Meet the man who paid £2.5m to drive Oscar Piastri's McLaren F1 car at a Grand Prix

Japanese driver Ryo Hirakawa paid McLaren just over £2.5million to drive Oscar Piastri's car at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The 31-year-old drove for McLaren in FP1 in the Persian Gulf at the end of last year, with the arrangement also including two Testing of Previous Car (TPC) events in preparation.

Hirakawa replaced Piastri in the first free practice session, with McLaren star Lando Norris also featuring. Piastri's replacement ended the session with the 14th quickest lap time of all 20 drivers. He finished just over 1.5 seconds slower than pace-setter Charles Leclerc and 1.3 seconds slower than Norris. And Piastri ultimately returned to his seat for FP2 and the rest of the race weekend.

Hirakawa's payment was revealed during the court case between McLaren and Alex Palou.

McLaren are said to be seeking £15million in a breach of contract lawsuit after Palou walked away from a contract with the team after signing a deal to represent them in IndyCar.

During the case, which has been heard in London, it was revealed that Hirakawa paid £2.6m to appear in the place of Piastri.

Hirakawa has plenty of experience in racing and currently competes for Toyota Gazoo Racing in the FIA World Endurance Championship. The talented star wom the Super GT GT500 in 2017, before finishing second in the standings in the Super Formula in 2020.

He then won the FIA World Endurance Championship alongside Toyota team-mates Brendon Hartley and Sebastien Buemi in 2022 and 2023.

But he has continued to gain more experience in F1 this year during appearances with two different teams.

Hirakawa drove for Alpine in FP1 at the Japanese Grand Prix in April, before being announced as a Haas F1 reserve driver for the rest of this season.

He then featured in FP1 for Haas in Bahrain just a week after he had driven for Alpine in his home country.

The ace went on to represent the American team in FP1 at the Spanish Grand Prix in May and is due to drive once again in the first practice sessions at the Mexican Grand Prix on Friday and the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in December.

"It's great to welcome Ryo to MoneyGram Haas F1 Team and have his experience bolster our knowledge and understanding of the VF-25," explained Haas team principal Ayo Komatsu in April.

"His feedback was very detailed at the post-season test last year, so being able to provide Ryo valuable track time across four different circuits this year will help the entire team."