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Former Japanese Super Formula champion and Honda protégé Naoki Yamamoto would like to broaden his motorsport horizons in the future, but a move to IndyCar is off the table.
The highly rated Yamamoto, who was double Super Formula and Super GT champion in 2018, was awarded a free practice outing at the Japanese Grand Prix with Toro Rosso last year.
The impressive experience piqued the 31-year-old’s interest in competing beyond his usual home series in the future, although Red Bull motorsport boss Helmut Marko made clear that Yamamoto doesn’t fit the bill for a full-time graduation to F1.
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As a Honda-backed driver, the Japanese charger could be tempted into testing an IndyCar but racing in the series, perhaps on behalf of Honda, is currently not a prospect he would be willing to embrace.
“If I drive in domestic races, Super Formula and Super GT, I want to win more titles,” Yamamoto told Motorsport.com.
“But this year I drove a Formula 1 car and I got the feeling that world championship racing is really good.
“So I want to drive in this, against more high-level rivals if I have the chance. If I had the chance I want to drive an F1 car again. I would like to drive an IndyCar as well.
“But at the moment I have no interest in racing in IndyCar. It’s a really competitive series, second only to F1, but on the other hand it’s a really dangerous category.
“If it was only road courses and street courses, then I would definitely drive. But ovals… I have a family, and there is too much risk. At the moment I don’t want to race there.”