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The signing of Ryo Hirakawa as reserve driver for McLaren has drawn the Woking operation at Toyota closer together.
Hirakawa races for the Japanese marque in the World Endurance Championship, where he has won both the world title and 24 Hours of Le Mans.
He was announced as McLaren’s reserve driver over the course of the Japanese Grand Prix, with members of Toyota’s senior management attending the event, including Akio Toyoda, chairman (and former president) of Toyota Motor Corporation.
“Certainly, if you have any involvement of a driver like Ryo, that is a very recognisable Toyota representative, this means that the whole [of] Toyota are supportive and will be somehow involved,” explained McLaren’s F1 team boss, Andrea Stella.
“We were really pleased to have such a level of seniority present here at the track from Toyota.
“I would say it’s not a driver-isolated aspect, but it starts from here.
“We are happy that Toyota wanted to sort of choose McLaren to promote their driver, get him to be part of the driver development programme.
“I don’t think we need to go farther behind this – we will see how things unfold,” he added.
“But even for us at the moment, we are very focused on what we are doing but we took this opportunity of working with Ryo with interest because there’s an exchange in terms of performance, in terms of how we deal with racing that we are at the moment interested in.”
The link between McLaren and Toyota currently exists purely on a driver development front, on top of a commercial deal which has seen the British-squad use Toyota’s Cologne wind tunnel.
In April, McLaren announced a new programme, mirroring to an extent those employed by other teams.
It also, to an extent, means the team will become self-sufficient when it comes to the need for a reserve driver – it has to date relied on Mercedes’ pool of drivers or deals with other teams.
Last year, a collaboration with Alpine saw Oscar Piastri touted as a potential replacement for Lando Norris at Monaco.
Given the events of last August, a repeat deal is not on the cards.
“At the moment, I think we have enough drivers that we need to take care of,” Stella noted when asked if a deal like that with Alpine was still an option.
“I would focus on the drivers that are already in McLaren’s orbit.”
The relationship with Toyota is a small but potentially significant development in the broader context of McLaren’s operation.
Alongside its Formula 1 team, McLaren has an IndyCar project along with an entry Extreme E and Formula E.
It has long-held ambitions to return to endurance racing, with Zak Brown admitting to do so it needed an engine partner.
The relationship nurtured by the Hirakawa could therefore lay the foundation for a more in-depth collaboration in future.
