Super Formula Preview: Rounds 1-2 at Motegi

Written by Tarun Suresh, Edited by Liam Ploetner

Credit: Super Formula

The 2026 season Super Formula kicks off at Motegi this weekend, with the circuit hosting the season opener for the first time since 2020.

The circuit

Mobility Resort Motegi is a 4.8-kilometre circuit located in Japan’s Tochigi prefecture. The circuit, built and owned by Honda, has been recently resurfaced, and as is the case with resurfaced tarmac, there won’t be much grip until fresh rubber is laid down.

The circuit has a history of favouring the Honda-powered cars, with four of the past five races being won by a Honda-powered car. The colder weather also favours the Honda engines that tend to run much better than their Toyota peers in these conditions.

The teams

Credit: Super Formula

Team Dandelion won their second Teams’ Championship in a row last season. They started the season with four back-to-back wins, including two 1-2 finishes at Motegi. However, had much more competition for the rest of the season, only grabbing one more win courtesy of Kakunoshin Ohta after that.

Team Mugen finished second in the championship last year and are chasing a return to the top of the championship standings. Team TOM’S, after three seasons where the second car failed to finish higher than eighth, finally had both cars fighting for wins. While Sacha Fenestraz struggled in a few rounds, he seems much more acclimated to the SF23 machines and will certainly help Team TOM’S in taking the fight to the Mugens and the Dandelions over the course of the season.

Nakajima Racing ended the previous season on a high note, with Rookie of the Year Igor Fraga getting his maiden win in the penultimate race and Ren Sato finishing second in the season finale. The historic team could be fighting for their first titles since 2009.

The drivers

Credit: Super Formula

The reigning champion, Ayumu Iwasa, has made it clear he intends to dominate this season and wrap up the championship long before the season finale this year, stating: “My realistic goal is to win every race and become the champion.”

Four and a half points behind him in the standings was Sho Tsuboi, the 2024 drivers’ champion, and he would be fired up to put the number one back on his car. He’s also chasing a record-breaking fifth Super GT drivers’ championship, and a second Japanese motorsports double would be an excellent way to put his name in the history books.

Ohta was also a contender last season, missing out on the title by six points. He will also be vying for the crown. So will his teammate, Tadasuke Makino, who was just 11 points behind Iwasa.

Iwasa’s teammate, two-time champion Tomoki Nojiri, has struggled for the past few seasons, and 2025 was his worst season relative to his teammate. He’s at a crossroads, and his performance this season is going to play a crucial role in determining how the rest of his career plays out.

The rookies

Credit: Super Formula

The 2026 season will have six rookies. Formula 2 graduate Luke Browning joins the grid with Kondo Racing after impressing in the 2025 Post-Season and Rookie Tests. One of his teammates will be fellow F2 graduate Roman Staněk. He will be racing for MK Racing, a Kondo machine being run under a different name due to rules prohibiting one team from entering three cars.

The Team Goh name will be making its return to the field with Charlie Wurz behind the wheel. The car will be run by TGMGP, and in a similar vein to Kondo Racing, has to run under a different name to satisfy the rules. Wurz’s teammate in the main TGMGP team is Rikuto Kobayashi. Kobayashi made his debut last year, filling in for Oliver Rasmussen at Motegi last year, but this will be his first full season.

Seita Nonaka will be starting his first full season with KCMG, after covering for Rasmussen and Kamui Kobayashi, and then replacing Hibiki Taira at TGMGP for the final six rounds last year. The reigning Super Formula Lights champion, Yuto Nomura, has stepped up to Super Formula with B-Max Racing.

Weekend overview

With the track being newly resurfaced and the Honda-powered teams ending last season close together, it’s going to be interesting to see who comes out on top. For the Toyota-powered teams, it’s going to be damage limitation until we head to Round 3 at Autopolis, where the difference between the engines is going to be more even.

Qualifying groups for Q1 have been announced. Group A will have: Iwasa, Sasahara, Makino, K. Kobayashi, Yamashita, Koide, O’Sullivan, Fenestraz, Oyu, Nomura, Wurz and Fraga. Group B will consist of: Browning, Ohta, Nonaka, Juju, Fukuzumi, Nojiri, Matsushita, R. Kobayashi, Tsuboi, Sakaguchi, Sato and Staněk.

This will be a doubleheader weekend, with Round 1 taking place at 14:45 local time (6:45 BST) on Saturday and Round 2 at the same time on Sunday. Both races will run for 37 laps.