Haas to run Fuji F1 test with Sho Tsuboi and Ryo Hirakawa

The Haas Formula 1 team has announced that Super Formula champion Sho Tsuboi will take part in a TPC test with its VF-23 at Fuji Speedway next month.

Toyota factory driver Tsuboi will join Haas reserve Ryo Hirakawa for the two-day test at the Japanese track, which last hosted a grand prix in 2008, on 6-7 August.

It will mark Tsuboi’s first-ever experience of grand prix machinery, and follows his maiden Super Formula title triumph with Toyota flagship team TOM’S last year.

The 30-year-old wrote on social media: “Thank you to Team Haas and TGR [Toyota Gazoo Racing] for giving me this wonderful opportunity. Of course, I’m very much looking forward to driving the F1 car. I want to make this the perfect day and take this once-in-a-lifetime chance to make my dreams come true!”

Tsuboi’s maiden F1 test opportunity is the latest manifestation of the collaboration between Haas and Toyota that was announced last year.

Sho Tsuboi, VANTELIN TEAM TOM'S

Photo by: Masahide Kamio

Hirakawa has already driven for the team on multiple occasions, including FP1 outings this year in Bahrain and Spain, while Tsuboi’s predecessor as Super Formula champion Ritomo Miyata also drove for Haas at Jerez in January.

Tsuboi took last year’s Super Formula title after replacing Miyata at TOM’S following the latter’s move to Formula 2, winning three races at Fuji on his way to the crown.

He currently sits third in the Super Formula standings ahead of this weekend’s sixth and seventh rounds at Fuji, behind Tadasuke Makino and Kakunoshin Ohta.

Tsuboi is also a three-time title winner in Super GT with TOM’S, and leads the standings in that championship in his bid for a fourth title in the space of five years.