{"id":8719,"date":"2025-04-10T18:35:12","date_gmt":"2025-04-10T18:35:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/8719\/"},"modified":"2025-04-10T18:35:12","modified_gmt":"2025-04-10T18:35:12","slug":"f1-interest-in-japan-is-coming-back-after-a-dip-in-popularity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/8719\/","title":{"rendered":"F1 interest in Japan is \u201ccoming back\u201d after a \u201cdip in popularity\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu claims Japan is witnessing a resurgence in interest in Formula 1 after a \u201cdip in popularity\u201d in previous years.<\/p>\n

F1 raced in front of a sold-out crowd at Suzuka Circuit last weekend, with 266,000 spectators coming through the gates across the three days – up by 44,000 from last year.<\/p>\n

It marked the highest trackside attendance at the Japanese Grand Prix since 2006, when Fernando Alonso won the race from fifth on the grid for Renault.<\/p>\n

The ticket sales were boosted by Yuki Tsunoda<\/a>\u2019s promotion to the Honda-powered Red Bull team, with Tsunoda also promoting the race in a showrun in Tokyo ahead of the grand prix.<\/p>\n

Japan\u2019s biggest company Toyota also had an extensive presence in the fanzone at Suzuka, having returned to F1 this year as a technical partner for Komatsu\u2019s Haas team.<\/p>\n

Another addition to this weekend\u2019s programme was Le Mans 24 Hours winner Ryo Hirakawa, who drove the Alpine <\/a>F1 car in first practice, giving the local crowd two home drivers to cheer for.<\/p>\n

Komatsu, who took over the reins at Haas <\/a>last year, expressed his joy at seeing F1 enjoy an upturn in popularity in his home nation after a long period of decline in the 2010s.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t know if we are a leading nation, but certainly after a bit of a dip in popularity of Formula 1 in Japan, I think the interest is definitely coming back,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAgain, what Yuki is doing this year, or last year like Laurent [Mekies] said, he made a massive step that was visible to everyone, and for him, for a Japanese driver, to drive for one of the top teams, it\u2019s never happened before. That\u2019s a huge story and that’s really gaining momentum again here.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHirakawa, a very good driver, getting out in FP1, all these things help. Also, I think having this F1 race in springtime here helps as well. It’s not just one thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve heard that the event in Tokyo was very successful. So all those bits and pieces count, and I can only see positive signs. So yeah, really exciting time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Born in Tokyo in 1976, Komatsu started his F1 career in the early 2000s as a tyre engineer for BAR before moving to Renault, where he formed a close relationship with Romain Grosjean.<\/p>\n

He followed Grosjean to the newly-formed Haas team in 2016, taking on the role of trackside engineer.<\/p>\n

He was announced as its team principal in January 2024 after owner Gene Haas decided against renewing the contract of Guenther Steiner.<\/p>\n

Asked what advice he had for budding engineers and team managers from Japan, Komatsu said: \u201cWhen I got interested in Formula 1 when I was a kid, all the others apart from my parents told me: \u2018Don\u2019t be so stupid. You will never make it.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t listen to any of them. So my advice would be: don\u2019t listen to those people who tell you that you cannot do it. You know, you can do pretty much anything, I think, if you put your mind to it and dedicate your life to it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s just that sometimes the first step is the hardest one to make, but I hope that people have the courage to make that first step in making the dream. Because to me, if you try, even if you fail, it kind of doesn\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs long as you put everything into it, even if you don\u2019t make it to the original goal, you learn something from it. And then as a human being, you can use that at your next stage in your life. So please, just take that initial step.\u201d<\/p>\n

Subscribe to our F1 Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu claims Japan is witnessing a resurgence in interest in Formula 1 after a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8720,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4103],"tags":[4199,707,4200,708,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-8719","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-f1","8":"tag-f1","9":"tag-formula-1","10":"tag-formula1","11":"tag-japanese-gp","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114315114894254598","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8719\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}