actually you know what. i'm so done with this fandom acting like honda wanting a japanese driver on the grid in order to go through with the partnership was like holding red bull at gunpoint and grabbing some random japanese guy off the street and putting them in an F1 car
yuki's career is so very different from so many other drivers; guanyu had to move to britain to have a more competitive karting field, but yuki remained in japan until after two years of F4 japan (where he placed 3rd in his first year and 1st in his second). he went to italy - at the age of 18/19 - to keep in F3 italy, before moving on to F2 WHERE HE CAME P3. ONE POINT BEHIND CALLUM ILLOT AND 15 BEHIND MICK, BOTH OF WHOM WERE ON THEIR SECOND FULL YEARS IN F2
yes, honda may have asked for a japanese driver to be on the grid, but they had managed to find the best one to be under the red bull-honda program and HE MANAGED TO GET INTO F1. yuki not only had to sign onto the right team at the right time, he had to beat way more experienced drivers than him AND HE DID (for context: robert was P4 in F2 2020, scored 177 points, yuki scored 200).
so yeah. respect on yuki's name, especially when multiple drivers of color who weren't born+grew up in europe have spoken about how hard it is to get into f1 if you're not living in europe already.
don't fucking @ me about the european drivers who learned english as a second language. this isn't about them
the horrible strategy that brought him down from his comfortable p10, choosing hards against a teammate with softs and then calling a driver swap for a non points finish? foh this is so blatant. he does his best to perform individually but when it comes time to depend on the team? race after race he's always let down.
but for some reason he comes back to the team with good graces, giving them stuff and overall are courteous. they take him for granted and i hope he fucking leaves this dog ass team.