The title
Germany's Michael Schumacher and Ferrari won both the drivers' and constructors' titles in Hungary in August.

Race wins
Michael Schumacher took a record-breaking 52nd career win at the Belgian Grand Prix in September.

Ferrari have won 143 times in total, McLaren 134 and Williams 107.

Schumacher has finished first or second in 19 of the past 22 races and has eight wins so far in 2001.

Juan Pablo Montoya, in a Williams, became the first Colombian winner in Italy last month. He was also the first driver to win in his debut season since Canadian Jacques Villeneuve in 1996.

The last race with neither a Ferrari nor a McLaren driver on the podium was the September 1999 European Grand Prix at the Nuerburgring, won by the Stewart of Briton Johnny Herbert.

Poles
Schumacher has been on pole position 42 times in his career, more than any other current driver but still well short of the late Brazilian Ayrton Senna's record 65.

The Ferrari driver has also been on pole 10 times in 16 races this season.

Two drivers have scored the first poles of their careers this season -- Ralf Schumacher in France and Montoya at Hockenheim, Spa and Monza.

David Coulthard has 12 career poles, McLaren teammate Mika Hakkinen 26. Ferrari have had 147 poles since their first-ever race, McLaren and Williams 112 each.

Japan
Finland's Mika Hakkinen will be making his last appearance before taking a year out of Formula One. The McLaren driver's victory at Indianapolis was the 20th of his career.

Japan first hosted a Formula One race 25 years ago at the Fuji circuit, when Briton James Hunt won the title by a single point from Austrian Niki Lauda.

Michael Schumacher and Hakkinen have been on pole in Japan for five of the last six races there.

No Japanese driver has ever won a grand prix and this season there are none in Formula One.

Points
Michael Schumacher has scored 791 points in his career, although that tally includes 78 that were wiped from his record in 1997 as punishment for a manoeuvre against Jacques Villeneuve at Jerez that year.

The German is now poised to break Alain Prost's record of 798.5. Scoring systems have changed over the years and there are now more races than there were in the early days.

Schumacher, with 113 points so far in 2001, has already set a record for the mumber of points accumulated in a single season and can further add to that.

Six of the 11 teams have yet to win a race in their Formula One history -- BAR, Arrows, Sauber, Jaguar, Prost and Minardi. Minardi are the only team never to have reached the podium.

Starts
Suzuka will mark the Honda-powered British American Racing (BAR) team's 50th grand prix.

It will also be the last for Benetton, who change their name to Renault from January 2002.

The Japanese Grand Prix also ends a period with 11 teams entered. From next season, Toyota will be competing as the 12th team in Formula One.

Jean Alesi, who will be starting his 201st race, can become the first driver since Richie Ginther in 1964 to finish every race in a single season.