Super Formula Preview: Round 3 at Autopolis

Credit: Super Formula

After a short two-week break, the shortest on the calendar, Super Formula is back in town. Round 3 will be taking place at Autopolis and is one of the only two single-headers this season.

The circuit:

Autopolis, owned by the motorcycle manufacturer Kawasaki Motors, is the highest track on the calendar, sitting at around 820 metres above sea level. The circuit is 4.6 kilometres long and has 19 turns, with Turns 1, 5 and 11 being prime overtaking spots.

History:

Last year’s race had Sho Tsuboi win after Ayumu Iwasa retired from the lead mid-way through the race. Both drivers have made their intentions of winning the championship clear, and after a difficult opening two rounds, the two title favourites have a lot of ground to cover to close in on championship leader Kakunoshin Ohta.

Last year’s race was a race to forget for current championship leaders, Dandelion Racing and Ohta. Ohta only finished 13th, and his teammate, Tadasuke Makino, finished sixth.

Other circuits on the calendar, like Fuji Speedway or the Suzuka Circuit, have historically favoured only one of the two engine manufacturers, but the same can’t be said for Autopolis. Out of the past 10 Super Formula rounds here, Toyota-powered cars have won six, and the Honda-powered ones have won four.

The championship:

Kakunoshin Ohta currently leads the championship | Credit: Super Formula

While it's too early to call the championship, Kakunoshin Ohta (35 points) currently leads by 20 points from Sena Sakaguchi, who is in second, the highest the Osaka native has stood in the standings in his five year long career.

Ayumu Iwasa’s dream of winning every race this season ended early, but he remains one of the title favourites and is currently in third, half a point behind Sakaguchi.

The title favourite from the Toyota camp, Sho Tsuboi, only scored one point in the season opener. Tsuboi is no stranger to closing down a gap in the championship, having chased down a 20-point deficit after the first three rounds in his maiden championship winning season. This is also the first time since 2021 that Tsuboi is sitting behind his teammate in the championship standings.

Other title favourites heading into the season were Makino, who currently has no points after a disastrous opening two rounds and Sacha Fenestraz, Tsuboi’s teammate, only having two and a half points.

Nirei Fukuzumi, Ren Sato and Igor Fraga are also ones to look out for, having consistently been towards the top of the timing sheets since the pre-season tests.

Things are much closer in the Team’s championship. Two-time defending champions Dandelion Racing lead the championship with 30 points. Cerumo Inging are second with 21 points, and last two years’ runners up, Team Mugen, are third with 12 points.

Format:

With the doubleheader format getting increasingly popular in the past few seasons, Autopolis remains one of the only two single-header races of the season. The single-header format has one free practice session in the morning on both Saturday and Sunday, a qualifying session on Saturday afternoon and a race on Sunday afternoon.

Super Formula is also introducing a new qualifying format for this weekend, the Super Pole Qualifying format. Qualifying 1 remains the same, but in Qualifying 2, the slowest six drivers are eliminated and the top six head on to qualifying three, a seven-minute session where the drivers fight for pole.

The drivers in Group A for Qualifying 1 are Ukyo Sasahara, Makino, Kenta Yamashita, Fukuzumi, Tomoki Nojiri, Nobuharu Matsushita, Rikuto Kobayashi, Tsuboi, Sakaguchi, Yuto Nomura, Charlie Wurz and Sato.

Group B will consist of Ayumu Iwasa, Luke Browning, Ohta, Kamui Kobayashi, Seita Nonaka, Juju, Syun Koide, Zak O’Sullivan, Fenestraz, Toshiki Oyu, Fraga and Roman Staněk.

The qualifying session will take place at 14:25 JST (06:25 BST) and the race at 14:30 JST (06:30 BST). The race will be 41 laps long and the pit window for the mandatory pit stop opens on Lap 11.