2024 SUPER FORMULA Round 2 Report

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A two-month wait after the opening round must have felt like forever for the drivers, the team, and, of course, the fans. The second round of the 2024 Super Formula series took place at Autopolis in Oita Prefecture.

Located on the hillside of Mount Aso, Autopolis is one of the most challenging race tracks in Japan. It has a 52-meter height difference and many types of corners, which require a high level of driving skill.

Except for the year 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic forced the series to alter the original race schedule, the Super Formula’s Autopolis round has usually been held in May in recent years. This means that the race was run under rather high-temperature conditions if the weather had been fine because of the early-summer sun. However, it was like the middle of summer throughout the race weekend this year, and the high on the qualifying day almost reached 30 degrees centigrade.

The entry list consisted of 21 drivers, the same number as the season opener. But Itochu Enex Team Impul replaced Theo Pourchaire with Ben Barnicoat, who participated in the Super Formula’s rookie test during the off-season, for this race. For the four rookies, including Barnicort, this was the first opportunity to drive around this track in a Super Formula car. So, one of the main topics over the weekend was how they would deal with a race track whose characteristics differ from Suzuka, where the opening round was held, under totally different conditions.

The qualifying session on Saturday, May 18th, was run in the usual two-stage knock-out format. Kakunoshin Ohta (Docomo Team Dandelion Racing), who sat on the front row in the season opener, was the fastest driver in Group A of Q1. His teammate, Tadasuke Makino, also took the top slot of the timesheet in Group B.

Thus, Docomo Team Dandelion Racing dominated Q1, but it was blocked by one of the rookies, Ayumu Iwasa (Team Mugen), who set the fastest time in Q2. After ending Q1 some 0.1 seconds behind Ohta, Iwasa made a spot-on setup adjustment for Q2 and beat Makino by 0.3 seconds, who came in second, securing the pole position.

The gap in Q2 between Makino and Naoki Yamamoto (Ponos Nakajima Racing) in third was 0.076 seconds, and that between Yamamoto and Sena Sakaguchi (Vertex Partners Cerumo Inging) in fourth was only 0.001 seconds. These numbers clearly showed how outstanding Iwasa’s fastest time was.

As a side note, the five drivers from third to seventh in Q2, Yamamoto, Sakaguchi, Tomoki Nojiri (Team Mugen), Sho Tsuboi (Vantelin Team Tom’s), and Ohta, were separated by just 0.048 seconds, which was an extremely competitive qualifying result we don’t see very often.

The race day, Sunday, May 19th, was favored by fine weather again. But strong gusts blew in the morning hours, which caused Iori Kimura (San-Ei Gen with B-Max) and Atsushi Miyake (ThreeBond Racing) to lose control of their cars during the free practice session on Sunday morning. Their cars were damaged in the incidents, but the teams finished repair work in time, so all 21 cars sat on their starting grids.

The wind gradually died down as the time to start the race approached. With the air/track temperatures at 24/38 degrees, the 41-lap race got underway. Starting from the second grid, Makino led the field when they went through the first corner. Iwasa’s getaway wasn’t ideal as he spun his rear wheels a bit too much and allowed Yamamoto, who was on the third grid, to pass him. Makino was going strong and pulled away from Yamamoto little by little. Behind the top two, although there were some close battles, no significant position change occurred for a while.

The situation altered on Lap 10 when the tire change window opened. Five drivers, including Yamamoto, Ohta, and Nirei Fukuzumi (Kids com Team KCMG), visited their pit at this earliest opportunity. Yamamoto was now in the leading position among the drivers who had already done the tire change and started to push to cut down the gap with Makino, which was more than 30 seconds at the time, aiming at undercutting the Dandelion driver.

Makino and Iwasa, who now had a clear space after Yamamoto’s pit stop, picked up their pace and went on to lap in the middle of the 1’32” level. On the other hand, Yamamoto also got clean air and reduced the gap with them by inches, setting lap times in the 1’31” level at times.

However, Yamamoto’s pace had slightly declined since Lap 17 because he was stuck behind the cars yet had to make their tire change. Consequently, his time deficit against Makino increased to more than 30 seconds.

At the end of Lap 24, Makino and Iwasa headed to the pit box simultaneously, and the gap between Makino and Yamamoto was 30.4 seconds at the beginning of the lap. There was no mishap during the Makino’s and Iwasa’s pit stops, and when the teams sent them off to the track, Yamamoto and Ohta were already on the pit straight.

Whereas Makino managed to stay ahead of Yamamoto, Iwasa had to rejoin the race behind Ohta, which meant the Team Mugen driver fell back to the effective fourth. But Iwasa didn’t remain there for long and was going to recover positions in the later stage as he improved his pace quickly when his fresh set of tires was adequately warmed up.

Yamamoto tried to put pressure on Makino, who stayed in the lead but had cold tires, and came close to the backend of Makino’s car from Turn 2 to 3 on the effective race leader’s out-lap. But, with his 15-lap old tires, the Nakajima Racing driver couldn’t make a decisive move and had to be on alert against Ohta’s attack from behind at the same time.

Helped by Yamamoto’s situation and his own OverTake System, Makino pushed hard and built an almost three-second lead against Yamamoto only on his out-lap. Then, the three-time Super Formula champion could only defend his position from Ohta but stayed in the effective second by demonstrating his skillful defensive drive for a while.

Having observed the battle between Yamamoto and Ohta from behind until then, Iwasa saw it was time to open fire. On Lap 27, he made his first attempt and dove into the inside of Ohta at Turn 1 with no success. And he tried again from the outside at the next corner, eventually leading to a successful overtaking at Turn 3. Building on the momentum, Iwasa caught up to Yamamoto and became almost tail-to-nose with him on Lap 28.

They went through the Second Hair-pin Corner and the following downhill straight. Then Iwasa closed in Yamamoto, whose tires were much older than Iwasa’s, even further during the uphill combined corners in the latter part of the track. The veteran didn’t give way to the rookie here, but Iwasa kept putting pressure on Yamamoto after that. On Lap 32, the Team Mugen driver tried to make a move again before he finally got ahead of the ex-champion at the pit straight end two laps later. With a clear space ahead of him, Iwasa started to go after Makino, but the gap between them had built up to 13 seconds.

After being passed by Iwasa, Yamamoto fell back to fourth because Tsuboi overtook him at 100R Corner. Tsuboi extended his first stint to the end of Lap 25, becoming the third latest driver to make a stop, so his tires were still in very good condition. Having won the battle with Sakaguchi immediately after his stop, the Team Tom’s driver then moved up to fourth by passing Ohta behind the bruising fight between Yamamoto and Iwasa. Overtaking Yamamoto meant for him that he would make a podium finish.

With only a limited number of laps remaining, Iwasa gave everything to catch up to Makino. However, it was challenging for him since they got a fresh set of tires on the same lap, which meant no significant difference in their pace. Therefore, Makino could cross the finish line safely without being threatened by Iwasa. It was his long-awaited maiden Super Formula victory in his sixth season since his debut in the series in 2019, and he was already in tears during the cool-down lap.

Iwasa might have been disappointed to end the race in second as he started it from the pole position, but achieving the first podium finish in only his second race in the series was still a remarkable feat. Tsuboi came in third and got on the podium for the first time this season.