A question for you all, first of all. Have you raced here at Fuji before? What have been your initial feelings seeing the circuit? And what preparations have you made before coming to this new circuit?
Ralf Schumacher: I've kind of been here before. I actually lived not so far away from here. What they have done with the pits is great. The place has changed a bit. The track itself… OK, the last few chicanes have really changed and a few bits on the outside, but yeah, they've done a good job.
What sort of preparations have you personally made for this circuit? Have you looked at it on Playstation or anything?
RS: No, no. I was here last year for the 50th anniversary of Toyota, so I had the chance to see the track then and even before as well, at the beginning of the year. We did some filming, so I knew the circuit.
So your feelings about it, particularly that last sector?
RS: The last sector is very tiny but it's quite good to be able to follow cars, so I guess we will see a lot of overtaking down the main straight.
Rubens, your feelings. You have raced here before, haven't you?
Rubens Barrichello: Yeah, a long time ago, though: '91 and it was the other layout. I haven't prepared much. I have walked the circuit now, it's an easy circuit to learn and now we have to see what the car can do.
Any specific preparations?
RB: No, I've checked some GT laps on YouTube, that's all.
But it doesn't take long to learn, does it?
RB: No, I think it's going to be straightforward. There are a couple of corners that are quite interesting. I think turn four is quite a long one, to get a proper line and so on. I think a lot of people will be trying different lines but I guess it's the same for everyone.
Sakon, your feelings; obviously you've raced here before.
Sakon Yamamoto: Yes, I'm very happy to come back for the Japanese Grand Prix again, as last year. Here it's the first time for the other drivers, but for me, I have driven here in GT, so I know it quite well, so I get to have some advantage.
So no preparations needed; what's the fastest car you've driven around here?
SY: Formula Nippon.
Takuma.
Takuma Sato: Actually, I've only raced here once but I was on a bike, a push-bike, so there's a little bit of a speed difference and nothing on motor racing but Fuji is obviously very close to where I live, it's virtually an hour away from Tokyo here, so I feel very close and very relaxed. I never raced here in a car, but this morning I just walked around the circuit and I'm quite impressed with the elevation changes, which I really didn't see on my preparations before coming here. I only had the circuit drawing and a little bit of footage from Formula Nippon racing when Sakon was racing, I think. So it was good to see it and there seemed to be good opportunities to overtake, very exciting racing, so I'm quite looking forward to driving tomorrow.
Rubens, Honda used to make a Suzuka special for the Japanese Grand Prix, have they made a Fuji special?
RB: Well, it's the second race for the engine, so of course there's nothing on that side. We are trying some different aero configurations for here. Some of them worked in Jerez, some of them were no use, so we have something to try here. I don't think we're going to solve the problems with anything special. This year, whenever the car adapted well to the track we seemed to go better; if not, we were at the back of the pack, so hopefully this track will bring us some smiles.
Do you feel there's extra impetus behind the team for here?
RB: It's the home race, we definitely want to do very well but apart from that, we know that the car isn't very good and the year hasn't gone very well, so we just have to put the best effort to try and compensate for that, but if it is anything, it's a single point more than anything else, unless the weather can play a different part and then you have safety cars and you never know.
Are you expecting that?
RB: Coming here we talked to someone who said he'd never seen a race here when it wasn't wet for one part of the weekend with fog and so on. Back in '91, it was very foggy and one of the days was wet as well. I think it's something that we can expect, yes.
Nurburgring weather, is that what we're expecting, Ralf?
RS: Nurburgring weather? I hope not, it's cold there now. There is some rain expected tomorrow but at this time of year it can be nice and sweet, so let's hope that's going to be the case.
There seem to be quite a few modifications to the Toyotas here?
RS: Well, like any other team we had some tests at Jerez with new bits and pieces on the car because this is a very specific track with a very long straight obviously. I don't know (if we have) any more than other teams brought to this race.
