Naoki Yamamoto apologised to Pierre Gasly for taking his FP1 seat!

Naoki Yamamoto is to replace Pierre Gasly for FP1 at the Japanese Grand Prix and he has apologised for taking the Toro Rosso driver's seat! Yamamoto is a vastly experienced driver and will enjoy the opportunity of driving a Formula 1 at his home circuit.  

“He actually apologized to me for being in my car,” said Gasly to Formula1.com. “But I told him there is no big deal about it. It was already planned since the beginning of the year.

“I said to him to enjoy and make sure you enjoy every single lap. He’s a really good guy, really fast, really talented. He knows Suzuka more than anyone else I think on the planet." 

Yamamoto won the Super Formula championship in 2013 and 2018, and the Super GT championship in 2018 but Galsy has still given him some tips on driving an F1 car.

"I gave him a few tips because for sure, compared to Super Formula, the tyres are different, the car’s behavior is different," he said.

“He’s been in the sim, and there were a couple of things he found really different to the Super Formula. He’s really fast. I think he won more than half his races in Suzuka. He’s really fast here.”

Yamamoto will hope to enjoy the experience of driving a Formula 1 car and Gasly will hope that he is able to run in FP2 so that his race weekend isn't effected too much.