Yuki Tsunoda kicked off his Las Vegas Grand Prix race week with a rather interesting although scary experience with US immigration.
The Visa Cash App RB charger had arrived early in the land of the free and the home of the brave to attend a Honda media event in Las Vegas.
However, stepping off the plane in comfortable – perhaps too comfortable – travel attire, the Japanese star soon found himself corralled into the dreaded “secondary questioning” room.
“I nearly got sent back home,” he revealed. “Luckily they let me in after a couple of discussions, a lot of discussions, actually. Everything is all good now, but yeah, luckily I’m here.”
His casual look, he speculated, may have been his undoing.
“Maybe I was wearing pyjamas and the colour looks like a... I don’t know,” he admitted.
“It just feels that I got a lot of pressure from them, and I couldn’t say anything. Otherwise, if I say something I feel like I’m more in trouble.”
And trouble seemed imminent. Despite holding the proper visas and having breezed through US customs just weeks earlier during the Austin-Mexico-Brazil triple-header, Tsunoda suddenly found himself unable to convince officials that he was indeed an F1 driver.
“It’s been a shame,” he sighed. “I did the visas and everything. With the last three, I was able to enter smoothly. So it felt a bit strange that I got stopped and had a proper discussion.”
Adding to the drama was the strict no-assistance policy in the immigration holding area. Tsunoda, traveling with his physio, was barred from seeking help or even contacting his team.
“There was my physio that I travel with,” he explained. “Obviously when you go through customs, you go individually, right? And suddenly he [the official] just put me in the room.
“When I had a conversation, I was like: can I bring the person that I’m going to travel with? Maybe he can help a little bit to explain a bit more about myself and the situation in Formula 1?
“But they didn’t allow me to bring them or even call anyone. I wanted to call the team as well, or maybe F1, so they can help me. But in that room, you can’t do anything.”
Though Tsunoda ultimately won his showdown with immigration, it was a nerve-wracking affair that left him second-guessing everything, from his wardrobe choices to his own racing credentials.
“Luckily I went through smoothly,” he said, though one imagines “smoothly” is relative when it involves being interrogated about your legitimacy as a professional athlete.
In the end, Tsunoda emerged victorious, ready to take on the Las Vegas Grand Prix. But one can’t help but wonder if the immigration officials are now scouring their TVs to spot the man they nearly sent packing – or at least his pyjamas.
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