Ayumu Iwasa will make his first appearance at the 2024 F1 Japanese Grand Prix free practice session
Honda's young racer, Ayumu Iwasa, will make his first appearance in the 2024 F1 Japanese Grand Prix free practice session on Friday, April 5 2024 at the Suzuka international circuit, Japan. Ayumu Iwasa will drive the Visa Cash App Racing Bulls team racing car, namely the VCARB01 with a Honda RBPT engine, in front of the public and his fans.
Ayumu Iwasa will be side by side with VCARB F1 team racer Yuki Tsunoda in the first free practice session of the 2024 F1 Japanese Grand Prix. He is a young Japanese racer trained by Honda from the "Honda Formula Dream Project (HFDP)" where he first joined in 2019. Iwasa graduated from Suzuka Circuit Racing School (currently Honda Racing School Suzuka / HRS) with top ranking in 2019.
After winning the French F4 championship, he then continued his racing career in Europe. In 2021, it competed in the FIA F3 championship and then competed in the FIA F2 Championship in 2022-2023. Iwasa will then compete in the Japanese Super Formula Championship in 2024.
Ayumu Iwasa said “I am very happy to be able to participate in the official F1 free practice session. I am taking a very important first step where I will appear in my home country, namely Japan. First of all, I would like to thank everyone who has supported me all this time. In the official free practice sessions, I will learn a lot to equip myself to drive a Formula 1 racing car. I hope to see you all at Suzuka."
Laurent Mekkies, Team Principal of Visa Cash App Racing Bulls said “We are very happy that Ayumu will be driving our car in FP1 of the Japanese Grand Prix. He will drive an F1 car for the first time since last appearing at the end-of-season test session in Abu Dhabi at the end of 2023 and do a good job.
Since then, he has taken on the role of simulator racer and has provided a lot of input to the team at every race, including live factory race support. This FP1 experience will help his career as a racer. I am sure that not only will this directly lead to his career as a professional racer, but also his work in the simulator will be carried out in real life, which will strengthen the cooperative relationship between him and the engineers.
"Apart from that, the Japanese GP FP1 will be a very interesting session for the team, where two Japanese racers, Ayumu and Yuki Tsunoda will appear in front of the public with a Honda RBPT engined racing car."
Koji Watanabe, President of Honda Racing Corporation said "I am very proud to see Ayumu Iwasa driving a Honda-engined F1 racing car in front of the public and our fans at the Suzuka circuit. I would also like to thank the VCARB team for giving this opportunity to Ayumu. We also hope that Ayumu can continue to pursue his dream of being able to participate in world car racing events with Honda."
