Red Bull junior Ayumu Iwasa was all smiles after his official F1 baptism of fire in Friday’s Japanese GP opening practice with RB, describing the experience of lapping Suzuka in an F1 car as “a special feeling”.
The 22-year-old Super Formula racer replaced Daniel Ricciardo in the 60-minute session which was fortunately held in dry conditions.
Iwasa acquitted himself well, steering clear of trouble and running consistently through RB’s aero programmes, clocking in at the end of the session P16, less than second off his teammate Yuki Tsunoda’s best lap.
It was a historic moment for Japan motorsport as it marked the first time that an F1 team fielded two Japanese drivers in a session.
Iwasa is obviously no stranger to Suzuka, but lapping the challenging venue at the wheel of an F1 car provided the young gun with an entirely different perspective.
“I’ve driven at Suzuka many times but it’s a completely different, amazing and special feeling to do it in an F1 car,” he commented after the session.
“There is much more capacity to push, and the limit of the car is much higher. I got good experience for the future, and I appreciate the opportunity.”
Iwasa was spared any setbacks or reliability issues during his 22 laps, which allowed him not only to gain his own knowledge but also to contribute productively to his team’s data gathering long runs.
“There were no issues today and I was able to have a good feeling from the car straight away, so I was able to build up the pace quicker than expected, which was positive,” he added.
“Also, I think I could make quite some good progress with the team throughout the session.
“The main target was to get as much data for the team as I could, so I shouldn’t push too much because it was important to just complete many laps. I hope they got some good data for the weekend.
“In the end, my second set of tyres was to build up the pace and get the feeling of driving an F1 car around the Suzuka circuit.
“I think we achieved all our targets and for the rest of the weekend, I will try to get more experience in the team. Today's drive has given me extra motivation to keep pushing hard.”
RB racing director Alan Permane was quite satisfied with Iwasa’s approach and execution in FP1.
“He did a perfect job for us. He got the car up to speed, was quick and gave good feedback,” the Briton noted.
“Ayumu was using the standard floor, while the new floor was on Yuki’s car. That allowed us to get a comparison and very accurate assessment, which was great.
"We’re happy with the new floor, it’s delivering exactly what we predicted, and we’ll be using it on both cars for the rest of the weekend.
Tsunoda, who set the ninth fastest lap in FP1 and was second fastest in the truncated afternoon session, is looking forward to Saturday’s qualifying at his home track.
“The upgraded floor is targeted at slow-speed corners, whereas here is more medium- to high-speed corners so we’re not expecting too much,” he said.
“Together we’ll finetune a couple of areas where there’s room for improvement before FP3, put it together for qualifying, and focus to extract the performance.
“It’s been very special and it’s only Friday, so I’m looking forward to giving it my all and fighting to achieve our maximum!”
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