I don’t think so.
For economic reasons?
The government isn’t very positive about motor sport. Here (in Malaysia) there’s a lot of government support for the race. Huge support.
And yet there’re so many race tracks in Japan.
Yes, but that’s thanks to Toyota and Nissan. At the moment there’s not much cost for Formula E, but in the future it could be huge if the manufacturers get involved.
How hard was it as a Japanese driver to break into Formula One in the 1980’s?
In 1988 I was driving in Formula 3000 in Japan with Yamaha. I was champion that year. In 1989 Yamaha joined Zakspeed in Formula One and I brought the Yamaha engine with me to that team.
Did you ever live in Europe before that?
Yes, in Paris in ’89 and Monaco in 1990.
1989 was a difficult year with Zakspeed just to qualify, but I enjoyed myself because I had a lot of friends in Formula One. 1988 was my first Formula One race at Suzuka. Larrousse took me on Yannick (Dalmas) was sick (Dalmas contracted Legionaires disease after Canada).
I got the call asking me if I wanted to be in Formula One. I thought it was a joke! I got the call on the Tuesday and I qualified 21st out of 26 cars.
So your first and last races were in Japan.
Yes. I had a big crash in ’95. After that I started concentrating on my own team in Formula 3000.
And of course Super Aguri! What was your thought in 2007 when Takuma Sato passed Fernando Alonso (in a McLaren no less) under brakes to take 6th place in Canada?
Ah... A miracle! Sato got us two points. He passed Alonso and Ralf Schumacher. I
above: Sato takes 7th for Super Aguri
below: Suzuki's sensational Suzuka podium
don’t know why but our car was very good
there. Formula One is a very difficult job. We only had 140 people in our teams with a budget of $100 million, so it was small by F1 standards.
And that’s just enough to get you to the grid?
Yes, a very, very tough yeah.
Would you do it again?
No (laughs). Too difficult for the small teams. Formula One is a little bit… Different.
Mark Preston – Team Principal Amlin Aguri
“I think the race is actually good being an hour…a nice short race. My wife never used to watch Formula 1. When we were in Formula 1 with Super Aguri, she used to sit in the back of the truck sitting in the sunshine drinking wine. She’s actually up this morning watching the race…”
“I sent Aguri a presentation in 2009 before Formula E started about doing some electric race cars. We were working with David Hunt, James Hunt’s brother. I asked Aguri if the car companies were interested. When we found that the FIA were asking for tenders, I sent one in for my own company, Preston Motorsport. I pitched to the FIA three years ago. We pitched to be a maker of the chassis.
I asked Aguri what he thought about the idea of entering the series…it took a while to convince him. It’s been really interesting to watch, all of us are a little bit unsure. It’s like ramping up something. One week, we’re crazy lunatics, the next week, we’re more sensible, It’s like when we started a Formula 1 team. They thought we were idiots, totally crazy.”
Mark breaks off our chat to bid goodbye to some Japanese guests and casually mentions to me that they are very keen to have a Japanese race in Tokyo. “It would be mental, wouldn’t it?” he laughs with the very excitement of the thought.
“My pitch,” the owner of a composites business based in Oxfordshire tells me, “is that the future is in the mega cities of the world, the Tokyos, the Beijings. That’s where the money is. It’s not in Oxford. Those cities are all about urbanisation. You have to do something different. The good thing about Formula E is that it is heading to where the money is. If the money for the car companies is in those places, then the money has to come to the series.”
Mark feels it will take three to five years of the series before one car is able to last the full race distance, although there are manufacturers who are very confident that this will be possible within three years. “If we had F1 levels of budget, I reckon we could do it quicker,” he said.
For Mark, the key difference between Formula E and Formula 1 is that the former is not about the chassis or aerodynamics but about the new drivetrain technology. “From the investment point of view, you only want to invest in something that’s going to be new.”
“We would still like to get a manufacturer backing the team. You’ve seen a few manufacturers floating around. We want them to come in otherwise there just isn’t enough resources. We’re talking to the manufacturers.” Therein lies the issue for the teams – the question of allocating resources to develop their own powertrain once the rules are relaxed in year two. “It’s the FIA’s plan to make it interesting,” said Mark.