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Why Honda's best F1 hope won't be leaving Japan

Honda now has a highly-rated protege with enough superlicence points to get a Formula 1 chance, but who is unlikely to ever be seen on a grand prix grid.

Naoki Yamamoto, Mugen

Naoki Yamamoto, Mugen

Masahide Kamio

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When Team Kunimitsu clinched the Super GT title in a thrilling season finale last month at Motegi, it was 2009 Formula 1 world champion Jenson Button who grabbed the headlines. But the man he shared the #100 Honda with is deserving of even more praise for his performances in 2018.

Winning a first GT500 crown alongside Button capped off a pretty special year for Naoki Yamamoto, who two weeks earlier earned his second Super Formula title by coming out on top in a tense fight with title rival Nick Cassidy at Suzuka.

Earlier in 2018, the 30-year-old also became a father as his wife Eri, a presenter for Japan's TV Tokyo, gave birth to twins. And now, in the wake of Yamamoto's twin successes, Honda's motorsport boss Masashi Yamamoto has described him as the manufacturer's "number one" driver and openly aired the idea of giving him a run in an F1 car.

"A big year for Naoki - twins and a double!" was Button's succinct summary of the situation when he stepped out of the car at Motegi, having sealed the deal for himself and Yamamoto.

Button certainly didn't hold back on his praise for Yamamoto, and rightly so. Without such an experienced and capable all-rounder to share the cockpit with in his first full season of Super GT competition, it's doubtful Button would have been in a position to fight to become the series' first rookie champion since Tora Takagi in 2005.

Jenson Button and Naoki Yamamoto, Team Kunimitsu with Kunimitsu Takahashi

Jenson Button and Naoki Yamamoto, Team Kunimitsu with Kunimitsu Takahashi

Photo by: Masahide Kamio

So, what makes Yamamoto so formidable in both GT500 and Super Formula machinery?

"He's unbelievably quick," gushes Button. "Wherever you are, whatever the session is, whether it's high fuel, low fuel, old tyres, new tyres, he's always straight on the pace. A lot of that is experience in the category, but he is [better at that] than anyone, I would say.

"He's very passionate. In the last race, when I was quickest in Q1, he said to me, 'I'm under pressure now!' He qualified second and he was so angry with himself, even though second is still bloody good. He's unforgiving if he makes mistakes.

"And with the different skillsets you need for Super Formula and Super GT, it shows he has natural ability. At his age, he has a lot of experience, he's calmed down a lot more, he doesn't make mistakes."

As Button alluded, Yamamoto was more than aware of what was at stake if he won the Super GT crown - not only enough points to become eligible an F1 superlicence, but also the chance to make history and become only the fifth driver in history to do the 'double'.

Prior to him, Richard Lyons was the last driver to win titles in both of Japan's premier racing categories in the same calendar year, back in 2004 - when Super Formula was known as Formula Nippon and Super GT was called the All-Japan GT Championship.

"The weight on my shoulders was different to just fighting for the GT500 title," Yamamoto tells Motorsport.com.

"That week [leading up to the Motegi race] I felt stress and pressure I had never felt before. I had mouth ulcers, I didn't feel like myself. I could hardly sleep.

"It was hard. I think there are only few drivers who can fight in these pressured circumstances, and under these conditions I survived to the end."

Naoki Yamamoto, Mugen and Nick Cassidy, Kondo

Naoki Yamamoto, Mugen and Nick Cassidy, Kondo

Photo by: Masahide Kamio

For all his accolades, Yamamoto is not especially well-known in Europe - perhaps not surprisingly when you consider he's not raced regularly outside Japan since his karting days.

That could have been different if Honda had chosen him to compete in GP2 in 2014, when its ill-fated F1 partnership with McLaren was about to start and it had the chance to put one of its proteges into the seat alongside Stoffel Vandoorne at the ART Grand Prix team.

Yamamoto got the chance to test along with Takuya Izawa and Koudai Tsukakoshi. But it was Izawa who got the nod, albeit only ending up 18th in the standings that season and swiftly heading back to Japan afterwards.

At that point Izawa and Yamamoto had already been Super GT teammates in 2010-12 at Team Kunimitsu, although it wasn't until their partnership was reformed in 2015 after Izawa's GP2 sojourn that they became a winning combination.

This year, their partnership came to an end as Button arrived in the series and joined Team Kunimitsu, and Izawa was shifted over to the ARTA Honda team to partner Tomoki Nojiri. But Yamamoto admits to having had mixed feelings about the change.

"It is an honour to be teammate to Button, but at the same time part of me regrets having to split up with Izawa," Yamamoto reflects. "I had the feeling I wanted to win more with Izawa.

"Izawa was one of the key players in developing this NSX-GT into a fast and strong race car. Of course now we're in different teams he is another rival, and I think he feels the same way. But I partnered Izawa for many years and learnt a lot of things from him."

Button makes it clear Yamamoto was the driver he wanted to be paired with for his rookie Super GT campaign, based on his observations of the series from afar.

"I watched Super GT for a couple of years, and I chose to be with him, even though our heights make it difficult [to share a car]," says Button, who at 182cm (just under 6 feet) is 18cm (about 9 inches) taller than the pint-sized Yamamoto. "I knew he was the guy I wanted to be with.

"He is very good at giving feedback. He spends a lot of time on set-up and development with Honda; he's always on to our engineer about improvements. In Super GT there are quite a few quick drivers, but it's whether they can set up a car [as well].

"He carried me through the first two races, I learned a lot from him, which was very useful, and that's the reason we could work together and win the championship."

#100 Team Kunimitsu Honda NSX Concept GT: Naoki Yamamoto, Jenson Button

#100 Team Kunimitsu Honda NSX Concept GT: Naoki Yamamoto, Jenson Button

Photo by: Masahide Kamio

By all accounts, Yamamoto has come on a long way since he was plucked by Honda from near-total obscurity - he was national class champion in All-Japan Formula 3 in 2009 - to embark on a dual GT500/Formula Nippon campaign in 2010.

The breakout year was 2013, when Yamamoto, driving for Dome alongside Frederic Makowiecki, clinched a first Super GT win at Suzuka after a heartbreaking near miss the previous year at Okayama, where he was passed by Lexus man Yuji Tachikawa on the last lap.

Later in the year, he won at Suzuka again in Super Formula to set himself up for title glory in the freshly-rebranded single-seater category.

According to Team Mugen boss Nagataki Tezuka, that success changed things for Yamamoto, who became the first Honda-powered driver to win the title since Loic Duval in 2009.

"In the past, he grew up as a young driver of Honda and I think there was no pressure there," says Tezuka. "However, since he won the championship in Super Formula in 2013, he changed the way he drove. He was fighting against the pressure he was carrying."

Chief engineer Kazuya Abe adds: "It was only Yamamoto who had won the title previously in Honda's Super Formula line-up. I think this is big. He had become known as 'Honda's ace'."

In the two seasons that followed, Yamamoto maintained his position as the top Honda driver in Super Formula, but Toyota reigned supreme. His title defence in 2014 ended in a miserable ninth in the points, while the following year another win at Suzuka put him fifth overall.

The arrival of Vandoorne in Super Formula changed things, as for the first time since 2012, Yamamoto was not the top dog inside the Honda camp. And things only got worse when Pierre Gasly was placed alongside him at Team Mugen in 2017.

Yamamoto admits he became too obsessed with beating Gasly as the year progressed, with the result that he slumped to ninth overall while the Frenchman (pictured) came within a whisker of the title.

Pierre Gasly, Team Mugen

Pierre Gasly, Team Mugen

"At first I thought [Gasly] was in unfamiliar territory, but he became better than me in the second half of the season," Yamamoto told Motorsport.com in an early 2018 interview.

"I think the feeling of 'I do not want to lose' became too strong as the year progressed, and I ended up overlooking other aspects of racing. It reached a point where my field of vision became too narrow."

The bruising experience of partnering Gasly was a worthwhile one for Yamamoto, who became obsessed with race weekend routines and rituals designed to maximise his focus and minimise any unwanted distractions that could knock him off his stride.

That change in approach paid off with two wins in the opening two races of 2018, and after a loss of momentum in the middle of the year he rebounded in spectacular style at his happiest hunting ground - Suzuka - when it mattered most, holding on to beat a charging Cassidy.

Abe says: "Honda had not won the title in the SF14 [chassis] era, and I think [Yamamoto] felt bad for Honda. And because it was the last year of the SF14, I think he pretty much put it all on the line. His motto for the final race of the year was different to in 2013."

With that, Yamamoto's attentions returned to Super GT, as he and Button went into the decisive Motegi finale level on points with TOM'S Lexus pair Cassidy and Ryo Hirakawa.

The highlights of the year had been two second places in the opening three races of the year and a win at Sugo, although arguably it was Yamamoto's drive to fifth in the penultimate round at Autopolis - on a day where the NSX-GTs were not competitive - that really made the difference in his and Button's year-long battle against the #1 Lexus LC500.

Besides the potential prize of the double and an F1 superlicence, there was another thing on Yamamoto's mind at Motegi: a desire to repay the faith of team boss Kunimitsu Takahashi for first taking a chance on him back in 2010.

"It was great that I got the chance to debut in Super GT in 2010 and I was able to suddenly jump from F3 to GT500," says Yamamoto. "But I missed the chance to win a lot of races, and if the team had chosen an experienced driver, it might have been able to win more often.

"I had the feeling that one day I wanted to give something back to Kuni-san [Takahashi], who continued to appoint me. I finally won the title this year, so I was able to repay him."

The success earned by Button and Yamamoto was Team Kunimitsu's first GT500 title in more than 20 years of trying, and Takahashi himself (pictured below, middle) was keen to praise both his drivers afterwards, and not just the high-profile star who had swept to honours at the first time of trying.

"Naoki was just a young kid when he first arrived with us [in 2010], he didn't know much and I had to teach him a lot," was Takahashi's assessment of Yamamoto. "Now it's the opposite, he teaches me so much, and he has become a world-class driver."

Polesitters Naoki Yamamoto, Jenson Button, Team Kunimitsu with Kunimitsu Takahashi, General Manager of Team Kunimitsu

Polesitters Naoki Yamamoto, Jenson Button, Team Kunimitsu with Kunimitsu Takahashi, General Manager of Team Kunimitsu

Photo by: Masahide Kamio

It seems virtually certain that Yamamoto will defend his titles in both Japanese categories next year, although he is set to move over to Dandelion Racing in Super Formula, ending a spell at Team Mugen that stretches all the way back to his second season in the series in 2011.

And then there's the tiny matter of a potential first run in a F1 car, which Honda boss Yamamoto has stated could well come in the form of a free practice session during a grand prix weekend - and given the immense success he has enjoyed at Suzuka over the years, there isn't a more fitting venue where such a run could take place.

Of course, it's no secret that Honda wants a Japanese driver racing in F1 as soon as possible, and supplying Red Bull as well as Toro Rosso from 2019 onwards, doubling the Honda-powered car count, makes that a more realistic prospect. The trouble is, up until now, there hasn't been one with enough points for a superlicence.

Yamamoto has changed that this year. But, for all his obvious ability, it's hard to imagine a 30-year-old dad-of-two with next to no experience of racing outside his homeland fitting the bill. The culture shock, the unbearable pressure, having to learn 20 tracks and the nuances of the Pirelli tyres from scratch - the obstacles are simply too great.

Instead, Honda's recent announcement that it is bringing Nobuharu Matsushita back to F2 after one mediocre season in Super Formula provides a hint of where its short-term priority lies.

Sixth in GP2 in 2016, Matsushita only needs to finish inside the top four next season to make the superlicence grade and give himself a Toro Rosso shot in 2020. And with Carlin, which took Lando Norris to the runner-up spot this year, that's eminently achievable.

At the same time, Honda is looking further into the future by placing 16-year-old Japanese Formula 4 champion Yuki Tsunoda in FIA F3 next year. This is the first time it has plucked someone so young from Japan and thrown them in the deep end, as Matsushita and his successors Nirei Fukuzumi and Tadasuke Makino all contested All-Japan F3 before coming over to Europe.

Honda's strategy appears to be two-fold: get Matsushita, a known quantity who has already driven a Formula 1 car for Sauber, the points he needs to reach F1 as soon as possible, while developing a new generation of young talent to step up in a few years from now. Red Bull is also set to play a larger role in developing the Japanese auto giant's young talent, too.

As for Yamamoto, it's clear where he fits in Honda's plan - as its undisputed number one driver on the domestic scene. But a run in an F1 car, even if doesn't go any further than that, would still be a richly-deserved reward for a driver whose talent had gone unnoticed for too long in Europe.

Naoki Yamamoto in the Toro Rosso garage

Naoki Yamamoto in the Toro Rosso garage

Photo by: Andy Hone / LAT Images

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