Exclusive: Zak O’Sullivan talks Super GT win, Super Formula campaign, adapting to Japanese Motorsport and more
- Tarun Suresh
- Oct 9
- 12 min read
Written by Tarun Suresh, Edited by Vyas Ponnuri
2024 was shaping up to end on a low note for one Zak O’Sullivan. Despite his impressive CV of winning the GB3 championship, finishing second to Gabriel Bortoleto in the 2023 Formula 3 season, two Formula 2 wins and a junior driver role at Williams, he had to pull out of F2 mid-season due to financial issues, a fate not too uncommon, even for drivers with impressive on-track records.
With Franco Colapinto getting the call-up to Formula One at the Williams F1 Team mid-season, O’Sullivan’s future looked uncertain, at best.
That was until he got a last-minute call from Toyota Gazoo Racing for the Official Super Formula Test at the end of the year. The testing had already started by the time he got the call, and before he knew it, he was on a flight to Japan.
“To be honest, it came about, kinda by chance. As you know, I pulled out of F2 last year due to financial issues. Of course, Formula 2 and the levels below that are pay-to-race series, so the driver has to bring on a budget to the team to be able to compete,” the British driver said.
“So actually, it looked like I wasn’t gonna be racing anything this year… It wasn't looking like a great year, and then last minute, I got a call from the guys at TGR. I was at home in London still, and they said, ‘Do you wanna do a Super Formula test?’ I said, ‘Ok, sure!’
"The only issue was that the test had already started! So I, literally half an hour later, was on the way to the airport, got on a plane and landed. Landed just in time to do the last day of testing in Suzuka. So just one day in the car.”
Early in 2025, O’Sullivan was announced as the replacement for Kazuto Kotaka at Kondo Racing in the Super Formula series, and soon after, a Super GT seat was also secured, partnering Toyota prodigy Rikuto Kobayashi at the newly established CarGuy MKS Racing in the GT300 class.
“At that point, I wasn’t sure if I was gonna get a seat, and then a few weeks I got told, clearly I impressed in the test and a Super Formula seat came up with Kondo,” O’Sullivan mentioned, speaking on how his Super Formula announcement came about.
“And as for GT, again, very last minute. I had already started racing in Super Formula, and again, an opportunity came up from TGR to compete in Super GT. The objective for me, of course, was to try and help learn circuits before Super Formula, and it’s a good experience to race in GTs, and it all came together very last minute, and it’s been a successful year so far, which has been great.”
If it weren’t for this surprise opportunity, his career could’ve taken a very different turn. In fact, he might have not had a drive at all!
O’Sullivan expressed his thanks to Toyota and remarked on what his future would’ve been. “I’m not sure!” he mentions, wondering what would have unfolded otherwise. “Honestly, it was looking very difficult for me to get a seat. As you know, motorsport is very financially dependent, and yeah, it was looking like I might have a few roles, a simulator role, a reserve drive, but I don’t think I would’ve been racing anything full-time this year. The opportunity from Toyota was incredible; I’m very thankful for that.”
Going from a feeder series like Formula 2 to an independent racing series in a completely different part of the world, with a different racing culture, with different cars can be difficult. One such difference is the environment within the team and how they respond to his feedback.
“Yeah, it’s been tough. I think the main thing is that I’m no longer in a junior formula, so my input as a driver has a lot more say on what the team do. Which has its pros and cons, of course.
“Normally, in Europe, the team are more controlling over the setup of the car and the direction we go in, and it stems also into F1, of course, because the teams build the car.
"So, as a driver, you give your feedback, but you do not have the top responsibility to be able to make the changes to the car, whereas in Japan, it is actually very different, where my input can directly lead to a change. So, it took a while to get used to that. “As I said, it has its pros and cons. The pros are that we can get stuff done more efficiently if I believe something’s right or wrong. Obviously, the cons are, it’s on me if it goes wrong!”
Super Formula is the second fastest motorsport in the world. It should go without saying that the cars are extremely different compared to the Formula 2 cars O’Sullivan is used to, which are very much off the pace compared to Formula One.
O’Sullivan explained the differences between the F2 and Super Formula cars, and how it has affected his driving style: “I would say Super Formula relates a lot closer to Formula 1. It bridges the gap pretty much perfectly to F1. I think we’re around five or six seconds slower than F1 at Suzuka. “And from when I did Formula 2, on average, we were around between 10 to 12 seconds slower than F1 at circuits similar to that. So it bridges the gap. The main thing is [that there’s] a lot more downforce in Super Formula. We have power steering as well.
“So the driving style is more focused on carrying minimum speed and using the downforce you have. So it’s a more attacking driving style compared to Formula 2, where it's a heavy car. “You probably focus a lot more on ‘v-ing’ the corners off rather than carrying outright speed. And of course, the main nuance of Formula 2 are the tyres. We have high degradation Pirelli tyres, so it takes a while to get used to that, whereas Super Formula is just full push in the race.”
Formula One and its feeder series’ gimmick to encourage overtaking is the Drag Reduction System (DRS). A flap in the rear wing open up to reduce drag in long straights when a driver is within a second behind the driver ahead. Super Formula has its own gimmick in the OverTake System (OTS). When the drivers press the OTS button on the steering wheel, they get rewarded with increased fuel flow into the engine, temporarily boosting the speed of the car. However, when the driver takes their finger off the button, there is a hundred-second cooldown period where they can’t press the button again.
O’Sullivan elaborates on the differences between the two gimmicks and chooses his favourite. “It's been different because, to be honest, in the first race of the season, I got really caught out by it,” O’Sullivan mentions.
“In Suzuka, I was reacting to another car using it, and I got done down the next straight. I was…in my cooldown period. So it's a lot more tactical, and I really like it, because you can have a strategy for your race.
“It's like a second strategy. You know, in F2, you might save tyres, in Super Formula, you can save tyres, and save OTS. So it's been interesting to use, and the main thing for me is you never get these kinds of DRS trains. “The DRS is very effective, but a lot of the time, everyone has the same tools. So you can get stuck in these DRS trains where nothing really happens, and for me, the OTS combats that quite well,” O’Sullivan mentioned.
Super Formula and Super GT race almost exclusively in Japan. Most drivers in Super Formula and Super GT are native Japanese drivers who have raced in these circuits for years. Even the drivers racing under foreign flags have a decent chunk of experience at these circuits. This gives O’Sullivan a large gap in experience he needs to close.
“Honestly, there's not too much I can do there. The team, for example, we don’t have a simulator I can use… I know the tracks from iRacing, and I watched some onboards, but the main thing is how quickly I adapt in the moment when I arrive at the circuit. “So far, I’ve found the tracks that require a bit more commitment, like Suzuka, Sugo, Autopolis, have been easier for me. The tracks that are technical, I’ve struggled at a bit more. I struggled quite a lot at Motegi and Fuji as well, to be honest… the technical tracks, you just need experience at driving the circuit, and there’s less obvious areas to lose time.
“So yeah, it's been interesting. It's been a big learning curve. For sure, it's a bit harder in Super Formula to be on it straight away because the cars are so much faster. In Super GT, it’s not so bad because the cars are a bit slower, and you have a bit more of a chance to adapt to slower speeds. Whereas in Super Formula, you need to be on it very quickly to be on the pace,” O’Sullivan concluded.
Super Formula and Super GT teams have mostly Japanese staff, meaning the teams, more often than not, communicate primarily in Japanese.
Whenever a non-Japanese driver enters the series, the language barrier becomes a big issue, even more so when considering that English and Japanese are very fundamentally different languages and require a lot of proficiency in both to translate.
Here’s O’Sullivan on his troubles with the language barrier: “It's been a big problem, to be honest, something I didn’t anticipate before coming to Japan. Purely because it's not something I’ve experienced before, but it has been a challenge. I think the main difference compared to other languages is that Japanese and English don’t translate well at all. There are a lot of differences in the language. And a lot of Japanese, as I’ve learnt now, is done how you interpret it in the sentence. So, it's something I’m still working on.
“I’ve been trying to find the right people around me to make sure that the detail I give in my feedback is relayed correctly to the team. I’m lucky enough in Super GT that a few of the team members speak perfect English. I can communicate with them on the radio. In Super Formula, it's still a bit of a struggle, as I said. But I’ve been working on it, you know, it's a really important aspect of racing in Japan as a foreigner,” the Briton mentioned.
O’Sullivan’s late call-up to Super Formula also meant that his place of residence is still in the UK. The British native elaborated on his unique arrangement. “The reason I still live in the UK is because I have some commitments here still, and also because of how late the decisions were made to race in Japan this year, like I mentioned earlier. So I didn’t really have a chance to organise anything. It's been ok. The last month was very busy, but I have enough downtime still.
“And I’ve gotten used to the 14-hour flight, it feels like two hours by now, so it's not too bad! But the calendars are organised in such a way that the races of [Super] GT and Super Formula are quite close together, which is ideal for me because it means I can stay out for two, three weeks at a time and complete some races.”
Onto O’Sullivan’s year so far, one of his recent results in SuperGT was his maiden win alongside his teammate Rikuto Kobayashi at Suzuka. The team, CarGuy MKS, with just five races of experience under their belt, had won their maiden race.
O’Sullivan explained how the win defied his expectations: “It wasn't in my expectations. I thought Super GT was gonna be a much tougher year than Super Formula, actually. It’s turned out to be the opposite. “Yeah, I mean, again, everything with me has been very last-minute…we missed all of the testing, so we only got one day basically in Fuji because the first day was too wet to drive. So one day of testing and straight into the first season.
We were also a bit behind on the tyre specification to start with, but once we got everything aligned, in Fuji… we’ve been really, really fast. Obviously, the Ferrari is a proven car in Super GT, and I’ve enjoyed it. It’s been great working with Rikuto, my teammate; he’s been super fast as well, and we’re working well as a team to try and be at the front.”
On the Super Formula side of things, his best result also comes at the most recent round in the series, Round 8 at SUGO. Round 8 was a wet-weather race that saw multiple drivers, even experienced ones, make mistakes, big and small. O’Sullivan kept his race clean and finished an impressive seventh.
He elaborated on the reasons behind his stellar performance at SUGO: “...[In] the higher speed circuits, I find [it] easier to get up to speed… Sugo is a very similar circuit in that sense; it's a bit more old school. So I felt more comfortable there. I need to work out how I can replicate that across the whole season, of course. “But it was definitely a step forward. Of course, the next step for me is to try and replicate that in Fuji and continue that progression, because I definitely want to improve in Super Formula and try and do a better job for the team.”
O’Sullivan also mentioned how it felt driving in the wet weather, and how rain in Japan is very unique for racing: “I’ve always really enjoyed the wet, probably been always very strong in the wet. And in Sugo, the pace was strong. “Strange thing, in Japan, the summer is very, very warm, so you’ll be [having] monsoon rain, but still 32-degree temperatures. So it's quite a strange condition! Even if we’re aquaplaning on track, we’re still trying to cool down our wet tires from overheating, so it’s nothing like I’ve driven before, really, in the wet, just due to the climate. It's very strange, feels like you’re in a rainforest.”
His other points finish this season came at his debut race at Suzuka. He finished in eighth after a strong performance all weekend.
He revealed his expectations for the final two rounds at the circuit this season: “I’m looking forward to Suzuka, it's probably the track, along with Fuji, I’ve driven the most. It's a track I really enjoy and… So far this season, when it's colder, we seem to be slightly better, we seem to be able to fire our tyres up better than some of our competitors, which is useful. “In November, it's gonna be very cold at Suzuka. So yeah, I’ve been looking forward to go back there. It's an amazing circuit, of course, and a track I really enjoy.”
While his performances at SUGO and Suzuka were splendid, he struggled at Motegi and Fuji. The double header at Fuji for Rounds 6 and 7 gave him his worst results this season, 14th and 16th respectively. The struggles were also shared by his teammate, Kenta Yamashita, who finished twelfth and eighth, respectively.
O’Sullivan opened up about the struggle, and how the team are yet to figure out the reason: “We struggled at the Fuji test as a team. (Me and Kenta), we struggled a lot with the balance of the car, and no matter what we did, we happened to have the same sort of issues, and unfortunately, that just translated into the race weekend.
“I didn’t execute it cleanly this weekend either, but as a team we struggled quite a lot, and I’m still not too sure why. We have changes we’ll be sure to make, we’re going to make for the next Fuji round. So hopefully that will recover some of that deficit, but it’s something I don’t fully understand, and I want to understand fully before we go to Fuji again.”
Yamashita has been in Super Formula since 2017, and has spent all his years in the series at Kondo Racing. In this time, he has managed to bag a win, three pole positions and eight podiums.
O’Sullivan illustrated just how helpful Yamashita has been in getting him acclimated to the series: “[He has been] really good, he got better [at helping me] through the year purely because his English is getting better through the year, which is very useful for me, but he’s been very useful.
“Not only is he very helpful in Super Formula, but he spent 8 or nine years with Kondo as well, so he knows everyone very well, and the characteristics of the car, so its a really good reference for me in driving style as well, because of course every car is slightly different and you need a different approach, so its a very good reference for me to try and learn from.”
Foreign drivers who enter Super Formula tend not to continue in the series for more than a few seasons, except a few drivers like Richard Lyons or André Lotterer.
O’Sullivan reveals if he has any long-term goals for Super Formula and Super GT: “I think the last few years have taught me to take the opportunities that come. There’s no guarantee you’re gonna be racing in the year, right? “So it probably looks like I will, at least I want to stay in Japan next year to compete in both championships again. I think for sure I can deliver a better season in Japan, and I want to prove that. And I’ve really enjoyed this year in Japan. It’s a different style of racing, and for sure it's somewhere I’d like to at least spend some of my years of my career racing.”
There has been a very close title fight this season between Sho Tsuboi, Ayumu Iwasa and Kakunoshin Ohta, with the three separated by just eight points. O’Sullivan picks his favourite for the title. “I would say my money’s on Tsuboi, but I think it’s between Tsuboi and Iwasa, because TOM’s has been very strong in Fuji, and Sho [Tsuboi] has had very good race pace, and then Suzuka is normally a Mugen track, there’s always a Mugen first or second on the grid. For sure, it’ll be tight. There’s a reason all three of them are so close.
Hopefully, I can get involved fighting in the front a bit more, but at the moment I only watch them on TV!” he mentions, excited to work his way to the front of the Super Formula grid in the future!
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