Ryō Hirakawa drove in the first practice session at the Japanese Grand Prix, taking the place of Jack Doohan at Alpine in one of the team’s four required rookie driver practice sessions.
Hirakawa will be back in an F1 car for FP1 at next weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix, albeit with a new team.
Haas announced on Monday that Hirakawa was joining the team as a reserver driver. Hirakawa drove for Haas during the team’s post-season test in Abu Dhabi last December, and drives for Toyota GAZOO Racing in the World Endurance Championship.
Hirakawa will drive for Oliver Bearman in FP1 at the Bahrain Grand Prix, and will drive for Bearman in FP1 at the Mexico City Grand Prix later this season. According to the announcement Hirakawa will drive for Esteban Ocon at both the Spanish Grand Prix, and the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
“I’m excited to join MoneyGram Haas F1 Team, I really appreciate this opportunity, and I’m really looking forward to a new journey with the team,” said Hirakawa in the announcement. “I’m driving my first FP1 session in Bahrain, so for me to have driven at two race weekends in a row is exciting, and I can’t wait to get to Bahrain.
“I would like to thank Komatsu-san, MoneyGram Haas F1 Team, Morizo-san [Akio Toyoda, Chairman of Toyota Motor Corporation] and Toyota GAZOO Racing for this opportunity, it’s a new challenge for me and I can’t wait to get started.”
“It’s great to welcome Ryō to MoneyGram Haas F1 Team and have his experience bolster our knowledge and understanding of the VF-25,” said Team Principal Ayao Komatsu. “His feedback was very detailed at the post-season test last year, so being able to provide Ryō valuable track time across four different circuits this year will help the entire team. As part of our collaboration with Toyota GAZOO Racing, it’s great to welcome new talent into the team – it’s a real pleasure to work with a racer of his driving acumen.”
While this announcement notes that Hirakawa will drive in place of Bearman after replacing Jack Doohan, another rookie, at last weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix there are some stark differences between the Bahrain Grand Prix and the Japanese Grand Prix.
The main difference? Bahrain was the site of pre-season testing, where Bearman completed 197 laps over three days of driving the circuit.
