The other April F1 race in Japan: Schumacher stuns as Senna spins

Whilst this is the first Japanese Grand Prix to be held out of the traditional September-November window, there has been one previous Grand Prix held in Japan back in 1994.

It was the Pacific Grand Prix held at the tight, compact TI Circuit in Aida which Michael Schumacher dominated to continue his flying start to the season for Benetton, whilst what would sadly become Ayrton Senna’s penultimate race ended early.

Reflect the unique race by reading the AUTO ACTION report from 30 years ago below…

MICHAEL SCHUMACHER DEMOLISHED the opposition in the Pacific Grand Prix at Aida in Japan, winning his second straight victory.

He was helped when Ayrton Senna was punted off at the first corner

Grand Prix with refuelling is much more tactical than ever before. But the brains in the pad. dock all agreed that the first cor. ner was going to be decisive.

Schumacher needed to be ahead because otherwise Senna would disappear. The Benetton was not going to have the power to drive past the Senna Williams on the straight and that meant that Michael’s only hope for victory would be in the pits.

This was where Benetton had the advantage, not because the crew was faster but because th time of pit stops is now dictate by the amount of fuel being taken onboard. The Ford Zetec R is not only small, light and smooth, it is also highly fuel efficient.

This efficiency is the decisive factor because not only do the Benettons carry a smaller fuel load than their rivals. They are also less hard on their tyres and spend less time refuelling.

With all this in mind the grid formed up and the red light came on. As the green light came on there were yellow flags down near Olivier Panis’s Ligier. It had stalled.

“There is always of risk of that happening, said starter Roland Ratzenburger. “I could not react.”

Schumacher and Senna both came off the line well but Ayrton – carrying more fuel – had a hint of wheelspin which let Michael get alongside him and as they swooped down 10 the first comer, Schumacher was on the inside.

Nicola Larini and Ayrton Senna come to blows in the turn 1 gravel trap. Image: Motorsport Images

As they braked frantically Senna’s car twitched and Ayrton seemed to contemplate trying to slam the door.

“That would have been very risky,” he said. “I decided to be safe and stay behind.”

Schumacher went into the corner ahead, but he was worried.

He knew that Senna might out-drag him going down to the second corner. Michael had one course of action which would guarantee his lead.

He lifted slightly – to ensure that the Zetec-R was at its optimum rev range for maximum torque. The Benetton slowed imperceptibly, but it enough to catch Senna unawares.

He lifted off but behind him Mika Hakkinen – who had chosen to race the spare McLaren with the torquier Peugeot A4 engine – had left his braking just as late.

He was not ready for a sudden hesitation by Senna and his McLaren tapped the rear of the Williams and – almost in slow motion – Senna spun around. Suddenly there were cars going everywhere.

Nicola Larini, on the outside line, had nowhere to go and drove straight into Senna.

In the ensuring melee Comas and Blundell thumped one other, Mark being knocked into a spin and Erik clonked Senna’s front wing as he careered through the carnage.

He held it all together, noticed his lack of front wing and radioed in to his pit – where they were standing looking at a stationary Ligier.

Eh? Yes, in the Larrousse pit sat a very unhappy Olivier Panis, who had been pushed into the pitlane by marshals and left outside the Larousse pit.

The Larrousse mechanics were trying to clear Panis out of the way, and get ready to repair Comas’s car, when the Ligier mechanics arrived.

Suddenly we had mechanics from both French teams pushing poor Olivier in both directions at the same time! In those early dos Schumacher drew out 10s in as many laps while Hakkinen led the vain chase. At first Mika was shadowed by Hill but on lap four Damon tried to pass the Finn.

“I tried to go up the outside at a particularly difficult place,” he explained. “He closed the door on me, put me on a kerb and I spun off.”

Damon’s spin promoted Berger to fourth with Barrichello and Brundle on his tail.

Significantly Rubens and Martin were the only men using harder B compound tyres. Everyone else was on the softer C tyres and would thus – logically – be stopping earlier.

Behind Barrichello and Brundle we had Fittipaldi, Frentzen and Verstappen and then came a frustrated and angry Hill, who would carve-up from ninth to fourth before the first pit stops.

Gone from the race early were Brabham, who had made a great start to run 18th for two laps before his engine died and Olivier Beretta’s Larousse which stopped after 14 laps with a battery failure.

The first pit stops – the men who were planning three stops – came on lap 16 when Katayama came hurtling into the pitlane.

He was followed two laps later by second-placed Hakkinen and Hill.

In the course of his pit stop Mika’s McLaren stalled when his hydraulic pressure dropped.

Mika rejoined, but his race was run. He was soon back in the pits for good. Game over.

All this left Schumacher with a 30-secs lead over Berger who was chased by Barrichello and Brundle. Then came Fittipaldi, Frentzen and Verstappen who were slugging away merrily at one another. Next up was Morbidelli and then came Hill, charging again.

A few more laps and the order would be jumbled again as the two-stoppers began to come in.

Schumacher led the way with an orderly stop. He was followed in by Fittipaldi, Verstappen, Frentzen, Berger, Brundle and Morbidelli. Everyone took on more C tyres, while Brundle loaded up with four more Bs.

This left Barrichello hanging on to second place with Hill closing in. Rubens pitted – for more Bs – on lap 31 and when he rejoined he was down to fourth.

So we had Schumacher 40 secs ahead of Hill, who had 15 secs on Berger.

Barrichello, Fittipaldi, Brundle and Verstappen. The rest were lapped.

Brundle was the man to watch now as he passed Fittipaldi on lap 38 and set off in hot pursuit of Barrichello.

That same lap the three-stop men started to come in again led by Katayama and Comas and followed by Hill and Alboreto. This did little to the overall order.

We lost both Japanese aces within a couple of laps as the race passed half-distance: Katayama pulling off with a blown engine, the result of having swallowed some wreckage early on; Suzuki crashing out with steering failure.

Within a handful of laps the two-stoppers were coming in again, led this time by Fittipaldi.

Lap 50 put paid to the Williams challenge once and for all when Hill retired with a gear-box failure.

Michael Schumacher celebrates another win in Aida. Photo by LAT Images

Next time around Schumacher popped in and out the pits after a rather longer central sprint sector than expected. He was followed by other two-stoppers Martini, Brundle (taking on yet more Bs), Morbidelli and Verstappen.

The last-named did not last long as he accelerated away on cool tyres he spun it away. A novice’s mistake from a novice.

The last of the C-tyre two stoppers were Berger and Frentzen, which left Barrichello up in sec-ond. We know that Rubens would be stopping again before all the pit stop strategies finally unravelled themselves in time for the dash to the flag.

No-one was going to catch Schumacher, but the prospect of a fight between Berger and Barrichello was interesting and Brundle was not far behind.

The Footworks were done with stopping but both looked like getting in the points and Frentzen was looking a threat.

The last surviving three-stop-per was Alboreto who pitted about the same time as Barrichello dived into the pits for his last set. Rubens was in for the only tyres he had left – a set of fast C tyres – but it all went horribly wrong when the Jordan stalled.

“I couldn’t do anything,” he said. “I could have cried.”

Barrichello rejoined fourth but there was no way he was going to catch anyone ahead of him now.

For a while it looked as though Brundle – much faster on Bs than the C runners – might be able to catch Berger.

On the track the pair were now split by Schumacher, who showed little interest in lapping the whole field and was happy to reel off the laps to the chequered flag and maximum points from two races.

Further back we lost Martini on lap 64 when he spun out and four laps later Bundle’s impressive day ground to a halt when. his engine overheated.

Martin’s disappearance was followed by the midfield wiping itself out as Alboreto took out Wendlinger with daft overtaking manoeuvre and then Morbidelli spinning on his own oil.

These retirements left the impressive Frentzen safely in fifth place and sixth place in the happy hands of a surprised

Comas who was still barrelling along after four stops and a new nose!

1994 Pacific Grand Prix results

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	5	Michael Schumacher	Benetton–Ford	83	1:46:01.693	2	10
2	28	Gerhard Berger	Ferrari	83	+ 1:15.300	5	6
3	14	Rubens Barrichello	Jordan–Hart	82	+ 1 lap	8	4
4	9	Christian Fittipaldi	Footwork–Ford	82	+ 1 lap	9	3
5	30	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Sauber–Mercedes	82	+ 1 lap	11	2
6	20	Érik Comas	Larrousse–Ford	80	+ 3 laps	16	1
7	12	Johnny Herbert	Lotus–Mugen-Honda	80	+ 3 laps	23
8	11	Pedro Lamy	Lotus–Mugen-Honda	79	+ 4 laps	24
9	26	Olivier Panis	Ligier–Renault	78	+ 5 laps	22
10	25	Éric Bernard	Ligier–Renault	78	+ 5 laps	18
11	32	Roland Ratzenberger	Simtek–Ford	78	+ 5 laps	26
Ret	10	Gianni Morbidelli	Footwork–Ford	69	Engine/Spun off	13
Ret	29	Karl Wendlinger	Sauber–Mercedes	69	Collision damage	19
Ret	24	Michele Alboreto	Minardi–Ford	69	Collision	15
Ret	8	Martin Brundle	McLaren–Peugeot	67	Overheating	6
Ret	23	Pierluigi Martini	Minardi–Ford	63	Spun off	17
Ret	6	Jos Verstappen	Benetton–Ford	54	Spun off	10
Ret	0	Damon Hill	Williams–Renault	49	Transmission	3
Ret	15	Aguri Suzuki	Jordan–Hart	44	Steering	20
Ret	3	Ukyo Katayama	Tyrrell–Yamaha	42	Engine	14
Ret	7	Mika Häkkinen	McLaren–Peugeot	19	Gearbox	4
Ret	19	Olivier Beretta	Larrousse–Ford	14	Electrical	21
Ret	31	David Brabham	Simtek–Ford	2	Electrical	25
Ret	2	Ayrton Senna	Williams–Renault	0	Collision	1
Ret	27	Nicola Larini	Ferrari	0	Collision	7
Ret	4	Mark Blundell	Tyrrell–Yamaha	0	Collision	12

2024 Japanese Grand Prix

Friday, April 5

Practice 1: 13.30-14.30

Practice 2: 17.00-18.00

Saturday, April 6

Practice 3: 13.30-14.30

Qualifying: 17.00-18.00

Sunday, April 7

Grand Prix: 15.00

Don’t forget the latest issue of Auto Action will be available via subscription here or at selected outlets. For more of the latest motorsport news, subscribe to AUTO ACTION magazine.

CLICK THE IMAGE TO READ THE LATEST DIGITAL MAGAZINE

Latest Podcast: Follow the Easter Trail and more here on the Auto Action RevLimiter

This week we had to work hard for Supercar News, but we found some. It was easier in Speedway with the Easter Trail and the new speedway opening at Eastern Creek.

Listen to our latest episode on your podcast app of choice or here