Ayumu Iwasa, a member of the Honda Formula Dream Project (HFDP), a Honda driver development program, will take part in the FP1 (Practice 1) session at the 2024 FIA^*1 F1 World Championship Series MSC CRUISES Japanese Grand Prix (F1 Japanese Grand Prix) to be held at Suzuka Circuit (Suzuka City, Mie Prefecture) on Friday, April 5, 2024. Iwasa will drive a F1 machine to be provided by the Visa Cash App RB (VCARB) Formula One Team^*2, which is equipped with a power unit (PU) technically supported by Honda Racing Corporation (HRC).

Ayumu Iwasa graduated at the top of his class from the Suzuka Circuit Racing School (now Honda Racing School Suzuka^*3 or HRS) in 2019. After winning the French F4 Championship in 2020, he has steadily progressed, mainly in European racing series, and in 2023 he finished 4th in the FIA F2 Championship, fulfilling the requirements to obtain a Super License^*4 necessary to participate in F1. This season, with a view to moving up to F1, Iwasa is competing in Japan’s premier formula car racing series, the Japanese Super Formula Championship (SF), as a member of both HFDP, the Honda driver development program, and the Red Bull Junior Team, Red Bull Group’s driver development program.

^{*1 Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile
*2 F1 racing team which Honda supports as a team partner
*3 Racing driver and rider training school operated by Honda Mobilityland Corporation and HRC
*4 One of the highest license categories in motorsports, which can be obtained only after fulfilling a number of requirements, including earning a certain number of license points in race categories specified by the FIA.}

■Comment of Ayumu Iwasa

“I am very happy to be able to participate in an official F1 session in my home country, and I am excited to be able to take the first step toward the realization of my dream – winning races and capture the World Championship title for many consecutive years in F1, the world’s most prestigious series. First of all, I would like to thank everyone supporting me in this challenge. In the official session, I will steadily carry out the mission assigned to me and learn as much as I can. I look forward to seeing you all in Suzuka.”

■Comment of Laurent Mekies, Team Principle of Visa Cash App RB Formula One Team

“It’s a great pleasure for us to have Ayumu in our car for the upcoming FP1 session in Suzuka. He did a great job in the Abu Dhabi test at the end of last year when he drove for us for the first time. Since then, he has been doing a lot a valuable work in our simulator, including providing live race support. This on-track experience will be important for his growth as a young driver, as well as providing him and our engineers with a useful real-track correlation of the work he carries out for us in the simulator. It’s definitely going to be a very exciting moment for the Team to have an entirely Japanese line-up for FP1 with Yuki (Tsunoda) and Ayumu, both powered by Honda RBPT power units!”

■Comment of Koji Watanabe, President of Honda Racing Corporation (HRC)

“I am very pleased that everyone will be able to see Iwasa driving an F1 machine at the F1 Japanese Grand Prix to be held at Suzuka Circuit, Honda’s home track. I would also like to thank the Visa Cash App RB Formula One Team and Red Bull Group for providing Iwasa with the opportunity to drive in FP1. We hope that he will continue to pursue his dream and inspire young people around the world. We look forward to your continued support for Iwasa.”

■Ayumu Iwasa

Birth date: September 22, 2001
Birthplace: Osaka, Japan
Racing career summary: (Team names in brackets)