“I'm aiming for the podium”: Yuto Nomura on Super Formula debut, Autopolis and more
- Tarun Suresh
- Apr 6
- 4 min read
Updated: Apr 7
Written by Tarun Suresh, Translated by Gwen Goh, Edited by Benjamin Crundwell
Yuto Nomura has been making a lot of waves in Japanese motorsport lately. The 20-year-old driver is among the youngest to move up to Super GT’s GT500 class, driving for Astemo Real Racing this year.
He was promoted to Super Formula after dominating in the Japanese Formula 4 Championship, where he won half the races that season, and the 2025 Super Formula Lights season, where he won an astonishing 12 of 18 races.
Last weekend, Nomura made his Super Formula debut driving for B-Max Racing, the same team he won his Super Formula Lights Championship with. In qualifying for Round 1, he was fourth fastest and started his debut race from fourth.
“I was in good shape from the off-season, so I was able to enter the race week with that feeling. The pace was really good from the start, and I think I was able to make good preparations for the qualifying. In that sense, the qualifying was good for this race, but the final was not good, which was a bit of a shame.”
Unfortunately, when it came to the race, some of the Honda engines were suffering from problems caused by the rain. Nomura was among the biggest losers in the group of drivers who had engine issues, dropping from fourth to seventh in the two laps of green flag racing.
“[In Round 1], for some reason, after the SC for the restart, from the first exit, the engine would not start even after I maxed out my acceleration. I was not accelerating at all to the point where I had to consider shifting into 5th gear.”
The engine issue seemed to resurface for some of the drivers in the Honda camp in the qualifying sessions for Round 2. Thankfully, for Nomura, the issue did not affect his fast laps, and he qualified ninth, the highest of the rookies yet again.
“[In Round 2], in Qualifying 1, again the same issue, but when I was doing the attack lap, it didn’t affect it, so it was good. And we do think it was because of the rain that affected the performance of the engine. So we kind of know what the reason was.”
During the formation lap for Round 2, Nomura stalled the engine trying to get the car off the line. The car wouldn’t start until all the cars behind him had passed, meaning he had to start the race from the back.
“When I was driving in Super Formula Lights, I had done my usual routine of warming up the clutch by using it repeatedly before the start to prevent the clutch from getting stuck. Since it was out of habit, I did it unconsciously. However, in Super Formula, the system is different; they use an air compression system to move the clutch.
"Because I was doing it like I am used to in F4 and Super Formula Lights, it ran out of air. By the time we were to start, I couldn't disengage the clutch. But since it was an air compression system, the clutch was able to move again after waiting for it to store up air for a while.”
When the race went green, a speedy few opening laps saw him go from 24th to 17th before the safety car came out on lap 3. When the racing resumed, he struggled to get past Ukyo Sasahara in 16th.
He pit on lap 10, when the pit window opened. Unfortunately, he couldn’t make much more progress from there, and it did seem like those who stayed out longer got the better of the early pitters, with the last two to pit, Nirei Fukuzumi and Luke Browning, starting seventh and 21st, respectively, finishing third and fourth.
“At first, our strategy was to stretch as much as possible before the pit stop. But, while racing with car number four, I had better pace, but was held back, so I decided to go for an early undercut. If I had started from grid nine as I was supposed to, then I would probably have stretched until the end for the pit stop.”
One-time Super Formula race winner Hiroki Otsu is the driving advisor at B-Max Racing this year, helping coach Nomura.
“I'm very, very pleased with his coaching, because he's very detailed, and he recognizes small details that I don't recognize. So, I really appreciate all the support.”
The next round on the Super Formula calendar is at Autopolis. It’s a circuit where Nomura has won from pole in Japanese F4 and started from pole in Super Formula Lights.
“Yeah, so the Autopolis track is a track that I'm very confident about, and I was able to take the pole position [in SF Lights] last year. However, with the Super Formula car, it would be my first time driving on that track. Although our practice session would have to fit into a short time constraint, I think our car's pace is really fast. So we're going to aim high, and our goal is to get a very good qualifying, then I'm aiming for the podium.”
B-Max Racing haven’t been on the podium since they got their maiden win at Suzuka in 2022. Nomura will be heading into Round 3, to be held from the 24th to 26th of April, with a podium in mind at a circuit where he has shown strong pace in the ladder up to Super Formula
That race was a perfect example of how unpredictable motorsport can be, especially in tricky weather conditions. Ohta really made the most of the situation — starting near the front and keeping the pressure on after the restart clearly paid off in the end. The fact that so many laps were run under safety car just made the timing and consistency even more important.
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