Photo: Super Formula

Toyota Gazoo Racing has announced its motorsport programmes for 2026, including which drivers it will be backing and powering in single-seaters.

At the top of the pyramid in Japan’s Super Formula championship, three Toyota-powered teams have signed rookies.

World Rally champion Kalle Rovanpera will join KCMG, Rikuto Kobayashi will race for TGM Grand Prix after contesting an event with Team Impul this year, and Charlie Wurz will drive the sole car of the returning Team Goh.

Kobayashi finished 16th on his SF debut at Twin Ring Motegi in April, with his main programme this year having been the third-tier Super Formula Lights championship where he was third in the standings after being runner-up in 2024.

He also raced in sportscar series Super GT’s GT300 class in 2025, coming third in the standings, and will be promoted to the top GT500 class next year with Cerumo.

Wurz, son of ex-Formula 1 driver Alexander, was Formula Regional Oceania champion in 2023 then was a race-winner in Euroformula before spending two seasons in the FIA Formula 3 Championship and coming 13th this year with two podiums.

He has some sportscar experience too, and will join the Super GT grid with the Toyota-powered Apr team in the GT300 class. Kazuhisa Urabe, who was 10th in SF Lights and third in the FRegional Japanese Championship this year, will joining Inging in Super GT300.

Wurz and his younger brother Oscar, who was 2024 Formula 4 Central European Zone champion and 18th in Eurocup-3 this year, will become Toyota juniors for 2026.

Their father was a World Endurance Championship race-winner with Toyota, and Oscar will race for TOM’S in SF Lights next year as team-mate to fellow Toyota juniors Kiyoshi Umegaki and Tokiya Suzuki. The pair came one-two in this year’s FRegional Japanese Championship, while in Japanese F4 the title was won by Suzuki and Umegaki was seventh in the standings.

Vacating his SF Lights at TOM’S is Yuki Sano, who was 2025 championship runner-up and finished ninth in the FIA FRegional World Cup-awarding Macau Grand Prix.

Next year the Toyota junior will step back down to FRegional, having won all four of the FRJC races he contested in 2024, full-time as he joins R-ace GP in the European and Middle East championships.

Toyota’s racing school runs a team in Japanese F4, and its line-up next year will consist of Masaki Hamabe, Buntaro Igarashi, Yuzuki Miura, Masana Muto, Ryo Sakai and Tomoki Terashima.

Of those six, only Miura and Muto will be Toyota juniors. They came 12th and 15th in the standings this year, each with one podium, and will have double programmes as they will also race for TOM’S in FRJC.

2026 TGR Driver Challenge Programme members (single-seaters)

The post Rikuto Kobayashi and Charlie Wurz land Super Formula seats for 2026 appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Macau Grand Prix

Prema has announced its line-up for this year’s Macau Grand Prix, which features a two-time winner of the event.

The 2025 edition will be the second to run for Formula Regional cars, and award the FIA FRegional World Cup. It takes place on November 13-16, the same weekend as the Eurocup-3 season finale.

Driving Prema’s three cars in Macau will be Rashid Al Dhaheri, Charles Leong and Freddie Slater.

Al Dhaheri came sixth in FRegional Middle East this year and is currently seventh in the FRegional European Championship, both in Prema-run cars and with Slater as his team-mate. He was FRME runner-up and leads FREC.

In 2024, Al Dhaheri was disqualified from the Macau GP but was third in the supporting Formula 4 race the year before. Slater was ninth in that F4 race, and was classified 13th in last year’s grand prix.

Leong has been busy racing in Lamborghini Super Trofeo Asia in recent years, and has contested the Macau GP five times in his career. The local talent’s first two entries into the race were during its Formula 3 era, then he starred when it switched to being a race for F4 cars.

He took pole, won the qualification race and the main race in both 2020 and ’21, then in 2022 qualified third, gained one place in the qualification race and finished on the grand prix podium in third.

R-ace GP ran Ugo Ugochukwu to victory in the inaugural FRegional World Cup, and the French team will be attempting to defend its victory with Enzo Deligny, Matteo De Palo and Jin Nakamura.

Deligny and De Palo are currently fighting Slater for the FREC title, and came fifth and 19th respectively in FRME. Nakamura was 10th in FRME and sits 10th in the FREC standings with one round to go.

At last year’s Macau GP, Deligny finished fourth, Nakamura retired and De Palo was disqualified.

Another winning team on the grid is TOM’S, which will field an all-Japanese line-up of Yuki Sano and Tokiya Suzuki.

Sano is currently second in his home country’s F3-level Super Formula Lights championship, and Suzuki sits second in the FRegional Japanese Championship standings with one round remaining.

Pinnacle Motorsport and Sainteloc Racing will also only be entering two cars each rather than three.

Mari Boya and Theophile Nael, who came third and eighth respectively in the FIA F3 Championship this year, will drive for Pinnacle. Nael was disqualified on his Macau GP debut in 2024, while Boya finished seventh after coming fourth in 2023.

Sainteloc has two Macau debutants: James Egozi and Egozi Tangavelou.

Egozi began 2025 by coming third in the Eurocup-3 winter series, and is currently seventh in the main championship. He could drop out of the top 10 in the standings by missing the final round to race in Macau.

Tangavelou was fourth in Eurocup-3 last year, and claimed a podium in its non-championship event. His 2025 has been split between part-time campaigns in USF Pro 2000 and then Eurocup-3.

The post Charles Leong to pursue a third Macau GP win with Prema appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Super Formula Lights

Dense fog disrupted round two of Super Formula Lights’ season at Autopolis, which Yuko Sano left as points leader.

Practice proceeded without issue on Thursday and Friday, but then the fog led to qualifying and race one on Saturday being cancelled due to minimal visiblity.

Race one was moved to Sunday morning, at the expense of race three being dropped. The results from FP5 were used for race one’s grid.

Kaylen Frederick was fastest in FP1, a 1m38.224s putting him 0.199 seconds ahead of Yuto Nomura. Zachary David completed a B-MAX Racing 1-2-3, but was 0.918s behind. TOM’s duo Sano and Esteban Masson were the only others within a second of Frederick.

David set a 1m38.301s to top FP2 by 0.184s over Nomura and Sano. Rikuto Kobayashi (TOM’S) was fourth, 0.233s behind.

FP3 on Friday was much faster, and Frederick lowered the pace to 1m37.453s. He was 0.527s faster than Nomura, who had a 0.066s gap to Yuga Furutani (TOM’S).

The next session was much slower, with a 1m38.834s enough to earn Furutani top spot. He edged Sano by 0.003s and TOM’S debutant Esteban Masson.

Nomura went second fastest overall in practice with a session-topping 1m37.93s in FP5. That earned him race one pole, with Sano joining him on the front row. Just 0.019s split Frederick, Masson and Furutani behind.

The track was moist for the race, and Nomura paid the price of reaching his grid spot early and his tyres cooling down as he waited for others to line up. He spun his rear wheels off the line and was passed by Sano and Frederick, and from there the race was won.

Sano was two seconds clear by lap three, and had a 13.32s gap when the chequered flag waved after 21 laps.

Masson got onto Nomura’s tail on lap nine and tried passing around the outside of turn one next time by. Nomura got very defensive, leading to contact and a five-second penalty.

That moment helped Frederick pull away from them in the race’s second half, and while Nomura resisted Masson to the end there was a train of cars quite close by the penultimate lap and his penalty dropped him to eighth.

After the opening lap, the only pass was Yasuhiro Shimizu overtaking B-MAX team-mate and boss “Dragon” on lap 16 when he locked up at turn one. Having pressured him for a long time, he sprinted off after that as the fog became troublesome again.

It was also foggy for race two, which Frederick had pole for ahead of Kobayashi, Nomura, Furtani, Sano and Masson.

Sano made the best start, squeezing between several cars to be second before turn one. Furutani passed Kobayashi and Nomura for third a few corners later, with the latter two squabbling through lap one until Kobayashi established himself as ahead.

Frederick cruised to victory, Furutani pressured Sano late on and Nomura got another five-second penalty while defending against Masson so finished seventh. After a terrible lap one, David recovered to 10th.

Results round-up
Race 1 (21 laps)
1 Yuki Sano TOM’S 35m33.037s
2 Kaylen Frederick B-MAX Racing +13.320s
3 Esteban Masson TOM’S +15.872s
4 Yuga Furutani TOM’S +17.615s
5 Zachary David B-MAX Racing +18.621s
6 Rikuto Kobayashi TOM’S +19.194s
7 Yusuke Mitsui Delightworks Racing +19.862s
8 Yuto Nomura B-MAX Racing +20.458s
9 Kazuhisa Urabe B-MAX racing +27.539s
10 Yugo Iwasawa Delightworks Racing +28.253s
Pole: Nomura, 1m37.930s.
Fastest lap: Sano, 1m40.160s

Race 2 (14 laps)
1 Frederick 23m29.709s
2 Sano +8.862s
3 Furutani +9.506s
4 Kobayashi +10.662s
5 Masson +20.670s
6 Mitsui +23.909s
7 Nomura +25.080s
8 Urabe +26.526s
9 Reimei Ito LM Corsa +29.628s
10 David +35.267s
P: Frederick,
FL: Frederick, 1m39.928s

Championship standings
1 Sano 49   2 Frederick 25   3 Nomura 22   4 Kobayashi 14   5 Furutani 11   6 David 8   7 Masson 7   8 Mitsui 4   9 Urabe 3   10 Ito 1

The post Dense fog disrupts Super Formula Lights’ second round at Autopolis appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Super Formula Lights

TOM’S driver Yuki Sano made a near-perfect start to the Super Formula Lights season in round one at Suzuka.

Sano topped three of the four practice sessions, and with a fastest lap of 1m50.444s ended up quickest by 0.358 seconds over B-MAX Racing’s Kaylen Frederick.

His advantage continued into qualifying, setting a 1m51.230s in the first session to claim race one pole by just 0.003s. B-MAX’s Yuto Nomura was the driver who just missed out, and TOM’S driver Rikuto Kobayashi was 0.273s back in third. Delightworks Racing’s Souta Arao and Frederick were the only other drivers within a second of the pace.

Sano improved to 1m50.628s in Q2, clinching him another pole. Kobayashi was just 0.027s slower than him, and Arao was 0.103s off pole. Nomura completed a top four split by 0.168s, and Frederick trailed by over half a second.

At the start of race one, Arao and Frederick stalled, with LM Corsa’s Reimei Ito lurching off the line before stopping. At the front, Sano swept to the inside then back to the racing line to lead into turn one as Nomura and Kobayashi went side-by-side through the corner.

Nomura kept ahead, and got alongside Sano at the end of the lap. He swept around the outside at turn one to take the lead, and gradually built a gap of 2.861s over the rest of the race. But a five-second penalty for jumping the start dropped him behind Sano.

Kobayashi had a lonely run to third, and on lap 12 B-MAX’s Zachary David passed Delightworks’ Yusuke Mitsui for fourth on the outside at turn 15.

After taking sixth from B-MAX’s Kazuhisa Urabe on lap three, Arao held him and B-MAX’s Tosei Moriyama for a long time. Urabe got back past on the outside entering the final chicane on lap 14, but Arao slipstreamed back ahead down the pit straight and Frederick became involved.

Urabe overtook Arao again at turn 15, then left little room at the chicane and Arao went off. He rejoined ahead, but let Urabe back past.

The race ended with Urabe and Moriyama in sixth and seventh, as Arao got a five-second penalty for off-track driving and Frederick was penalised for jumping the start.

Sano led lights-to-flag in race two, as his rivals struck trouble. Kobayashi had a transmission failure at the chicane on lap two, and Arao should have inherited second but went off during the safety car period that followed and rejoined at the back of the pack.

B-MAX boss “Dragon” crashed later on, causing a second safety car period, and completing the podium behind Sano were Nomura and Frederick.

Sano started on pole again for race three, but both Kobayashi and Nomura were able to go around the outside of him at turn one. Urabe also dropped down the order after stalling.

Nomura reclaimed second on lap three, as David, Mitsui and Frederick squabbled behind.

Kobayashi threw away victory by going off on lap eight, and rejoined in third. Sano was left with a big gap up front and a third win.

Results round-up
Race 1 (16 laps)
1 Yuki Sano TOM’S 30m19.023s
2 Yuto Nomura B-MAX Racing +2.139s
3 Rikuto Kobayashi TOM’S +10.225s
4 Zachary David B-MAX Racing +14.710s
5 Yusuke Mitsui Delightworks Racing +18.316s
6 Kazuhisa Urabe B-MAX Racing +24.709s
7 Tosei Moriyama B-MAX Racing +27.179s
8 Souta Arao Delightworks Racing +31.528s
9 Kaylen Frederick B-MAX Racing +32.757s
10 Yuga Furutani TOM’S +36.127s
Pole: Sano, 1m51.230s
Fastest lap: Nomura, 1m52.993s

Race 2 (12 laps)
1 Sano 29m03.951s
2 Nomura +0.513s
3 Frederick +1.655s
4 Furutani +2.649s
5 Urabe +3.594s
6 Reimei Ito LM Corsa +4.226s
7 Mitsui +5.365s
8 David +6.031s
9 Yasuhiro Shimizu B-MAX Racing +9.135s
10 Moriyama +10.642s
P: Sano, 1m50.628s
FL: Sano, 1m52.189s

Race 3 (12 laps)
1 Sano 22m42.309s
2 Nomura +5.961s
3 Kobayashi +7.647s
4 David +7.812s
5 Frederick +8.277s
6 Mitsui +19.354s
7 Arao +19.623s
8 Moriyama +19.967s
9 Ito +21.357s
10 Urabe +21.428s
FL: Urabe, 1m52.564s

Championship standings
1 Sano 32   2 Nomura 21   3 Kobayashi 10   4 Frederick 7   5 David 6   6 Furutani 3   7 Mitsui 3   8 Urabe 3   9 Ito 1   10 Moriyama 0

The post Super start at Suzuka for Sano in Super Formula Lights appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Formula 2 race-winner Zak O’Sullivan has secured a seat in Super Formula for 2025, Toyota has announced.

O’Sullivan stepped up to F2 for 2024 with ART Grand Prix and won the Monaco feature race after a late pit-stop under safety car conditions as well as the sprint race at the Hungaroring. However, he vacated his seat before the final three rounds while sitting 14th in the standings, citing funding reasons, and was replaced by fellow Williams junior driver Luke Browning.

He was a late addition to the post-season SF rookie test at Suzuka this month with Kondo Racing and has now been named as a race driver for the team, replacing Kazuto Kotaka alongside Kenta Yamashita.

Kotaka, the 2022 Super Formula Lights champion, moves to TGM Grand Prix – which switches from Honda power to become a team for Toyota development drivers – together with Hibiki Taira, who was SF Lights runner-up in 2023 and contested four SF rounds last year for Team Impul in a car also driven by Theo Pourchaire, Nyck de Vries and Ben Barnicoat.

Impul welcomes an all-new line-up of Jota World Endurance Championship hypercar driver and former FIA F3 racer Oliver Rasmussen and long-time Nissan GT ace and 2017 Japanese F3 champion Mitsunori Takaboshi. Sacha Fenestraz, the 2019 Japanese F3 champion, returns to SF with TOM’S after two seasons in Formula E with Nissan.

Toyota has also confirmed plans for other drivers in its Driver Challenge Program, headed by F2 racer Ritomo Miyata. While Miyata will drive for ART in his second season in F2 – effectively replacing O’Sullivan – he will do with the support of a new collaboration between rival squad Hitech and Toyota, to be known as ‘Hitech TGR’.

Seita Nonaka, who finished third in his third season in SF Lights this year after being Japanese F4 champion in 2021, will serve as a reserve driver in SF alongside a racing campaign in Super GT’s GT300 class.

Rikuto Kobayashi will continue in SF Lights with TOM’S after finishing runner-up in 2024 having graduated to the series as Japanese F4 champion.

For Jin Nakamura, who was runner-up to Kobayashi in F4 and fourth in SF Lights this year, there will be a switch to Formula Regional with an R-ace GP drive in the Middle East and European championships.

Frenchman Esteban Masson will resume his single-seater career in SF Lights with TOM’S alongside an LMP2 drive in the European Le Mans Series. The 2021 French F4 and 2023 Eurocup-3 champion has gained Toyota support after racing a Lexus in WEC’s GT3 class and testing its hypercar this year.

Yuki Sano also joins SF Lights with TOM’S after finishing fourth in Japanese F4 and winning four races from as many starts in FRegional Japan.

Kiyoshi Umegaki and Tokiya Suzuki, who finished seventh and 10th in Japanese F4, will add FRegional Japan programmes alongside continuing in F4, where they will be joined in the TGR-DC Racing School line-up by Yuzuki Miura, Takahiro Kikuchi, Megumu Suzuki and Masana Muto.

The post Zak O’Sullivan makes Super Formula switch as Toyota reveals line-ups appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: FRJC

Toyota junior Yuki Sano ended the Formula Regional Japanese Championship season with two wins at Fuji Speedway.

Kazuhisa Urabe just came out on top of qualifying for race one, setting a 1m38.414s to beat Toyota stablemate Sano by 0.058 seconds. The pair had debuted in the previous round at Fuji, and also been the pace-setters.

The returning Yugo Iwasawa (Delightworks Racing) was 0.131s behind in third, and TOM’S driver Yoshiaki Nakamura was 0.197s back in fourth. Champion Michael Sauter was half a second off the pace in sixth.

Sano lowered the pace to 1m37.709s in Q2, leading Urabe by 0.19s. Sauter trailed by 0.411s in third, and Nakamura was fourth, 0.721s off pole.

Uraber was immediately jumped off the line by Sano at the start of race one, then ran slightly into the dirt at turn one and had to settle for second as Iwasawa settled into third on his first FRJC outing since 2023.

Sano put almost a second between himself and Urabe on the opening lap, was two seconds clear after five laps and three seconds ahead after eight.

Although some drivers remained close to each other behind, there was no overtaking until lap seven when “Yuki” passed Yorikatsu Tsujiko for 12th. Tsujiko got back past on the next lap.

Sauter passed Nakamura and Yuta Fujiwara on lap one then had Nakamura in his mirrors for the rest of the race, with attempts to reclaim fourth coming at turn one on laps 11 and 12.

On the 15th and final lap he hassled Sauter at almost every corner but could not break his defences, as up front Sano won by 5.04s.

Sauter made a slow start to race two and lost third to Nakamura, as Sano streaked away into a 0.96s lead. The slipstream down the long pit straight enabled Sauter to regain third into turn one on lap two, and Iwasawa went past Fujiwara for fifth.

Iwasawa started lap four side-by-side with Nakamura, and passed him on the inside into turn one. Fujiwara did something similar to Nakamura on lap 10, the pair split by 0.018s as they crossed the line and with Nakamura getting ahead on the outside as they slowed down for the first corner.

Sano triumphed by 3.694s, Sauter held off two laps of intense pressure from Iwasawa at the end for third, Nakamura almost lost another position to Jesse Lacey in a slipstreaming battle to the chequered flag and Zhongwei Wang won an exciting race-long battle for ninth that involved trading places with Tsujiko almost every lap.

Results round-up
Race 1 (15 laps)
1 Yuki Sano TGR-DC RS 24m53.084s
2 Kazuhisa Urabe TGR-DC RS +5.040s
3 Yugo Iwasawa Delightworks Racing +11.167s
4 Michael Sauter Birth Racing Project +16.896s
5 Yoshiaki Nakamura TOM’S +17.183s
6 Yuta Fujiwara Rn-sports +18.930s
7 Jesse Lacey Bionic Jack Racing +19.518s
8 Sebastian Manson Birth Racing Project +33.426s
9 Zhongwei Wang Sky Motorsports +36.635s
10 Anna Inotsume Helm Motorsports +
Pole:
Fastest lap: Sano, 1m39.208s

Race 2 (15 laps)
1 Sano 24m52.710s
2 Urabe +3.694s
3 Sauter +11.722s
4 Iwasawa +12.087s
5 Fujiwara +15.844s
6 Nakamura +19.956s
7 Lacey +19.990s
8 Manson +39.930s
9 Wang +53.862s
10 Inotsume +53.994s
P: Sano, 1m37.709s
FL: Sano, 1m39.133s

Championship standings
1 Sauter 236   2 Manson 155   3 Nakamura 146   4 Lacey 140   5 Sano 100   6 Fuma Horio 98   7 Inotsume 98   8 Jiei Okuzumi 61   9 Urabe 51   10 “Yugo” 43

The post Toyota junior Yuki Sano ends FRJC season with two more Fuji wins appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Japanese F4

Toyota junior Yuki Sano won two Japanese Formula 4 races at Sportsland SUGO, although only got points for one of his victories.

It marked a return to form for Sano, who won the season opener from pole then went two rounds without a top-five finish. Last weekend he stepped up to Formula Regional Japan at Fuji Speedway and made an immediate impact by taking pole and victory in both races. He hoped that would provide momentum for his F4 campaign, and it proved to be the case.

OTG Motor Sports’ Kenta Kumagai was the surprise pacesetter in the first set of practice sessions by 0.007 seconds over Honda junior Yuto Nomura, then in the wet conditions of the second group of sessions Nomura led Toyota junior Tokiya Suzuki by 0.546s.

Sano came to the fore in qualifying, which was also wet, setting a 1m42.135s to take race one pole by 0.274s. Ponos Racing’s Kento Omiya was second fastest, with team-mate Rintaro Sato and Bionic Jack Racing’s Ryo Shirasaki the only others within a second of pole.

Drivers’ second-best laptimes set race two’s grid, and Sano claimed pole again. A 1m42.433s put him 0.222s ahead of Omiya and 0.833s clear of fellow Toyota junior Kazuhisa Urabe. Honda’s points-leading junior Ryota Horachi qualified seventh and fifth for the two races.

The track was still sodden and visibility was poor when race one began, so the safety car led the field for four laps. “Yugo” retired in the pits at the end of lap one.

When green flag action began, Sano was brave enough to brake late into turn one despite not knowing how much grip he would have at racing speeds. Shirasaki spun a few corners later, then lost another place to a great around-the-outside move by Kumagai.

The top three of Sano, Omiya and Sato pulled away from the rest of the field, and on lap six Makio Saito spun but got going again so no yellow flags were required. At the final corner Sato swept past Omiya for second.

On lap eight their battle was paused by the safety car returning so spinner “Kentaro” could have his car cleared. The field was released again on the final lap, and Sano kept Sato at bay to win.

Omiya was gapped in third, Urabe had to hold off Suzuki and Toyota junior Kiyoshi Umegaki took sixth from Nomura after an agressive side-by-side battle. Horachi only had two points taken out of his lead by finishing eighth. Shouma Arimura was a few places behind before spinning out.

The 34-car field was split into two on Sunday, as it remained wet, with the drivers usually fighting to top the independent classification getting their own race. They got to lap five of running behind the safety car before red flags waved and the race ended with worsening rain and half-points being awarded.

The Championship class fared even worse, with just one-and-a-half laps behind the safety car before red flags terminated proceedings and made it a points-free race.

Results round-up
Race 1 (12 laps)
1 Yuki Sano TGR-DC RS 30m04.086s
2 Rintaro Sato Ponos Racing +0.575s
3 Kento Omiya Ponos Racing +2.826s
4 Kazuhisa Urabe TGR-DC RS +5.237s
5 Tokiya Suzuki TGR-DC RS +5.543s
6 Kiyoshi Umegaki TGR-DC RS +6.775s
7 Yuto Nomura HFDP +9.467s
8 Ryota Horachi HFDP +10.396s
9 Kotaro Shimbara Kageyama Racing +10.980s
10 Tosei Moriyama Helm Motorsports +12.129s
Pole: Sano, 1m42.135s
Fastest lap: Omiya, 1m43.282s

Race 2 [Independents only] (3 laps)
1 Nobuhiro Imada B-MAX Racing 9m09.698s
2 “Dragon” B-MAX Racing +1.331s
3 Ken Alex Buzz Racing +4.208s
4 Isao Nakashima Rn-sports +5.618s
5 Masayuki Ueda Rn-sports +7.619s
6 Makio Saito Akiland Racing +10.285s
7 Shoichiro Akamatsu Eagle Sports +11.402s
8 Masayoshi Oyama Akiland Racing +13.326s
9 “Kentaro” Field Motorsports +15.903s
10 Hachiro Osaka Dr. Dry Racing Team +17.241s
P: Imada, 1m48.553s
FL: Yutaka Toriba, 2m46.347s

Race 3 [Championship class entrants only] (1 lap)
1 Sano 3m03.408s
2 Omiya +0.720s
3 Urabe +1.735s
4 Nomura +3.004s
5 Horachi +4.029s
6 Sato +5.003s
7 Suzuki +6.189s
8 Shimbara +7.641s
9 Moriyama +8.430s
10 Umegaki +9.981s
P: Sano, 1m42.433s

Championship standings
1 Horachi 95   2 Nomura 93   3 Shimizu 87   4 Moriyama 74   5 Sano 65   6 Shimbara 59   7 Omiya 40   8 Umegaki 34   9 Sato 36   10 Urabe 27

The post Toyota junior Yuki Sano hits winning form on wet Japanese F4 return appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: FRJC

Yuki Sano took two poles and two victories on his first Formula Regional Japanese Championship outing at Fuji Speedway.

The Toyota junior is currently sixth in the Japanese Formula 4 standings, and his double win has already put him eighth in the FRJC points table.

The other story of the weekend was Birth Racing Project’s Michael Sauter wrapping up the title with a round to spare. He topped practice by just 0.038 seconds over Sano, whose fellow Toyota junior Kazuhisa Urabe was 0.072s off the pace.

In qualifying the pace was slower, and Sano set a 1m39.072s to top Q1 by 0.13s in a Toyota one-two. Sauter trailed by 0.833s in third. Q2 went slightly better for him, cutting the gap to 0.391s as Sano set a 1m38.855s to deny Urabe pole by 0.064s.

Race one took place in hot conditions, and Sano was slow off the line. Urabe and Sauter moved past him, but a position had already been regained by turn three and soon Urabe was under pressure in the lead.

However he could not find a way past, and that kept Sauter in contention. At the final corner of lap four, Sauter returned to second place and set about seeing if Urabe’s defences could be breached.

Going into the Dunlop chicane on seven he darted to the inside of Urabe and looked to be ahead but the pair made contact. Urabe fell down the order with a damaged car, and Sano took over the lead ahead of Sauter and Helm Motorsports’ Anna Inotsume.

The safety car then bunched the field up, and on the lap 11 restart Sano pulled away to win by 3.679s. A 10s penalty for the contact with Urabe then dropped Sauter from second to sixth, with Inotsume claiming her maiden podium in second. Third place for Sauter’s team-mate Sebastian Manson kept the title fight going for a few more hours.

Sano was again bettered off the line in race two, but Urabe could not enjoy the lead for longh as Sano was back ahead by turn three. Sauter had a clutch problem and retired in the pits at the end of lap one, but the title was all but secured with Manson in the midfield.

It was an easy race for Sano thereon, building a lead of 5.16s in 15 laps and feeling very encouraged after recent struggles in F4.

TOM’S driver Yoshioki Nakamura pressured Urabe for lap after lap until he eventually got past into turn one on lap nine after Urabe went too deep.

Manson finished a distant sixth, meaning Sauter was crowned champion from his garage.

Results round-up
Race 1 (15 laps)
1 Yuki Sano TGR-DC RS 27m07.564ss
2 Anna Inotsume Helm Motorsports +7.130s
3 Sebastian Manson Birth Racing Project +9.077s
4 Yoshioki Nakamura TOM’S +9.118s
5 “Akita” Abbey Racing +11.631s
6 Michael Sauter Birth Racing Project +13.679s
7 Masayuki Ueda Rn-sports +16.953s
8 Jesse Lacey Bionic Jack Racing +20.345s
9 “Yuki” NILZZ Racing +23.462s
10 Tadakazu Kojima Eagle Sport +27.225s
Pole: Sano, 1m39.072s
Fastest lap: Sano, 1m39.642s

Race 2 (15 laps)
1 Sano 24m52.827s
2 Nakamura +5.160s
3 Kazuhisa Urabe TGR-DC RS +6.056s
4 Lacey +7.457s
5 Inotsume +14.144s
6 Manson +23.527s
7 “Akita” +23.684s
8 Kojima +29.866s
9 Ueda +31.560s
10 “Yuki” +55.087s
P: Sano, 1m38.855s
FL: Nakamura, 1m39.011s

Championship standings
1 Sauter 209   2 Manson 147   3 Lacey 128   4 Nakamura 128   5 Fuma Horio 98   6 Inotsume 96   7 Jiei Okuzumi 61   8 Sano 50   9 “Yugo” 43   10 Yorikatsu Tsujiko 39

The post Toyota junior Sano wins on debut, Sauter clinches FRJC title at Fuji appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Super Formula Lights

Honda has confirmed in the announcement of its 2024 motorsport plans that Iori Kimura will drive for B-MAX Racing in Super Formula this year.

Kimura won the 2023 Super Formula Lights title with B-Max, and was expected off the back of that success to step up to the top level of single-seater racing in Japan. In mid-December he announced at a function with B-MAX that he would race for the team in Super Formula, and its engine supplier Honda has now confirmed that move.

Since starting his car racing career in 2016, Kimura has had a lot of success. The Russian-Japanese racer’s first programme in single-seaters was the 2019 Japanese Formula 4 season, in which he came ninth in the standings with one podium, and he returned to the championship two years later as a Honda junior. A tally of four wins and three poles put him third in the points table.

He then stepped up to the Formula 3-level SF Lights series with B-Max, taking three wins, two poles and coming third in the standings as a rookie in 2022 and an improved haul of six wins, six other podiums and five poles to become 2023 champion.

Fellow Honda junior Syun Koide came third in SF Lights last season with Toda Racing, and picked up four wins and one pole. For his sophomore campaign he will switch to B-Max, while Souta Arao takes his seat at Toda. Arao came third in French F4 in 2022 and 17th in GB3 last year as a Red Bull junior.

The Honda Formula Dream Project team and B-Max will partner up for the 2024 Japanese F4 season, and run juniors Yuto Nomura and Ryota Horachi. Nomura was a race-winner in French F4 in 2022 then switched to Japanese F4 for 2023 and came fourth in the standings with one win. Horachi raced for the Akiland Racing team in the championship last year and was ninth in the points table with three fourth places being his best finishes.

Toyota has also announced where its juniors are headed for 2024. Seita Nonaka will stay at TOM’S for his fourth season in SF Lights, and be joined by Rikuto Kobayashi and Jin Nakamura as team-mates.

Kobayashi took five wins en route to the 2023 Japanese F4 title, and Nakamura took three victories as he finished a close runner-up to him in the title fight. Both will also be racing for the apr team in Super GT’s GT300 class this year.

In Japanese F4, the Toyota Gazoo Racing Driver Challenge Racing School team will run Yuki Sano, Tokiya Suzuki, Kiyoshi Umegaki and Kazuhisa Urabe. Sano raced for the team last year and came seventh in the standings, and Urabe switches from Bionic Jack Racing who he took one victory and came eighth in the 2023 standings with.

Suzuki and Umegaki are both graduates of Japan’s karting scene, although the latter does have some European racing experience on karts.

The post Honda confirms Iori Kimura’s place on 2024 Super Formula grid appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: SF Lights

Toyota has revealed its 2023 motorsport line-ups, with Super Formula Lights champion Kazuto Kotaka being promoted back into a Super Formula drive with Kondo Racing.

Kotaka moves into the seat vacated by Formula E-bound Sacha Fenestraz, and is making a return to the series after contesting the majority of the 2021 campaign. As the only ‘new’ addition for next season among the Toyota-powered teams, it could mean the manufacturer will have no rookie drivers in 2023 although there is still a seat vacancy at TOM’S.

For the past five years Kotaka has been racing in SF Lights as a Toyota junior, starting off part-time in 2018 while also winning races in Japanese Formula 4.

In 2019 he embarked on a Toyota Racing Series campaign before moving into Japanese Formula 3 (which would later become SF Lights) full-time, but an unusual scenario meant he was not allowed to race at Okayama so missed two rounds.

Kotaka was third in the 2020 standings, picking up his first win, and then was set for a third season last year before travel restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic prevented some drivers from racing in SF and Kotaka was called up to stand in for Kamui Kobayashi at KCMG. He struggled, finishing no higher than 14th in his six races.

Returning to SF Lights for 2022 led to eight wins and the title, earning him his second SF chance for 2023.

Fellow Toyota juniors Seita Nonaka and Hibiki Taira will remain with TOM’S in SF Lights next year, having been team-mate to Kotaka this season. Nonaka won one race and came fourth in the standings, with Taira winning twice and finishing one point and one position behind in the standings.

Formula Regional Japan champion Miki Koyama will race as a Toyota junior next season but it is yet to be determined which series she will compete in.

Toyota has its own racing school team in Japanese F4, and retains its race-winners Jin Nakamura and Rikuto Kobayashi while also adding Shunji Okumoto and karting graduate Yuki Sano.

The post Kazuto Kotaka gets Super Formula seat as Toyota names 2023 line-ups appeared first on Formula Scout.