RB Formula 1 driver Yuki Tsunoda isn’t ruling out the possibility of one day running in the Indianapolis 500 but insisted that would not come anytime soon.
The Japanese drove an IndyCar - prepared by Chip Ganassi Racing - for the first time on Tuesday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway as part of a celebration of Honda’s ‘Hybrid Heroes’ ahead of this weekend’s Las Vegas Grand Prix, an outing which also saw Max Verstappen drive the Acura ARX-06 GTP machine.
After being coached by six-time IndyCar champion Scott Dixon, Tsunoda made a couple of runs that lasted almost half-hour when combined and it was very evident he was pushing to the limit right away.
Asked by Autosport at the event if this experience provided interest in stepping into an Indycar in the future if an opportunity was presented and potentially mirroring the path of fellow countryman Takuma Sato and two-time Indy 500 winner, Tsunoda replied: "If I have [an] opportunity and I feel it’s the right time, for sure I would love to.
“I like the US itself, so I don’t mind living here as well.
“But I feel like it's not the time because I can’t imagine I am driving at [Indianapolis Motor Speedway], more than a two-hour race and we do more than 200 mph or whatever every lap. For me, it’s scary. I can’t imagine myself driving more than two hours and being in that car. I don’t know. For now, I [am not] really aiming or thinking about IndyCar, but yeah, why not in the future?”
Elaborating on his comments regarding the challenge of tackling superspeedways and ovals, Tsunoda added: “Not afraid, but definitely doesn’t feel fully comfortable driving an oval.
“I respect the drivers a lot. Driving [Indianapolis] the two hours, like how can this driver drive in a circle, literally two hours next to the wall every lap. If you have a collision, it can be really, really big as well, so those things I can’t imagine right now. And right now, I’m not really thinking about the ovals.
“You know, [the Indy 500] is such a cool competition and most of the drivers will dream about being there, but currently I don’t have that target [or] anything. Once I start getting a bit older and my mentality of things change, maybe I’ll try at that point; drink the milk at the end of the race, hopefully.”
On his run in the CGR IndyCar, Tsunoda pointed to the lack of driver aids compared to his usual machinery in F1.
“It just feels a bit more like karting – you can play around more,” he said.
“Formula 1 cars are controlled by the systems, electronics, but this car feels more direct, so you have to still control the activation phase to control the sliding of the rear; that feels quite nice, especially [since] you can drift around a little bit [and] slide around in the car.
"So, that feels nice. Straightaway I felt comfortable, so able to push a little bit more.”
One of the unique elements, according to Dixon, was Tsunoda’s interest in learning every small element of the tools available in the car straight away, particularly the roll bars, engine modes and deployment of the hybrid system.
David Salters, the president of Honda Racing Corporation, confirmed to Autosport that it didn’t take long to give Tsunoda the chance to push the pace.
“It was quite impressive to see, like Turn 3, he was on full push,” Salters said.
“When we started off, taking it easy, the car was in practice mode and then he came in, and there was a bit of a side discussion for new boots and race-quali power. And he quite enjoyed that, I think.”
