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

For 2021 there were some honourable mentions who landed either professional drives or reached a top level outside of single-seaters, but then continued their junior single-seater careers at the same time.

Jack Aitken was supposed to spend this year allying his Williams Formula 1 reserve driver duties with a GT World Challenge Europe drive in a Emil Frey Racing-run Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo, but a decision by Matteo Nannini to focus on his FIA Formula 3 Championship campaign meant Aitken ended up replacing him in HWA Racelab’s Formula 2 line-up.

It was a fruitless stint stopped when he broke his back in a crash in the Spa 24 Hours, with a best finish of fourth in his Lambo shared with Formula Regional European Championship graduate Konsta Lappalainen prior to that.

Racing against him in F2 was Liam Lawson, who in a Red Bull-branded AF Corse-run Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo rocked the DTM. He won on his debut, becoming the series’ yongest ever winner aged 19, and was on course for the title until a highly controversial Norisring finale. Also racing in the DTM were Toyota Racing Series race-winner Esteban Muth and former F3 racer Sophia Floersch who also impressed in LMP2 machinery in the World Endurance Championship.

The standout rookie of endurance racing this year was Franco Colapinto, now effectively a protege of G-Drive Racing, and the Argentinian was arguably the fastest driver on one-lap pace in both the Asian and European Le Mans Series in the top LMP2 class. He impressed so much that W Racing Team then called him up to race for it in the Spa 24H, despite having no GT racing experience, and came 22th in an Audi R8 LMS GT3. Later that month he came seventh in the Le Mans 24 Hours’ LMP2 class in a car shared with G-Drive team boss Roman Rusinov and Nyck de Vries, and then his form in FREC went up.

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

He ended a disappointing sixth in FREC, and is expected to move up to F3 next year alongside more endurance racing.

Over in Japan there were double programmes in Super Formula and the supporting SF Lights for Giuliano Alesi and Kazuto Kotaka, with SF Lights title runner-up Alesi taking a surprise win from pole at a wet Autopolis while standing in for Kazuki Nakajima at TOM’S. He will now take over the former F1 driver’s seat full-time for 2022.

Ramus Lindh was a frontrunner in LMP3 before landing an Indy Lights drive in the final quarter of the season, and Jorge Barrio was Argentinian Formula Renault 2.0 champion for the second year in a row while also winning Argentina’s second-tier TC2000 tin-top championship.

But none of these names could make the cut, so here is Formula Scout’s Class of 2020… Key Wins (W), poles (P), fastest laps (FL)

10. Charles Milesi FRANCE 20y/o
LM24H LMP2 winner, LMP2 Endurance Trophy winner (3 W), 10th in IMSA Endurance Cup LMP2, 17th in ELMS (2P, 2 FL)   2020: 21st in Super Formula, Ret in LM24H   2019: 9th in SF Lights   2018: 7th in FR Eurocup (2 W, 2 P, 1 FL)

Injury in 2019 and the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 delayed Milesi’s progression into the professional echelons, but three SF starts last year warmed him up well after his 2019 season was curtailed by a broken wrist that required intrusive surgery.

Rather than stick with SF for 2021, Milesi forewent the difficult travel restrictions and he landed a seat in WEC with the debuting WRT in a LMP2 car shared with Ferdinand Habsburg and Robin Frijns.

Despite the line-up’s near-total lack of LMP2 experience, they gelled perfectly and after inheriting victory from their team-mates in heartbreaking style at Le Mans (more on that later) they won both races in Bahrain to claim the class title.

That was a result based on teamwork, but there was also individual magnificence from Milesi who did the last two ELMS rounds with Cool Racing in a Pro-Am car. He took pole and fastest lap for both events, but with a Bronze-graded driver in the car it meant race results were hard to come by. However Milesi still lifted the team to its best results of the year.

9. Kiern Jewiss BRITAIN 19y/o
3rd in Porsche Carrera Cup GB (4 W)   2020: 13th in BRDC British F3 (1 W)   2019: 4th in BRDC British F3 (1 W, 2 P, 2 FL)

Photo: Porsche GB

Photo: Porsche GB

One of the most exciting young drivers to watch over the last few years has been Jewiss. He pulled off incredibly bold overtakes on his way to the British Formula 4 title in 2018, sometimes going too far in his rivalry with Ayrton Simmons, but it pushed the envelope for the category in terms of racecraft in the same way Max Verstappen is finding the limits of F1’s sporting rules today.

There was a Ferrari Driver Academy invite for an evaluation camp, and the Autosport BRDC Award even lowered its age limit to encompass the Mark Blundell protege, but the budget simply wasn’t there for a prolonged single-seater career.

He managed to return to his old Ginetta Junior team Douglas Motorsport to step up to what was then called BRDC British F3, but the combination struggled for pace in the first half of the season and meant Jewiss eventually came fourth in the series.

He returned for a second season, or at least the first half of it, and his career was practically revived when he signed with Team Parker Racing for this year’s Porsche Carrera Cup GB and as team-mate to the reigning champion Harry King who had won the title as an official Porsche GB junior.

The series runs on the same bill as British F4, meaning it has live UK television coverage of every round, and that exposure was important for Jewiss. He made the most of it and his team-mate too, winning on just his second start and taking three more victories across the season to come third – not too far off highly-rated champion Dan Cammish – and ahead of King.

8. Ritomo Miyata JAPAN 22y/o
10th in SF, 11th in Super GT   2020: SF Lights champion (12 W, 6 P, 15 FL), 17th in SF, 17th in Super GT

Photo: Super Formula

Photo: Super GT

Miyata qualified second on his SF debut last year, as a stand-in driver due to pandemic-enforced absences, and scored points in both of the races he was given the chance to race in by TOM’S. He was clearly something special.

So to get a full-time seat this year with the title-winning team put a fair bit of pressure on the 2020 SF Lights dominator.

He mostly did what was expected of him, scoring in his first eight races before that run came to an end in the season finale with a lowly 14th place finish after a spin and meant he finished two points up on rookie part-time team-mate Alesi.

Miyata’s best finish was fourth and he only qualified in the top three once, but he was consistent. His qualifying average was 6.14, and average race finish was 7.86, with only one outlying result for each. He also had to lead the team on set-up with Nakajima mostly absent, and was usually quicker to make the most of it in qualifying against his team-mates. There just wasn’t the pace to be further forward though.

In Super GT he helmed WedsSport Bandoh’s resurgence, having actually completed his rookie season in the top GT500 class last year. The 2021 season featured two poles and two second places, highlighting Miyata’s one-lap pace, and he chased Naoki Yamamoto hard at Twin Ring Motegi in a performance that really impressed. In both series the results weren’t quite there with his machinery, but TOM’S and Toyota have their faith in Miyata and he’s now landing a top sportscar seat for 2022.

7. Yuki Tsunoda JAPAN 21y/o
14th in F1   2020: 3rd in F2 (3 W, 4 P, 1 FL), 4th in Toyota Racing Series (1 W)   2019: 4th in Euroformula (1 W, 3 FL)

Photo: Red Bull Content Pool

Photo: Scuderia AlphaTauri

In both the first and final races of the 2021 F1 season, Tsunoda was looking like the real deal. Quick, aggressive, bold, feisty and crafty, he smashed in a couple of outstanding results. Unfortunately, for much of the rest of the campaign, his car was often left smashed up after an unnecessary incident.

Those troubles, and the expected onslaught of criticism that followed, massively knocked the Red Bull junior’s confidence. So bad was it, that he was surprised when he kept his seat for 2022, despite there not really being another F2 graduate on the verge of a step up.

It took him a very long time to rebound, eventually culminating in a fine fourth place in Abu Dhabi (with a mega lunge on Mercedes-AMG’s Valtteri Bottas to boot). The qualifying gap, race pace gap and points gap to flying Frenchman Pierre Gasly in the same car was astronomic across the year as a whole, but there were underlying glimpses that Tsunoda is the same brilliant driver we saw in the past three years in the junior ranks.

But his team on occasion did have one of the fastest cars in F1 this year, and he couldn’t make the most of it.

6. Mick Schumacher GERMANY 22y/o
19th in F1   2019: F2 champion (2 W, 2 FL)   2019: 12th in F2 (1 W, 2 FL)   2018: FIA European F3 champion (8 W, 7 P, 4 FL)

Photo: LAT/Haas

Photo: LAT/Haas

Schumacher looked by far the most comfortable and most consistent of the drivers to graduate to F1.

The Haas VF-21 he wrestled was, frankly, a rather disastrous car but there were glimpses of Schumacher producing a bit of a spark to place it in positions it didn’t deserve to be in a race or two. However, despite looking the most comfortable, he also had some hefty shunts, which goes against him.

Obvious highlights included scraping into Q2 at Istanbul Park and a defensive masterclass at a jumbled up (and damp) Hungaroring, showcasing his ability to pounce when there’s a chance of something. It resembled a bit of his F2 career in a way, just with far better adaptability (one of his key junior weaknesses), and some very fine qualifying performances.

This is a somewhat reserved placement given the up-and-down year, as well as the rubbish machinery at his disposal, but he’s showcasing the ability to build and adapt the team around him as he did with Prema for so many years coming up the ranks and which was noted by others in the F1 paddock.

His fellow rookie team-mate, who does not make this list, was regularly thrashed in qualifying and races.

5. Louis Deletraz SWITZERLAND 24y/o
ELMS champion (3 W), 20th in WEC LMP2, NC in LM24H   2020: 4th in LM24H, 8th in F2 (2 FL)   2019: 8th in F2 (2 FL)

It became a bit of a light-hearted joke during Deletraz’s F2 career that he couldn’t win, with 94 races returning six second places and one front-row start. Before that he took a far more efficient two wins and three poles from 20 Formula V8 3.5 races.

From the previous five years the only instance where Deletraz looked truly spectacular was when he was called up by Rebellion Racing to contest the 2020 Le Mans 24 Hours, looking immediately comfortable in free practice and then running in contention for second place in the race when a worn clutch during his final stint led to several issues and an eventual finish of fourth.

That debut put Deletraz on the endurance racing map, and with no F1 doors opening for 2021 he joined crack GT racing outfit WRT as it started its first venture into prototype sportscars. He ended up sharing a car with Robert Kubica and Yifei Ye.

Deletraz won on his LMP2 debut at Barcelona, and the trio followed it up with a second ELMS win at the Red Bull Ring. Inter Europol Competition then took on Deletraz for a WEC round, and he finished fifth in class, before WRT attacked Le Mans.

He was nominated to qualify the car, and ended up as the second-fastest LMP2. He was in that position after 12 hours of the race, behind the Milesi entry, and the car twice moved into the lead in the morning while Ye was at the wheel. It looked like Deletraz would be a Le Mans winner when on the final lap of the race Ye encountered a throttle sensor issue and the car stopped. Their race was over.

It was heartbreak for the crew, but they then went on to win another ELMS round and the title, guaranteeing themselves another shot at Le Mans next year.

4. Niklas Krutten GERMANY 19y/o
2nd in ELMS LMP3 (2 W), 5th/2nd in Road to Le Mans, 12th in IMSA LMP3 (1 P), NLS BM240i (1 P, 1 FL)   2020: 5th in Euroformula

LMP3 is the F3 of prototype sportscars, and so it wouldn’t usually be considered for drivers ‘graduating’ from junior single-seaters. But like LMP2, sometimes a driver is signed to do a job, which at the same time is a breakthrough opportunity, and from there they establish themselves to make appearances with others in the category.

Krutten landed in LMP3 this year just as an opportunity to continue his racing career, having initially been set to stay in single-seaters after coming fifth in Euroformula, but soon became the star of the category and was a de facto pro by year’s end.

He won his first two races in Europe and only missed out on the ELMS title by a single point, and also contested the Road to Le Mans support races at the 24-hour race, coming fifth and second in the sprint races, then got called up by Zak Brown’s United Autosports team for two IMSA rounds.

Krutten rounded out his season by taking Petit Le Mans class pole, but a crash and a fuel pump failure ruined his race. He also put in two appearances in the NLS series on the Nurburgring Nordschleife, where he shared a BMW with fellow ADD Management client Jake Dennis and finished second in class on debut.

ADD also got Krutten into the Jaguar garage in Formula E’s Berlin finale, and will surely find the 19-year-old even more endurance racing opportunities for 2022. The feedback from the team bosses he’s had so far has also been excellent.

3. Callum Ilott BRITAIN 23y/o
3rd in LM24H GTEAm, 11th in GTWCE Endurance Cup, 38th in IndyCar, NC in Intercontinental GT Challenge   2020: 2nd in F2 (3 W, 5 P)

Photo: Juncos Racing

Photo: IndyCar / Joe Skiblinski

There was a very embarrassing incident at Indianapolis in the Intercontinental GT Challenge that cost AF Corse victory, but otherwise Ilott looked totally at home in a GT car this year after Ferrari overlooked him for a F1 drive.

Ilott had taken the Indianapolis 8 Hours lead in a dicey battle, going from third to first in one move at a restart, with just over 90 minutes to go. He then looked comfortable out front until with 52 minutes to go he misjudged lapping a GT4 car and squeezed himself against the outside wall. The result was a collision, crash and immediate retirement.

Away from that, Ilott was mostly fast, faultless and formidable. In the GTE version of the 488 he made the Le Mans podium in the GTEAm class, then in the GT3 car he picked up some strong GTWCE Endurance Cup results early on but there was just misfortune after that as team-mate Antonio Fuoco crashed the car at Barcelona.

Alongside his F1 reserve and test driver duties, Ilott was also able to head to the USA to kickstart his IndyCar career. He contested the final three rounds with the returning Juncos Hollinger Racing team, which he will drive for full-time next year.

Ilott qualified a respectable 19th for his debut at Portland, but failed to finish, ended up on row 13 of the grid at Laguna Seca and spun into the barriers during the warm-up session before coming a lapped 22nd, but looked more on the pace in Long Beach before a spin that combining his and team’s inexperience meant his year ended very flatly.

It didn’t look impressive on the surface, but given drivers at bigger teams didn’t go trouble-free either but had more races to show their worth, it was a respectable arrival by Ilott and sets him up for 2022.

2. Sena Sakaguchi JAPAN 22y/o
7th in SF, 14th in Super GT (1 P, 1 FL), 16th in Super GT300   2020: 2nd in SF Lights (4 W, 5 P, 2 FL), FRegional Japan champion (11 W, 8 P, 8 FL), 18th in Super GT, 16th in Super GT300

Photo: Super GT

Photo: Super Formula

Despite dominating the Formula Regional Japanese Championship last year and coming second in SF Lights, you would be forgiven for not expecting much of Sakaguchi as he replaced the retiring Hiroaki Ishiura in INGING’s SF line-up.

But he spent 2021 exceeding all expectations. In SF he beat team-mate Sho Tsuboi convincingly, finishing second twice in changing weather and ending up as the second-best rookie in the points thanks to a strong partnership with his engineer Kotaro Tanaka.

He made the top three in qualifying twice, and in a season where the Honda-powered teams tended to have the advantage on one-lap pace it was still an impressive return and he had an average starting position of 7.29 and average finish of 7.14.

Due to travel restrictions he also ended up standing in for Sacha Fenestraz at TOM’S for the first five Super GT rounds. There, once again, he exceeded expectations.

He took pole, led the early running and took fastest lap on the way to third in the very first race of the season, then made the podium again next time out. Once Fenestraz could make it to Japan, Sakaguchi moved down to a Super GT3000 drive but again immediately landed on the podium. Of all the drivers on this list, the one who had the biggest breakout year.

1. Yifei Ye CHINA 23y/o
ELMS champion (3 W, 1 FL), ALMS champion (2 W), NC in LM24H   2020: Euroformula champion (11 W, 12 P, 12 FL)

Photo: Alex Goure / ACO

Thinking better of a post-season SF test, but not having the budget for F2, Ye’s single-seater career came to an unintended standstill after his sublime Euroformula title, but once he got an LMP2 chance he grabbed it with both hands.

He became the first ever driver to win the ALMS and ELMS titles in the same year, should have won Le Mans, and then used his rising stock to orchestrate a move into Porsche Asia Pacific’s line-up and a 2022 GT racing programme.

There was no pre-season testing for Ye before he jumped in one of G-Drive Racing’s Algarve Pro Racing-run LMP2 cars, but he mastered not only the car but the format of endurance racing in the top class and during his stints was outclassing far more experienced drivers.

Ye was signed to Williams Esports and crack sportscar Rebellion Racing to contest last summer’s Virtual LM24H during the first global lockdown period.

The simulated car he used in the rFactor 2-based Esports event was the same Oreca 07 he raced in ALMS, and other appearances in major Esports competitions brought him into contact with people in the real-world sportscar paddock.

That helped him then go from ALMS, where he won his first two races in sportscars, to WRT’s ELMS line-up and the combination of himself, Deletraz and Kubica (both teaching Ye a lot) did the exact same thing with two wins on the trot. Two further wins were arguably lost to ill-timed safety car periods.

Ye was not considered the pro driver in the line-up and so was often looked over for qualifying and the more lucrative race stints, which had some influence on his 2022 contract negotiations and ultimately led to him leaving the outfit once manager Neel Jani used his Porsche connections to push Ye in that direction. Importantly though, every time Ye was in the Oreca 07 he was a driver the other teams had to look out for because of how potent he was proving to be.

At Le Mans he passed Milesi in the night for the LMP2 lead, and he did actually end up at the wheel for the all-important final stint. And so most of the pain was felt by the Chinese when the car turned off on the final lap.

His Porsche move is with one goal in mind: an LMDh seat in 2023 and overall Le Mans victory.

Written by Ida Wood and Craig Woollard

The post Formula Scout’s Class of 2020 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.

Photo: Super Formula

Junior single-seater champions Ritomo Miyata and Sena Sakaguchi will move up to Super Formula this year, as well as racing in Super GT using Toyota power.

Long-time Toyota junior dominated Super Formula Lights last year with TOM’S, and made two starring appearances in SF with the team as a substitute for the absent 2019 champion Nick Cassidy.

The 21-year-old now takes Cassidy’s place permanently following the Kiwi’s switch to Formula E with Virgin Racing, and also keeps his Super GT seat in a Toyota GR Supra alongside 2016 SF champion Yuji Kuminoto at WedsSport Bandoh.

Cassidy’s departure from Japan means the TOM’S line-up in Super GT has also been revised, with Sacha Fenestraz moving in alongside Ryo Hirakawa in the team’s #37 car, and SF race-winner Sho Tsuboi slotting in to replace Fenestraz in the #36.

Sakaguchi finished second to Miyata in SF Lights in 2020 and had an unbeaten run to the inaugural Formula Regional Japanese Championship title.

The former Honda junior was also supposed to debut in SF last year alongside Fenestraz at the Toyota-powered Kondo Racing, but crashed on the warm-up lap at Okayama before he could race.

The 21-year-old has now been selected to drive for INGING in SF, becoming team-mate to Tsuboi after the retirement of two-time champion Hiroaki Ishiura.

Sakaguchi’s sportscar commitments will be in Super GT’s secondary GT300 class, where he will race a Lexus RC F GT3 for the second season in a row.

Meanwhile Formula 2 race-winner Nobuharu Matsushita, who returned to Japanese racing late in 2020, will represent Nissan at Team Impul in the top GT500 class.

The post Miyata and Sakaguchi earn Super Formula and Super GT seats for 2021 appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Super Formula

Enaam Ahmed drove for B-MAX Racing with Motopark on day one of Super Formula’s post-season Fuji Speedway rookie test, marking his first driving since leaving the FIA Formula 3 Championship.

After a race-winning campaign in SF’s supporting Super Formula Lights series with B-MAX in 2019, London-based Ahmed returned to Europe this year to race in FIA F3. His season only lasted three rounds before he left, and he has not raced since.

The 20-year-old was one of three drivers in action for B-MAX on the first day of the test, with team boss DRAGON and Formula Regional Japanese Championship racer Nobuhiro Imada also sampling the team’s cars.

The driver who set the pace was newly crowned three-time SF champion Naoki Yamamoto, who was driving for Nakajima Racing rather than his usual Dandelion Racing outfit.

His Tuesday morning benchmark of a 1m20.338s was 0.149 seconds faster than usual team-mate Nirei Fukuzumi’s afternoon best.

Besides the B-MAX crew, the other ‘rookies’ to take part in the test included new SF Lights champion Ritomo Miyata at TOM’S, who is all but guaranteed a full-time SF promotion next year after starring in his first two races in 2020, FRJC champion Sena Sakaguchi at INGING and SF Lights racer Shunsuke Kohno at ROOKIE Racing.

Miyata was fastest in the SF Lights test that ran alongside on Tuesday, heading Rn-sports’ Atsushi Miyake – the 2019 Japanese Formula 4 runner-up – by 0.142s.

B-MAX’s ex-Formula V8 3.5 racer Yu Kanamaru was third fastest, ahead of Kohno (RS Fine) and TOM’S-driving Toyota proteges Hibiki Taira, who is the new Japanese F4 champion, and Kazuto Kotaka.

Test results

The post Enaam Ahmed back in a single-seater in Super Formula rookie test appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: FRJC

Sena Sakaguchi ended the first ever Formula Regional Japanese Championship season at Autopolis with the title and an unbeaten run of 11 wins from 11 starts.

The Sutekina Racing Team driver had his run of poles ended by TOM’S rival Yuga Furutani in qualifying, which ran to a new format of a single 30-minute session and with the grids for races one and two set by the fastest and second-fastest laptimes of each driver.

Furutani’s run on new tyres at the end of qualifying put him past Sutekina returnee Yu Kanamarau for race one pole by just 0.015 seconds, and ahead of Sakaguchi by 0.017s for race two pole.

That advantage came to nothing in race one, as Furutani stalled and fell to the back of the five-car field while former Formula V8 3.5 driver Kanamaru raced into the lead.

It didn’t take long for Furutani to work his way into the top three, passing the third Sutekina-run car of Miku Ikejima and four-time Super Formula champion Satoshi Motoyama – making his single-seater racing return with Team Goh.

Kanamaru held a comfortable early lead, before Sakaguchi and Furutani started to close in as the race entered its second half and Kanamaru had to defend.

The overtake for the lead came at the start of lap nine, with Sakaguchi taking the outside line of the first corner. He remained side-by-side with Kanamaru all the way down the straight to turn 3, where he completed the move Furutani also almost slipped past.

It took a few more laps for Furutani to claim second, getting by quite forcefully at turn 1, and he then had to spend the remaining laps pursuing Sakaguchi. They finished just under half a second apart, while Kanamaru coasted to third.

With victory Sakaguchi was also crowned champion, while Motoyama’s return resulted in a fourth place finish.

Furutani again stalled from pole in the season finale. This time he got the car off the line, slowly, and was still in fourth by the time they reached the opening corner, but Sakaguchi was already leading and on the way to another win.

Furutani fought his way past Motoyama for third at turn 2, then passed Kanamaru for second down the inside of turn 1 on the next lap. He was unable to hunt down Sakaguchi in time to challenge for the win, but did set fastest lap in his pursuit.

Motoyama tracked down Kanamaru and passed him for the final podium spot, but his racing return ended in the gravel with two laps to go after going off at turn 11.

Results round-up

The post Sakaguchi wins inaugural Formula Regional Japan title at Autopolis appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Super Formula Lights

TOM’S driver Ritomo Miyata won the Super Formula Lights title a round early at Suzuka.

B-MAX Racing’s Sena Sakaguchi beat Miyata in qualifying, and did everything to hold on to his pole advantage at the start of the race.

He immediately swept across from the outside towards the pitwall, a gap Miyata was in and only just cleared without contact.

The move proved pointless, as Miyata had the inside line and took the lead while RS Fine’s Shunsuke Kohno picked the outside and swept around Sakaguchi at the exit of the first corner to claim second. Sakaguchi was then penalised 30 seconds for his swerve.

On lap seven of 12 a position was regained by Sakaguchi at the same corner, but Miyata was already way ahead and the penalty left Sakaguchi in eighth.

Miyata’s team-mate Kazuto Kotaka hassled Kohno late on but couldn’t get past and claimed third, and B-Max Engineering’s Yoshiaki Katayama shook off Toda Racing’s Honda junior Teppei Natori for fourth.

Takashi Hata crashed his B-MAX Racing-run car at the exit of Spoon Curve on lap two, but the safety car wasn’t called out while marshals spent several laps trying retrieving the car.

Sakaguchi was more cautous from race two pole, but had time to move to the inside this time and it was Miyata who was compromised as Kotaka went by for second place.

After the first corner there was no change in the top three until mid-distance, when Miyata spun out at high speed. This promoted Natori to third, but he had Kohno right on his gearbox.

Natori’s defending brough Katayama into play, before Kohno overtook around the outside of the first corner. It was Natori with the better traction to exit the corner ahead though, and their battling also drew in Albirex Racing’s Tsubasa Iriyama.

Several lock-ups at the final chicane showed how hard Natori was pushing, and he held onto third.

Miyata was a controlling leader again in race three, this time from pole, while Sakaguchi had to work his way up to second place, taking it on the final lap after going side-by-side with Kotaka through the S Curves. There was a similarly close battle for fourth, with Kohno edging Natori.

Results round-up
Race 1 (12 laps)
1 Ritomo Miyata TOM’S 22m16.776s
2 Shunsuke Kohno RS Fine +11.546s
3 Kazuto Kotaka TOM’S +11.795s
4 Yoshiaki Katayama B-Max Engineering +18.420s
5 Teppei Natori Toda Racing +21.122s
6 Lucca Allen Albirex Racing +25.700s
7 Tsubasa Iriyama Albirex Racing +26.050s
8 Sena Sakaguchi B-MAX Racing +40.003s
9 DRAGON B-Max Engineering +57.055s
10 Nobuhiro Imada B-MAX Racing +1m00.715s
Pole: Sakaguchi, 1m49.046s
Fastest lap: Miyata, 1m50.714s

Race 2 (12 laps)
1 Sakaguchi 22m16.182s
2 Kotaka +1.157s
3 Natori +16.993s
4 Kohno +17.632s
5 Katayama +17.983s
6 Iriyama +18.753s
7 DRAGON +41.270s
8 Masayuki Ueda Rn-sports +50.488s
Ret Takashi Hata B-MAX Racing
Ret Miyata
P: Sakaguchi, 1m49.337s
FL: Miyata, 1m50.771s

Race 3 (17 laps)
1 Miyata 22m14.764s
2 Sakaguchi +6.254s
3 Kotaka +6.415s
4 Kohno +15.385s
5 Natori +16.113s
6 Allen +20.230s
7 Katayama +24.798s
8 DRAGON +47.273s
9 Ueda +55.648s
10 Imada +59.588s
FL: Miyata, 1m51.475s

Championship standings
1 Miyata 136   2 Sakaguchi 107   3 Kotaka 55   4 Natori 47   5 Kohno 32   6 Katayama 10   7 Mitsunori Takaboshi 8   8 Iriyama 6   9 Seiya Jin 4   10 Allen 4

The post Miyata wins Super Formula Lights title at Suzuka with a round to spare appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Super Formula Lights

Ritomo Miyata took another two Super Formula Lights wins as he juggled double duty with Super Formula at Autopolis.

Miyata made a superb start from pole in race one and pretty much had the win in the bag by the end of lap one with a sizeable lead.

B-MAX Racing’s Sena Sakaguchi had no answer to Miyata’s pace, despite the leader frequently locking up into Turn 4, and the gap between the two up front stretched out to 8.355 seconds over the 21-lap race.

Toda Racing’s Teppei Natori initially had to worry about Miyata’s TOM’S team-mate Kazuto Kotaka while holding on to third, but he had started to distance himself by mid-distance before Kotaka’s car started leaking fluid and came to a stop.

That handed fourth to RS Fine’s Shunsuke Kohno, who held off pressure from B-MAX Engineering driver Mizuki Ishizaka for the position. It was former Japanese Formula 4 racer Ishizaka’s first race in SF Lights.

Fellow debutant Lucca Allen secured sixth after passing Albirex Racing team-mate Tsubasa Iriyama.

Miyata was outpaced by Natori and Sakaguchi in qualifying for race two, and a cautious approach to the opening corner of the race essentially left him third for the duration.

Sakaguchi beat poleman Natori off the line and into Turn 1, while Miyata could have attempted a move on Natori but decided against it. In the opening half of the race the lead three separated, but Miyata had the fastest car in the second half and he closed right back onto the rear of Natori.

He ran out of laps to make a move, as Sakaguchi picked up his third win and Natori claimed his best series result.

Allen leaped from seventh to fourth on lap one, but didn’t have the pace to stay there and was passed and then gapped by Kotaka and Kohno.

Miyata made sure he left Autopolis with an extended points lead by winning race three from pole ahead of Sakaguchi.

Kotaka went from 10th to fifth on lap one, passed Kohno on lap two and then hounded Natori for third for the remainder of the race.

Kohno dropped into the clutches of Allen before the latter’s race ended with an issue, securing him fifth. Ishizaka claimed the final point in sixth, and Iriyama prevailed in a lengthy and messy duel with B-MAX boss DRAGON for seventh.

Results round-up
Race 1 (21 laps)
1 Ritomo Miyata TOM’S 34m23.087s
2 Sena Sakaguchi B-MAX Racing +8.355s
3 Teppei Natori Toda Racing +18.513s
4 Shunsuke Kohno RS Fine +34.691s
5 Mizuki Ishizaka B-Max Engineering +35.277s
6 Lucca Allen Albirex Racing +55.785s
7 Tsubasa Iriyama Albirex Racing +1m02.040s
8 DRAGON B-Max Engineering +1m27.400s
Ret Masayuki Ueda Rn-sports
Ret Kazuto Kotaka TOM’S
Pole: Miyata, 1m35.493s
Fastest lap: Miyata, 1m37.683s

Race 2 (14 laps)
1 Sakaguchi 22m46.574s
2 Natori +8.207s
3 Miyata +8.786s
4 Kotaka +12.987s
5 Kohno +21.872s
6 Allen +34.952s
7 Iriyama +45.182s
8 DRAGON +48.201s
9 Ueda +1m08.015s
Ret Ishizaka
Pole: Natori, 1m36.071
FL: Sakaguchi, 1m37.114s

Race 3 (14 laps)
1 Miyata 22m58.277s
2 Sakaguchi +2.757s
3 Natori +11.035s
4 Kotaka +11.590s
5 Kohno +18.939s
6 Ishizaka +26.658s
7 Iriyama +51.308s
8 DRAGON +53.243s
9 Ueda +1m06.752s
Ret Allen
FL: Miyata, 1m37.797s

Championship standings
1 Miyata 113   2 Sakaguchi 88   3 Kotaka 38   4 Natori 38   5 Kohno 19   6 Mitsunori Takaboshi 8   7 Yoshiaki Katayama 5   8 Iriyama 5   9 Seiya Jin 4   10 Ishizaka 3

The post Miyata and Sakaguchi share Super Formula Lights wins at Autopolis appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Formula Regional Japanese Championship

A double win at Okayama was the latest part of Sena Sakaguchi’s domination of Formula Regional Japanese Championship’s inaugural seaon, and leaves little to be done in the title decider.

The Sutekina Racing Team driver took pole for both races, and had to defend straight away in the first one from title rival Yuga Futurani. As they got to the first corner it all went wrong for Furutani though and he dropped to fourth, all but guaranteeing Sakaguchi victory.

It took a few laps for him to get back up to second place, by which point it was too late to rival Sakaguchi and he took his eighth win from eight starts.

Furutani didn’t lose places at Turn 1 at the start of race two, but he had even less of an answer to Sakaguchi’s pace and set-up tweaks between the two races enabled the leader to have a faster car and he won by 5.142s. There’s now 38 points between the pair at the top of the standings, with 50 available in next month’s season finale.

Sakaguchi’s team-mate Mizuki Ishizaka completed the podium in both races, finishing 17.687s behind in race one and 26.061s back in race two.

Results
Race 1 (17 laps)
1 Sena Sakaguchi Sutekina Racing Team 24m54.570s
2 Yuga Furutani TOM’S +2.952s
3 Mizuki Ishizaka Sutekina Racing Team +17.687s
4 Ai Miura Super License +20.078s
5 Takashi Hata Super Licence +49.478s
6 Masayuki Ueda Rn-sports +53.916s
7 DRAGON B-MAX Racing +1m08.739s
8 Syuji B-MAX Racing +1 lap
9 Nobuhiro Imada Eagle Sports +1 lap
Pole: Sakaguchi, 1m26.499s
Fastest lap: Furutani, 1m26.875s

Race 2 (20 laps)
1 Sakaguchi 29m03.431s
2 Furutani +5.142s
3 Ishizaka +26.061s
4 Miura +29.664s
5 DRAGON  +59.573s
6 Hata +1m03.302s
7 Ueda +1m14.634s
8 Imada +1m17.241s
9 Syuji +1m19.587s
P: Sakaguchi, 1m25.897s
FL: Sakaguchi, 1m26.638s

Championship standings
1 Sakaguchi 225   2 Furutani 187   3 Tomoki Takahashi 139   4 Ueda 79   5 Imada 77   6 DRAGON 76   7 Yuki Nemoto 58   8 Yu Kanamaru 45   9 Takuro Shihohara 43   10 Syuji 41

The post Sakaguchi closes in on Formula Regional Japan title with Okayama wins appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Super Formula Lights

Ritomo Miyata brought his Super Formula Lights win tally up to 16 with two victories at Sportsland SUGO.

The TOM’S driver was beaten in the wet qualifying session by B-MAX Racing’s Sena Sakaguchi, but had the better of his title rival on a far drier track in the first race of the weekend.

Sakaguchi wheelspan off the line on the damper side of the track, allowing Miyata to take the lead before the first corner as his team-mate Kazuto Kotaka fended off to RS Fine’s Shunsuke Kohno for third.

Miyata immediately pulled away, and opened up a gap of 9.596 seconds over Sakaguchi in the 26-lap race. A further six seconds back was Kotaka, who initially kept with Sakaguchi but ended up having to be wary of Kohno again late on.

The only other driver not to be lapped was B-MAX team boss DRAGON, who finished a career-best fifth. The series veteran, who has raced full-time in the series in 2013, therefore claimed his first points on his 128th start.

Sakaguchi mae better use of pole in race two, immediately swiping across to defend from Miyata. Squeezed between Sakaguchi and the pitwall, Miyata briefly got his nose ahead before running over the Turn 1 kerbs lost him momentum and freed Sakaguchi into the lead.

A queue of cars formed behind Miyata for the rest of the lap, with Kotaka claiming third from Toda Racing’s Teppei Natori at the start of lap two. A loose moment through S-Cure enabled both Natori and Kohno to draw alongside, with Natori successfuly reclaiming the position at the next corner.

Natori and Kotaka lost several seconds to the front two in the proccess, then continued to battle through to Horseback Corner, where Natori ran Kotaka wide and he fell behind Kohno.

Kohno pressured for third at the start of lap three, and the closest he got to passing Natori as he shadowed the Honda junior for the rest of the race.

The lead battle opened up in the early laps, with Miyata closing back in late on but still finishing 1.454s behind.

Miyata started race three from pole and led lights-to-flag, with the podium positions set on the opening with Sakaguchi in second and Kotaka in third.

Results round-up
Race 1 (26 laps)
1 Ritomo Miyata TOM’S 31m45.446s
2 Sena Sakaguchi B-MAX Racing +9.596s
3 Kazuto Kotaka TOM’S +15.516s
4 Shunsuke Kohno RS Fine +16.132s
5 DRAGON B-Max Engineering +1m08.633s
6 Tsubasa Iriyama Albirex Racing +1 lap
7 Masayuki Ueda Rn-sports +1 lap
8 Nobuhiro Imada B-MAX Racing +1 lap
9 Takashi Hata B-MAX Racing +1 lap
10 Motoyoshi Yoshida B-Max Engineering +3 laps
Pole: Sakaguchi, 1m26.848s
Fastest lap: Miyata, 1m12.571s

Race 2 (26 laps)
1 Sakaguchi 23m12.542s
2 Miyata +1.454s
3 Teppei Natori Toda Racing +17.940s
4 Kohno +18.732s
5 Kotaka +19.893s
6 Iriyama +45.007s
7 DRAGON +45.489s
8 Ueda +51.684s
9 Imada +55.691s
10 Hata +1m09.337s
P: Sakaguchi, 1m26.966s
FL: Sakaguchi, 1m12.583s

Race 3 (19 laps)
1 Miyata 23m16.595s
2 Sakaguchi +2.087s
3 Kotaka +8.519s
4 Kohno +14.946s
5 Natori +17.504s
6 Iriyama +46.468s
7 DRAGON +46.718s
8 Ueda +55.919s
9 Imada +1m02.341s
10 Hata +1m11.492s
FL: Miyata, 1m12.865s

Championship standings
1 Miyata 85   2 Sakaguchi 63   3 Kotaka 32   4 Natori 20   5 Kohno 12   6 Mitsunori Takaboshi 8   7 Yoshiaki Katayama 5   8 Iriyama 5   9 Seiya Jin 4   10 DRAGON 2

The post Miyata extends Super Formula Lights lead with double Sugo win appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Super Formula Lights

Sena Sakaguchi ended Ritomo Miyata’s dominant start to the Super Formula Lights season at Okayama, on the same weekend the pair appeared in Super Formula.

TOM’S star Miyata took pole for both races, and had to defend from B-MAX Racing rival Sakaguchi several times on the opening lap of race one to hold on to the lead.

After that attack had been held off, Miyata edged away until the late appearance of the safety car due to Albirex Racing’s Tsubasa Iriyama clashing with B-MAX boss DRAGON.

Miyata was on the ball on the restart and immediately put distance between himself and Sekaguchi to secure victory. Series returnee Yoshiaki Katayama rounded out the podium on his first drive in the new Dallara 320, and Honda junior Teppei Natori finished fourth.

Sakaguchi got the better of poleman Miyata at the start of race two, but also had his hopes of being able to pull away stymied by a safety car period. This time it was for Katayama and RS Fine’s Shunsuke Kohno spinning and leaving no clear route through for the cars behind.

On the restart Sakaguchi covered off Miyata’s challenge, and initially was the faster of the two. Miyata then set fastest lap as he closed back in on Sakaguchi, but couldn’t quite get close enough to make an overtake and had his run of six consecutive wins since 2019 come to an end. It was Sakaguchi’s first win in the series, which he has contested since 2016.

TOM’S’ second driver Kazuto Kotaka finished third, marking the first time the Toyota junior has been allowed to race at Okayama since he was driving in Formula 4 back in 2016.

Masayuki Ueda and DRAGON took a Masters class win each, although both failed to score points. Not among their opposition, but certainly old enough to, was Sakaguchi’s 52-year-old team-mate Masami Kageyama.

The 1998 Super Formula title runner-up finished eighth in race one, then scored his first point in the series since 1994 with a sixth place finish.

Results round-up
Race 1 (18 laps)
1 Ritomo Miyata TOM’S 29m19.057s
2 Sena Sakaguchi B-MAX Racing +1.759s
3 Yoshiaki Katayama B-MAX Racing +3.197s
4 Teppei Natori Toda Racing +4.260s
5 Seiya Jin Albirex Racing +5.459s
6 Shunsuke Kohno RS Fine +6.241s
7 Kazuto Kotaka TOM’S +6.879s
8 Masami Kageyama B-MAX Racing +9.538s
9 DRAGON B-Max Engineering +10.176s
10 Masayuki Ueda Rn-sports +13.275s
Pole: Miyata, 1m21.349s
Fastest lap: Miyata, 1m22.439s

Race 2 (25 laps)
1 Sakaguchi 39m16.527s
2 Miyata +0.444s
3 Kotaka +4.713s
4 Natori +21.466s
5 Tsubasa Iriyama Albirex Racing +37.066s
6 Kageyama +45.642s
7 DRAGON +46.989s
8 Ueda +1m01.238s
9 Motoyoshi Yoshida B-Max Engineering +1 lap
Ret Kohno
P: Miyata, 1m21.430s
FL: Miyata, 1m22.964s

Championship standings
1 Miyata 56   2 Sakaguchi 36   3 Kotaka 20   4 Natori 13   5 Mitsunori Takaboshi 8   6 Yoshiaki Katayama 5   7 Kohno 3   8 Jin 4   9 Iriyama 2   10 Kiyoto Fujimani 2

The post Super Formula rookies Miayata and Sakaguchi share SF Lights wins appeared first on Formula Scout.