30 September 2023 , 05:00
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A desire for McLaren and Toyota to forge closer ties led to Ryo Hirakawa's appointment as a Formula 1 reserve driver for next year.
The news was announced last week ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix. And it came as a surprise given that, while the 29-year-old has a wealth of racing experience, he has never been on the F1 radar before.
But he has plenty of single-seat experience from the Japanese Super Formula series. And he is a World Endurance Championship title-winner and victor at the famous 24 Hours of Le Mans as a factory driver for Toyota.
And that is the link that brought Hirakawa into the F1 sphere with McLaren. He is now one of several reserve drivers for the F1 team next year, filling the gap left by Alex Palou, and will get the opportunity to test the 2021 car.
McLaren and Toyota have a long-standing relationship – though its own wind tunnel is now operational, for years it used the facility owned by the Japanese carmaker in Cologne. Its involvement now in McLaren's driver programme hints at even closer ties than before for the two parties.
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"There was the element of, having started a driver development programme, there's quite a lot of people knocking on the door," said team principal Andrea Stella, explaining Hirakawa's signing. "We actively chase talents, but we also have interest from other talents to join the programme, which is good.
"It shows that we have credibility from this point of view. So, we are certainly excited that Ryo and Toyota wanted to join the team in terms of the driver development programme.
"Then we took advantage to say, 'Well, let's add him to the pool of reserve drivers'. And this is not only for the driver himself. We are also interested in a bit of exchange of how we deal with performance, how we deal with driver development. So, we want to sort of expand a bit our horizons."
But Toyota Gazoo Racing adviser Kazuki Nakajima was adamant that, for now, the carmaker remains uninterested in a full-time return to F1. "For now, it's clearly no – this deal is really purely focusing on a driver, supporting a driver's dream", he told Motorsport.com.
"At the moment, it really has nothing to do with that. I know, of course, you can think about it, and there are a lot of rumours. But I can clearly say that it's no, and nothing to do with it. For the future, we never know."