Ryo Hirakawa was about to go for his usual run on Saturday morning in Mexico when he got the call telling him he would get the opportunity "I've always been ready for" to qualify for his Formula 1 debut.
๐ The Core Development
Despite the short notice, Haasโs shock Esteban Ocon replacement was disappointed not to reach Q2 in 19th place given his final qualifying run was compromised by traffic.
The 32-year-old long-time Toyota driver, a Le Mans 24 Hours winner and two-time World Endurance champion, received unusually late notice that he would take over Ocon's car for the remainder of the weekend.
๐ Background & Sector Context
Hirakawa wasn't driving it cold having run in FP1, his ninth outing since late-2024 in F1 sessions, and having also logged a combined total of 4541km (2822 miles) in the 2023 and '25 Haas cars over the past two years. But even so he was in at the deep end.
FP3 was inevitably a compressed, intensive session in which no driver logged more laps than he did. The work was efficient, with clear communication to and from race engineer Laura Mueller as they crammed in a mini-long run, practice starts, qualifying simulations and took multiple opportunities to refine how he attacks the pit box. That included one practice pitstop without a tyre change that let him also hone the release. It meant he went into qualifying relatively confident, even if he recognised there was plenty he needed to tidy up.
๐ Industry & Real-World Impact
Both Haas drivers completed three runs in Q1, with Hirakawa 0.330 seconds slower than team regular Ollie Bearman on the first lap - a deliberately neat and tidy banker effort - then 0.304s slower on the second as both made a similar step. The main deficit was in the final sector comprising the stadium section and last corner where, as Hirakawa pointed out, "as soon as you slide you [pay] the price]".
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๐ฎ Strategic Outlook & What Lies Ahead
Hirakawa failed to improve on his final attempt and ended up 0.875s down in 19th while his team-mate advanced to Q2. However, that was not down to him not having the edge when it came to extracting the peak of grip at the end of the session.
He improved on his personal best time in sectors one and three, but had Alex Albon ahead in the middle sector. Albon wasn't directly impeding him, but he created costly aerodynamic turbulence and left Hirakawa disappointed. The time loss started with a little given away through Turn 4-6 at the start of the second sector, which he started 4.5s behind Albon, and got worse in the esses.
