…and you have not had a very good night’s sleep. It feels like it is Christmas Day. In the early hours, one of two things happen. Either, the alarm goes off at about 05:45 in the morning. If you hear that happen, success! Now, all you need to do is creep slowly down the stairs so you do not wake anyone else up. Once in the living room, you turn the television on and see the news on. Depending on which year in this time travel we are on, that will be either the BBC News or the ITV Morning News. You try to stay awake for the next ten minutes, until the clock hits 6am. Because when the clock hits 6am, depending on the year of course, you hear one of four things. Jamiroquai, “Blackbeat” by Apollo 440, “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet” by Bachman Turner Overdrive, “Lift Me Up” by Moby or “The Chain” by Fleetwood Mac. Of course by writing the above paragraph, I’m referring to one thing. The Japanese Grand Prix.
For this year, we have five early wake-ups. I’ve only been doing Australia early wake-ups since 2009 when Formula 1 returned to the BBC, but have been waking up early for the other flyaway race since 2000. There is, in my opinion, something special about waking up early for Japan. Unlike the other flyaway races over in the Asian continent, Suzuka is a racers circuit. It doesn’t have miles of tarmac. It hasn’t been bastardised. Mistakes over the years have been punished, such as at the two Degner curves, and on the whole the circuit today is identical to that of twenty years ago. And that is what we love about Suzuka. I would thoroughly hate if some of the gravel traps were torn up and replaced by tarmac run off areas.
Suzuka also, over the years, has held some fantastic championship deciders’. 1989 is the obvious one that strikes to mind as Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost came to blows as McLaren team-mates, the two collided at the final chicane. That moment, along with what followed twelve months later, are both etched forever in the history of this wonderful sport. Following that, we had 1996, where Damon Hill won the Japanese Grand Prix to claim his first Formula 1 championship. The moment also had one of Murray Walker’s famous commentary lines, which we are almost certain to hear in preview clips this weekend: “And I’ve got to stop… because I’ve got a lump in my throat!” Classic Walker, because it defines the moment. It makes it memorable. And that is what made Walker at his pinnacle the best commentator this sport has ever seen. We remember those classic lines, they are forever written in the memory and never erased.
It was four years later, however, that one my most memorable Japanese Grand Prix moments was created. The race in 2000 was the first Japanese Grand Prix that I made the effort to get up early for, at the young age of eight. The scenario will be remembered instantly by most fans reading this. It was Michael Schumacher vs Mika Hakkinen. The prize. The Formula 1 Drivers’ Championship. The race lived up to the hype, the expectation. The tension was there throughout, as Schumacher and Hakkinen put on a race to remember. On the Saturday, Schumacher grabbed pole by the closest of margins. On the Sunday, however, it was Hakkinen that got off the line quickest, leading Schumacher into turn 1. The race from there on forward was tension filled. Schumacher in second was always a few seconds behind Hakkinen, matching his every move, his every lap time. Hakkinen knew. One mistake or car failure, and it was all over. Jacques Villeneuve could tell him that, because that his fate versus Hill four years earlier. Hakkinen led going into the second round of pit-stops. But after they both made their second stop, it was Schumacher in front. And to the chequered flag, that is how it remained. Schumacher was champion. “And he exits the chicane for the 53rd and last time… to win, the 2000 Japanese Grand Prix… and the World Championship! For the third time!” Ah, the memories. Suzuka, over the decades, has provided many.
Being a race in Asia though, Japan was one race that generated less coverage in the UK due to it’s unfavourable time-zone. Before 1996, you would be lucky to see Qualifying broadcast live by BBC, in fact, race coverage for Japan would usually be provided with Steve Rider sitting in a London studio, before handing over to Murray Walker a minute of so later, a complete difference to the European races where Rider would go out to the respective countries and present live from the grid. ITV upped the coverage from 1997, by screening Qualifying and the Race live from Japan, with Jim Rosenthal presenting from Japan. That did not last long, however. A few years later, and ITV ditched Japan altogether, whilst UK viewers were left unamused as GMTV was deemed a more important priority that F1 Qualifying (in reality, GMTV owned the air-time from 06:00 to 09:25 which meant ITV would have to negotiate the air-time with GMTV beforehand). So the early 2000’s consisted on Rosenthal, Tony Jardine and Mark Blundell in London for Japan with Qualifying either being shown late on Saturday night, as was oddly the case in 2005, or during the afternoon.
The Japan round did also provide ITV with one of its more embarrassing advertising blunders. In 2006, the commercial network cut to a break just as Schumacher’s engine was failing. For me, that was probably one of the more agonising moments that I have had watching Formula 1! The emergence of Lewis Hamilton meant that Qualifying for Japan was back to live, as it was in ITV’s early years, thankfully for them no vital moments of the 2007 race was missed as they were on-air for the moment that Fernando Alonso’s McLaren met a tyre barrier heavily. The following year, ITV’s last covering Formula 1, had Martin Brundle doing the presenting, which is, to date, his first and last show he presented. I wonder if we will see him presenting more Formula 1 races in the future? As always, time, shall tell…
Or alternatively, none of the above takes place and you miss the alarm. It doesn’t go off. You don’t go downstairs. There is no Japanese Grand Prix live on BBC or ITV at 6am. No new memories are created. Japan has always, for me, been a magical race, and one where you must get up early, regardless of whether the championship has been decided or not. It is like a ritual, that must never be broken. Except, for a large part of the Formula 1 fan base in the UK this year, that ritual will be broken. As part of the rights deal between BBC and Sky, BBC-only viewers will not able to watch the Japanese Grand Prix live. Instead, they will have to wait five and a half hours after the race conclusion to see it. Yes, it may be at a more sociable time, it may mean you can enjoy your beauty sleep. But, for me, and for millions of other people out there, there really is nothing better than seeing Formula 1 live…. it is just a pity then, that those millions this year will be robbed of that opportunity…
Motorsport Broadcasting 