Veteran Japanese racer Tetsuya Yamano has lent his expertise to Project Motor Racing’s Factory Driver Program, according to Sega.
Sega has confirmed that successful Japanese racing driver Tetsuya Yamano has joined Project Motor Racing’s Factory Driver Program.
The FDP is a portal within PMR which allows participants to offer feedback on a range of cars in their corner entry, mid-corner and corner exit phases. By answering questions based on a range of overarching factors – Car Setup, Authenticity, Finding Speed, Endurance Racing and Dynamic Track – FDP drivers help shape the way PMR’s cars drive to help provide an engaging and realistic driving experience.
Anyone can apply to join the FDP, but developer Straight4 Studios vets every application to ensure it captures the best candidates. And given Yamano’s racing record, it’s hard to argue with his inclusion.
Career highlights
Yamano won three consecutive GT300 titles in Japan’s premier sports car category, Super GT. Most impressively, Yamano won the 2004-2006 championships in three different cars: a Honda NSX, a Toyota MR-S and a Mazda RX-7, respectively.
The Tokyo native also won the 2017 Global MX-5 Cup Japan Championship, and his feedback has apparently directly influenced the behaviour of PMR’s Mazda MX-5, which was recently revealed for the game alongside a swathe of new cars and the Sebring International Raceway circuit.
Sega, which will oversee production and distribution of PMR in Japan and across Asia in a sub-publishing deal with GIANTS Software, requested Yamano’s expertise for the FDP, which he was initially reticent about, explaining to Japanese publication Car Watch that he couldn’t drive cars in sims as he would in real life.
However, FDP’s approach meant that, for him, “virtual and real are almost perfectly matched, and [handling will] become as precise as a real car.”*
When initially sampling the MX-5 in PMR, Yamano felt something was ‘off’ with its handling, but after providing feedback, as well as ensuring the car’s setup options correlated with the real world, he believes that “it no longer feels strange.”
This is perhaps the key takeaway from Yamano’s involvement with PMR’s FDP: he improved the feel of the virtual car using his extensive real-world driving experience, despite having little knowledge of sim racing, which should bode well for the game’s v1.0 release.
Project Motor Racing will be released on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S on the 25th November 2025. A demo of the game is available to sample at the Tokyo Game Show between the 25th and 28th of September.
*Translations taken directly from Car Watch’s article via Google Translate. All images courtesy of GIANTS Software/Straight4 Studios/Car Watch
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