“There was a podium available”: Zak O’Sullivan on the season opener at Motegi, working with Team Impul and more
- Tarun Suresh
- 4 hours ago
- 4 min read
Written by Tarun Suresh
Zak O’Sullivan has moved from Kondo Racing to Team Impul this season after a major reshuffle in the Toyota camp. Team Impul has downsized to a single-car operation for this year, making O’Sullivan their sole driver. He sat down with DIVEBOMB after Rounds 1-2 and shared his thoughts on working with Team Impul and the opening two rounds.
He highlighted some of the things at Team Impul that he finds to his liking relative to his time in Kondo Racing. “I'd say in Impul, I have more of a working atmosphere that I'm used to from Europe. A lot of the team members and people who run the team have worked before in Europe or raced in Europe. On that side, I would say I'm a bit more used to and I quite like. Car performance, very different characteristics between the cars, and so far, I seem to be working with them quite well.”
The team’s form was solid in the Pre-Season Tests and in the Free Practice sessions, which saw most of the 24 cars incredibly close together. The tiny margins between cars stood out to O'Sullivan, especially in the context of the whole season.
“Every weekend is different in Super Formula, and I think this weekend has showed that this year in particular is going to be unbelievably close. There's so many cars, especially from like P5 to P15, who are capable of being in the top five. So it makes it a very difficult season.”
Rounds one and two were held at Mobility Resort Motegi, a circuit that was just recently resurfaced. He explained the biggest changes that the resurfacing brought about this year compared to the previous season.
“The main thing is the one-lap performance of that time is a lot better. There's less tyre degradation in the race for some. And yeah, in general, it's obviously got more grip. The most difficult thing for the weekend was tyre warm-up. At some point, used tyres seemed faster than new tyres because the new tyres were very difficult to get into the window.”
The first race of the season was held in wet conditions with just two laps of green flag racing. There were varying opinions amongst drivers on the grip in the rain, with some saying it was good enough for racing and some saying it was not suitable for racing. He gave his two cents on what the grip was like from inside the cockpit.
“For me, I had good grip. I overtook one car and nearly two on the first lap, and then, unfortunately, I got taken out. So yeah, I mean, the grip was not amazing, but it's quite cold, and it wasn't just wet, you know, it was like we were literally like floating.”
O’Sullivan missed out on making it to Qualifying 2 in the opening round by half a tenth of a second and started thirteenth. In the second round, he got himself into Q2 and earned himself a tenth-place start. The differences between the two sessions were marginal for him.
“Yesterday I didn't make it to Q2 by I think two or three thousandths, and today I made it to Q2 by about the same margin. So it's really small margins. I'd say on Saturday, the main thing was the track conditions were quite bad. They dropped in temperature a lot. As you saw today, at least in my group, I was P6 and I was just about three-tenths off P1. So it's incredibly close, and if you miss even a tiny bit of driving or car performance, then you're out.”
Round two was held in dry conditions, and O’Sullivan showed impressive pace, being on par with the frontrunners at times. He was one of the early pitters, pitting on lap 12. From there, he made his way up the order and overtook Iwasa, putting himself in contention for a podium. Unfortunately, he couldn’t make his way past Toshiki Oyu, who was struggling with tyre wear. He reflected on the race.
“I feel like there was a podium available if we didn't catch the traffic at that point. But yeah, overall pretty strong. It's the first long run I've done in this car, and it seems like we have good performance and good pace, which is nice. Qualifying is probably still our weak point. It's difficult to get to Q2, so that's a kind of focus, let's say, for Autopolis. But yeah, overall relatively happy and good to be in the points.”
Next up on the Super Formula calendar is Round 3 at Autopolis, to be held from the 24th to the 26th of April. O’Sullivan remains optimistic about Round 3 and outlined his goals for the weekend.
“Autopolis is a track that I quite enjoy driving. It's very unique, I would say, with very old track surface and bumps. So yeah, let's see how that goes. I think the target is always to try to get through to Q2 and then let our pace in the race pull us up.”
Last year at Autopolis, O’Sullivan made it to Q2 and ran as high as fourth in the race, but a driver error had him beached in the gravel and out of the race. He will be hoping to make up for that missed opportunity, and with Team Impul looking to be a strong points contender, he certainly has the car to deliver.
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