Photos: Joe Skibinski

Every year, some of junior single-seaters’ top drivers are handed professional opportunities. Some lead to long-term careers in sportscars, while others try out the more cut-throat world of F1 and IndyCar

In addition to annually ranking the top 50 drivers in junior single-seater racing since 2011, Formula Scout also recognises the achievements of the very best of those who ‘graduate’ into the world of professional racing each year.

There were three Formula 2 race-winners who debuted in F1 this season, and while two of them quickly became de facto stars of the grid they are not eligible for this list since their primary programme was F2. Ferrari junior Ollie Bearman contested three grands prix and scored seven points, earning himself a full-time seat with Haas next year, and Williams handed its junior Franco Colapinto a surprise F1 promotion mid-season and he scored five points from nine races.

Bearman competed in all F2 rounds that didn’t clash with his F1 duties but struggled to 12th in the standings (his three wins countered by engine issues and a lack of pace elsewhere), and Colapinto dropped out of F2 once he became an F1 driver. Despite missing four rounds he still came ninth in the points. There are rumours he could appear in F1 again in 2025, despite no seats being free, but returning to F2 is also an option having contributed to an explosion in Argentine sponsors in racing.

Jack Doohan, third in F2 in 2023, made his F1 debut with Alpine in the season finale ahead of racing full-time there in 2025.

Taylor Barnard also won in F2 before dumping it once McLaren signed him to its Formula E team, but he did 20 races in the former and only four in the latter this year. He began the 2024-25 season this month by making the Sao Paulo E-Prix podium.

Another ineligible name is Esteban Masson, who won the Formula Regional-based Eurocup-3 championship last year but through his sponsors and the backing of Toyota ended up in GT sportscars for 2024. He drove a Lexus in the FIA Endurance Trophy for GT3 cars, and in the European Le Mans Series claimed two class wins and came second in the standings.

Photo: Antoine Evora

However Toyota is sending him back to single-seaters next year, and in Japan’s third-tier Super Formula Lights series.

There were 15 drivers who could have made Formula Scout’s Class of 2023, but didn’t perform strongly enough – or in a series with not enough high-quality opposition to be compared against – to make the cut.

Cayman Islander Kyffin Simpson was FRegional Americas champion in 2021, then became a development driver for IndyCar powerhouse Chip Ganassi Racing. Before that he was in Honda Performance Development’s GT3 academy programme, which could have led to a professional single-seater drive when he was just 17 as his FRegional title earned him a scholarship from HDP (which he turned down) to step up to Super Formula.

He took the more sensible option of building his experience in Indy Nxt, and despite failing to win in his two seasons there got a IndyCar seat for 2024. Not only that, but a full-time ride with Ganassi. And was signed after a single test day in the car.

At the time, Simpson said “I don’t really have any expectations set for myself”, but he had a race-winning car at his disposal and two title-winning team-mates to learn from as a rookie. Externally, there were expectations being set that few anticipated he would meet. But then the 19-year-old finished 12th on his debut with the second fastest lap.

That ended up being Simpson’s best race result, and he only qualified in the top 20 three times en route to 21st in the points.

Over in Super Formula there was another questionable signing, as TGM Grand Prix put 18-year-old Juju Noda in one of its cars. The Euroformula race-winner had primarily spent the previous two years in club series for third-tier single-seaters, so had a lot to learn about higher levels of downforce and racecraft. While becoming the third ever woman to race in SF during its time as a top-tier single-seater series is impressive, she qualified more than two seconds off the pace everywhere and only late safety car periods prevented her from finishing more than a minute behind the winner in every race.

Photo: Super Formula

Performing stronger in their rookie campaigns were Iori Kimura (B-MAX Racing) and Hibiki Taira (Team Impul), who were the top two in Super Formula Lights last year. The former scored three points, and the latter took two as a part-timer as well as coming third in Super GT’s secondary GT300 class with INGING. He took a win and three second places there.

Stepping up to FE after four years and four wins in F2 was Jehan Daruvala. The Indian drove for Maserati and came 21st in the standings, starting three races in the top 10, taking the fastest lap in the Monaco E-Prix and finishing a career-best seventh in one of Berlin’s races. It was not enough to retain his seat for 2025.

Most junior single-seater graduates ended up racing prototype sportscars this year, but one made it into the top Hypercar class. Carl Bennett, a Formula 4 race-winner with Eurocup-3 experience, joined Isotta Fraschini in the World Endurance Championship but the brand only lasted five races before dropping out and in that time a 14th place was the best result.

In the lower-level LMP2 machinery he came 10th in the Asian Le Mans Series and 20th in ELMS, concluding both campaigns with podium finishes.

Gregoire Saucy, a podium finisher in the FIA Formula 3 Championship, drove a United Autosport-run McLaren to ninth in WEC’s GT3 class (doing enough to retain his seat for a second season and earn an FE test with McLaren through mutual team boss Zak Brown), and in ELMS led a LMP2 Pro-Am entry to two overall seventh places as a reliably fast driver.

ELMS was full of former open-wheel talents, with F2 race-winner Clement Novalak (Inter Europol Competition), 2023 F2 runner-up Frederik Vesti (Cool Racing) and 2022 champion Felipe Drugovich (Vector Sport) coming seventh, ninth and 15th in the standings respectively. Novalak was also LMP2 runner-up in the Le Mans 24 Hours, while the latter two served as F1 reserve drivers at Aston Martin and Mercedes-AMG respectively. Vesti will race a Cadillac hypercar in IMSA next year.

Photo: ELMS

USF Pro 2000 race-winner Bijoy Garg came 11th overall for United Autosports in ELMS and 19th in IMSA’s LMP2 class with one podium, and Indy Nxt podium-finisher Rasmus Lindh appeared part-time in IMSA and ELMS in various cars.

One-time FRegional Europe podium-finisher Maceo Capietto won in ELMS at Mugello, with a place close to his FIA Platinum-graded team-mate Matteo Cairoli and was the fastest LMP2 rookie at Le Mans, but that pace wasn’t on show everywhere.

The F1-supporting Porshce Supercup attracted a surprisingly high number of sportscar newcomers in 2024. Former F2 racer Lirim Zendeli made a second attempt at redirecting his career, after his detour into USFP2000 last year only resulted in one win, and was 12th in the Supercup standings as well as coming fourth in Porsche Carrera Cup Italy with two poles with Ombra Racing. Monaco Increase Management was responsible for Zendeli’s move, and some of his results didn’t show the continual upwards trajectory he was on.

Eurocup-3 race-winner Francesco Braschi and FREC graduate Victor Bernier were 15th and 19th in the Supercup, with the former taking podiums in Italy while the latter came sixth in Carrera Cup France – two places behind the rookie champion and former FREC rival Marcus Amand.

As none of these names could make the cut, here is Formula Scout’s Class of 2023… Key Wins (W), poles (P), fastest laps (FL)

10. Kas Haverkort NETHERLANDS 21y/o
8th in Porsche Supercup, 7th in PCC Germany (1 W, 1 P, 1 FL), 5th in PSC Southern Europe (2 W)   2023: 4th in FREC (2 W, 2 P, 4 FL)   2022: 5th in FREC (2 W, 1 P, 2 FL)

Photo: Porsche

Another driver to spend their 2024 racing in spec series for Porsche GT cars, and the most successful of them, was Haverkort.

The 2020 Spanish F4 champion continued a trend through his car racing career of only driving for Dutch teams by joining GP Elite to do three different series in one year. This contrasted to having spent the previous three years in just one series, with his three FREC campaigns not earning him a place higher up the single-seater ladder.

In the Supercup, the most prestigious of one-make series, Haverkort qualified 10th on debut and improved to sixth place in the race. Around the streets of Monaco his FREC experience was of use and he started and finished fourth, earning him top rookie honours, and two further top-10 finishes followed at the Red Bull Ring and Silverstone.

At the Hungaroring, where he had won from pole in FREC, Haverkort was pipped to top spot in qualifying by just 0.078s and then held second place for the first six laps of the race before being passed. Once gapped by the top two he settled in third, marking another rookie classification win as well as his first overall podium.

Although he remained on the pace following that, he had disastrous races at Spa-Francorchamps and Monza that dropped him from fourth to eighth in the standings and cost him the rookie title.

In Carrera Cup Germany he again showed his speciality for the Hungaroring by winning from pole, and two Red Bull Ring podiums before another bad season finale earned him seventh in the points. Yet again the rookie title went amiss due to a bad final race. Not quite delivering on his promise was made more difficult by the fact he had begun the year with two Porsche Sprint Challenge Southern Europe outings that had resulted in two wins and fifth in the standings.

9. Nolan Siegel UNITED STATES 20/o
23rd in IndyCar, Le Mans 24H LMP2 winner, 53rd in IMSA LMP2 class, 17th in Indy Nxt (1 W, 1 P)   2023: 3rd in Indy Nxt (2 W, 2 FL), 5th in Asian LMS (1 W), 8th in IMSA LMP2 (2 W), 24th in Intercontinental GT Challenge, 25th in IMSA LMP3 (1 FL)

Photo: McLaren

Siegel won in USF2000 in 2021, USFP2000 in ’22 and Indy Nxt in ’23, so was heading to IndyCar in 2024 rightly timed?

He came third in the Indy Nxt standings last year, and opted for a second season with HMD Motorsports. But his off-season preparations included IndyCar and SF tests, which prompted a change in plan. Dale Coyne Racing had supported his Indy Nxt entry through 2023, and after his IndyCar test with them he signed to contest four races which didn’t clash with Indy Nxt.

His racing schedule began in St. Petersburg, where he took pole and dominated Indy Nxt’s season-opening race. IndyCar’s non-championship $1 Million Challenge at The Thermal Club followed, and Siegel was seventh in his heat so didn’t reach the main race. Rick Ware Racing got involved in running his car for the Long Beach Grand Prix, and he finished a lapped 20th. Siegel was runner-up in the next two Indy Nxt races, and was still second in the points when he left round three of the season.

At the Indianapolis 500 he flipped in practice, then was far too slow to qualify for the race so had a second non-start.

A sorry turn of events meant Augustin Canapino withdrew from racing at Road America, and Siegel dropped out of Indy Nxt to take his seat at Juncos Hollinger Racing. Once in the car, which had previously been run in a commercial alliance with McLaren, Siegel had another weekend of being lapped.

Siegel never appeared in Indy Nxt again, as he then signed a multi-year IndyCar deal with McLaren. There was an instant improvement in qualifying by having a more competitive car, twice being 11th on ovals, and came from 20th to finish seventh at Gateway. On a points-per-race basis he would’ve been ahead of his fellow Indy Nxt graduates, but overall his IndyCar campaign didn’t make an impact.

What brings Siegel into this list is his impressive sportscar career. At the Daytona 24 Hours he was in the LMP2 class’s only Ligier and outpaced his team-mates, then won the Le Mans 24H’s LMP2 class at his first attempt. He did the world’s toughest race with less preparation than rivals due to IndyCar commitments meaning he missed testing. A big achievement.

8. Ollie Gray BRITAIN 19y/o
7th in ELMS, 14th in PCC Italy, 22nd in PSC Southern Europe   2023: 28th in FIA F3   2022: 2nd in British F4 (2 W, 2 P)

Photo: FocusPackMedia – Marcel Wulf

Only in his fourth year of car racing, Gray made a canny career move after a disastrous FIA F3 campaign in 2023. And like Bearman’s rise to F1, it was thanks to the WH Sports management company.

Williams had signed Gray as a junior driver in 2022, and he rewarded its faith by coming second in British F4 with Rodin Carlin. He moved up to F3 with the team, but he and the team were very uncompetitive. Three 14th places were his best results, and he came 28th in the standings.

WH Sports, as with other clients, was quick-moving to find a place where Gray could show off his talents to the world (and of course sponsors) again as soon as possible and found him an ELMS seat alongside IndyCar driver Luca Ghiotto and Novalak.

Campaigns in spec Porsche series with Ombra were added almost immediately after. The PSC Southern Europe season took place between January and March, meaning Gray could get used to racing with a roof over his head early in the year in an environment with less scrutiny than other series. He did two rounds, and penalties cost him a podium on his first outing.

Ghiotto had one LMP2 start to his name prior to the ELMS season, so it was critical for the Inter Europol drivers to learn off each other to be competitive as they couldn’t truly rely on one experienced talent like other line-ups. The combination finished the season opener in 10th, and at Paul Ricard spent two spells in the lead. Their time up front ended with 20 minutes to go as the gearbox went, and a drive-through penalty and race interruptions ended podium ambitions at Imola.

Third place was less than 1.3s away at Spa-Francorchamps, then Gray qualified the car fourth at Mugello and the crew were dominating the race before full course yellows, virtual safety car periods and then red flags brought them back into the pack. Gray was at the wheel then, and tried to reclaim the lead on the restart. Under the next VSC he handed the car over to Ghiotto, who took it from seventh back up to third. The trio finished fifth in the Algarve finale despite Gray ending lap one in 41st after being spun around and then hit.

He also had to pit the car for repairs, but cycled into the lead before making his first proper stop and returning to the track in sixth. Gray was attempting to overtake his team-mate for third before a VSC period began, then he handed the car over. Ghiotto had it in third before a late splash-and-dash pitstop that meant they finished a hard-fought for fifth place.

Gray’s performances did not go unnoticed, and he has now tested a hypercar in America. A big change from 12 months ago.

7. Lorenzo Fluxa SPAIN 20y/o
3rd in ELMS (2 W), 9th in Euroformula (1 W, 1 FL), 12th in Le Mans 24H LMP2, 16th in Int. GT Open   2023-24: 19th in ALMS   2023: 4th in FRegional Middle East, 7th in FRegional Europe

Photo: Marcel Wulf

Victorious in ELMS’ dramatic Algarve finale, and in the opening race at Barcelona, were Cool Racing’s Lorenzo Fluxa, Malthe Jakobsen and Ritomo Miyata.

Fluxa was win-free but competitive in FRegional last year, then stepped up to Euroformula with Motopark for 2024. After one round, in which he took a win, a second and a third, the German team then moved him across to its International GT Open line-up. In the ‘sister’ series to Euroformula, he took three consecutive top-five finishes in a Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo to come 16th in the standings as a part-timer.

ELMS took priority, and the Cool Racing crew’s two wins was accompanied by two retirements. At Paul Ricard they were comfortably leading before car issues forced Jakobsen to retire the car in the final hour, a result that undid their title hopes, then at Imola it was Fluxa who started the car and he kept it clean for an hour-and-a-half to sit in third. But one mistake proved very costly, as a spin as a round of pitstops began meant that when he did pit the car came back out in ninth place.

That result still would’ve earned some crucial points, but stand-in driver Paul-Loup Chatin (since Miyata was racing in F2) then crashed out hard while trying to lap an LMP3 car shortly after the race’s two-hour mark.

At Spa they were in contention to finish third after Fluxa’s time in the car, but in the dramatic squabble for the position late on Jakobsen had to settle for fifth. Fluxa had a battle-filled and fun first two stints at Mugello, but in that time he and several other crews lost far too much time to the cars up front and once his team-mates took over the car dropped to ninth.

The Algarve victory was some justice for a season of learning that had the potential to turn Fluxa and his team-mates into champions. They also did Le Mans, and finished 12th in class.

6. Hunter McElrea NEW ZEALAND 25y/o
IMSA Enduro Cup LMP2 champion (2 W, 1 FL)   2023: 2nd in Indy Nxt (2 W, 2 P, 4 FL)   2022: 4th in Indy Nxt (2 W, 3 P, 1 FL)

Photo: Travis Hinkle

Photo: Chris Jones

The 2023 Indy Nxt runner-up had to wait until July to make his IndyCar debut in Toronto, driving the car Siegel was initially contracted to be in. Afterwards, he boldly claimed he could’ve been “fighting with good pace at the front”.

McElrea was the top rookie in practice, and comfortably faster than Dale Coyne team-mate Toby Sowery, but failed to set a lap in qualifying after crashing and lined up 25th on the grid. He ran as high as ninth before his first pitstop, then 10th in his second stint, before retiring from 20th place.

“Did some cool moves. And then on my last stint, on my outlap I just got in the grey, and just brushed the wall, and then unfortunately a couple laps later the suspension failed from just that little brush. Really unfortunate.”

He then joined Ed Carpenter Racing for post-season testing and was second fastest at The Thermal Club, and is looking for further IndyCar outings in 2025. But his racing future is already secured, after an impressive rookie season in IMSA.

McElrea drove for TDS Racing in the LMP2 class, and only in the five races (ranging from six to 24 hours) that made up the Endurance Cup. The car had already been retired before McElrea got in it at Daytona, which made for an even harder race debut in the Sebring 12 Hours. But on the bumpy track the LMP2 pace was set by McElrea (with the Kiwi put in the car while it was still light), and the TDS car finished 1.127s short of victory.

At Watkins Glen he was again one of the fastest in race conditions, but crashed out in tricky weather conditions. When he returned to the car for the last two IMSA rounds, he was victorious both times. The car finished in the top eight overall in both races, the latter being Petit Le Mans, and meant the crew also won the Endurance Cup. McElrea will stay with TDS for 2025.

5. Arthur Leclerc MONACO 24y/o
4th in ELMS (1 W, 1 FL), Italian GT Endurance champion (2 W, 3 P)   2023: 15th in F2 (1 FL)   2022: 6th in FIA F3 (1 W, 1 FL)

Photo: ACI Sport

Photo: FocusPackMedia - Marcel Wulf

Leclerc spent 2024 learning from some immensely experienced and talented drivers, accelerating his own development as a result. in ELMS he drove an LMP2 car for Panis Racing alongside Charles Milesi (a class winner at Le Mans and champion in WEC) and Manuel Maldonado, while in Italian GT he shared Scuderia Baldini’s Ferrari 296 GT3 with Giancarlo Fisichella, a man with 229 F1 starts and many class wins in IMSA and WEC to his name.

The 24-year-old brother of F1 racer Charles headed to sportscars after a single season in F2 featuring one podium, and following a 2022 in which he had won in FIA F3 and also been FRegional Asian champion.

Although he exited the Ferrari Driver Academy at the end of 2023, Leclerc got a job with the brand as one of its F1 development drivers and as part of that he did several private tests and drove in practice at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

In ELMS he was Panis’s fastest driver in qualifying on his debut, then his team-mates put the car on pole twice later in the season. They turned the first of those into victory at Imola, and went to Algarve contending for the title. But after taking pole, it was a race of going backwards and they finished 16th overall. Despite the sour end, it was a campaign where Leclerc didn’t look like a rookie and Ferrari rewarded him with a hypercar test as well as his F1 running.

Over in Italian GT, the Fisichella/Leclerc car was on pole for three our of four races and won two of them to take the title.

4. Ayumu Iwasa JAPAN 23y/o
5th in Super Formula (1 P)   2023: 4th in F2 (3 W, 1 P, 3 FL)   2022: 5th in F2 (2 W, 2 P, 1 FL)   2021: 12th in FIA F3 (1 W)

Photo: Red Bull

Photo: Red Bull

Failing to become the first Red Bull junior to be Super Formula champion, as a rookie, potentially cost Iwasa a 2025 F1 seat.

Like Pierre Gasly and Liam Lawson before him, he proved himself in F2 but with no berth at Red Bull’s second F1 team was sent off to Japan to drive top-tier single-seaters there. Straight away, Iwasa targeted the title with Team Mugen.

He qualified 11th and finished ninth on his debut at Suzuka, then at Autopolis finished second from pole and at Sportsland SUGO started and finished second. Iwasa missed out on pole by just 0.017s at Fuji Speedway, but fell to 11th on lap one and never recovered from there.

At Twin Ring Motegi he climbed from 13th on the grid to seventh, and in the first race of the Fuji double-header took another second place. The next day was tricky, qualifying 12th and finishing sixth, which put him on the backfoot for Suzuka’s season-ending double-header.

Another front row start for race one, ahead of all of his title rivals, was the perfect base to boost his title hopes from but a technical gremlin left him stranded on the grid. From 20th place, he recovered to ninth in the 31-lap race but was now out of title contention. A “very big frustration” followed as he qualified 11th for race two, had to completely rethink his set-up and could only finish seventh.

He ended the season fifth in the standings, and following that Iwasa made an F1 practice and test outing with RB. But he didn’t do enough to earn a seat with the team, and Honda chose to renew his contract with Mugen instead.

3. Theo Pourchaire FRANCE 21y/o
25th in SF, 28th in IndyCar   2023: F2 champion (1 W, 2 P, 2 FL)   2022: 2nd in F2 (3 W)   2021: 5th in F2 (2 W, 1 P, 3 FL)

Photo: James Black

Photo: McLaren

Pourchaire has already had his mental health tested during his career, but the ups-and-downs of 2024 was a whole new level.

The 2023 F2 champion was sent off to SF by long-time backer Sauber, but only lasted one race there before being left without a race campaign and just his F1 reserve driver duties (which didn’t lead to any free practice appearances).

Then McLaren needed a stand-in driver for IndyCar due to David Malukas being injured, and Pourchaire was handed a brilliant chance to prove himself at single-seaters’ top level and scrub his SF cameo from his mind.

He finished 11th on debut in the Long Beach GP, having never driven an Indy car prior to the weekend, and McLaren used him again at Barber Motorsports Park. The results weren’t good, but internally McLaren was impressed and dropped Malukas to sign Pourchaire (who wasn’t bringing budget) for the rest of the year bar the Indy 500 due to him having no oval experience.

Still only 20, Pourchaire thought he may have found a new racing home and relocated to the USA. He finished 19th on IMS’s road course, kept a cool head while others crashed in Detroit to qualify seventh and finish 10th, then was 13th at Road America. Siegel came along after that and took the seat, and Pourchaire tried to keep his head up.

McLaren still rated him, and when an injured Alexander Rossi withdrew from racing in Toronto there was an obvious stand-in.

“Last-minute call, 10-hour flight, six hours of jet lag, almost no sleep, first time driving in six weeks, straight to qualifying & new track. That’s a lot of problems to manage, but we made it work with McLaren!” he beamed afterwards. “From 26 to 14th in the race here in Toronto, by far the craziest experience of my life.”

Upon the expiry of his 2024 contract with Sauber, Pourchaire was announced as Peugeot’s test and development driver in WEC after he impressed in a hypercar test. He will find out next year if his signature is still wanted in F1 and IndyCar.

2. Jonny Edgar BRITAIN 20y/o
ELMS champion (1 W), 30th in IMSA LMP2   2023: 13th in FIA F3 (1 W)   2022: 12th in FIA F3 (2 FL)   2021: 18th in FIA F3

Photo: FocusPackMedia - Jan Patrick Wagner

Photo: Marcel Wulf

Edgar’s name was mentioned so many times in ELMS commentary this year, as AO by TF Sport went on a title charge.

Like Leclerc, he was able to soak up the experience of team-mates Louis Deletraz and Robert Kubica, who had already won ELMS and WEC titles together. Yet another crown was clearly the aim for those two, and Edgar stepped up to the plate.

He couldn’t outpace his team-mates in qualifying, but that’s nothing to be ashamed of given the standard they were setting, and in races he was strong wheel-to-wheel and also able to handle lapping traffic without too much trouble. The worst result came on his debut, as the crew lost a lap due to pitstop timing in relation to a safety car period.

They finished third at Paul Ricard, Edgar battled for second through the first two stints at Imola and his team-mates were able to retain the position, and at Spa the trio took victory from pole. The points leaders finished fifth at Mugello, and coming through the choatic Algarve finale in second place was more than enough to deliver the title.

Edgar warmed up for his ELMS campaign by racing an LMP2 car at Daytona and Sebring, and in the latter he was driving for the final stint in the middle of the night. He passed more experienced drivers to finish fourth in class, 7.603s off victory. For 2025, Edgar will continue in IMSA’s LMP2 class while also driving a Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R for TF Sport in WEC.

1. Christian Rasmussen DENMARK 24y/o
22nd in IndyCar, Daytona 24H LMP2 winner    2023: Indy Nxt champion (5 W, 5 P, 5 FL), 11th in IMSA LMP2 (1 FL)

Photo: Christian Rasmussen

Unlike other IndyCar rookies, Rasmussen did not have a race-winning car at his disposal this season and so 22nd in the standings, with a single top-10 finish and three missed races as ECR team boss Ed Carpenter took over his car for several oval races, made him the most impressive newcomer to single-seaters’ top level.

Although Mid-Ohio was where his best results came, as he qualified eighth and finished ninth, there were other events where he made more of an impact. At Barber he was in fourth before his final pitstop, a mechanical issue forced him to retire in Detroit after a brilliant cool-headed race spent mostly fighting for seventh or eighth place.

When Rasmussen did get to drive on ovals, he also impressed in the races. At the Indy 500 he was one of many Chevrolet-powered drivers who had engine issues in qualifying, but from 24th on the grid finished 12th and only 5.3s behind the winner in a 200-lap race that ran green through its final quarter. He ran as high as fourth, and never lower than 22nd.

In race one around the Milwaukee Mile he did go a lap down but also got up to sixth place and ultimately finished 11th. He was one of few drivers actually able to make overtakes in the final stint. The next day (after yet another engine change copped him a grid penalty) he ran his first lap in a podium position, but finished 16th after being one of several drivers who ended up on a very bad seven-stop strategy.

Rasmussen concluded his season with a 14th place, and before making his debut he also won the LMP2 class at Daytona.

Not long after the IndyCar season ended, ECR announced a multi-year deal for Rasmussen be one of its full-time drivers.

The post Formula Scout’s Class of 2023 appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Red Bull Content Pool

Red Bull protege Ayumu Iwasa’s Super Formula title ambitions crumbled in last weekend’s season finale at Suzuka.

After two seasons in Formula 2, the 23-year-old was overlooked for a Formula 1 role by Red Bull for 2024 and instead got a funded Super Formula campaign with Team Mugen back home in Japan.

His target as a rookie at single-seaters’ top level was to bring home the driver and teams’ titles, and it looked feasible before last weekend. Iwasa was fourth in the standings, 31 points off the top and with 46 available to score, while Mugen led by 17.5 points.

By Sunday afternoon, Mugen trailed Dandelion Racing by 16.5 points and Iwasa was fifth in the standings.

He qualified 11th and finished ninth on his debut, also at Suzuka, then at Autopolis finished second from pole and at Sportsland SUGO started and finished second.

Iwasa missed out on pole by just 0.017 seconds at Fuji Speedway, but fell to 11th on lap one and never recovered from there.

At Twin Ring Motegi he climbed from 13th on the grid to seventh, and in the first race of last month’s Fuji double-header took another second place finish. The next day was tricky, qualifying 12th and finishing sixth, which put him on the backfoot for Suzuka’s season-ending double-header.

Another front row start for race one on Saturday, ahead of all of his title rivals, was the perfect base to boost his title hopes from but a technical gremlin left him stranded on the grid. From 20th place, he recovered to ninth in the 31-lap race.

“I couldn’t get into first gear from neutral on the grid. That was a big frustration for sure, from such a good start position,” he mulled, now out of title contention. Mugen was 5.5 points behind Dandelion though, so one aim could still be achieved.

It was not to be.

“In Q2 for today’s race it was very difficult to understand what happened. We thought that we had a good car set-up and I felt that my driving was also good. I thought that I did my job but I was almost eight tenths off pole, P11. We couldn’t understand it because the feeling was so good, a very big frustration.”

“For today’s race we tried to take a quite different set-up direction to what we ran on Saturday. We went back to our baseline philosophy and that was certainly better.”

Iwasa finished a distant seventh, while team-mate Tomoki Nojiri snatched the championship runner-up spot.

“Overall this weekend I was not happy for sure. The whole weekend was up and down,” added Iwasa, who was similarly unhappy with his championship position.

“I learned really a lot of things [in 2024] and I was able to grow up quite a lot. I will use this experience for the future.”

While Red Bull does not keep juniors in Super Formula for more than one season, Iwasa is also a Honda junior so could stay on the grid in 2025.

The post Red Bull protege Iwasa ends Super Formula season on unsatisfying note appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Red Bull Content Pool

Honda and Red Bull junior Ayumu Iwasa has a Formula 1 future to think about when he steps up from Formula 2 to Super Formula.

After four years in Europe in which he became French Formula 4 champion, took a FIA Formula 3 victory and five wins in F2, Iwasa is heading home to Japan to replace Liam Lawson in Team Mugen’s SF line-up.

Like Iwasa, Lawson took five wins across two F2 seasons then was sent by Red Bull to race in SF last year. He fought for the title until the final round, and was called up by Red Bull’s second F1 team AlphaTauri to drive in five races as a subsititute for the injured Daniel Ricciardo.

Although he scored in that short period on the grid, Lawson missed out on a 2024 F1 seat. However he’s still been summoned back by Red Bull to be reserve driver for its two teams. Iwasa could experience a similiar situation in the future if he stars in SF as a rookie, and he faces a similar challenge to Lawson in the series.

“My feeling is similar to Liam’s, because I’ve always raced abroad since I left Suzuka Racing School [SRS],” said Iwasa. “Everything feels very new. I have a lot of things to learn in this category and from this team. But the target is clearly to become champion this season.”

Iwasa did two F4 events and a Super Taikyu sportscar race in Japan before heading abroad, and on his return to Japan last year got a first taste of SF’s Dallara SF23 at a Honda function then three full days of running at Suzuka in SF’s post-season test. He drove for AlphaTauri in F1 post-season testing a week before going to Suzuka.

“The feeling of the [SF] car was almost exactly how I imagined, just in between F1 and F2,” Iwasa reflected. “If I push more in the corners, it’s getting similar to F1, also in terms of the way you have to drive the car. But in low-speed corners, it feels really similar to F2.”

He added: “The driving style is different because the F2 car is really heavy and has the 18-inch tyre, but the way to improve the car is quite similar.”

Iwasa noted the “quite different” approach his F2 team DAMS took to car set-up prepared him for working with Mugen.

“That process was working really well for me, and it’s quite similar to what Mugen is doing now. I think that’s helping a lot, and I was able to give good feedback from the beginning of the test. I’m using my experience as much as I can.”

The 22-year-old’s team-mate will be two-time champion Tomoki Nojiri, which brings Iwasa’s career full circle as when he was in the SRS in 2019 the now-34-year-old was his instructor.

“I respect him a lot, I know he’s really fast,” said Iwasa. “We need to work together to win the championship for the team, and then we’ll fight together on-track [to be champion].”

The post Iwasa: “Everything feels very new” in Super Formula, but title still the aim appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Super Formula

Honda has announced the full line-ups of all the teams that will be using its engines in Super Formula next year, and there are three rookies among its ranks.

The highest profile of these is Red Bull Racing’s Formula 1 reserve driver Liam Lawson, who steps up to SF with Team Mugen after two seasons in Formula 2. Mugen has run several Red Bull juniors in SF since the brand started sending drivers there.

Lawson came ninth in F2 last year as a rookie, winning on his debut and claiming pole in Baku, then won four sprint races in 2022 to come third in the standings. Recently he drove a SF car for the first time in the series’ official post-season test.

His SF campaign has three clashes with F1, meaning the 20-year-old New Zealander will be unavailable for reserve driver duties at the Emilia-Romagna, Canadian and Mexico City grands prix.

The second of Honda’s SF rookies is Kakunoshin Ohta, one of the brand’s own junior drivers and the 2022 SF Lights runner-up. Ohta raced in Japanese Formula 4 from 2018 to 2021, winning two races in that time. His step up to the Formula 3-level SF Lights series with the one-car Toda Racing team proved rewarding as he took four wins and six poles to be series runner-up.

Ohta has also earned a promotion within Honda’s Super GT line-up from the GT300 class to the top class. He came eighth in Super GT3000 this year, and will now partner Takuya Izawa at Nakajima Racing in a GT500-spec car.

Already announced to be racing in SF and now confirmed with a team is Raoul Hyman, the reigning Formula Regional Americas champion.

The South African’s title success in the United States earned him a scholarship from Honda to race in SF, which he will use with B-MAX Racing.

A rival of George Russell in BRDC British F4, Hyman’s career has taken him through F3, GP3, then down to FRegional in which he won the Asian title in 2018. That earned him a step back up to F3 in 2019 as a Sauber junior, after which he did not race single-seaters again until entering FRegional Americas this year and winning the title.

The post Lawson, Ohta and Hyman secure Super Formula seats for 2023 appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Super Formula

There were seven drivers from junior single-seater racing in Super Formula’s post-season rookie test at Suzuka, including several Formula 2 drivers.

The most notable inclusion was Red Bull junior and F2 race-winner Liam Lawson. He will act as one of the brand’s reserve drivers in Formula 1 for 2023 and is anticipated to also spend his year racing in Japan.

Although Lawson has been coy about whether he will race in SF when asked, comments have already been made by Red Bull’s motorsport advisor Dr Helmut Marko saying that he will be in the series. He was driving in the test for Team Mugen, who ran Red Bull juniors from 2017 to ’19 before the COVID-19 pandemic brought an end to its programme for F2 graduates.

“The car is very fast, so a lot to get used to,” said Lawson after his first day in the car. “The team’s been great to me so far, very welcoming, so I’m excited to hopefully keep working with them.”

Fellow F2 racer Cem Bolukbasi was also at the test, and his Honda-powered car was run by the Servus Japan company.

Servus raced in the 2022 SF season as the operating company behind Team Goh, who require backing to remain on the grid for 2023. Therefore Bolukbasi was listed as driving for a ‘to be determined’ team.

The fastest of the SF newcomers at Suzuka and fourth fastest overall was SF Lights runner-up Kakunoshin Ohta, who was driving for Dandelion Racing. He was 0.310 seconds off the fastest lap of the test set by Red Bull junior Ren Sato, who finished 12th in his rookie SF season this year with Goh and is working to find a place on the grid and to retain his Red Bull backing for 2023.

Despite only doing one of the two days, KCMG’s Seita Nonaka was second fastest of the debutants and 0.650s slower than Ohta in 15th place. The Toyota junior is already confirmed to be racing in SF Lights next year.

The remaining rookies filled five of the bottom six places, with Lawson 0.868s off Ohta in 19th place.

Behind him were reigning SF Lights champion Kazuto Kotaka, who was driving for the Kondo Racing he will race for in SF next year, Toyota Racing Series champion and single-seater returnee Igor Fraga, Bolukbasi and Formula Regional Americas champion Raoul Hyman who has won a scholarship to race for a Honda-powered team in the series in 2023.

Bolukbasi caused the first red flag stoppage of the test, with drivetrain problems leading to Ohta stopping on track and causing another on Wednesday morning. The afternoon session began with Nonaka immediately spinning into the gravel.

Hyman was the first session-stopped on Thursday morning following a spin, and in the afternoon Ohta had another car-stopping issue just as he exited the pits.

Test results [Rookies only]

The post Bolukbasi and Lawson among junior racing stars in Super Formula test appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Super Formula

The COVID-19 pandemic has reduced the international contingent on Super Formula’s 2021 grid to just one driver, but it means top talents in Japanese junior single-seaters, and the system itself, are being rewarded

Honda’s announcement that it would exit Formula 1 at the end of 2021 posed many questions, not least on how long until it joins Formula E, but the promotion of Honda-backed Formula 2 star Yuki Tsunoda to an AlphaTauri drive masked much of the worry about how it will affect its support of young Japanese drivers abroad and at home.

The long-held target to put a Japanese driver in a Honda-powered F1 car again was accomplished thanks to Tsunoda, and you can bet he will remain on the grid even once Honda’s name departs.

It’s not just Tsunoda that is turning heads at the highest levels, as travel restrictions have reduced the number of overseas drivers contesting Japan’s Super Formula and Super GT series and put the spotlight back on the young local talents.

SF is Japan’s top single-seater series, and while it uses spec chassis it has two different engine suppliers (Honda and Toyota), a fuel flow-based overtaking system and Yokohama tyres that present very complex challenges just like but also very different to what drivers have to master in F1.

This weekend’s SF season opener takes place at Fuji Speedway, and there are three rookies in particular coming from Japan’s junior series to watch out for:

Ritomo Miyata

Toyota junior Miyata [middle of lead image] has had one of the most successful junior careers you can have domestically, winning the FIA Japanese Formula 4 title twice in a row, against his current SF rivals and Tsunoda on both occasions in stacked fields, and then spending four seasons in Super Formula Lights (previously known as Japanese Formula 3) which culminated in a run of 12 wins from 17 races and a well-earned title in 2020.

He’s also been a trailblazer for the representation of autism in motorsport during this time, and driven solely for TOM’S.

That same team is the one he drives for now in SF, and gave him his debut last year as a substitute for ex-F1 driver Kazuki Nakajima. It was an incredible debut to say the least, as he made it to the front row in qualifying and earned two points.

He lost several places on the opening lap and spent his first race in traffic from thereon, but scored more points in ninth place and went one place better when he was called in to substitute again at Autopolis. On both occassions he was racing in the supporting SF Lights at the same time, which was a real test of stamina and adaptability.

It was no surprise that after doing everything he could in the support series and more than proving his worthiness in SF in 2020 that he was handed a full-time seat with the title-fighting TOM’S squad for 2021. Normally a rookie would go into one of the lesser-fancied teams, but Miyata has basically come in as the lead driver of what if often Toyota’s leading outfit, as team-mate Nakajima is expected to miss races once again and ex-Ferrari junior Giuliano Alesi is tipped to replace him.

Sena Sakaguchi

Sakaguchi [left of lead image] is the first ever Formula Regional Japan champion and like Miyata has had two stabs at SF already. Although neither actually included a race start.

In 2018 he was given the opportunity to substitute for F2 racer Nirei Fukuzumi at Team Mugen for the Autopolis round, but heavy rain and reduced visibility meant the race was cancelled on Sunday morning. Then at Okayama last year he replaced the absent Kenta Yamashita at Kondo Racing but crashed on the warm-up lap and once again didn’t get to race.

And while Sakaguchi’s domination of FRJC’s depleted field denied him the opportunity to test his racecraft, he still had more of a chance to show it in 2020 than Miyata did in SF Lights.

Sometimes he got too aggressive in battle with Miyata, but such were the gaps that tended to appear between the Dallara 320 cars after a few laps that you can’t blame him for wanting to get his moves done early. Like Miyata he spent several years in the series, and came second to his rival as a Honda junior in F4.

Thankfully the strategic elements of SF means racing can stay close throughout and not every potential pass will be a once-in-a-race opportunity, and Sakaguchi’s promotion to a Toyota-powered seat at INGING shows that not only do Japan’s top brass in motorsport have faith in his ability to deliver the goods in the races but it also validates the existence of FRJC.

While going unbeaten against a tiny and usually low quality grid in FRJC wasn’t so impressive on its own, it bolstered Sakaguchi’s claims to a SF seat before he either became a victim of the ‘holding ground’ issue in SF Lights where a fourth or fifth-year driver wins the title over a fourth-year driver and a third-year driver and so on, or he left single-seaters entirely.

Kazuto Kotaka

He’s only down for the season opener, but expect Toyota junior Kotaka [right of lead image] to enter round two at Suzuka as well as he keeps Kamui Kobayashi’s KCMG seat warm while the ex-F1 driver focuses on international sportscar commitments.

Unlike Miyata and Sakaguchi’s first SF chances, Kotaka will not be doubling up in SF Lights this weekend and will instead solely focus on his step up to the big time.

He will be racing in the support series this year though, as he’s signed with TOM’S for an expected title attack. The good news is that even if he misses two rounds, team-mate and Japanese racing debutant Alesi could also be forced to miss SF Lights races if he too gets a SF call-up and has to make it his priority. It will make the title fight very interesting.

Photo: Toyota Gazoo Racing

Kotaka has spent almost the entirety of his career at TOM’S and so those in the SF paddock already know how good he can be. He was third in Japanese F4 in 2018, fifth in SF Lights in 2019 and then third in the series on his return. An oddity has stopped Kotaka from fighting for titles in his career so far though, as he was barred from racing at Okayama for a few years.

It will be interesting to see what Kotaka gets from his debut, and whether he can convince Toyota to make SF his 2022 home.

The other rookies

Hiroki Otsu drives the Red Bull-liveried Mugen car this year after standing in for the meningitis-struck Tadasuke Makino at last year’s season finale. The 26-year-old had been on the brink of entering SF several times before, having been one of Honda’s leading drivers in the junior ranks although never truly getting the standout results to show for it.

Of the four inexperienced drivers heading to Fuji, it’s Otsu who has stood out the most in pre-season testing although he’s a driver whose career trajectory lays firmly in Japan while his rookie rivals all harbour ambitions in programmes abroad; including F1.

B-MAX Racing won’t be at Fuji but it has signed teenager Yves Baltas for 2021. The American has experience in Euroformula and Formula Renault Eurocup, but his results don’t suggest that when he does turn up in SF he will be a points scorer.

With its lessened relevance as a proving ground for F1-focused talents (or those who the Japanese scene want to head to F1 such as sophomore SF stars Toshiki Oyu and Ukyo Sasahara), Formula Scout won’t report on the series with the same depth of coverage as it did in 2020, but don’t be surprised if the Super Formula rookies still make headlines this year.

Further reading
Formula Regional Americas champion to get scholarship for SF
Formula Scout’s Class of 2019
2020 SF season review: The factors behind Yamamoto’s third title
How “worried” Nakajima had his faith in Oyu rewarded

The post The rookies to watch in Super Formula this weekend appeared first on Formula Scout.

B-MAX Racing, which is yet to announce either of its drivers for 2021, will be entirely absent while several signed drivers are currently in Europe and so unable to return to Japan in time for the March 11/12 test.

Kamui Kobayashi and Kazuki Nakajima are both testing Toyota’s new World Endurance Championship hypercar at Paul Ricard this week, and their SF places are to be taken.

Super Formula Lights racer Kazuko Kotaka, who claimed his first series win in last year’s final round and will be racing there again with TOM’S this year, will get his first taste of SF machinery by substituting for Kobayashi at KCMG.

TOM’S hasn’t revealed its Nakajima replacement, although its new SF Lights signing Giuliano Alesi has already been linked to the seat, while Kondo Racing is also looking for a driver to replace the absent Sacha Fenestraz – who may also miss the season’s opening round next month if he can’t make it back to Japan.

Red Bull-backed Asian Formula 3 champion Ukyo Sasahara has lost his Team Mugen seat to Honda junior Hiroki Otsu this year, with the Le Mans 24 Hours-winning Team Goh coming on board with that entry, but Sasahara will be in action at testing as a stand-in for Tadasuke Makino at Dandelion Racing.

Makino came down with meningitis last year, forcing him to miss the SF season finale and handing Otsu his SF debut, and he is still recovering from the illness. He is projected to be back at full fitness in time for the season start.

The post KCMG call up Kazuto Kotaka as stand-in for 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.

Photo: Honda Racing

Team Mugen’s Tomoki Nojiri claimed pole for the Super Formula season finale at Fuji Speedway, reducing his points gap to title leader Naoki Yamamoto.

Nick Cassidy, immediately behind Nojiri in the standings and understood to be using an old Toyota engine after his previous one failed at Suzuka, set the pace immediately in qualifying’s first group.

KCMG’s Yuji Kunimoto beat him by two seconds with three minutes to go, but Cassidy replied with a lap two seconds up. Dandelion Racing’s Yamamoto set his first lap a minute later and went straight to the top, by two seconds, and was pipped to first place in the final minute by Nakajima Racing’s Toshiki Oyu.

Cassidy and Yamamoto then bettered themselves for second place, split by 0.010s, and at the end Mugen’s Ukyo Sasahara pipped Oyu by 0.062s. INGING’s Hiroaki Ishiura was 0.208s back in fifth, with Kondo Racing’s Sacha Fenestraz, Impul’s Yuhi Sekugichi and ROOKIE Racing’s Kazuya Oshima also progressing to Q2 after TOM’S driver Cassidy’s was sent to the back after losing laptimes to track limits offences.

In the second group ThreeBond Racing with Drago Corse’s Tatiana Calderon was surprisingly in first until the late improvements, where KCMG’s Kamui Kobayashi, Nakajima’s Hiroki Otsu, Dandelion’s Nirei Fukuzumi and B-MAX Racing’s Nobuharu Matsushita moved past her in quick succession for top spot.

Impul’s title contender Ryo Hirakawa headed the timesheet with 50s to go, and with two improvements stayed there ahead of Nojiri, Sho Tsuboi (INGING), Fukuzumi, Kazuki Nakajima (TOM’S), Kenta Yamashita (Kondo) and Matsushita – all spread by 0.516s. Otsu qualified 15th for his debut.

Matsushita was the man to beat in Q2, and he headed Sasahara by 0.075s (before his best lap was deleted). The title fighters had mixed fortunes: Yamamoto was third, Nojiri and Hirakawa progressed to Q3 in fifth and sixth, and Yamashita was 14th as Kondo struggled.

All eight cars in Q3 were pole contenders, and Nojiri set a record 1m19.972s with 30s to go to claim three points for pole. Tsuboi made it onto the front row at the end, just 0.017s off, and Yamamoto put a point between himself and Hirakawa in the title battle by qualifying third. Hirakawa didn’t improve late on and was eighth.

Qualifying results

The post Nojiri on pole for Super Formula Fuji finale, Yamamoto grows points lead appeared first on Formula Scout.