Two Japanese on track in Suzuka
For the first time in almost 14 years there were two Japanese drivers on track at the same time in a Formula 1 Grand Prix. Today, in the first free practice session at Suzuka, the Visa Cash App Racing Bulls team fielded the 22 year old Ayumu Iwasa, a product of the Honda junior driver programme, alongside regular race driver Yuki Tsunoda. Iwasa had previously driven a Formula 1 car back in November in the Abu Dhabi Young Driver test with the same team, known as AlphaTauri at the time, but still part of the Red Bull family. Today, the lad from Moriguchi, a suburb of Osaka, just over 100 kilometres from Suzuka, had another opportunity to drive in the highest level of the sport.
The last time two Japanese drivers shared the track at a Grand Prix was the 2010 Korean race in Yeongam. Sakon Yamamoto was making his 21st and last F1 appearance to round off an unusual career having made a surprising mid-season reappearance with the equally forgettable HRT team. Yamamoto finished in 15th place, the last driver to be classified, two laps down on the winner, Fernando Alonso in a Ferrari. His fellow countryman Kamui Kobayashi did much better, eighth at the chequered flag in the Sauber. There were plenty of other strong results for Kobayashi, one of three Japanese drivers with a Formula 1 podium finish to their name, after he finished third here in Suzuka in 2012, when he was still racing for the Ferrari-powered Swiss team. He competed in a total of 76 Grands Prix, scoring 125 points. However, the highlights of his career came with Toyota in the World Endurance Championship: two world titles in 2019-20 and 2021 and a win in the Le Mans 24 Hours, teamed with Englishman Mike Conway and the Argentine Jose Maria Lopez, again in 2021.
25 Japanese drivers have raced in Formula 1: Takuma Sato heads the list with 90 starts, his best finish being a third place in the 2004 United States Grand Prix at Indianapolis with the BAR-Honda team. Takuma also achieved his greatest success in a different discipline, again as it happens in Indianapolis at the same circuit, but a different track layout , winning the Indy 500 in 2017 and again in 2020.
The third driver to claim a Formula 1 podium finish was Aguri Suzuki, third in the 1990 Japanese Grand Prix, the race which made the headlines because of the vendetta between Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost, that ended with both men in the gravel trap at the first corner after the start. Suzuki raced in 64 Grands Prix between 1988 and 1995, before setting up his own Super Aguri Formula 1 team which raced from 2006 to 2008, until it run out of funds with which to pay engine supplier Honda.
