Photo: Formula Motorsport

Formula 2 race-winner Roman Stanek has made a surprise step up to single-seaters’ top tier by landing a seat in Super Formula.

The 22-year-old Czech has joined Kondo Racing, which will expand to three cars but with Stanek’s entered under the name ‘MK Racing’. MK are the initials of the team’s founder Masahiko Kondo, who is still in search of a primary sponsor for the entry.

Stanek’s deal was announced a few days before pre-season testing began this week at Suzuka. One of his team-mates and fellow rookies is former F2 rival Luke Browning, who has emerged unharmed from a huge crash in wet conditions at the Suzuka test.

“Really thrilled to continue my career in the top level single-seater category,” said Stanek. “I am very much looking forward to a new start with MK Racing in Japan, and I am very grateful to the team for this opportunity.”

Across his three seasons in F2, Stanek won both a feature race and a sprint race. Last year he claimed two pole positions, each converted into a runner-up finish, and was third in two sprint races en route to 10th in the standings.

Prior to that, Stanek had spent three years in the FIA Formula 3 Championship with similar levels of success. He made the podium twice in his sophomore campaign, and was fifth in the points table the year after as he picked up a feature race victory, converted his maiden pole into a second place finish and was runner-up in both races at Spa-Francorchamps.

The post Roman Stanek makes surprise step up to Super Formula appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Williams Racing

Luke Browning will graduate from Formula 2 to a race seat in Super Formula and reserve driver role in Formula 1 this year.

The 23-year-old Englishman will make his debut at single-seaters’ top level with Kondo Racing, and be Williams’ go-to driver in F1 should either of its full-time drivers be unable to race.

He will also be involved in the team’s car development through simulator work, but Browning’s 12-race SF campaign in Japan means he will not be able to fulfil his reserve driver duties in at least four grands prix.

The Williams Driver Academy has featured Browning in its ranks since April 2023, and under its tutelage he has won the Macau Grand Prix, come third in the FIA Formula 3 Championship and fourth in F2.

His first F1 test mileage came with rival team Aston Martin in October 2023 after he won the Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Award the preceding year, then he sampled contemporary F1 machinery for the first time at Yas Marina Circuit in December 2024 when he drove for Williams in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix’s first practice session then in the post-season young driver test.

Last year Williams handed him further free practice outings at the Bahrain, Mexico City and Abu Dhabi grands prix, and he featured in the young driver test again.

“I’m incredibly excited to be stepping up as reserve driver with Williams this year,” said Browning. “The Academy has been instrumental in my growth, supporting me through both F3 and F2 while giving me the chance to get up to speed with modern F1 machinery through testing and FP1 sessions.”

He added: “[SF] will be a completely new challenge, and I’m looking forward to getting stuck in! As my next step up towards a full-time F1 seat, this gives me another chance to show how I’ve developed on track and continue to build my skills in a new environment and culture.”

Williams’ team principal James Vowles applauded how Browning has already “supported the team’s journey back to the front of the grid through his involvement in simulator and FP1 work, which has been invaluable as we enter this new era of regulations”.

Accompanying the announcement of Browning’s 2026 programme was the list of Williams’ current academy members, which revealed the departures of Japanese karter Sara Matsui.

Dean Hoogendoorn, who has been a Williams junior since August 2024, is still only 13 years old and has been signed by kart manufacturer Parolin as one of its factory drivers for 2026.

Last year the Dutchman raced for Prema, better known for its junior single-seater success, and he was ranked as one of Formula Scout’s top karting stars of 2025. He won the CIK-FIA European Championship, the WSK Super Master Series, came third in the CIK-FIA World Championship and fifth in Champions of the Future on OK Junior karts, won SuperKarts USA’s SuperNationals on X30 Junior karts and came third in the equivalent race for KA100 Junior karts.

The post Luke Browning lands F1 reserve driver role and Super Formula seat appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Super Formula post-season testing at Suzuka next week will feature a large group of junior single-seater stars.

The December 10-12 group test doubles up as the Japanese championship’s official rookie test, and is a key opportunity to impress for drivers aiming to race there.

Luke Browning is the highest profile junior single-seater star entered into the test, and will do days two and three with the Toyota-powered Kondo Racing team. The 23-year-old Englishman is a race-winner in Formula 2 this year and is aiming to end his rookie season this weekend as championship runner-up.

As a Williams junior, he has been called up to drive in four Formula 1 practice sessions, the latest being at Yas Marina Circuit this weekend in between F2 action. He will also do F1’s young driver test there on December 9 before flying to Japan.

Ex-F2 star Jack Doohan, who did six F1 races with Alpine this year before being demoted, is reportedly eyeing an SF switch.

Also coming from overseas to test is Charlie Wurz, who will join for day one’s afternoon session then also drive in the next two days with Team Goh, which was last seen on the grid under that name in 2022. The 20-year-old has spent the last two years in the FIA Formula 3 Championship, and came 13th this season with two podiums.

Planning to be on the SF grid in 2026 after making his single-seater racing debut next month in Formula Regional Oceania is Kalle Rovanpera, and Toyota’s two-time World Rally champion from Finland will do the full test with KCMG.

Gaining test mileage at the top level after racing in Japan’s third-tier Super Formula Lights championship in 2025 are six drivers.

Honda-powered B-MAX Racing has called up three of its SF Lights drivers: champion Yuto Nomura (days one and two), podium-finisher Zachary David (day three) and backmarker Yasuhiro Shimizu (day three).

Toyota junior Rikuto Kobayashi, who came third in the standings with one win and also made his SF debut in the double-header Twin Ring Motegi round, will do the full test with the TGM Grand Prix squad that replaced Goh in SF in 2023.

INGING will put Kazuhisa Urabe, who was 10th in SF Lights and third in the FRegional Japanese Championship this year, in one of its Toyota-powered cars for the final day, and former Honda junior Souta Arao will hope to impress the manufacturer again by testing on days two and three with ThreeBond Racing. Arao was only able to contest one SF Lights round this year.

Kiyoshi Umegaki and Tokiya Suzuka did double programmes as Toyota juniors in 2025. They came first and second in FRJC, while in Japanese F4 the title was won by Suzuki and Umegaki came seventh in the standings.

The pair will join SF’s test for the final day, with Umegaki at Rookie Racing and Suzuki driving for KCMG.

The post Browning leads junior single-seater stars entering Super Formula test appeared first on Formula Scout.

Having annually ranked the top 50 drivers in junior single-seater racing since 2011, Formula Scout is now also recognising the achievements of the very best of those who ‘graduate’ into the world of professional racing each year.

Here is Formula Scout’s Class of 2019… Key Wins (W), poles (P), fastest laps (FL)

9. Ukyo Sasahara JAPAN 24y/o
15th in Super GT, 18th in Super Formula, NC in Asian F3 (3 W, 4 P, 1 FL)   2019: Asian F3 champion (8 W, 7 P, 7 FL)

Photo: Red Bull Content Pool

Photo: Red Bull Content Pool

The former Formula Renault star has essentially gone through his single-seater career twice now, with his first taking him up to FIA European Formula 3, and the second starting off in Japanese Formula 4 and concluding in a Super Formula seat.

Admittedly the Red Bull athlete only got his SF chance after travel restrictions prevented Red Bull’s Formula 1 junior Juri Vips from racing, but he was chosen by Team Mugen as the replacement because he was highly rated by team manager Shinji Nakano.

Sasahara had only done three Super GT races with Mugen at this point, with a best finish of 10th, but Nakano had already said his signing was good enough to race in F1 in the future. This came after a 2019 in which as well as winning the Asian F3 title with Hitech GP, Sasahara also became the first winner of the Motorsport Games GT Cup and was Porsche Carrera Cup Japan champion.

That momentum continued into 2020 at first as he returned to Asian F3 as a guest, consistently beating the likes of future Haas F1 drivers Pietro Fittipaldi and Nikita Mazepin.

In Super GT he made the top five in qualifying once, at Suzuka, but wasn’t able to make anything of it after his car lost a wheel just a few laps in. There was redemption next time out at Twin Ring Motegi though as he claimed his first and only podium of the season alongside Hideki Mutoh.

The SF season was far less rewarding, having not tested the Dallara SF19 car before, and in the early rounds he struggled with the series’ soft compound tyre supplied by Yokohama. He progressed a lot over the seven-round season, particularly in qualifying where he ended up with a higher average starting spot than title contenders Ryo Hirakawa and Nick Cassidy, and in the final race at Fuji Speedway he was fighting both of those drivers on track on the way to his first points finish in seventh.

8. Oliver Askew USA 23y/o
19th in IndyCar   2019: Indy Lights champion (7 W, 7 P, 5 FL)   2018: 3rd in IP2000 (1 W, 3 P, 2 FL)

Photo: IndyCar

Photo: IndyCar

So much was expected from reigning Indy Lights champion Oliver Askew as he stepped up to IndyCar this year with the returning McLaren, a team co-run with Schmidt Petersen Motorsports, but he ultimately failed to deliver.

The Floridian looked at his strongest on the ovals, but he admitted himself that he lacked the consistency needed to make progress race-by-race over such a compressed season with limited practice time due to the pandemic.

Besides qualifying fifth at the Indianapolis Grand Prix, his second IndyCar start, which he then crashed out of, he was usually struggling on one-lap pace and only made the top 10 on the grid again on his end-of-season return in St. Petersburg.

• Feature: The youthful dynamic that’s already moved McLaren to the front

His absence from the previous double-header, also on Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s road course, was a result of concussion he picked up in a nasty crash during the Indianapolis 500 – a race he led for a few laps – two months prior.

Besides the Indy 500, the only other round where he looked capable of fighting at the front like team-mate Patricio O’Ward was the Iowa double-header. In the first race of that weekend he picked up his first IndyCar podium in third place, then in race two he led for 10 laps on the way to sixth place.

His season had begun encouragingly with a ninth place on the Texas oval, ahead of O’Ward, but before season’s end it had already been announced he wouldn’t be retained for 2021 and finishing 16th from 10th on the grid in St. Pete didn’t turn too many heads.

It was a trying season with a few instances of contact with other drivers, but overall nothing to say that Askew doesn’t deserve a second year in IndyCar. It’s a shame then that he is unlikely to be returning to the grid soon.

7. Sergio Sette Camara BRAZIL 22y/o
20th in Super Formula (1 P), 27th in FE   2019: 4th in F2 (2 W, 2 P, 2 FL)   2018: 6th in F2 (1 P, 3 FL)  2017: 12th in F2 (1 W, 1 FL)

Photo: FIA Formula E

Photo: FIA Formula E

Once a Red Bull junior and then a McLaren one too, Sette Camara was snapped up by Red Bull once again as its F1 reserve driver for this year. This came after after signing as Dragon Racing’s reserve in Formula E and courting IndyCar interest, and not long before he took a place in B-MAX Racing by Motopark’s SF line-up. He was going to be in a lot of places in 2020.

Obviously the pandemic stripped back many of those commitments, and his first summoning came in FE’s six-race week-long Berlin season finale in August. He replaced Brendon Hartley in the team’s line-up, and Sette Camara knew he would have to be on top of his game to even match two-time World Endurance champion Hartley’s haul of two points in the first five races.

He was last in qualifying for his debut on the circuit’s reverse layout, and was set to finish 21st before exceeding the maximum limit of 45kWh on electrical energy used in the race and was disqualified as a result.

The next day brought an improved 20th place on the grid, and he came 17th after another driver got disqualified for the same reason as he did.

Reverting to the circuit’s standard layout for the next two races suited Sette Camara far more, having navigated this route on the team simulator before, and he earned the team’s highest starting spot of the 2019-20 season by qualifying 11th for the first of those. His race ended in a multi-car crash though, and he would start from last place the next day.

There was no redemption in the race, but on the very green alternative layout used for the final two races of the season a few days later he made the most of being in the later – and grippier – qualifying groups to qualify ninth twice. He faded down to 15th and 19th in the races, but beat team-mate Nico Muller in both.

Two months later he finally made his SF debut at Sportsland SUGO, after missing the opening two rounds, but it began in embarrassing style for the Formula 2 graduate with a red flag-causing spin in free practice. Sette Camara got lucky to scrape through the first two stages of qualifying, but then stunned the paddock by earning B-MAX its first series pole on his debut.

Having never made a practice start in the car it was no surprise that he lost the lead off the line, but ran in a comfortable second place until the pitstop phase of the race. After his stop, he went just four corners before crashing out on cold tyres. It was a painful end to a very encouraging debut, and his only start in Japan before returning to F1 and FE duties in Europe.

6. Toshiki Oyu JAPAN 22y/o
4th in Super GT300, 6th in Super Formula (1 win)   2019: 4th in SF Lights (1 W), 14th in Euroformula (2 W, 2 P)

If it wasn’t for crashing into his Nakajima Racing team-mate Tadasuke Makino, among others, and often making a mess of race starts in his rookie SF season then Oyu would be far higher up this list. But by professional standards, he was really putting his job at risk with the race-ruining collisions he started his professional career with.

What puts him at number six though is the way he turned it around, with an end of season qualifying average that was third best of the season regulars and a win and a podium that left him sitting handsomely as top rookie in the points by some way.

• Feature: How “worried” Nakajima had his faith in Oyu rewarded

His breakthrough win from second on the grid at Suzuka, the penultimate race of the season, was inherited after Nick Cassidy had an engine failure but it came after a mistake-free performance for the first time. He then followed that up with a charge from seventh to second at Fuji, proving he could actually race wheel-to-wheel too.

He certainly had the opportunity to beat Sho Tsuboi to victory too, and did attempt a move on the eventual race winner, but to not take further risks in going for the win showed the development Oyu had made over his up-and-down first year in SF.

The Honda junior, who was a winner in Euroformula and Super Formula Lights in 2019, also got parachuted into a seat in Super GT300 – the secondary class of Super GT – with Team Aguri and came fourth in his first campaign in a car with a roof.

Only one other car scored in seven of the eight races, although Oyu’s non-score came through a problem of his own making again. He was fighting for second place with just a few laps to go, and ended up punting the rear of the car ahead. That ripped off his bonnet and led to a fluid leak, as well as a loss of positions, before he brought the car to a stop on the next lap.

5. Sacha Fenestraz ARGENTINA/FRANCE 21y/o
4th in Super GT, 13th in Super Formula   2019: SF Lights champion (8 W, 5 P, 9 FL), 6th in Super GT300 (1 P)

Photo: Super GT

Photo: TGR Media Service

Like Oyu, Fenestraz starred in qualifying as a SF rookie but then had crashes mostly undo his hard work, although often these were Oyu’s fault. In the season opener the reigning SF Lights champion made the front row and after being passed by his team-mate Kenta Yamashita finished third, becoming one of a rare few to make the podium on their debut.

He completed five racing laps in three rounds as he was often hit out, but he had the highest qualifying average of anyone. As his Kondo Racing team’s form started to dip he then finally got a chance to finish some races, although was out after one lap again in the first race of Suzuka’s double-header, and he rose up the order to finish an impressive eighth in the season finale.

• Feature: Why 2020 could have propelled Sacha Fenestraz back into F1’s view (February)

The Franco-Argentinian Toyota protege had a better time of it in Super GT, where he was promoted to the top class with TOM’S after starring in GT300 in 2019.

His first three races all resulted in podiums, leaving him and team-mate Yuhi Sekiguchi as points leaders. The success ballast that came from that made his job a whole lot harder in the two rounds after, where he was a pointless 11th and 12th.

Fenestraz fought his way to seventh in round five at Suzuka, bringing him back to within two points of the title lead. A balance issue then left him down in 13th at Motegi, and as one of the title outsiders once more. Third place in the Fuji finale lifted Fenestraz and Sekiguchi up to fourth in the points, but they had the potential to be champions.

Early in the year he also took part in the FE rookie test in Marrakech for Jaguar, and was 10th fastest.

4. Dorian Boccolacci FRANCE 22y/o
5th in Lamborghini ST Europe (2 W, 1 P), 12th in ADAC GT Masters (1 W), 15th in GTWCE Endurance   2019: 14th in F2

Being picked up by three manufacturers in a single year, as well as winning at the Nurburgring 24 Hours, is quite the first season in professional motorsport, and it’s only because F2 graduate Dorian Boccolacci was making his mark in GT3 – which have driver aids and are often set-up to be friendly for gentleman drivers rather than for outright speed – rather than the highest echelon of sportscars which holds back his placing.

You could argue that Boccolacci was up against as tough as opposition as anyone on this list, as he took in programmes in the Intercontinental GT Challenge, GT World Challenge Europe, Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe and ADAC GT Masters.

His main success came as an official Lamborghini young driver in its one-make series, where he was partnered up with 2012 Italian Formula Renault 2.0 champion Kevin Gilardoni. The pairing won twice together at Barcelona and were fifth in the points.

• Feature: The junior driver spurned by Renault’s last F1 name change

Audi customer team Sainteloc Racing called upon Boccolacci’s services for GTWC Endurance, which rivals WEC’s GTE Pro class as the top GT racing series in the world, and he did a solid job to come fifth on his debut in the Imola 3 Hours.

He was 10th in the Nurburgring 6 Hours, but returned to the circuit – and its full Nordschleife layout – for its 24-hour race a few weeks later in a Porsche. Boccolacci entered as a warm-up for the Spa 24 Hours, which is a GTWCE round, and he made it through some of the wettest conditions imaginable to win his class in 41st place.

That boosted his confidence for Spa, where he and his Sainteloc team-mates were one of the victory contenders throughout. With two hours to go it was Boccolacci who led the field on a soaking wet track, and a splash-and-dash pitstop a few minutes later only dropped him one spot. His final stop an hour later under the safety car cost him his victory shot though, and he came third best in a four-way fight for fourth that went to the chequered flag.

The 22-year-old’s other campaign was in a Zakspeed-run Mercedes-AMG in Germany, where he was also a winner. Which manufacturer could the Frenchman be on the payroll of next year?

3. Nicholas Latifi CANADA 25y/o
21st in F1   2019: 2nd in F2 (4 W, 3 FL)   2018: 9th in F2 (1 W, 3 FL)   2017: 5th in F2 (1 W, 2 FL)   2016: 16th in GP2

Photo: Williams Racing

Photo: Williams Racing

From the outside, it looked like Latifi did everything Williams asked of him in his first year in F1, and team-mate George Russell’s brief promotion to Mercedes showed just how high quality the bar was being set for Latifi to try to match.

He was outqualified for all 17 races, although that was to be expected after Russell did the same to Robert Kubica in 2019 and came close to beating Valtteri Bottas when partnered with him at Mercedes for the Sakhir Grand Prix.

• Feature: Why Nicholas Latifi’s rise to F1 is more remarkable than you think

It was a fairly clean season for Latifi, although it wasn’t like he was often in wheel-to-wheel battle due to Williams’ backmarker car, and it was only at the Turkish Grand Prix where he was particularly error prone as he spun off in qualifying and had a race-ending collision.

His only other two retirements weren’t even his fault, with him being one of many caught out by the safety car restart chaos at Mugello’s Tuscan Grand Prix, and then an oil leak ending his Sakhir GP.

He often raced competitively and on three occasions he finished 11th, putting him ahead of Russell in the standings until his Mercedes call-up, but he really needs to get closer to his team-mate on pace if he wants to stay with the team for a third season after 2021. At the same time, in a season as tricky as this one to become a rookie in – while Williams was changing management too – he did a good job in what were the fastest cars in F1 history.

2. Rinus VeeKay NETHERLANDS 20y/o
14th in IndyCar (1 P, 1 FL)   2019: 2nd in Indy Lights (6 W, 7 P, 6 FL), Asian F3 Winter Series champion (4 W, 2 P, 4 FL)

Photo: IndyCar

Photo: IndyCar

One race into VeeKay’s IndyCar career and the Dutch teenager was already under a lot of scrutiny. In free practice at Texas he crashed heavily and clumsily, ruling him out of qualifying later that day as repairs were done to his car to ensure he could race. His day didn’t improve, as in the race he lost it on the high line and wiped himself and Alex Palou out on the spot.

The 2019 Indy Lights runner-up was able to rebound whenever he faced a low though, and despite qualifying down the field for round two at Indianapolis, he was able to charge his way up the order and finish fifth through some clinical overtaking and defensive work on a circuit his Ed Carpenter Racing team usually wasn’t strong at in its road course form.

• Feature: Rinus VeeKay: IndyCar’s answer to Max Verstappen? (2019)

He was back in the headlines for crashing at Iowa, although this time it was because Colton Herta rode over his car on a restart and it highlighted how the new-for-2020 aeroscreen cockpit protection device had ensured both drivers emerged alive and unscathed.

Once again he rebounded in fine style. He was the only Chevrolet-powered driver to make the Fast Nine in Indy 500 qualifying, and put himself fourth on the grid as well setting the fastest ‘no tow’ lap on Carb Day. The race didn’t go to plan, as he earned a penalty after sliding into one of his crew members during a pitstop, but his pace with oval specialist ECR had been encouraging and at the Gateway double-header a week later he claimed a sixth and a fourth.

At Mid-Ohio he was a top 10 contender again, then on the return to the IMS road course he took his first pole by a massive 0.7803 seconds. During the first half of the race he fought for the lead with Herta lap after lap, then in the last stint he hunted down his rival and passed him to claim his first podium. VeeKay ended 2020 as IndyCar’s Rookie of the Year and with his seat at ECR already secured for 2021.

1. Nyck de Vries NETHERLANDS 25y/o
5th in ELMS (1 W, 1 FL), 11th in FE, 13th in WEC (1 LMP2 win)   2019: F2 champion (4 W, 5 P, 3 FL)   2018-19: 25th in WEC

Photo: FIA Formula E

Photo: FIA Formula E

Nyck de Vries was headed towards the ultimate journeyman career in junior single-seaters even as he marched towards the 2019 F2 title, but Mercedes-Benz then came calling after using him as its simulator driver and signed him for its foray into FE.

The professionalism that made de Vries stand out at the very start of his time in car racing meant he fitted seamlessly into the F1-esque Mercedes operation and as team-mate to Stoffel Vandoorne there was a shared experience of falling foul of F1 – and especially McLaren’s – politics.

On his debut at the tricky Riyadh street circuit in Saudi Arabia he topped his qualifying group and put himself third on the grid, then drove a strong race to sixth. Besides the top six drivers in FE’s first ever race in 2014, only one other driver has matched or eclipsed sixth place on their series debut, and that was ex-F1 driver Scott Speed way back in season one.

• Opinion: What being a world championship means to Formula E (January)

De Vries went from hero to zero in race two of that weekend, qualifying last and then charging up to eighth only to be docked 29s and thrown back to 16th for overtaking behind the safety car and a technical infringement on his car.

In Santiago he again excelled in the race, showing off his racecraft to make it onto the podium – which was then taken away from him by a five-second penalty for using battery coolant that was too cool.

He qualified third in Mexico City, and was running in fifth before a race-ending clash with Virgin Racing’s Robin Frijns that came about after his front wheels locked while using fanboost. A similar software issue led to another driver crashing too.

De Vries just kept at it despite the setbacks, and qualified fourth in Marrakech – the final race before the COVID-19 pandemic. He was running third when he was issued with a drive-through penalty for using too much power during regeneration, and rose back up to 11th place after that.

In Berlin the penalties and crashes kept on coming, overshadowing how brilliantly he had adapted to the series’ unique challenges, but it ended on a high as he completed a Mercedes one-two behind Vandoorne in the final race and gave Mercedes little choice but to sign both drivers for a second season. Expect wins in 2021.

De Vries also excelled in sportscars this year, winning in WEC and the European Le Mans Series in LMP2 machinery. He is now a mainstay in the prototype sportscar paddock, and may well be in contention for a future Le Mans Hypercar seat.

The post Formula Scout’s Class of 2019 appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Super Formula

Formula Scout brought in full coverage of Super Formula this year as more junior single-seater graduates used the series as a way to F1. But it was series icon Naoki Yamamoto that finished first again – here’s how

The 2019 Super Formula season is probably remembered for three things, and in this order. 1) Red Bull junior Dan Ticktum’s three-race spell before he was sacked, 2) Nick Cassidy edging out Naoki Yamamoto to become champion after a year-long rivalry, and 3) Nakajima Racing become a force at the front once more after years of underachieving.

This year – the second with the halo-shod Dallara SF19 car – was expected to be similar, although the hopes were that Juri Vips would be using his time in Japan to get a Red Bull F1 seat rather than an F1 sacking, and after 2019’s star rookie Alex Palou left for IndyCar it would be Tadasuke Makino winning for the team of series legend and ex-F1 star Satoru Nakajima.

The competitive order would swing on the strengths of the Honda and Toyota powertrains too. Which was better at high-end performance, which one had better fuel consumption figures, and which one was less likely to go bang in a title run-in.

As the coronavirus pandemic swept across the globe, the pre-season predictions flew out of the window. Races were going to be shortened considerably, run without compulsory pitstops so the number of people in pitlane could be reduced – an effort to reduce the spread of COVID-19 – and each round would fit qualifying and the race in on the same day, a la Formula E.

This reduced the reliance on fuel and tyre management, one of the F1-rivalling features of the series, but also arguably meant that qualifying and the races were going to be faster than ever. Especially so now that the teams understood the car.

Travel restrictions arising from the pandemic changed the look of the grid too before the first race, with Vips absent (and ultimately never even competing this year despite making it to Japan) as well as Red Bull reserve driver Sergio Sette Camara.

Two of the rookies hotly tipped for success, and fresh out of Formula 3 and Formula 2 respectively, were now gone, and their places were taken by two even less experienced drivers in Asian F3’s Ukyo Sasahara and Euroformula’s Teppei Natori.

With the tricky strategic elements of the championship now gone, it should have made the step up for rookies easier than usual. But it then put the onus on qualifying, and getting the most out of Yokohama’s soft compound tyre (after the medium compound was dropped for this year) was not something that came naturally to everyone.

What’s more, it pushed the Honda versus Toyota battle more onto which engine was better on full power in qualifying. Was single-lap pace going to primarily dictate the title picture?

Round one at Twin Ring Motegi suggested as such, with Toyota dominating qualifying and Team Impul’s Ryo Hirakawa winning from pole. There was barely any overtaking behind, with everyone of course on the same strategy besides the very inexperienced – like Sasahara – who had to pit because they were yet to understand how to make the tyres last a whole race.

The drivers had warned the race would be a bore, and after they were proven right the series made some tweaks to the rules that brought back pitstops and more importantly resulted in the remaining six races contributing to a thrilling season.

It was the Motegi weekend that was Yamamoto’s only dud one from a personal standpoint, as he qualified 14th and finished a lowly 13th in the searing 34°C heat a weekend where his Honda power had no hope of fighting up front. His race result was down to a rare but amateur error when trying to pass KCMG’s Kamui Kobayashi, as he ended up breaking his own front wing and giving Kobayashi a puncture.

But with two dropped scores being added into the rules as a response to many drivers facing the prospect of missing two races, it wasn’t going to impact Yamamoto’s title campaign. At every other circuit he was close to his usual brilliant best.

The breakout star of the first half of the season, while the Toyota-powered teams had a noticeable edge, was Hirakawa. After three races he had a staggering 15-point lead, following up his Motegi win with another pole at Okayama and a fourth place finish, then a straight run to second at Sportsland SUGO after being leapfrogged by late-stopper Cassidy.

It was Cassidy’s uncanny ability to make the tyres last the race duration, and getting more pace out of them beyond the point most drivers would be losing time by choosing not to pit, that kept him in title contention when his TOM’S team didn’t have the pace to fight for poles and therefore have a straightforward route to wins.

The only race in which he couldn’t play that card was obviously Motegi, but he used it as often as he could.

He pitted from the lead with two laps to go at Okayama, under the safety car in the first half of the Sugo race while already in the podium positions after qualifying fourth, and with four laps to go at Autopolis. Then in the first Suzuka race he and half of the field pitted in response to leader Yamamoto coming to a stop on track with engine issues, under the expectation that the safety car would come out at any moment. Suzuka’s second race was his to win before an engine failure, which required an older unit to go in for the Fuji Speedway finale. Once again, he took his tyres as long as possible there too.

This time his pitstop came after other title rival Tomoki Nojiri came to a stop on track with a wheel-related problem, and Cassidy sacrificed a half-minute lead to pit before a potential safety car wiped out that advantage anyway. He returned to track between Yamamoto and Hirakawa, and after his new set of tyres warmed up – on a track barely at 10°C surface temperature – he set off in pursuit of Yamamoto.

Once he caught up they engaged in a thrilling and potentially title-deciding battle – one they probably wouldn’t be allowed to get away with if they were racing in Europe such was it closeness and ferocity – and after clearing his rival Cassidy went pursuing the very close top three.

Had the race run one or two laps longer, Cassidy could very well have passed all three to win the race and the title. He didn’t manage it, but once again reminded the world of his brilliance and how entertaining Super Formula can be in the process.

Yamamoto held off Hirakawa to finish fifth, and claim his third title as a result. He is now the fourth driver to reach that milestone, after six-time champion and Impul boss Kazuyoshi Hoshino, five-time champion Nakajima and four-time champion Satoshi Motoyama, who was B-MAX’s team boss this year and also cameoed in Super Formula Lights.

The drivers contending for victory just two seconds up the road from Cassidy at Fuji were INGING’s Sho Tsuboi and Nakajima’s Toshiki Oyu.

Both drivers had a habit this year of finishing at the back or not at all, but the SF Lights graduates showed that the future of the championship is in safe hands with their breakthrough wins.

Tsuboi, who dominated the 2018 SF Lights season, usually struggled in qualifying – a carryover from his rookie season last year. When he did start near the front he had impressive race management skills though, and won at Autopolis from eighth on the grid before benefitting from Nojiri’s woes to add a second success at Fuji – the only driver to win twice this season.

Oyu was practically the opposite, with stunning single-lap speed that had him on average as the third best qualifier (behind only Yamamoto and TOM’S driver Kazuki Nakajima), but an inability to put things together in races. The rookie frequently crashed at first, but under the gaze of Takuma Sato at Suzuka – where he coaches at the racing school presided over by the two-time Indianapolis 500 winner – he went from zero to hero by winning race two after Cassidy’s engine failure.

The confidence boost from that drive, which has gone some way to ensuring Honda gives him a second season in the series, continued on to Fuji and he fought Tsuboi wheel-to-wheel for the win before settling for second. As a result he leapt up to sixth in the points, while Tsuboi came third ahead of Cassidy courtesy of the 2020 dropped scores rule.

Oyu’s team-mate Makino missed Fuji due to meningitis and came 12th in the points, one place up on Kondo Racing’s Sacha Fenestraz. The reigning SF Lights champion started his rookie season in incredible style by qualifying second and finishing third, but he was then involved in several crashes – at least one which Oyu was firmly to blame for – and he only completed five laps in the next three races. He was out after one lap again at Suzuka, but when he could finish he always scored and with impressive pace despite Kondo’s slide down the order. Fenestraz should probably have been top rookie.

Nobuharu Matsushita’s mid-season switch to SF boosted his confidence after the abrupt end to his F2 career, and he made the podium for the first time at Fuji after spending the whole race in what ended up being the lead trio. Old F2 rival Sette Camara eventually made his debut with B-MAX at Sugo and took pole after crashing in free practice. He was on for at least a podium in the race before also crashing straight after his pitstop, an embarrassing error more common than you think in Super Formula as tyre warmers were banned until the end of this season when temperatures nearly dropped to freezing.

Perhaps the most impressive young driver though was Ritomo Miyata. He entered two races as a substitute for Nakajima at TOM’S, and qualified second for the first of those at Okayama. A slow start and Oyu’s race-ending incident with Fenestraz occurring in front of him on the opening lap consigned him to a midfield finish, but ninth place was still impressive given he was also racing in SF Lights that weekend. He qualified seventh and finished eighth on his Autopolis return.

Miyata’s third season in SF Lights resulted in the title as expected, winning 10 of the 14 races. Most of the time he was just unbeatable in racing conditions, although B-MAX’s Sena Sakaguchi could match him in qualifying in the new Dallara 320, and the only blot on his record was an unforced error at Suzuka where he spun away a win and a 100% run of podiums.

There was little overtaking with the new F3-level car, and Miyata’s TOM’S team-mate Kazuto Kotaka picking up third in the points and a win at the Fuji season finale was an example of that as he simply drove around in front of his rivals knowing the dirty air he was creating was doing the defensive job for him.

Natori’s planned SF debut was called off by dehydration worries, and his time with Toda Racing in SF Lights wasn’t great either besides one pole and a couple of podiums. The international flavour of the grid was reduced to just Albirex Racing’s Lucca Allen, the reigning Formula 4 South East Asia champion, as travel restrictions prevented others from making the trip.

Formula Scout’s Top 5 Super Formula drivers

Key Percentage of team’s points scored (TP), Average qualifying position (QA), Average points per race (AP)

5. Kenta Yamashita JAPAN Kondo Racing
7th in standings, 34 points (1 podium) – TP 65%, QA 11.8, AP 5.7

Never spectacular, but probably the most mistake-free driver in the field in his fourth season at this level. Yamashita started the season on a high with a second place, and only made the top five once after that but in wake of Toyota’s early-season advantage disappearing and Kondo sliding down the competitive order. Along with Cassidy and Nojiri he was the only driver to score in six of the seven races, and that came after missing Okayama – when Kondo was still near the top – due to being in quarantine after the Le Mans 24 Hours.

4. Tomoki Nojiri JAPAN Team Mugen
5th in standings, 47 points (1 win, 2 poles, 1 podium) – TP 91%, QA 7.3, AP 6.1

Mugen hasn’t operationally been the tightest team since the Dallara SF19’s introduction, and team boss Shinji Nakano will admit that. Despite those issues, including slow pitstops once they were reintroduced, Nojiri put in not only his best individual race performances to date but also his most complete season. A warm-up issue at Suzuka led to him stalling on the formation lap and requiring him to start at the back rather than from second place, while the pitstop and then a secondary wheel problem undid his Fuji victory hopes from pole. He did win Autopolis from the front, but the points lost through no fault of his own prevented title success.

3. Ryo Hirakawa JAPAN Team Impul
2nd in standings, 60 points (1 win, 2 poles, 2 podiums) – TP 78%, QA 9.3, AP 7.4

At first, it looked like Hirakawa would romp to the title in a way rarely seen in SF. In reality, he was dealt another gut-wrenching title loss after finishing second in Japan’s Super GT sportscar series for the last three seasons – most often to none other than Yamamoto. The undoing of his season wasn’t really Hirakawa’s fault though, with technical issues putting him at the back of the grid more than once. He wasn’t able to turn being on the back foot into a solid haul of points like his main rivals could, and as a result his impressive end of season wasn’t enough to beat Yamashita.

2. Nick Cassidy NEW ZEALAND TOM’S
4th in standings, 50 points (1 win, 1 pole, 2 fastest laps, 2 podiums) – TP 64%, QA 9.3, AP 7.7

At first it didn’t look like Cassidy would race this year, with his attention already being piqued by challenges beyond Japan, but the lengthy lockdown period gave him time to focus on defending his title. His race pace and racecraft was simply sublime, putting in drives that no one else looked capable of other than Yamamoto, and his mastery of the soft compound tyre also went beyond expectations. He did take one pole, but otherwise didn’t have the key to unlocking the qualifying pace in his TOM’S-run car much of the time and that’s what cost him the title.

1. Naoki Yamamoto JAPAN Dandelion Racing
1st in standings, 62 points (1 win, 1 pole, 2 fastest laps, 3 podiums) – TP 67%, QA 6.0, AP 8.1

There are a lot of people who would love to see what Yamamoto would be capable of in F1, and after a season like this one it’s easy to see why. His understanding of what the tyres wanted from the driver straight out of the box was key to his qualifying form – the best of anyone’s besides the cameoing Sette Camara and Miyata – and he had more strategic manoeuvrability than his rivals courtesy of his ability of saving the best of his tyres until he had fresh air in front of him in races. His respectful yet intense rivalry with Cassidy, and Hirakawa, continued with some thrilling wheel-to-wheel battles that were always clean and usually involved Yamamoto coming out on top.

Further reading
How “worried” Nakajima had his faith in Oyu rewarded
10 outstanding Japanese drivers who never reached F1
What is Super Formula?

The post The factors behind Yamamoto’s third Super Formula title appeared first on Formula Scout.

Le Mans winner Kazuki Nakajima and LMP2 entrant Kenta Yamashita have gone into quarantine upon their return to Japan, making them unavailable for the second round of the SF season.

Current SF Lights leader Miyata will stand in for two-time champion and former Formula 1 driver Kazuki Nakajima at TOM’S, which he raced for exclusively in single-seaters since his 2016 Japanese Formula 4 title triumph.

In 2017 he won the Japanese F4 title again with the Toyota-linked team, and also stepped up to SF Lights (then known as Japanese Formula 3). While he didn’t win a race, he did come fourth in the points and benefitted from the famous ending to that year’s Macau Grand Prix to finish 12th there.

He claimed two wins in his second SF Lights season and finished as title runner-up, a feat he repeated in 2019 but with an increased tally of eight wins. He started the 2020 season off with a triple win at Twin Ring Motegi, and is set to continue his title campaign there at Okayama as well as make his SF debut.

The 21-year-old drove SF’s Dallara SF19 car in last year’s rookie test with TOM’S, and came in 13th place. His Toyota junior status has also earned him a Super GT drive for this year.

Sakaguchi will also be on double duty at Okayama in Japan’s premier single-seater series and its support, and he will debut with the points-leading Kondo Racing outfit.

“I think I’ll be busy with races and double entry, but I’ll do my best to do both!” said Sakaguchi.

In 2016, Sakaguchi finished second to Miyata in F4, but he was already racing in SF Lights as a Honda junior. In three seasons he failed to pick up a win, and ended up as a stand-in for TOM’S on two occasions in 2019 while also racing in Super GT300.

His performances earned him a top B-MAX Racing seat for this year in SF Lights, and he started the season with three podiums behind Miyata. The 21-year-old has also joined the new regional F3-spec Formula Regional Japanese Championship with Sutekina Racing Team, and won all seven of the races he has entered there to lead the points.

In 2018, he was due to make his SF debut at Autopolis in place of Nirei Fukuzumi, before stormy weather caused the round to be cancelled.

While Miyata can learn from reigning champion Nick Cassidy as his team-mate this weekend, Sakaguchi will be partnered with reigning SF Lights champion Sacha Fenestraz, who only made his SF debut last time out.

The post Top F3 drivers Miyata and Sakaguchi handed Super Formula debuts appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: TGR Media Service

Sacha Fenestraz became the seventh driver in the last 25 years to take a podium on their Super Formula debut in Sunday’s season opener at Twin Ring Motegi.

He joins Ralf Schumacher, Seiji Ara, Andre Lotterer, Roberto Streit, Kazuki Nakajima and Stoffel Vandoorne in achieving the feat, as well as racing legends Kazuyoshi Hoshino and Michael Schumacher who made the podium when SF was Japan’s national championship for Formula 2 and then Formula 3000 cars.

Fenestraz qualified on the front row at Motegi, and after conceding that spot to Kondo Racing team-mate Kenta Yamashita on the opening lap of the 35-race he had a quiet run to third place.

“Wow, it’s a nice list to be on. There is Michael Schumacher, Ralf, Lotterer, very, very famous and good names. I’m pretty honoured to be part of that list,” Fenestraz said to Formula Scout after he was told of his statistical achievement.

“We were working very hard through [the weekend], all for qualifying really. We knew that qualifying was going to be the most important because we knew that Motegi is difficult to overtake on.

“Qualifying really went much better than I thought [it would], and that made it easier for the race.”

After a few laps in the race, Fenestraz was having to maintain himself and his Yokohama tyres in the high temperatures at the circuit.

“In my feeling it was more just thermal [degradation]. Surface temperature was around 47°C or 48°C on the track. So of course the surface of the tyre was very hot. It’s not easy, but it’s a bit less difficult to recover than the actual core of the tyre – the inside temperature of the tyre.

“It was difficult as well, as soon as you were sliding a lot into one corner, then the next corner you could really feel it, and then throughout late in the race you could feel it as well. You need to think very far ahead into the race, and not try to be the hero on the first couple of laps, because then you struggle a lot on the last couple of laps.”

Despite this statement, Fenestraz was in the front pack of four that quickly distanced itself from the rest of the field, which came to him as a surprise.

“When I saw the replay of the race, I was like ‘wow’. I knew they were a bit far back because I couldn’t see them in the mirrors, but didn’t know they were that far.”

The 21-year-old didn’t challenge the top two early on, opting to save his fuel-flow boost for later on, which he later admitted was “a bit of a mistake”. He didn’t lose time to them at the end though, unlike ex-Formula 1 driver Nakajima behind him.

Fenestraz also stepped up to Super GT’s primary class this year as a factory Toyota driver, and leads the points after three of eight rounds in what he described as an “incredible” and “unbelievable” start to his season.

The post Fenestraz “honoured” to take Super Formula podium on debut appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photos: TGR Media Service

Super Formula’s long wait to return to action during the coronavirus pandemic came at Twin Ring Motegi last weekend, and the series didn’t feel the same as before. Ida Wood runs through five major talking points

For a series that to some is a holding ground between Formula 2 and Formula 1, to others the pinnacle of motorsport in the ‘Eastern’ world and a fiercely competitive playground for two of the world’s biggest automobile manufacturers, and for many a half-noticed single-seater series populated by drivers they’ve never heard of, it wasn’t encouraging for anybody watching that the long-awaited first Super Formula race of 2020 ended up being a lengthy sprint race very light on overtaking.

The four Toyota-powered drivers that ran at the front from start to finish, after fourth-place qualifier Toshiki Oyu’s Honda-powered car suffered damage on the opening lap that sent him back to pitlane, all set their fastest laps within the opening eight laps of the drastically shortened 35-lap encounter. They stretched out a considerable lead as a train of cars formed behind Yuhi Sekiguchi in fifth, then they mostly just ran in formation for the remainder of the race.

All but one of the next six cars to finish, the omission being Oyu’s Nakajima Racing team-mate Tadasuke Makino who had worse tyre wear than those around him late on, set their fastest in the final three laps of the race when fuel loads were light and the track was at its grippiest.

They had all been bottled up by behind Team Impul’s Sekiguchi for the first 20 laps, and had depended on Dandelion Racing’s Nirei Fukuzumi on breaking the deadlock to up the pace. So difficult is overtaking at Motegi, despite four hairpins and another tight corner preceded by a long straight, that even Fukuzumi could only manage it after striking the rear of Sekiguchi’s car and ultimately send him on a race-ending trip to the gravel. The reality is though, that’s not new for Motegi.

But what made this year’s race so boring was its shorter distance from 51 laps down to 35, so the organising Japan Race Promotion (JRP) company could fit in the third free practice session and qualifying into the same day as the race to run a shorter weekend schedule.

The compulsory use of two tyre compounds was dropped as a regulation too (in fact the medium tyre was dropped entirely) meaning less pit crew are needed and ultimately a reduction in risk in the spread of COVID-19 by having less personnel in the circuit facility. That means no more tyre changers jumping over car noses, even for unscheduled stops.

And the loss of the strategy element – which admittedly sometimes played out in 2019 anyway as a trip to pitlane for fuel and tyres being only a first or last lap consideration for drivers happy to manage what they had for the duration – realised the current grid’s fears of a total procession in aero-heavy cars that are F1’s closest rival in downforce figures.

SF double-headers, such as the trip to Suzuka this year on December 5/6, do tend to run to the shorter format where races are fitted into an hour. But a SF race running on its own is usually nearer 85 minutes and 250km long. The current plan is for the five other tracks on the calendar to follow Motegi’s race format, but it could change.

JRP is not averse to modifying the rulebook between races, although changes do obviously feel more seismic in a series with so few rounds than when the FIA makes regulation tweaks between every few grands prix in a 21-event strong F1 season.

Having lengthy races run on one set of tyres therefore put a huge onus on qualifying, although winner Ryo Hirakawa was the only driver who finished in the same position he started from, which leads into the second major talking point.

Photo: Toshiki Oyu

After the first race of 2019 at Japanese Grand Prix venue Suzuka – a circuit which requires a lot of bravery, downforce and set-up knowledge to be fast on – a great amount of intrigue surrounded usual struggler Nakajima Racing after it qualified a convincing one-two with its all-rookie line-up of F2 graduate Tadasuke Makino and Alex Palou, and then looked set for victory with either of the two before both of its new Dallara SF19 cars suffered from freak wheel failures.

The pair were convincingly quickest on qualifying and race pace, which was a surprise to everyone. But that form continued, with Palou claiming three poles in the next six races and Makino a few more appearances in the final segment of qualifying.

Palou’s new IndyCar career means Oyu was brought in this year as his replacement, and he showed that once again Nakajima Racing is best over one lap. The debuting Oyu may have actually qualified in fourth, but he was the only Honda-powered car to make it into Q3 – at what is basically Honda’s home circuit given its racing department’s use of the circuit for development and the fact that Honda actually built the circuit in the late 1990s to attract IndyCar to Japan.

In the first free practice session Oyu was 0.004s short of being top Honda driver, he topped FP2 and scraped through qualifying’s second stage as the Toyota-powered drivers upped the wick. Fastest laps in the race came down to who had clean air, which Oyu had in abundance once the damage he picked up on the opening lap was fixed.

His first lap at race pace once he returned to track stood as the fastest lap of anyone until KCMG’s Toyota-powered Kamui Kobayashi pitted due to a puncture and used fresh rubber to beat him by 0.101s. The next two drivers who had the clean air advantage were also Honda’s, but half-a-second adrift.

Photo: Red Bull Content Pool

The driver with the third fastest time was fellow debutant Ukyo Sasahara, standing in for Red Bull junior Juri Vips at Team Mugen for a one-off appearance. While his pitstop was a strategic decision to counter expected tyre wear on his first weekend driving a SF car, he then charged up to 11th, and was second best Honda driver in qualifying in 13th place.

While understeer held him back in qualifying, it was oversteer that unsettled him in the race, especially in braking zones.

“In terms of performance I think that we did the maximum this weekend,” said Sasahara. “We struggled with some things set-up-wise through the weekend. That is why my team-mate was out in Q1, I managed to get through to Q2 so I think I showed a bit the performance I’ve got.

“In the race I made a good start, up to around ninth or 10th before Turn 1. Unfortunately I got pushed out right to the outside and dropped almost to last. We made a plan before the race that our strategy would be to stop maybe once for tyres. I dropped at the start so we decided that there was nothing to lose so we would stop on lap 10 or 11.

“Actually it worked very well and I got clean air and was 1.5 to two seconds quicker than anybody else and I gained a lot of places up to P11.

“Mixed feelings but I think that if I do get the chance for the next few rounds I can do very well, definitely.”

While it would be even crueler to Vips if he doesn’t get his SF chance due to Sasahara’s adaptability, after a year of torrid luck for the Estonian that continued on his F2 debut last weekend, it is clear that 2019 Asian F3 champion Sasahara deserves to stay in the series and there is no guarantee that Vips will be able to get to Japan in time for round two in September.

The class of the rookie field when it came to finishing position was Kondo Racing’s Sacha Fenestraz. The reigning Super Formula Lights champion qualified a superb second and then finished third after his team-mate Kenta Yamashita at the start, and both were quick to seek hydration once the race ended – which actually interrupted the usual post-race procedures.

While track temperatures were beyond 45°C, which made thermal degradation of the Yokohama tyres an issue after just a few laps, it was the air temperatures which were more painful for the drivers as they surpassed a verifiable 34°C. B-MAX Racing with Motopark’s Teppei Natori – another stand-in driver – didn’t even start the race due to dehydration worries as he was on double duty racing in Super Formula Lights with Toda Racing in the breaks between SF sessions.

“Physically I didn’t struggle, but it was [mentally] mainly with the hotness,” Fenestraz told Formula Scout.

“I think I’ve never suffered that much on a race. It was just so hot in the car. I think I lost over a kilo, at one point two kilos in the race without rehydrating a bit. It was difficult.

“It was my longest race in a formula car for sure. Can’t wait for when the real long races are going to come, hopefully next season. I think that’s going to be a bit more difficult. And everyone said that Motegi is generally one of the hottest races as well, because of where the track is based.”

In the post-race press conference, Fenestraz said that within a few laps he was wondering when the race would end due to the heat, and that he needed to work on being physically more ready for such conditions in future races.

Despite the shorter races, SF is as physically tough on drivers as ever, and the Japanese weather is one of the unique features of the series that has not been lost for 2020.

The other major difficulty was tyre management, with the spec soft compound tyre needing to be cared for from very early on. But the loss of the medium compound pleased Fenestraz.

“For us [Kondo] I think it’s better. Last year, the team really struggled with the medium tyres. I think quite a few teams were struggling with that. And some other ones were particularly strong on those tyres. So for everyone it’s the same situation now.

“But when I was speaking with Hirakawa, he was saying that he thinks the tyre has changed a bit compared to 2019 because there was much more deg than last year’s tyres. Maybe there’s been some changes on the tyre, but it was hard. I was really trying to manage it, I knew I had Kazuki Nakajima behind and of course he’s an incredible driver.

“I was trying to manage myself compared to him in terms of laptime and so on, because I knew he had more experience than me on how to manage those tyres. And I think I did a pretty good job, as I had a bit more [than him] left as well in the last two or three laps.”

Further comments across the grid suggested having only one tyre compound of tyre was hugely challenging, and it probably would have made the race more entertaining had the structural degradation been to a point where a pitstop was a strategic option for more than just those at the back, and if the extreme thermal degradation hadn’t been so easily manageable for a grid mostly made up of professional drivers.

There’s one month until round two at Okayama. Will the rules have changed, and will the competitive order have changed too?

The post Five things we learned from the Super Formula season opener appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Super Formula

A U-turn by Japanese immigration authorities has allowed Kamui Kobayashi, Kazuki Nakajima and Kenta Yamashita to return to their home country in time to race in Super Formula’s season opener.

The trio were set to miss the August 30 race at Twin Ring Motegi, with SF having already announced as such for Kobayashi, due to their participation in the recent World Endurance Championship race at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium requiring them to quarantine in Japan for two weeks once they were actually allowed back into the country.

They have now returned to Japan and tested negative in coronavirus swab tests, and now only have to quarantine for one week before they are free to leave their homes and head to Motegi to race.

Toyota WEC team-mates Kobayashi and Nakajima drive for KCMG and TOM’S in SF respectively, while Yamashita is team-mate to rookie Sacha Fenestraz at Kondo Racing.

B-MAX Racing by Motopark’s line-up of Charles Milesi and Sergio Sette Camara have still not been able to acquire the necessary work visas to enter Japan, and unless that situation changes then Motopark team principal Timo Rumpfkeil intends to park his two cars.

The return of the Japanese trio means Super Formula Lights racer Sena Sakaguchi is now highly unlikely to make an SF debut as a stand-in, having been a shoe-in to race at Motegi in place of a quarantined individual.

Red Bull junior Juri Vips has already been replaced by Asian Formula 3 champion Ukyo Sasahara in Team Mugen’s line-up for the season opener, with the Estonian instead racing at Spa in Formula 2 as he also does not possess the required visa to enter Japan.

The post WEC stars given Japan entry in time for Super Formula opener appeared first on Formula Scout.

While much of the world went into lockdown to slow the spread of COVID-19, Super Formula pushed on with its sole pre-season test at Fuji Speedway. Here, the rookie drivers share their thoughts on how it went

At the start of March, it was announced that the first test and race of the Super Formula season at Suzuka would be postponed due to the local impact of the growing COVID-19 novel coronavirus threat, leaving Fuji Speedway as the host location of what would now be the first running and racing of 2020.

Two weeks after that, once COVID-19 had been upgraded to being a global pandemic, the championship put out a statement clarifying that the Fuji test on March 24/25 would still go ahead – and with grandstand access for fans. One day later, the season opening race at the circuit was postponed as Japanese government policy updated on mass public gatherings.

This immediately made some question the logic in the test going ahead, given the first race of the year was now in May and the COVID-19 situation was only escalating. With two months to get it under control, a new test date could likely have been found. That argument gained further support, but not perhaps in the way intended, as Suzuka successfully rescheduled its test to April 2/3. A day after the Fuji test that was then cancelled, and May’s Autopolis race started to look under threat.

In the run-up to Fuji, reigning SF champion Nick Cassidy matter-of-factly shared his feelings on the championship’s approach. After ending the test 12th fastest of 20, he added: “I’m just an employee following what I’m told to do.”

Cassidy of course wasn’t alone in his questioning, and the more experienced drivers generally shared his caution. The rookie crop did too, but given SF’s growing reputation as a route to Formula 1, they were also incredibly eager to get on track.

“It was very nice to be back driving the Super Formula car, which is really an incredible car,” reigning Super Formula Lights champion and Toyota-backed Kondo Racing driver Sacha Fenestraz told Formula Scout.

“It’s so fast and has so much downforce, I kind of missed it [over winter]. I already miss it again now, so hopefully we can be back on track soon.”

“The test was very positive, I was the driver who did the most laps. It was good to test a lot of test items and learning as much as I can of the car, the team and how SF works. Of course there’s still a lot of things to learn on my side.”

Fenestraz was 11th fastest over the two days, but did visit the top of the times for spells while he put in comparatively longer stints than his opposition.

“It was very positive, but very difficult to compare as well. Very, very difficult because we don’t know who’s running what kinds of tyres or fuel. Of course it’s good to be up there, but I think it’s not relevant so far. We need to wait till the first race, whenever it’s going to be. I learned a lot, but of course there’s still a lot of things to learn on my side.”

The Dallara SF19 is a tricky car to get in the right set-up window, especially around the tighter circuits that accompany famed F1 venues Suzuka and Fuji on the SF calendar. Fenestraz’s focus on mileage therefore was probably the safest strategy.

Some 18 laps short of Fenestraz’s 195-lap tally, and the top Honda-powered driver for mileage, was Team Mugen’s Red Bull Juri Vips. The Estonian is the other star rookie that great things are expected of, but his dreams of gaining an FIA superlicence by racing in the series may fall flat if the calendar shrinks any further.

“It’s great to be back after such a long break. I have no idea what the lap total is but my neck tells me it must have been 200,” said Vips.

“It’s been pretty tough on the body all round. Of course I’ve been training hard but nothing is quite the same as time in the car.”

With month-long breaks or longer between races, and only five set to go ahead, Vips will likely be facing the same aches on multiple occasions this year – even if he keeps his race-ready training regime throughout.

“I am very happy with the way the test went. Not that the timesheet show everything I would like but there is a lot more potential there than just the times.”

Vips was seventh fastest overall, and 0.183 seconds off race-winning team-mate Tomiki Nojiri. Last year the team dropped Red Bull protege Dan Ticktum for underperforming, despite flashes of strong pace, and Vips will want to avoid the same fate.

“I struggled to get the tyre warming sorted out so the lap time did not come at first. But by session four I got on top of it quite well and we put on new tyres early. I then hit P1 and really had a good run. We went for a race distance while others put in new tyres later in the session when the track improved and the cars went quicker in cooler air. So we slipped off the top of the times, but we know we are in quite good shape.

“I’m really enjoying the time here, the people are great. I have a new engineer, a Canadian, and that is obviously helping with the communication plus I am getting used to the culture and the way things are done.”

“Just as well, I may be here for a while. I am staying for the [now cancelled] test at Suzuka on April 3/4 then will probably have to stay until the first race. I would like to go home and visit my family of course, but though I could get home, I probably couldn’t get back [to Japan] with the way things are. I don’t want to miss a race.”

Further pressure on Vips comes from a late addition to the grid: Red Bull Racing’s reserve driver Sergio Sette Camara.

“It was a last minute decision to be here,” Sette Camara confirmed of his signing with B-MAX Racing with Motopark that was announced the day before the test began. However the Brazilian also confirmed he has already relocated to Japan.

Given Sette Camara doesn’t have last year’s rookie test as experience of the car or Yokohama tyres, unlike his rivals, it was crucial he put as many laps in while he could at Fuji. He ended up with 130, and SF Lights graduate team-mate Charles Milesi on 140. This was more than an entire race distance less than Fenestraz, but both Motopark drivers were fairly pleased.

“It was great to get used to the car and the team,” Sette Camara added. “It was very productive, we did all the running that we wanted. We don’t know if we’ll get much more testing this year, so we covered everything.

“The team explained to me quite well what I had to expected, and it’s also good to drive around Fuji and learn another track.

“The corners here are super cool. It has a bit of a mixture, it had every type of corner. Sector 1 being extremely high speed, then over in sector 3 you have more of the slow corners. It’s a bit tricky to know the compromise of how much you should prepare for which corners [on set-up]. It takes a few laps to get used to, but I think by the end I at least had a good base.”

Sette Camara’s expectation, or more likely Red Bull’s, is points from the off: “I want to adapt quickly to the series, of course there is not a lot of running time in SF. They are challenging cars so you really need to learn it quickly. You cannot lose time.”

His team-mate Milesi believes his pace was stunted by struggles when on new tyres, and the pair ended up 17th and 18th.

Propping up the timesheet was the one-car effort of ThreeBond Racing with Drago Corse and its driver Tatiana Calderon. The Formula 2 graduate started her test embarrassingly by spinning on her first lap and causing a red flag, but she wasn’t the only one to be caught out on cold tyres on a cold track as KCMG’s F1-experienced Kamui Kobayashi followed by crashing heavily.

“The tyres are very different to what I’m used to from [Pirelli in] F2 and GP3,” said Calderon afterwards. “I need to switch the way I drive a little as well. Also to experience the different throttle maps with the practice starts. I definitely need more laps.”

Given how little track time exists in SF before COVID-19 postponements come into play, Calderon is short on time not only to adapt her driving style (a change that Ticktum infamously avoided), but to help her team on its arrival into SF. Like the other rookies though, including Nakajima Racing’s promising Japanese talent Toshiki Oyu, Calderon is thrilled to be driving in SF.

“I’m very excited. It puts a big smile on my face and I hope that I can continue to learn and improve during this year.

“I think this is going to be the hardest season for me, because everything is new. It’s a very difficult championship in terms of very good drivers, very good teams, and a really quick car. Hopefully I’ll be fighting for a top 10 at the end of the year. That I think is a realistic goal.”

Test reports??Day 1? ?Day 2

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