This change comes as a surprise: At the weekend, Ryo Hirakawa was still sitting in the Formula 1 car for Alpine, but now he has been presented as a Haas reserve driver
At the 2025 Japanese Grand Prix in Suzuka, Ryo Hirakawa did the Friday practice for Alpine. Now he has been officially presented as the Formula 1 reserve driver – at Haas.
Why this change? That’s easy to explain: Hirakawa is a Toyota driver and Haas has had a technical partnership with Toyota since last year. Hirakawa even tested for Haas at the 2024 young driver tests in Abu Dhabi before joining Alpine as a reserve driver. Now, his stint with Alpine has ended after just a few weeks.
This creates a special situation for Hirakawa: he will drive two different Formula One cars on two consecutive Grand Prix weekends – the Alpine A525 in Suzuka and the Haas VF-25 in Sachir. Because that’s part of the deal: Hirakawa gets a total of four training drives in the current Haas in 2025.
When Hirakawa is still allowed to drive for Haas
That’s why Hirakawa explicitly thanks not only Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu, but also Toyota boss Akio Toyoda, saying, “I can’t wait to get started.”
In Bahrain, Hirakawa will take the wheel from Haas regular Oliver Bearman in the first free practice session and will also replace Bearman at the start of training in Mexico later in the year. Esteban Ocon, in turn, will take a break from the races in Spain and Abu Dhabi in favor of Hirakawa.
What does Team Principal Komatsu hope to achieve? “We want to use Ryo’s experience to broaden our knowledge and understanding of the VF-25. His feedback from last year’s young driver test was very detailed. So giving Ryo valuable track time at four different circuits this year will help the whole team.”
Experience from Le Mans and the WEC
While Hirakawa may be a newcomer to Formula One, his career to date is certainly not: in 2024, Hirakawa not only won the Le Mans 24 Hours for Toyota, but has already clinched the World Endurance Championship (WEC) title twice.
That’s why Komatsu thinks it’s “wonderful to bring new talent into the team” and describes it as “a real pleasure to work with a driver of Ryos’ caliber”.
What this means for Pietro Fittipaldi, who has been Haas’s replacement driver so far, has not been revealed by Haas. There is no longer any reference to Fittipaldi on the team’s official website, but his CV is still available in the media section.
