While most of the F1 circus flew to Melbourne via Singapore or Hong Kong,the two DHL Jordan Honda drivers made their stop off in Tokyo. Home-grown hero Takuma Sato actually managed to spend some time in his native land,but Giancarlo Fisichella literally flew in and out on the same day, spending so little time in the Land of the Rising Sun that he was even exempt from paying the airport Departure Tax.

Both drivers attended a Honda organised joint press conference with the BAR team. It was a marathon for Taku-San, as he also spent most of the day doing a string of one to one interviews with his home media. As if that wasn't enough of a shock to the system, having only been in Australia for a matter of hours, Jordan's Japanese driver was rushed down to one of Melbourne's finest beaches for a magazine photo shoot. Given that Melbourne is about 15 degrees hotter than Tokyo, it was more than just a case of culture shock for Sato's first GP weekend.