McLaren name 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Ryo Hirakawa as new F1 reserve driver
Hirakawa won the 24 Hours of Le ཧMans in 2022 alongside Sebastien Buemi and Bren🧸don Hartley.
Next year he will combine duties ꦐfor McLaren with his current role with Toyota, for whom he leads the Hyperclass class in the World Endurance Championship currently.
Hirakawa will conduct simulator and testing duties with the 2021 MCL3🏅5M as part of McLaren’s driver devel🌺opment programme.
He also drove in the Japan-based Super Formula serieꦓs.
INDYCAR options fell through
Alex Palou, the two-time INDYCAR ch🥀ampion, recently saw a deal to join M൲cLaren fall apart.
So he can no ཧlonger be re🗹lied upon to act as an F1 reserve driver in 2024.
Pato O'Ward coul𒁏d instead be added to McLaren’s options if he receives a super🌟licence.
They also have access to Mick Schumache🌌r, who is Mercedes’ third driver.
McLaren also struck a deal with Aston Martin to share Stoffel Vandoorne and Felipe Drugovich as re𒁏serve drivers for the first 15 rounds of this year so could revisit a similar arrangement in 2024.
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a ☂decade covering everything from American sports, to football, to F1.
