“One of the best races of my career!”: Sacha Fenestraz on surprise Super Formula win at Suzuka, trusting his team and more
- Tarun Suresh
- 6 hours ago
- 4 min read
In 2025, Sacha Fenestraz left the Formula E field to take over the No.37 Team TOM’S car in Super Formula. Since then, he has proven himself to be a solid contender in the series with three podiums to his name, and two of those being race wins.
He was interviewed by DIVEBOMB after the events of Rounds 4 & 5 of the 2026 Super Formula season, held at Suzuka. This is a follow up of an interview we had earlier that weekend on Friday, after the two Free Practice sessions.
Fenestraz qualified only fourteenth on Saturday for Round 4. The French-Argentine driver had stayed outside of the points scoring positions until the first round of pit stops happened when the pit window opened on lap 8. Both he and his teammate, Sho Tsuboi, opted to stay out and attempt an overcut.
Towards the end of the race, after they swapped to fresh tyres, light rain on the track caused last season’s Rookie of the Year, Igor Fraga, and two-time Drivers’ Champion Tomoki Nojiri to both crash out of the race in separate incidents. The safety car was brought out, and all but six drivers promptly switched to wet weather tyres. Fenestraz and Tsuboi were among those who chose to stick to the slick tyres and were running first and third.
“I wasn't really up for staying out, as you might have heard on my radio, I was pushing to come in, but luckily, the team were pretty confident on themselves of us staying out, which, of course, was definitely the right thing, I think the luck played a little bit on our side with the safety car staying out for two laps more than it needed to”
When the race resumed with four laps to go, the slicks proved to be the right choice. The leading driver on the wets, Kakunoshin Ohta, finished almost a minute behind Fenestraz. It was smooth sailing for the former Formula E driver, who won the race with a three-second gap to third, grabbing his first full-distance race win since returning to the series. Tsuboi finished third to bring home a double podium for Team TOM’S.
“It was a great race, I would say one of the best races of my career! Not only because I won, but changing conditions throughout the race, very difficult being out there with slick tyres in the rain and so on, good strategy, everything, was really good, and managing to do a first and third with the team, it was really, truly awesome, and we were all very happy about it. It was a good race yesterday [Round 4].
“And those two extra laps really helped all of us on dry tyres, because the track with this new track surface dried up very quickly. Because I think if they had released us two laps before, we would have really struggled out there with slicks. Fair enough to the team for taking that risk. We did good listening and trusting the team. And it showed us, as drivers, both me and Tsuboi that we can trust the team.”
Round 5 took place the following day, and Fenestraz could only qualify tenth. He opted for the overcut strategy once again and finished seventh, less than a second behind the sixth-place finisher, Tadasuke Makino.
“To be honest, we didn't have an amazing pace in the race. I think us stretching out the first pit stop, pitting late, was actually quite good. I think we should have pitted a little bit later. Just because our pace in the last three, four laps before pitting was actually becoming quite competitive. However, we boxed and then at the end, I don't think I had a lot more in it.
“Of course, the tyres were a lot fresher, but when you are in dirty air, you damage the tyres very quickly. And that's what happened once I overtook Fraga, I was stuck behind Makino, and I couldn't do much more. I think staying out a few laps more would have helped; it is what it is.”
Tyre wear and race pace seem to be a big issue for Team TOM’S, with both their drivers struggling with those issues, especially towards the end of the races. This was perhaps most evident in Tsuboi’s performance, who very quickly dropped from being a contender for the win to a distant fifth.
“For us, [tyre wear] is something that we need to work on as a team because you could see both of us yesterday [Round 4], but both of us today [Round 5], Tsuboi and myself, we are not that competitive in race pace. And that's something that in the next official test, we will have the time to try to improve those areas.”
The next Super Formula round is a triple header at Fuji, Rounds 6 and 7, and the previously cancelled Round 3 tacked on to the weekend as well. Team TOM’S historically have been the ones to beat at this circuit, with the team having won five of the past six races held at the circuit.
“Team TOM’S has been historically strong [at Fuji], but I don't really know yet. Of course, it's a good track for us. We have a lot of races there, which helps. But every weekend is different, and we will see how we go. But of course, if we have a fast car in Fuji, we need to take advantage of that and score as many points as possible.”
Before the triple header at Fuji, there is a Mid-Season Test to be held at the circuit, scheduled to be held from the 30th of June to the 1st of July. The Fuji rounds follow a couple of weeks later, from the 17th to the 19th of July.
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