After a slump in the 2010s, Suzuka’s attendance figures are on the rise. We take a look back over 50 years of Japanese Grand Prix to investigate the factors behind changing attendance numbers at the Japanese Grand Prix.
In 1987, the first Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka took place in front of a 247,000-strong 4-day crowd of lucky F1 fans. Lucky, literally, as a nation-wide lottery took place to decide which of the millions of fans who applied for tickets would be able to attend Suzuka’s first appearance on the calendar.
Suzuka was not a new track when it joined the Formula 1 schedule. The Honda-owned track was, in fact, celebrating its 25th anniversary, and celebrated in style with a refurbishment of its pit and paddock complex bringing it in line with the FIA’s standards ahead of its first time hosting the Japanese Grand Prix.
Just as Suzuka was not a newly built track, the 1987 Japanese Grand Prix was not F1’s first venture into Japan. Fuji Speedway had hosted two races in the previous decade, appearing on the calendar in 1976 and 1977, but the event was discontinued as a result of declining local interest and expensive travel.
Suzuka is one of few circuits which has produced daily attendance figures for its entire history on the Formula 1 calendar. Analysing the figures at Suzuka, and looking back on Fuji’s time as host of the event, tells a 50-year story of Japan’s affinity with the pinnacle of motorsport.
From Fuji to Suzuka: F1’s First Visits to Japan
The culmination of the fabled 1976 season, immortalised in the movie Rush, which saw James Hunt and Niki Lauda battle for the title, coincided with the first Japanese Grand Prix to be staged as part of the World Championship.
The race took place on October 24 – but an F1 car had run on the Fuji track one week previously, on Saturday October 16. That car was the McLaren of Hunt, despite a gentleman’s agreement between the teams that there would be no testing on the circuit prior to the race weekend. The move wound up Ferrari’s team manager, who petitioned that official practice should be extended for all of the other teams – but his petitioning fell upon deaf ears. Interestingly, though, Hunt’s exploratory laps had shown that a section of the track was breaking up and his sneaky venture meant that the issue could be fixed in time for the Grand Prix weekend.
Lauda – who had suffered severe burns in a crash just months earlier – had heroically stayed in title contention until the final round of the year. He conceded the title when he withdrew from the inaugural Japanese Grand Prix over safety concerns when heavy rain fell at Fuji Speedway. The rain had caused the race to be delayed by around two hours from its scheduled start time.
One year later, Fuji had lost some of its magic. The surroundings were familiar, the weather abated and the title had already been decided. The weekend opened with a delayed practice session as a result of the circuit doctor being late to arrive. Sadly, the circuit doctor would be needed later in the weekend, when contact between Gilles Villeneuve and Ronnie Peterson led to Villeneuve’s Ferrari somersaulting over the barriers and landing in a prohibited area.
A marshal – who had been dispersing spectators from the prohibited grassed area between the guard rail and the fence – and a photographer were killed in the accident, while ten spectators were injured. Despite the unfolding tragedy, the race was not stopped. It was a scene which had become all too common in the 1970s. Both drivers involved in the incident would be killed at F1 race weekends within the next five years.
These were the first spectator casualties at any Japanese motor race, which marred F1’s presence in Japan. The 1977 Japanese Grand Prix would turn out to be the last staged for a decade, for various reasons. Concrete attendance figures for the 1976 and 1977 races are unavailable but while they had queued through the night in the rain for the first race in 1976 – with estimated attendance anywhere between 75,000 and 140,000 – the number of spectators fell significantly in 1977.
It wasn’t just a lack of fans in stands making the race financially unviable. At the time, Western aircraft was banned from entering airspace above the Soviet Union or China as a result of the Cold War, meaning cargo for the race had to take the long way round, passing through Alaska, or Hong Kong, or both. The trip was therefore longer and more expensive for teams and others covering the race.
A Japanese Grand Prix was scheduled for the 1978 season, in April, but was removed from the final calendar. With that, F1’s brief introduction to Japan was over.
Suzuka Arrives
Had the 1978 Japanese Grand Prix taken place, it would have done so at Suzuka rather than Fuji, as contemporary artwork showed the race scheduled at the track for April 5. Alas, it was not to be and Suzuka instead had to wait almost another decade for its first inclusion on the calendar.
There were other false dawns for the Suzuka track before it made its bona fide debut. The circuit was included on the provisional calendar in 1985, set to take place in early April. However, a delay in the rebuilding of the venue to bring it to modern day FIA standards meant that the return of the Japanese Grand Prix made two provisional appearances before finally taking place for the first time in 1987.
As was common in the twentieth century, a new circuit meant an additional day of practice took place prior to the official start of the race weekend. The Thursday on-track action was attended by 25,000 spectators, with numbers growing throughout the weekend and peaking with 112,000 on race day. The inaugural race weekend at Suzuka had total attendance of just under 250,000 and with millions of fans having applied for tickets through a lottery system, there was definitely an appetite for F1 in Japan.
Total attendance dropped at Suzuka in 1988, though that is a slightly misleading headline statistic as there was no Thursday action in the race’s second year on the calendar. Attendance fell by 14,000 in 1988 – but 25,000 had attended on Thursday in 1987. Actual attendance increased by 1,000 on both Friday and Saturday, with 121,000 present on race day – an increase of 9,000 on the previous year.
Suzuka’s Legendary Years
Suzuka quickly reached legendary status as a result of hosting title deciders in all of its first five appearances on the schedule. The first Japanese Grand Prix at the track saw the title decided in Nelson Piquet’s favour before the race had begun when a hefty crash for title rival Nigel Mansell on Friday ruled him out for the rest of the weekend. There then followed Ayrton Senna’s first title win before two controversial clashes between Senna and his arch-rival Alain Prost in 1989 and 1990, seeing each driver win the crown in unconventional ways.
Senna would win all three of his titles at Suzuka, his last coming at the 1991 Japanese Grand Prix. The Brazilian driver had become somewhat of a cultural phenomenon in Japan, arguably the country where he was most popular outside of his native Brazil. His close ties with Honda, his spiritual nature and the fact that his success so frequently came at Suzuka endeared him to the Japanese fans.
Aside from Senna, Japanese fans also had home talent to support in the late 1980s, with Satoru Nakajima and Aguri Suzuki on the grid. The latter became the first Japanese driver to finish on the podium, doing so at Suzuka in 1990.
Needless to say, all of these factors meant that attendances boomed and grew almost every year between 1988 and 1994, peaking with 357,000 fans in attendance for the 1994 Japanese Grand Prix. Such was the race’s popularity, a lottery had to be held annually in the event’s early years to whittle down the millions who applied for tickets to the lucky 100,000 or so who would actually receive them. The 1990 race had seen three million people apply for tickets, four million in 1991 and seven million in 1992.
The Lost Decade’s Impact on the Japanese Grand Prix
It is perhaps no surprise, given his status in Japan, that Japanese Grand Prix attendances began to fall following Senna’s death in the early stages of the 1994 season. From the latest record figure in 1994 of 357,000, attendance at the 1995 Japanese Grand Prix fell by 27,000. It was the first time that the Suzuka race did not sell out. But to say this was all a result of Senna’s tragic circumstances would be untrue.
There was a backdrop of financial struggles in the country before the turn of the millennium. Japan entered a recession at the start of the 1990s, a time often referred to as “The Lost Decade”, thanks to its sustained period of economic stagnation. Political instability meant there were seven different prime ministers of Japan across the decade and by 1997, Japan was in the midst of the Asian financial crisis and the Japanese population had less disposable income to spend.
Attendances at Suzuka remained relatively strong compared to other races on the calendar, but there was likely a decline in casual attendance and corporate hospitality spending. From seven million applications for tickets in 1993, the number fell to 5.5 million in 1993 and 5 million in 1994. Nevertheless, the core audience remained fanatical about their favourite drivers. How fanatical? In his Grand Prix Year book in 1993, Murray Walker reported that the drivers had to be airlifted the 500 yards from the circuit hotel to the paddock to avoid being mobbed!
The financial situation in Japan led to the withdrawal of Honda from Formula 1 at the end of 1992 – another factor in declining attendance at the Japanese Grand Prix through the 1990s. The Japanese powerhouse had powered all three of Senna’s title wins. As well as Japanese interest on the engine side of things, gone too had top tier Japanese drivers. When Nakajima and Suzuki retired, the Japanese had Ukyo Katayama, Hideki Noda and Taki Inoue to support, none of whom exactly set the world alight with outstanding results, spending most of their careers in backmarking cars.
The Short Lived Pacific Grand Prix
In both 1994 and 1995, there were two races in Japan on the F1 calendar. In addition to the Japanese Grand Prix, the Pacific Grand Prix was held at the Aida circuit. Situated some 250km west of Suzuka, the two circuits were close enough together that the inclusion of a second race in Japan likely had a negative but limited impact on attendance figures at Suzuka.
In early 1995, Japan suffered a national tragedy when the Great Hanshin Earthquake killed over 6,000. The earthquake’s epicentre was near Kobe, almost equidistant between the Aida and Suzuka circuits. The Pacific Grand Prix had been scheduled to take place in April 1995 but damage to local infrastructure and communications meant that the event was postponed, with authorities rightly feeling that money was better spent repairing damage than staging a Formula 1 race.
The Pacific Grand Prix instead took place in October, paired with the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka. It was the first time in F1 history that two races took place in the same country within seven days of one another. It would prove to be Aida’s last inclusion on the calendar. The track was difficult to get to, in spite of a $10 million investment in improving local roads. Attendance in 1994 – the first year of a five-year contract for the event – was lower than the 100,000 tickets that the promoter had hoped to sell. One year later, there were just 15,000 fans in attendance on race day.
Into the New Millennium
In comparison to Aida’s figures, Suzuka’s numbers were very strong. Still, in 1996, attendance at the Japanese Grand Prix fell to its lowest level since the Suzuka race’s early days on the calendar. With 303,000 in attendance in 1996, attendance would rise to a little under 320,000 in each year up to 2002. Race day figures gradually bounced back to 150,000 and overall attendance rose once more to 326,000 in 2002 – the first year that Japanese manufacturer Toyota was on the grid.
| Year | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday | Weekend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1987 | 25,000 | 36,000 | 74,000 | 112,000 | 247,000 |
| 1988 | 37,000 | 75,000 | 121,000 | 233,000 | |
| 1989 | 51,000 | 100,000 | 132,000 | 283,000 | |
| 1990 | 60,000 | 115,000 | 141,000 | 316,000 | |
| 1991 | 69,000 | 120,000 | 148,000 | 337,000 | |
| 1992 | 56,000 | 126,000 | 150,000 | 332,000 | |
| 1993 | 67,000 | 132,000 | 151,000 | 350,000 | |
| 1994 | 67,000 | 135,000 | 155,000 | 357,000 | |
| 1995 | 60,000 | 125,000 | 145,000 | 330,000 | |
| 1996 | 54,000 | 110,000 | 139,000 | 303,000 | |
| 1997 | 65,000 | 112,000 | 140,000 | 317,000 | |
| 1998 | 50,000 | 120,000 | 148,000 | 318,000 | |
| 1999 | 52,000 | 120,000 | 146,000 | 318,000 | |
| 2000 | 52,000 | 115,000 | 151,000 | 318,000 | |
| 2001 | 50,000 | 110,000 | 150,000 | 310,000 | |
| 2002 | 53,000 | 118,000 | 155,000 | 326,000 | |
| 2003 | 54,000 | 120,000 | 155,000 | 329,000 | |
| 2004 | 54,000 | 0 | 156,000 | 210,000 | |
| 2005 | 54,000 | 110,000 | 156,000 | 320,000 | |
| 2006 | 57,000 | 143,000 | 161,000 | 361,000 |
A similar level of attendance followed in 2003 but in 2004 the Japanese Grand Prix effectively became a two-day event when Saturday’s action at the track was cancelled due to the incoming Typhoon Ma-on. Winds in excess of 100mph and heavy rain on the Saturday meant that the track was closed to fans and no on-track action took place. Both qualifying and the race ran on Sunday, where race day attendance actually grew compared to one year previously. Takuma Sato’s presence on the grid – and his maiden podium result earlier in the 2004 season – likely helped the figure to grow.
The Perfect Storm: 2006’s Record Japanese Grand Prix Attendance
Suzuka recorded it’s highest ever weekend attendance figure in 2006, with 361,000 spectators entering the track over the three days. 57,000 turned out on the Friday, 143,000 were trackside on Saturday and 161,000 were present on race day.
There were a number of unique circumstances which led to the record-breaking figure, which remains in the top 20 best-attended F1 weekends of all-time. First, the context of the 2006 season. Suzuka was hosting the penultimate round that year, with Fernando Alonso and Michael Schumacher still vying for success in a title battle which would go down to the wire. Schumacher did have the chance to seal the deal at Suzuka, but his engine expired when he was leading the race. It was the second to last opportunity to see the German race with Ferrari, with the seven-time World Champion having announced his retirement earlier in the season.
There was plenty of local interest. 2006 had seen the Honda works team secure their first victory since 1967, with Jenson Button being victorious in the Hungarian Grand Prix. Toyota remained in contention for podiums through most of the season and there was also a new Japanese team on the grid in the form of Super Aguri, with two Japanese drivers driving for it.
Furthermore, the 2006 Japanese Grand Prix was to be the last at Suzuka, with Fuji Speedway returning to host the event from 2007 onwards. Rumours of a revival of the Pacific Grand Prix title for an additional race at Suzuka did the rounds, but this was the last guaranteed opportunity for fans to see F1 at the now-legendary Suzuka.
The Fuji Years
From a track owned by Honda, the Japanese Grand Prix moved to a track owned by Toyota for 2007. The manufacturer had invested huge sums into rebuilding Fuji Speedway, having acquired the track six years previously.
Before F1 had even returned to Fuji, Suzuka’s return to the calendar had been confirmed. In September 2007, the announcement came that the two venues would alternate on the calendar as host of the Japanese Grand Prix from 2009 onwards.
The 2007 Japanese Grand Prix, held in torrential rain, was awash with logistical issues. The poor weather did not help matters, but race organisers appeared ill-prepared to deal with such problems. Fans in a grandstand near the first corner were refunded due to the poor views from their seats, while others were reimbursed for their entire trip as a result of delays in shuttle bus transportation. 20,000 spectators were forced to stay at the track until 9pm on Saturday evening when a road outside of the circuit sank.
The 2008 race weekend was held in drier conditions, with 105,000 spectators at Fuji Speedway on race day. In an attempt to improve the experience for fans trackside, attendance numbers had been restricted from 140,000 in the previous year, down to a maximum of 110,000 in 2008.
By 2008, the global financial crisis had taken hold and companies were beginning to struggle. It led to Honda’s sudden departure from the sport at the end of 2008 and led to Fuji Speedway withdrawing from its role as alternate host of the Japanese Grand Prix. Toyota, owner of the Fuji track whose representatives said the continuation of racing there could threaten the survival of the entire company, would end its involvement in Formula 1 in similarly sudden circumstances at the end of 2009.
Return to Suzuka
Suzuka was confirmed to have exclusive hosting duties of the Japanese Grand Prix in 2010, the year after it had returned to the calendar. When it did, it did so with a significantly reduced crowd. From total attendance of 361,000 in 2006, the figure was just 210,000 in 2009. Friday attendance was down from 57,000 to 31,000. Saturday’s figure fell from 143,000 to 78,000 and race day attendance was 60,000 down on the last race at the track in 2006.
The 2009 figure was a new low for Suzuka – but even that was higher than any attendance at the track in the 2010s. From 2010 to 2019, attendance would surpass 200,000 just once. That was in 2012, when Kamui Kobayashi was having a season to remember with Sauber. He attained his maiden podium finish at home at the Japanese Grand Prix, becoming the first Japanese diver to finish on the podium at the event since Aguri Suzuki in 1990.
The 2012 race weekend saw 208,000 spectators across the race weekend and 103,000 lining the track on race day. It would be the final time that race day had an attendance of over 100,000 for over a decade.
Kobayashi was off the grid in 2013. He returned in 2014 with the back-marking Caterham team but that did little to improve attendance numbers. Honda’s return to F1 with McLaren in 2015 saw attendance improve by 15,000 compared to the previous year but the manufacturer’s lack of competitiveness meant that fans were not enticed back to the track. Attendance fell further over the next two years, to a new low of just 137,000 in total in 2017 – and a race day crowd of 68,000 – just 11,000 more than had attended Friday practice in 2006.
Typhoons of the 2010s
Weather continued to be a talking point of Japanese Grand Prix weekends. In 2010, heavy rain on Saturday meant that – in a repeat of 2004 – qualifying was delayed until Sunday morning, the difference this time being that the fans had been left waiting in the grandstands until there was no longer enough daylight to run the session safely.
In 2014, there were discussions about changes to the weekend schedule due to the approaching Typhoon Phanfone. No change was forthcoming and the race went ahead as planned at its scheduled start time, in very wet conditions. The race was ended early when Marussia driver Jules Bianchi collided with a recovery vehicle at the side of the circuit. Bianchi would die as a result of his injuries in July 2015.
| Year | Friday | Saturday | Sunday | Weekend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 31,000 | 78,000 | 101,000 | 210,000 |
| 2010 | 33,000 | 61,000 | 96,000 | 190,000 |
| 2011 | 35,000 | 62,000 | 102,000 | 199,000 |
| 2012 | 41,000 | 64,000 | 103,000 | 208,000 |
| 2013 | 33,000 | 52,000 | 86,000 | 171,000 |
| 2014 | 30,000 | 48,000 | 72,000 | 150,000 |
| 2015 | 30,000 | 54,000 | 81,000 | 165,000 |
| 2016 | 27,000 | 46,000 | 72,000 | 145,000 |
| 2017 | 26,000 | 43,000 | 68,000 | 137,000 |
| 2018 | 31,000 | 53,000 | 81,000 | 165,000 |
| 2019 | 33,000 | 0 | 89,000 | 122,000 |
Five years later, in 2019, Saturday running at the circuit was cancelled when Typhoon Hagibis was set to impact the track. For the third time in Suzuka’s history, qualifying was run on Sunday morning and for the first time since 2004, the track was not open to fans on Saturday as a result of the incoming inclement weather.
From the low of 137,000 in 2017, attendances picked up in 2018 to 165,000 and would’ve continued to grow in 2019, had Saturday’s action not been cancelled. The 2019 Friday figure was up by 2,000 on the 2019 number, while race day saw 89,000 attend – an increase of 8,000 on the 2018 number.
The Pandemic Pause
Formula 1 did not visit Suzuka in 2020 or 2021 as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, but the circuit returned to the calendar – with a freshly extended contract – in 2022. F1-hungry fans snapped up tickets for the event, with the race weekend held in front of 200,000 spectators. It was the largest figure at the circuit in a decade, which is a particularly impressive statistic considering there were no foreign visitors to the race. Japan was yet to re-open its doors to individual foreign visitors post-pandemic. Ironically, it did so two days after the race was held.
Japanese fans had local interest once more, with Yuki Tsunoda joining the grid in 2021 and Red Bull having teamed up with Honda in a title-winning partnership. Amid Max Verstappen and Red Bull’s most dominant season, 2023 saw attendance rise to its highest level since the 2006 record. Now re-opened to international visitors, Suzuka attracted a weekend crowd that was 22,000 up on the previous year, with race day attendance surpassing 100,000 for the first time since 2012.
Despite the 2024 Suzuka race taking place just six months after the 2023 event as result of the Japanese Grand Prix moving from its traditional autumn slot on the calendar to a new date in early April, attendance grew even further, to 229,000.
| Year | Friday | Saturday | Sunday | Weekend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 38,000 | 68,000 | 94,000 | 200,000 |
| 2023 | 42,000 | 79,000 | 101,000 | 222,000 |
| 2024 | 50,000 | 77,000 | 102,000 | 229,000 |
The biggest difference in numbers in 2024 was on Friday, where attendance grew by 8,000 compared to the previous season, highlighting F1’s efforts to make race weekends a 3-day festival of unmissable action. It was the largest Friday attendance at Suzuka since 2006. But to highlight how far away from its record attendance levels the track is, Saturday attendance (which actually decreased by 2,000 compared to 2023) was around half of its 2006 figure, while Sunday’s number was down by 59,000 on the Japanese record.
Suzuka’s enduring popularity has helped to secure the circuit’s longer-term future on the calendar. Japanese Grand Prix organisers signed a five-year contract extension in February 2024, keeping the track on the schedule until at least 2029. With growing year-on-year attendance and F1’s popularity showing no signs of waning, track attendance could inch closer to its mid 2000s glory days as the decade progresses.
