Feature
Would You Rather with Ayumu Iwasa
For Ayumu Iwasa, racing is everything and he’ll do anything to make his dream of getting behind the wheel of the fastest cars on earth possible. Well, according to the Red Bull junior there might be one part of a driver’s lifestyle that he’s most certainly not a big fan of...
Off the back of netting his sixth podium of the season and keeping himself in title contention to the season finale in Yas Marina, we gave the DAMS driver his toughest challenge of the year. Featuring non-stop laughter from the Japanese racer, Iwasa discussed his love for Schnitzel, driving on the edge and the one album that’s the soundtrack to every race weekend.
WEIGHTS OR CARDIO?
“It’s so difficult already! Weights, it’s just my feeling. Honestly, I don’t like both, but I especially don’t like cardio. I can get a bit more motivation with weights for the improvement, but cardio doesn’t make happy, I don’t like it. Maybe it makes some people happy, there are those going on a bike as a hobby to enjoy it, but for me, there is no reason to ride a big such a long way.
HOME OR MONACO GP VICTORY?
“For sure, winning your home race is better. I won the Sprint Race in Monaco this year and I was quite happy, but I’ve never raced a big race in Japan yet. So, I want to have the feeling of racing in Japan as my home race and I also want to win there because, for sure if I win there, I will be happier than in Monaco.”
UNDERSTEER OR OVERSTEER?
“Oh, that’s a secret, no? For sure, oversteer. I don’t love it, but I prefer to have a bit more difficult of a car because if the car is understeer-y, it’s quite easy because you get the stability and then you just drive the car around. But if the car has oversteer, you will struggle to push to the limit because the car is really nervous. For me, I quite enjoy controlling the car with oversteer. Also, I really like drifting – that's the one reason!”
GIVE UP YOUR FAVOURITE MEAL FOR LIFE OR EAT IT EVERYDAY FOR A YEAR?
“Of course, Japanese food is the best, but I love Schnitzel in the UK, I’ve found a really good place there. Schnitzel is quite a heavy food, but if I couldn’t eat it again it would be very sad for me, so I’d have it every day.
Realises he would need to do extra cardio to burn off the calories
No! Okay now, I won’t eat it anymore. I won’t eat it again just to avoid the cardio session.
HANDS FOR FEET OR FEET FOR HANDS?
“Hands for feet because you can move more, so you can have better control and feeling for the feedback.”
FIRST TO ARRIVE OR LAST TO ARRIVE?
“First - first definitely because if I’m last, I will get nervous. I will feel I’m a bit too late, even if I’m on time, so I want to be first.”
TOO HOT OR TOO COLD?
“Too cold because I think there are some options to get warmer somehow. If you’re too hot, even if you don’t wear anything, you will still feel too hot.”
RACE SUIT THAT’S TOO BIG OR TOO SMALL?
“Too big, that’s for sure! That was a big problem for me at the beginning of the season because we always change suits every year and then the measurements were not good. It was too tight and for sure, I was losing three tenths because of the suit!.
“Everywhere was too tight. For example, with the steering I struggled with it because it was too tight. Even around the shoulders it was a really big problem. Also, the chest needs have good movement even if you have a seat belt, so the bigger suit is much better for me.”
ROCK OR HIP HOP?
“Hip Hop. I don’t listen to a lot of music because I have the same routine before jumping in the car and it’s not in my routine at all. I listen to some music when I go to the track from my hotel. The Fast and Furious soundtrack is still my first option, you can ask my trainer, he’ll tell you about it.”
KARAOKE OR DANCE OFF?
“If you don’t request for me to sing a song, I prefer karaoke! I love some Japanese music for karaoke, like some pop music.”
WIN THE INDY 500 OR THE 24 HOURS OF LE MANS?
“It’s difficult, I think I will pick the 24 Hours of Le Mans. I just feel that in the Indy 500, you only turn left. Of course, it’s really nice to win there and it’s a really big race, but I feel that Le Mans has quite a different feeling if you win the race. It’s difficult to explain, but I feel that winning the 24 Hours is a better feeling.”
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TELEPORTATION OR ABILITY TO READ PEOPLE’S MINDS?
“That’s really tricky because I’m thinking about the positive and negative points of both. You can know everything that everyone is thinking, but you can also know about the really negative things, so it’s quite risky for me. I’ll take teleporting! I would want to go to America because I’ve never been there, either Las Vegas or New York. I just want to visit there and see how the country is.”
OPTION PRIME OR PRIME OPTION?
“I’ll take prime option because honestly in F2, normally the prime option strategy is the better gamble. Normally, the pole sitter doesn’t do it because it’s a bit too risky, but I like the gamble, just this kind of game.
“Anyways, strategy is strategy. If you have the pace, you can get a good result with both strategies – that's what I’ve learnt in F2. So, I don’t care too much about the strategy, I will do whatever I feel is it on the grid.”
SHOEY OUT OF YOUR TEAMMATE’S SHOE OR YOUR BOSS’ SHOE?
“I cannot talk about this one because if I pick one, for sure the other one will get angry at me!. I hope my boss doesn’t hear this, but I would take my teammate’s (Arthur Leclerc). I think even after a race because it’s a bit more like a proper shoey, but if you take your team boss’ shoe it’s a bit strange!”
LATE-BRAKING DIVE DOWN THE INSIDE OR SWEEP ALL THE WAY AROUND THE OUTSIDE?
“Around the outside. If you dive into the corner straight away, it looks like a really aggressive movement, but if you go around the outside, it looks quite smooth but it’s difficult. If it’s difficult, it means I need to think how will it work? If the car in front of me has a car in front of them or not. This is very important when I go around the outside and I have to be really smart to make the move, but I like this kind of approach to overtaking.
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“For example, this year in the Feature Race in Austria, I did quite a good strategy on the prime option. I was overtaking some cars after the Safety Car restart, and I overtook like two or three cars in a row at Turn 6 from around the outside. It was really amazing, I felt really good afterwards!”
WIN FROM POLE OR LAST?
“I don’t know. For the performance, I prefer starting from last and then winning the race because you know that for sure it will be a fun race. Even from the outside, people will think that it’s an amazing race. As a racing driver, starting from pole and winning the race is more difficult than starting from last because you will have big pressure on you. So, you need to manage everything well enough because if anything happens, you need to react well because you can lose the position very easily.
"For me, starting P1 is more difficult. It’s a bit harder for me because when you’re starting from behind, you have less pressure. You need to push and do whatever you can, that’s it. But starting from P1, you need to manage your race with the engineers, you need to communicate really well and you need to manage the cars around you, so that’s more difficult.”