{"id":12813,"date":"2022-12-12T09:27:46","date_gmt":"2022-12-12T14:27:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=12813"},"modified":"2022-12-12T09:42:00","modified_gmt":"2022-12-12T14:42:00","slug":"2023-formula-2-driver-lineup-ayumu-iwasa-stays-at-dams-racing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2022\/12\/12\/2023-formula-2-driver-lineup-ayumu-iwasa-stays-at-dams-racing\/","title":{"rendered":"2023 Formula 2 Driver Lineup: Ayumu Iwasa stays at DAMS Racing"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>DAMS Racing announced earlier today that 2022 rookie Ayumu Iwasa will be retaining his seat. He&#8217;ll partner alongside rookie Arthur Leclerc.<\/h3>\n<p>Japanese driver Ayumu Iwasa will be retaining his seat at DAMS after finishing fifth in the standings taking two wins and six podiums. With Iwasa&#8217;s announcement, DAMS have now completed their lineup for the 2023 Formula 2 season with Formula 3 driver <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2022\/11\/21\/2023-formula-2-driver-lineup-arthur-leclerc-to-dams\/\" target=\"_self\">Arthur Leclerc<\/a> taking the second seat. Iwasa is the twelfth driver to be announced for next season. Iwasa has been a member of the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2022\/12\/08\/the-issue-with-the-red-bull-junior-team\/\" target=\"_self\">Red Bull Junior Team<\/a> and is likely to be one of several members racing on the F2 grid next year.<\/p>\n<h3>F2 Rookie Season<\/h3>\n<p>Iwasa made his Formula 2 debut in March after finishing twelfth in the 2021 Formula 3 Championship. He participated in the 2021 <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2022\/11\/22\/f2-post-season-testing-2023-lineups-and-schedule\/\" target=\"_self\">Formula 2 post-season test<\/a> and was later announced as a driver for DAMS alongside veteran Roy Nissany. Iwasa had a poor start to his campaign, as he was unable to finish his qualifying lap in Bahrain. With Iwasa starting at the back for both races, he managed to storm his way to the points during the Sprint Race finishing 8th.<\/p>\n<p>A string of technical and strategic errors found Iwasa struggling for points during the first few rounds. He was able to turn his season around at the Spanish Grand Prix securing his maiden F2 podium. After two second-place finishes, Iwasa took his first Formula 2 win at the French Grand Prix followed by another podium in the next round.<\/p>\n<p>In the season finale at Abu Dhabi, to everyone&#8217;s surprise, DAMS secured a front-row lockout with Iwasa leading Nissany. Iwasa was able to hold off from the charging, newly crowned champion Felipe Drugovich to claim his second win of the season.<\/p>\n<p>While Iwasa was victorious, Nissany tumbled down the order finishing in tenth. A metaphorical end to how the pair&#8217;s campaigns went with Nissany ending the season 19th with no podiums or wins.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\ud83d\udea8 Ayumu Iwasa is sticking with <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/damsracing?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@damsracing<\/a>!<\/p>\n<p>The Japanese driver and the French outfit continue their race-winning partnership in 2023 \ud83e\udd1d<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/F2?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#F2<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/RoadToF1?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#RoadToF1<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ayumuiwasa_cars?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@ayumuiwasa_cars<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/A5X0JdOw9U\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/A5X0JdOw9U<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Formula 2 (@Formula2) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Formula2\/status\/1602227554479493120?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">December 12, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Following the announcement, Iwasa <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fiaformula2.com\/Latest\/6eiKHnsKQbkS85h6Avjyf0\/iwasa-signs-on-for-second-f2-season-with-dams-for-2023\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">stated<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cI\u2019m really happy with my first F2 season, I learned a lot during the year, and we were able to improve at each race. It\u2019s a great feeling to continue with DAMS for another year, I feel at home in the team, and we work well together.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Charles Pic (Team Owner of DAMS) added:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;We were all impressed with Ayumu\u2019s performances in 2022, especially with the victories at Paul Ricard and Yas Marina, so we were very keen to keep him for 2023. It\u2019s great for us to continue our relationships with Red Bull and Honda, they trust in our methods, and we\u2019ll do our best to succeed together.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h3>2023 Driver Lineup:<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Campos Racing:\u00a0<\/strong>Ralph Boschung &amp; Kush Maini<\/li>\n<li><strong>DAMS Racing<\/strong>: Arthur Leclerc &amp; Ayumu Iwasa<\/li>\n<li><strong>MP Motorsport:\u00a0<\/strong>Dennis Hauger &amp;\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">TBD<\/span><\/li>\n<li><strong>PHM Racing by Charouz:\u00a0<\/strong>Roy Nissany and Brad Benavides<\/li>\n<li><strong>PREMA Powerteam:\u00a0<\/strong>Oliver Bearman &amp; Frederick Vesti<\/li>\n<li><strong>Trident Racing:\u00a0<\/strong>Clement Novalak &amp;\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">TBD<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Virtuosi Racing:\u00a0<\/b>Jack Doohan &amp; Amaury Cordeel<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5>Featured Image Credit: Formula 2 Media<\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>DAMS Racing announced earlier today that 2022 rookie Ayumu Iwasa will be retaining his seat. He&#8217;ll partner alongside rookie Arthur Leclerc. Japanese driver Ayumu Iwasa will be retaining his seat at DAMS after finishing fifth in the standings taking two wins and six podiums. With Iwasa&#8217;s announcement, DAMS have now completed their lineup for the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4286,"featured_media":12814,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,544],"tags":[1749,1725,548,78,1695],"class_list":["post-12813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-formula-2","tag-arthur-leclerc","tag-ayumu-iwasa","tag-dams","tag-red-bull-racing","tag-roy-nissany"],"modified_by":"Nathan Reynolds","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4286"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12813\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}