Honda-backed Naoki Yamamoto had a sound first F1 drive in FP1 of Japanese GP as Toro Rosso were left impressed by his feedback and pace.
Since the beginning of their partnership with Toro Rosso, Honda have been looking to fit in a Japanese driver in the car and atop their list of drivers sat Yamamoto, a Super Formula and Super GT champion, yet never stepped foot in a F1 car.
He got his chance finally on Friday of the Japanese GP weekend at Suzuka, when he took part in FP1 in place of Pierre Gasly. He ended up 17th in the order just behind teammate Daniil Kvyat, only 0.098s apart – although both were on different programmes.
“It was great to welcome Naoki to the team and give him the opportunity to drive the STR14 in FP1 – the atmosphere around the paddock and garage created by Naoki driving the STR Honda in Suzuka was fantastic,” said Toro Rosso’s Jonathan Eddolls.
“He drove Pierre’s car and did an extremely solid job for the team. From his first lap you could tell he was on it and he built up the pace lap to lap during this run. Switching to the option compound for the second run, he extracted the expected improvement in grip from the track and tyre, setting a competitive lap time.
“He obviously knows the circuit well but this was an impressive session for his first outing in an F1 car.” The two regular drivers, Kvyat and Pierre Gasly, were impressed too with Yamamoto’s performance, the latter has been a teammate in Super Formula.
On the other hand, Yamamoto was equally happy, especially with the mind-bending power of the car, which is much more than the Super Formula car he is used to. “I spent the session getting used to the car; the power is amazing,” he said.
“I was very surprised, I have never felt such power before, so that was the biggest difference between Super Formula and Formula 1. I learnt a few things about the car and the balance, and I gave as much feedback as possible to the team.
“This is my home Grand Prix and there are a lot of fans coming to Suzuka, even for FP1 on a Friday! I was really surprised and I would like to say thank you very much to all of the Honda and Toro Rosso fans. For sure I wanted to have a better result than 17th.
“But the most important thing is that I didn’t crash and I provided good information for the engineers. I wish the team a great result this weekend, especially Pierre as he gave me his car – I am grateful to him.”
Speaking about Yamamoto’s first F1 drive, Honda’s Toyoharu Tanabe added: “Considering it’s his first run on a grand prix weekend I think he did a good job. Comparing the lap time against Dany is a bit difficult because they are doing different strategy in the practice.
“But he did a decent job for the team to set up the car in the first session of the weekend and then his run today will definitely encourage Japanese young drivers. So, thank you Toro Rosso and Red Bull and it’s good for the Japanese fans as well.”
The test comes after months of rumors about Yamamoto getting a test run, with Honda pushing as much to have a Japanese racer back in F1. The full-time chance for Yamamoto in F1 is more or less not an option for Red Bull and Toro Rosso.
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner already told Sky Sports F1 that the Japanese driver doesn’t fit in their criteria list, even though there is a dearth of ready talent to be driving for Toro Rosso and Yamamoto having won multiple titles.
Here’s how the FP1 session panned out
Yamamoto said sorry to Gasly for taking his seat in Japanese GP FP1
The story was written by Duncan Leahy and edited by Darshan Chokhani