Suzuka Circuit Round: 03
Race laps: 53
Circuit length: 5.807 km/3.608 miles
Total race distance: 307.471 km/191.054 miles
Number of corners: 18 (10 right, 8 left)
Historic Safety Car %: 50%
Pitloss: +24s
Safety Car L1 pitloss: +13s
Energy management required: Medium
Session start times:
FP1: 1130 local/0230 MTC
FP2: 1500 local/0600 MTC
FP3: 1130 local/0230 MTC
Qualifying: 1500 local/0600 MTC
Race: 1400 local/0600 MTC
Allocated tyre compounds:
Hard: C1
Medium: C2
Soft: C3
Where else we’re racing
Arrow McLaren IndyCar Team
Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix
McLaren F1 Sim Racing Team
Event One at ESL DreamHack in Birmingham. Racing the circuits of China, Japan and Bahrain.
McLaren Driver Development Programme
Last time out:
F1 Academy, China
Ella Lloyd – P7 in Race 1 & P5 in Race 2
Ella Stevens – P11 in Race 1 & P12 in Race 2
Formula Winter Series, Barcelona
Dries Van Langendonck – P1 in Race 1, P1 in Race 2 & P1 in Race 3
Racing returns this week following the first break in the 2026 FIA Formula 1 World Championship as McLaren Mastercard Formula 1 Team travels to the iconic Suzuka Circuit with the aim of bouncing back with a strong performance following important learnings from valuable time spent in Woking reviewing the opening two weekends of the season.
With both drivers entering the weekend having secured more engineering and sim time under their belt, alongside the wider team having undertaken a joint investigation together with HPP to make sure that the two separate faults suffered in Shanghai don’t occur again, McLaren Mastercard go into the weekend fully prepared to be in position to take on the challenge of securing strong points while continuing to work hard to close the gap versus the leading two teams.
Round 3 of the 2026 campaign sees the Japanese Grand Prix take place, a race weekend filled with rich history for the iconic papaya team. The circuit’s combination of fast corners and technical challenges offers the drivers a unique experience, one that is often described as one of the most exciting tracks on the calendar. The special atmosphere in Suzuka generated by some of the most passionate and energetic fans in the world will also provide an incredible backing throughout every session for the team.
Away from Suzuka, McLaren Driver Development and F1 Reserve Driver, Leonardo Fornaroli had his first experience in a Formula 1 car, having successfully completed a Driver Development Test at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Monday and Tuesday, piloting the MCL60 that secured nine podiums during the 2023 Formula One World Championship.
The Arrow McLaren IndyCar team also return to action after a parallel weekend away from track with the Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham. With three separate winners in the opening three rounds of the 2026 NTT IndyCar Series, Tony Kanaan and team will be looking to challenge at the front of the field in Sunday’s race.
Mark Temple
Technical Director - Performance
"Reflecting on the opening rounds of the 2026 FIA Formula 1 World Championship, we have seen two very different circuit layouts. The Australian Grand Prix at Melbourne Park provided medium and high-speed chicanes, whereas the Shanghai International Circuit in China provided long, low and medium speed corners.
“Even though we are only in the early stages of this new generation of Formula 1, we have already experienced two different power unit challenges and requirements in terms of harvest and deployment, affecting areas such as driving approach and racing tactics.
“Looking ahead to this weekend in Japan, we expect to see something a little more like Melbourne. Suzuka remains a unique and challenging circuit layout with its iconic corners, but like Melbourne it is a more energy-starved track. We therefore anticipate more artefacts of energy recovery in a number of areas of the circuit such as entering Turn 1. This will be an important area to optimise along with the chassis and tyre performance.
“We knew 2026 was going to bring a lot of new challenges, and we will continue to build our understanding and our performance united as one team. This understanding will put us in the best position to maximise chassis performance and power unit exploitation, both key areas for competitiveness."
McLaren Racing Heritage – Japan
9 wins, 6 Poles, 29 Podiums, 8 Fastest Laps
Most recent win: 2011 with Jenson Button in the MP4/26
Special races: McLaren’s first win in Japan in 1977 with James Hunt in the M23 and Oscar’s first podium in 2023 in the MCL60.
Standout race: 1989, Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost in Suzuka.
McLaren won 10 of the 16 races during the 1989 F1 season. The Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka isn’t one of them, and yet it remains the race with which the team are synonymous. Alain Prost had a DNF and Ayrton Senna a DSQ after the pair collided while contesting the lead, seven laps from home. Alessandro Nannini for Benetton came through to record his singular F1 victory, and Alain became a triple World Champion.
Japan was race 15 of 16, and Prost arrived with a 21-point advantage in the Drivers’ Championship. The complicated scoring of ’89 meant victory would keep Ayrton’s title hopes alive. Relations between the pair were icy, following a disagreement at Imola. Senna put his car on pole by 1.7 seconds but lost the lead to Alain at the start. It stayed that way until Lap 46, when Senna attacked into the chicane. Prost shut the door; the pair collided and went off. Prost jumped out, Senna got a push start, made it back to the pits for repairs, and came out five seconds behind Benetton’s Alessandro Nannini. He overturned the deficit and won the race… only to be disqualified for missing the chicane, having gone off at the entry but rejoined at the exit. McLaren appealed the decision.
The media decided that Team Principal, Ron Dennis, was choosing to support Senna over Prost, because Prost was departing for Ferrari. Dennis countered, saying the Stewards’ decision was wrong, and his team had been denied a victory on spurious grounds – plenty of other cars had used the run-off at the chicane without penalty. The decision wasn’t overturned, Nannini recorded his singular F1 victory, Prost was crowned 1989 Champion, and F1’s reputation for sporting rivalry was cemented into legend.
Neil Oatley, Technical Consultant, said:
“We arrived at Suzuka for the 1989 Japanese GP, as the year before, with the Constructors' Championship in our pockets, and the Drivers' Championship was once again a showdown between our drivers only. Since the conflict created at the Imola race early in the season, the drivers would not interact with each other but relied on information passing through myself and Steve Nicholls.
“Honda delivered the usual, specially upgraded engines for their home Grand Prix. Why couldn’t the Japanese race be earlier in the season? We dominated all practice sessions quite comfortably, leading up to the final qualifying session on Saturday afternoon, where Ayrton produced a stunning lap time, a full 1.7 seconds faster than his teammate and over two seconds faster than the next competitor. To retain his Championship title, Ayrton needed to win both this race and the following event in Adelaide. With Alain scoring poorly, the scene was set for a tense Sunday afternoon.
“On Alain’s car, we had taken a lower downforce aero setting, creating some additional intrigue for the race ahead, despite retaining a very similar mechanical set-up to Ayrton. Alain was not going to be bullied in this race, and he made a stunning start from second on the grid, leading his teammate cleanly into the first corner and proceeding to edge clear, stretching his advantage lap by lap, something I had not anticipated. The whole race was being run with both drivers making every lap a qualifying lap, racing as it should be. Ayrton did not initially appear to be able to respond, but then, slowly, the gap began to shrink. With a dozen laps remaining, the hand-to-hand street fight began, and the anxiety across each side of the garage lifted a notch.
“About to start the final five laps, our worst fears materialised. Approaching the chicane, Ayrton took a very late and unexpected lunge to the inside of Alain, who then made sure there would not be an open door. The two cars became entangled and slid into the slip road outside the chicane. Both cars stalled. Our hearts sank with a certain 1-2 destroyed.
“Alain thought the race was over, but Ayrton asked the Marshalls to disengage the cars and allow him to coast downhill back to the track and bump start the engine, driving a full lap to get back to the pits and change the nose. He was only five seconds behind the new leader. He quickly regained first place to win the race. Or so he thought.
“After the finish, Ayrton was disqualified, much to his disgust, but McLaren appealed the result, and we headed off to Adelaide with all possibly still to play for.
“With appalling conditions, Alain refused to start the Australian Grand Prix race, leaving Ayrton to comfortably lead until, with no visibility, he collided with a lapped car, ending his race and any chance of retaining the Drivers’ title. I could finally, but briefly, celebrate the Championship with Alain before heading back to Woking.”
