Big in Japan

It's the fans that make the Japanese GP. Yes. Ok, the circuit is one of the most popular of the year, yes the un-predictable weather always throws up a few dramas but it`s the unique atmosphere of the Suzuka circuit that makes the Japanese GP weekend for me.

The fans arrive on the Thursday before the GP and fill the grandstands. We quite often see more fans on a Thursday in Suzuka than we see during the entire weekend at races such as Turkey and China.

And these are no ordinary fans.

It is a surreal experience being trackside as a photographer in Japan. The silence is eerie. We are so used to the fans being vocal, blowing air horns, shouting and screaming, but not in Japan.

In Australia the fans are drunk. In China they don`t understand it, in Bahrain they are so rich they don`t bother watching it, in Spain they shout and eat tapas, in Italy they are just simply passionate. The fans in Monaco are either asleep, drinking champagne or admiring bikini-clad women. The British fans are super keen and in their seats at 6am. The German fans are noisy, fat and usually half-naked. The Hungarians are either gorgeous or sunburnt. The Belgians are wet. The Brazilians are super passionate, bang drums and dance in the grandstands. The Turkish fans are quite simply not there.

But the Japanese are Bonkers!

They sit in the pouring rain, in silence, watching an empty track for hours on end. They dress up as horses, fairies, warriors and sumo wrestlers. They are super loyal to their favourite team and it is not uncommon to see fans wearing Jaguar, Arrows, BAR and Minardi merchandise from years gone by.
They enthusiastically wave their flags lap after lap each time Kamui drives past.

Let them close to their heroes and they simply break down in tears. Grown men shake and panic. Girls cry and scream.

There is an obsession for driver autographs. These normally reserved Japanese fans wait patiently outside the drivers hotel in hoards until they get a glimpse of their heroes. Then with black permanent marker pens in hand they mob the drivers for signatures.
As Bruno Senna arrived at the circuit on Sunday he raised his sleeve up to me with black marker pen all over him `Not bad, I only got done by 3 of them today`.

I remember a couple of years ago, for some reason, one fan was asking the drivers to sign their autograph on his face. Most drivers accepted the offer and scribbled all over this poor guys head. Rubens however decided that with the language barrier he could get away with writing various swear words all over this guys face, all of which are un-printable on this blog.

Quite simply bonkers!