Haas Fuji test gives Fukuzumi first F1 run

Haas completed more than 100 laps in its two-day Testing of Previous Cars event at Fuji Speedway, where Nirei Fukuzumi made his first on-track Formula 1 appearance and Sho Tsuboi set the fastest time of the test.

At the Toyota-owned circuit on July 28 and 29, Haas split running between the two Toyota-backed drivers, with Tsuboi producing the quickest lap of the event at 1m17.914s. Fukuzumi, in his first ever run in an F1 car, set a best of 1m18.442s and reached 336.449 km/h.

The test was not straightforward. Rain limited running on the opening day, then hot and dry conditions on day two created a different problem as air and track temperatures rose through the final day. Haas had to carefully manage tire temperatures during performance runs, using blower cooling in the pits after each attack lap and repeating a push lap, in lap, out lap, push lap cycle.

Tsuboi said the heat made it difficult to string laps together. “Rear tire temperature management was difficult, and if we didn’t cool them, the front and rear balance was completely off on the second lap and I couldn’t attack,” he said. He added that “if the conditions had been right, a time in the 1m16s was definitely possible.”

This was the second straight year Haas had staged a previous-cars test at Fuji with fans admitted to the grandstands, and the 2026 edition grew beyond last year’s event. Attendance reached 7,900 across the two days, a 127.4% increase on 2025, underlining the appetite in Japan to see modern F1 machinery running locally.

For Haas, that made the Fuji outing more than a data-gathering exercise in difficult midsummer conditions. It also turned into a larger public showcase in Japan while giving Fukuzumi his first direct step into F1 machinery alongside Tsuboi’s benchmark pace.