At 8 a.m., the moment the main gate opened, a mass of people moved.
There were people running. There were also people running in small steps. Hachimine gazed at the scene for a while. It looks like the start of a marathon," he thought. This is Suzuka Circuit in Mie Prefecture. The race had already begun even before the world's most prestigious automobile race started.
Suzuka Circuit ─ A sacred place where F1 comes only once a year
Suzuka Circuit, located in Suzuka City, Mie Prefecture, is one of the oldest full-scale racing courses in Japan, having opened in 1962. The 5.8-km-long, figure-eight layout is highly regarded by drivers as a challenging course with a series of various corners from low speed to high speed.
This is the third race of the 2026 season. The three-day weekend drew 315,000 visitors, the first time in 20 years that the number of visitors exceeded 300,000.
Hachimine's knowledge of F1 is, to be honest, very little. The drivers he knows are Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher, and Jean Alesi. His knowledge of F1 stopped about 20 years ago when he arrived at the race site.
Preparatory Exercise in the Name of Preliminary Inspection
On the 28th, the day of FP3 (*3rd Free Practice. On the day of FP3 (the third free practice session, held the day before the race) and qualifying (the one-shot time attack to determine the starting grid position), Hachimine first made a preliminary inspection. It was a somewhat habitual behavior of a well-traveled driver to get an idea of what to expect from the race, but in essence, he was just being cautious because he didn't want to get lost on the race day.
The atmosphere of the course, the flow of people, the exhibits and interactive games lined up in the Fun Zone. No matter where I looked, all I could think of was "the scale of this event is extraordinary.
Unexpected encounters and signs from drivers
As Hachimine was walking around the circuit after the qualifying round, he saw a group of people holding out hats and pens at the end of long poles toward the cars of the racers leaving the circuit. As he approached, he saw a familiar face among them. It was a Ginza hostess who knew Hachimine.
Why are you here?" "I have to see the qualifying rounds too, don't I?
She is a big fan of Charles Leclerc at Ferrari and was in the group to get an autograph from Leclerc.
A hostess with a Ferrari cap was waiting for the car of the player she wanted to see, setting it on the end of her rod. The main prize was, of course, Leclerc.
A hand from a passing car took the cap. Then he signed it and returned it.
It wasn't Leclerc. It was Bearman."
Haas' Oliver Bearman had signed the law on a Ferrari cap. The hostess seemed unconcerned by the fact that "of all people, on a Ferrari cap," but Bearman had driven a Ferrari before, so she didn't seem to mind.
Gates open at 8:00 a.m., 3 km march
It was the morning of the final day. An unusual crowd had already gathered near the main gate even before the gates opened. At exactly 8:00 a.m., as soon as the gate was opened, spectators started walking in unison toward the west area to get free seats. The distance, three to four kilometers. The instinct that the first to arrive first wins turned the well-behaved Japanese into a sprint.
As Hachimine rode along, he thought, "This is racing ahead of the race no matter how you look at it.
Drivers' Parade, what you'll see when you see it live
A little after noon, the drivers' parade began. Drivers in the back of specially-designed trucks make a lap around the circuit. The stands erupted. Arms pointing at the camera were raised in unison everywhere you looked.
Hachimine watched Verstappen, Norris, and Antonelli ......, checking their names, but ended up with a hazy memory about half the time.
The grid, and the roar of the start
The cars line up on the grid for the 14:00 start time. The cars are lined up on the grid in the order of the fastest qualifying times, starting from the front. Mechanics surrounded the cars as the final adjustments continued. The gap between that silence and the roar that came afterward created tension among the spectators.
When he actually saw the machine, Hachimine thought, "It is so low and slender. The actual machine gave the impression of "crawling on the ground," much more so than in the video.
The roar of the start came to my body even though I thought I was prepared for it. It was a sound that resonated in my chest rather than my ears. The race started with a bang as Antonelli, who was in pole position (*the right to start on the front row given to the driver who sets the fastest time in qualifying), failed to accelerate and dropped to 6th position, with McLaren's Pianetri taking the lead instead.
Lap 22, strange situation at Spoon Corner.
The race remained relatively calm, but on lap 22, the atmosphere changed. Haas' Behrman crashed violently at Spoon Corner. The spectacular accident, reportedly involving an impact of approximately 50 Gs, brought in the safety car (*leading car that guides all cars to slow down and prohibits overtaking while the accident is being handled).
Although Bearman himself did not have any broken bones, he returned to the pits with a sore leg. The introduction of the SC would fundamentally change the course of the race. Mercedes driver Antonelli, who had not yet completed his pit stop (* temporary entry into the pit lane at the side of the track to change tires, etc.), changed his tires here and quickly moved up to the top of the standings.
And to the podium.
In the final laps of the race, Leclerc won a fierce battle with Russell to secure 3rd place on the podium, and from the restart on lap 28, Antonelli ran alone with no one behind him. He eventually finished 14 seconds ahead of Piazzetri in second place, making this his second consecutive pole-to-win race, and at 19 years and 7 months old, he became the youngest championship leader in history.
As the three of us lined up on the podium, I got a call from a hostess who was a Leclerc fan. 'I was third in the Leclerc! . It came with three stamps.
Summary
I still don't understand F1. The rules are complicated, and I can't distinguish between the different cars. But the roar of the cars and the feeling of fulfillment I got from a day of driving from 8:00 a.m. was the kind of thing that makes you want to talk about it to someone without having to explain it to them. If an uninformed spectator can say that it was fun, then perhaps the sport is real. Whether they will come back next year remains to be seen. I somehow thought so as I watched the circuit where the spectators were leaving little by little.
