The 2001 FIA Formula One World Championship draws to a conclusion at the Japanese circuit of Suzuka on the weekend of October 6/7th.

With both the drivers and constructor's championships already sealed for Ferrari and the dominant German Michael Schumacher, the full resources of Italy's finest will be behind Brazilian Rubens Barrichello's push for second place in the driver's championship. It looks a tall order however, with Barrichello needing to win the race, and hope that David Coulthard (McLaren) finishes outside of the top five. Behind the top three of Schumacher, Coulthard and Barrichello, Ralf Schumacher will be looking to claim the third position held by the Ferrari No. 2. This too looks unlikely, and the younger Schumacher will need an improved performance in Japan, after his last race at the US Grand Prix ended in the gravel trap.

His exit was not as dramatic as Barrichello's who was heading for a podium position, before engine problems forced his retirement two laps from the end. Mika Hakkinen was the surprise winner of the US GP, after running at the tail end of the top six for much of the race. His cause was helped by the demise of promising young Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya (Williams), who was looking set to mount a creditable challenge for victory, before hydraulics failure halted him at half-distance. Montoya is currently fifth in the championship behind Hakkinen, whose poor form this season (34 points from 16 races) has resulted in his decision to take a year sabbatical from the sport in 2002. His win at Indianapolis guaranteed McLaren the runners-up spot in the constructor's championship, after the demise of Williams. Both however, are a long way behind the dominant Ferrari!

In fourth place the surprise package of the season are Sauber, using re-badged Ferrari engines from last year. Nick Heidfeld currently holds seventh in the driver's championship with 13 points, while team-mate Kimi Raikkonen - whom McLaren have signed for 2002 - has nine points. The small Swiss team will be looking to hold off the Japanese Honda engined BAR and Jordan teams. BAR drivers Olivier Panis, and the 1997 champion Jaques Villeneuve have had an up and down season. Regular points scores early in the campaign have given way to a barren run of form in recent events. It has been a dreadful season for the Jordan team, who ditched Heinz-Harald Frentzen half way through the season, and brought in the experienced Jean Alesi. Their cause was not helped when the team's number one driver, Jarno Trulli, was disqualified from fourth position at Indianapolis.

Although Jordan are appealing, it promoted his team-mate Alesi to sixth, providing him with one point on his 200th Grand Prix start. Benetton (Giancarlo Fisichella & Jenson Button), Jaguar (Eddie Irvine & Pedro De La Rosa), Prost (Frentzen & Tomas Enge) and Arrows (Jos Verstappen & Enrique Bernoldi) will be looking to add to their points scores this weekend. Meanwhile the Minardi pairing of Fernando Alonso and Alex Yoong will be looking to score their first points of the season in Suzuka.