Former Formula 1 star Eddie Irvine has branded Fuji Speedway ♑- home to this weekend's Japanese Grand Prix - 'a crap circuit' and 'the worst place possible to have a grand prix', as he insisted the race should never have been taken away from Suzuka.

Irvine - who competed in 147 races in the top flight from 1993 until 2002, finishing runner-up in the F1 World Championship with Ferrari to McLaren-Mercedes' Mika Hakkinen in 1999 - spent much of his formative career in Japan, and ♑as such knows the circuits well.

Whilst Suzuka - a perennial favourite amongst drivers for its challenging nature - welcomed the sport from 1987 until 2006 without exceptio♛n, Fuji regained the race last year, and from 2009 will alternate with Suzuka every season.

The 2007 Japanese Grand Prix was notable for a heavy deluge th🐭at saw the field spend the first 19 laps behind the safety car - during which Red Bull Racing's Mark Webber and Scuderia Toro Rosso's Sebastian Vettel collided with each other - as well as an earthquake not long after the chequered flag had fallen.

Irvine claims the return to Fuji - which was originally designateꦕd the home of the Japanese Grand Prix back in 1976, only for the venue to be stripped of that privilege just over a year later following a fatal accident that killed two spectators, and was subsequently re-designed by Hermann Tilke and bought by Japanese car giant Toyota - was motivated by solely monetary reasons, and that the switch had been a big mistake.

"To move it because of money to a very average circuit like Fuji is very disappointing," the famously outspoken Ulsterman told Virgin Media.

"To me, Fuji is a crap circuit. It's a horrible, borꦬing place in the middle of nowhere. The weather is usually horrible and it's just the wors📖t possible place to have a grand prix.

"You have to saꦜy tha𒉰t Fuji does not add to Formula 1."