Two of Formulation 1’s latest superstars will make a shock look within the Japanese Tremendous Formulation Championship’s annual winter take a look at at Suzuka Circuit. Mercedes’ Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Haas’ Oliver Bearman will drive at Suzuka for the primary time on Friday, the third and ultimate day of the take a look at which is reserved for rookie drivers.
Each will likely be behind the wheel of the Dallara SF23, a step up from the Dallara F2 2024s that they drove within the FIA Formulation 2 championship this previous season.
Bearman will drive the No.7 entry from Hong Kong-based KCMG, which is normally pushed by Toyota Gazoo Racing WEC driver and staff principal Kamui Kobayashi. The English driver will companion Esteban Ocon at Haas in 2025 after working three races final season as a aid driver at Haas and Ferrari.
“I’m actually excited to be driving at Suzuka within the Tremendous Formulation automotive. It’s one of many circuits which will likely be new to me subsequent season, so getting the possibility to expertise it, and in such an incredible automotive, will likely be tremendous useful! Massive due to Ayao Komatsu and MoneyGram Haas F1 Crew for placing this along with KCMG,” mentioned Bearman.
Antonelli will drive the No.14 automotive of Rookie Racing, the Japanese staff established by Toyota Motor Company Chairman Akio Toyoda. Rookie Racing additionally participates in Tremendous GT’s premier GT500 class with Toyota, and has a number of entries within the Tremendous Taikyu endurance collection, together with the hydrogen-fueled Toyota GR Corolla H2 Idea, and a Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO.
The 18-year-old Italian graduates to F1 subsequent season as Mercedes’ hand-picked successor to seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton. Antonelli completed sixth within the F2 standings for PREMA after profitable a number of Formulation 4 and Formulation Regional championships between 2022–2023.
Although not a rookie, former Nissan Formulation E driver Sacha Fenestraz is one other headliner at this week’s checks. Simply three months after being launched from his Formulation E contract, the French-Argentine driver will drive the No.37 automotive of Toyota’s powerhouse TOM’S Racing squad. Fenestraz is closely rumored to rejoin Toyota as a manufacturing unit driver in 2025. Earlier than shifting to Formulation E, Fenestraz was the 2022 Tremendous Formulation championship runner-up behind Crew Mugen’s Tomoki Nojiri.
Antonelli and Bearman are simply two out of 14 ‘rookie’ candidates that may run at Suzuka. Kondo Racing will give testing alternatives to fellow F2 alumni Juan Manuel Correa, and GB3 Sequence race winner James Hedley. Correa will run on Thursday whereas Hedley, who made a one-off FIA Formulation 3 look at Monaco this yr, will run on Thursday and Friday.
Former Hertz Crew JOTA driver Oliver Rasmussen will likely be behind the wheel of the No.19 Crew Impul automotive on Thursday and Friday. Rasmussen will likely be sharing with Toyota Gazoo Racing Driver Problem (TGR-DC) academy member Hibiki Taira, who helped fill the Impul seat left vacant by Theo Pourchaire’s sudden departure after the 2024 season-opening spherical. Impul’s No.20 automotive will likely be pushed by Mitsunori Takaboshi, the Nissan Tremendous GT manufacturing unit driver who has been the take a look at driver for one in every of Tremendous Formulation’s analysis and improvement automobiles since 2023.
At Nakajima Racing, Igor Fraga, a race winner within the Tremendous Formulation Lights collection, will drive all three days within the No.64 Dallara-Honda, because the favorite to interchange three-time collection champion Naoki Yamamoto, who retired from Tremendous Formulation on the finish of the season. Fraga, who can also be famend as a multi-time esports champion within the Gran Turismo World Sequence, was Nakajima Racing’s reserve driver in 2024.
Miki Koyama will run on Friday within the No.8 KCMG Dallara/Toyota, reverse Bearman. Koyama, the 2022 Formulation Regional Japanese Champion and a veteran of the W Sequence, hopes to be the following girl to race in Tremendous Formulation, following latest debutants Tatiana Calderon and Juju Noda.
There are a number of different drivers seeking to make the step up from Tremendous Formulation Lights, the highest feeder class to Tremendous Formulation. Reigning collection champion Syun Koide, a high prospect of the Honda Formulation Dream Undertaking (HFDP) in Japan, will run all three days within the No.50 Dallara-Honda from B-Max Racing.
Sequence runner-up Rikuto Kobayashi out of the TGR-DC steady will run on Friday for TOM’S Racing, taking up the No.36 automotive usually pushed by the reigning Tremendous Formulation and Tremendous GT GT500 Champion Sho Tsuboi. Fellow TGR-DC member Seita Nonaka will drive the No.7 KCMG automotive on Thursday, the day earlier than Bearman is ready to drive the identical automotive.
Cerumo–INGING will furnish Friday testing alternatives for Tremendous GT GT300 title challenger Yuui Tsutsumi, and Toyota-backed Formulation 4 prospect Kazuhisa Urabe. Honda GT500 manufacturing unit driver Riki Okusa may even run on Friday within the No.65 Nakajima Racing automotive.
Tremendous Formulation followers may even observe another modifications involving skilled drivers. Toyota manufacturing unit driver Ukyo Sasahara, who drove for TOM’S the final two years, will take a look at with Kondo Racing within the No.4 automotive shared with Correa. Likewise, Kazuto Kotaka, who’s spent the final two seasons at Kondo Racing, will drive the No.14 Rookie Racing automotive in Wednesday’s first session earlier than handing it over to veteran Kazuya Oshima, who will then flip the wheel over to Antonelli.
Yuhi Sekiguchi, KCMG’s reserve driver and a multi-time Tremendous Formulation race winner, will come out of his semi-retirement to drive the No.8 automotive on Wednesday. Dandelion Racing and Crew Mugen will solely run their two Honda-powered automobiles on Wednesday and Thursday. One staff that raced final season that will likely be absent from the take a look at fully is TGM Grand Prix, which fielded two automobiles together with one for Juju Noda.
Wednesday and Thursday will function a pair of two-hour take a look at periods, beginning at 10:00 AM and a pair of:00 PM JST (native time). The 2 rookie take a look at periods will likely be on Friday from 9:30–11:00 AM and 1:00–2:00 PM JST. viewers can watch all on-track exercise on the official Tremendous Formulation streaming service SFgo, which is accessible for ~$80/yr or ~$10/month.
