The Japanese Grand Prix weekend is always a favourite for the team, drivers and fans alike, with Suzuka holding a special place in the hearts of F1 fans around the world. The racing is spectacular, but the off track activities are just as colourful!
Here's just some of the cool moments and fun features we've picked out from the weekend.
The 'racing' began in Japan on Thursday as Lewis and Alpine's Esteban Ocon went head to head in the Suzuka pitlane with some mega bespoke radio-controlled cars.
Lewis is known for his love of RC cars, even appearing on children’s TV as a young boy racing one. He even spent last year’s Japanese GP exploring the paddock with a very cool yellow RC truck.
One year on and there was a more competitive edge to proceedings, but who do you think won?
It was good to see Sebastian Vettel back in the Formula One paddock this weekend. It was even cooler to see Seb's 'Buzzin' Corner', an initiative aimed at raising awareness of biodiversity and creating ecological change.
The project, carried out in conjunction with the Japanese Grand Prix, saw all the teams and drivers visit the insect hotels that had been placed on the inside of the circuit at Turn Two. The drivers' creative additions to the hotels were pretty... unique!
In addition, the kerbs at the corner were painted black and yellow for the weekend, and the bend renamed.
Naturally, this also gave George the chance to record the most perfect soundbite.
Japanese fans are something special. The creativity, energy and passion on show never fails to amaze us. We were able to give a little something back to the fans on Thursday afternoon by hosting one couple’s proposal in front of our garage.
Moments later, our team were on hand to provide the happy couple with two VIP paddock passes to celebrate their engagement. We wish them all the best for the future and loved being a tiny part of their very special day.
Bringing the team together away from the hard work at the track during a busy and packed F1 season can be difficult, but Suzuka offered us a chance to do just that. Continuing one of our team traditions, those in Japan joined Lewis and George for a night of bowling. As you can imagine, it got very competitive!
Suzuka is unique for being the only track on the F1 calendar to have a figure of eight layout, and its mix of fast and slow corners and twisty sequences make it one of the more difficult tracks to master.
In a test of George's track knowledge and expertise, we got George to draw the circuit with pen and paper. As if that wasn’t hard enough, we added in the extra element of a blindfold!
“I was never any good at art at school!”
So there you have it, our five favourite moments from the Japanese Grand Prix. Hope you enjoyed them as much as we did!
Click on the link below to read more about the Japanese Grand Prix weekender with our latest feature.