All eyes appear to be focused on the Pacific Ocean ahead of this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix at the famed Suzuka circuit.
Typhoon Phanfone is forecast to pass south of Suzuka, Japan, but the bands of rain on the northern edge of the storm could make a huge impact on Sunday’s Formula 1 race, with heavy rains and gale force winds.
With there being only one week in between the Japanese and Russian grand prix, it is a situation that is being monitored very closely.
An option could be to race on Monday if Sunday is a wash, but Sauber boss Monisha Kaltenborn says it isn’t that simple.
“The issue is about the broadcasting opportunities because I don’t think you can so easily move that time,” she said, according to ESPN. “Probably the facility will be available and I think even logistics could be sorted out. The bigger issue is can you still broadcast it the way you want it and what implications that can have. But we should be more relaxed than when we knew a typhoon was directly hitting us and yet still we had a race.”
Jenson Button says a bad weather race would mix up the field a bit if the conditions are safe enough to race.
“I hope that we can race on Sunday, that’s the first thing,” he said. “With a typhoon coming this way it’s always very tricky. Hopefully it will miss us. It’s going to be a mixed weekend in terms of weather; tomorrow there’s a good chance of rain as well. I think it’s really just thinking on your feet and staying on top of all the different weather forecasts.”
Including Suzuka, there are five races left in the 2014 Formula 1 season. Lewis Hamilton currently leads the points by three over Nico Rosberg.