Japanese GP | F1 VS Hagibis: how the Circus is coping with a typhoon
Typhoon Hagibis hit the Japan ahead of the F1 weekend at Suzuka: war defences have been established for preventing any damages to the circuit facilities, in order to have everything ready for a busy Sunday
As a few times have occurred, but all historical, F1 will end up having both qualifying and race in the same day: it happened in Suzuka on 2004 and 2010, in Melbourne for the 2013 edition opener round and, ultimately, at Austin in 2015.
Japanese are famous for coping extremely well with earthquakes, typhoons and tsunamis, being all their lifelong threatened by such massive atmospheric events; but F1 is hit from such a power of events for the very first time, putting under severe test all its countermeasures.
Since the track activity was over on Friday, teams and F1 personnel started the plan of actions in order to minimise the risks and the damages to structures and equipment: firstly, pit walls and pit stop tower were dismounted and recovered in the garages preventing them to been destroyed by wind storm of 200 kph.
The teams have battened down the hatches in preparation for the arrival of Typhoon #Hagibis 🌀
— Channel 4 F1® (@C4F1) October 11, 2019
We hope everyone in the path stays safe until it passes 🙏🏼#F1 #JapaneseGP ⛩ pic.twitter.com/Cd0jUoq7yx
Full on disassembly going on at Suzuka - pitwalls, podiums and garage equipment all being packed away and stored safely until #Hagibis passes. #F1 #JapaneseGP Images: @octanephotos pic.twitter.com/ogIynAWey7
— Thomas Maher (@thomasmaheronf1) October 11, 2019
Moreover, all the garages’ doors were closed with sand bags for avoiding water to enter inside: even all the equipment left inside was lifted a few centimetres; obviously all the technological stuff was set apart safely in the offices of the pit building. Even the tended hospitality were evacuated from all the furniture inside.
The temporary derig begins to ready for the remnants of #Hagibis Pitwalls abd even the FOM TV compound. Much work to derig and build again sat eve #JapaneseGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/q8l5Yw6ZQI
— John Sertori (@Adorimedia) October 11, 2019
Yet, the typhoon and its consequences could mean a good boost for the audiences, since probably nothing would be more exciting on tomorrow’s race: Mercedes could clinch the 6th consecutive title. Something that only Ferrari and Michael Schumacher set the record of.
