controversial fashion.
Fast forward to 2022 and it wasn’t controversy but instead confusion as Verstappen clinched his second drivers’ title on a rainy afternoon in Mie Prefecture. Because the race was shortened due to the rain, it wasn’t initially clear whether the Dutch star had secured enough points to guarantee himself the title. Eventually the dust settled and he was crowned champion for the second-year running.
This year, the door was open for Red Bull to clinch its sixth constructors’ title in what may go down as the last title-deciding moment for Japan’s legions of passionate F1 fans.
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