How fears over Super Formula’s 2025 tweaks proved to be unfounded

‘There’s no tyre degradation!’ ‘There won’t be any strategy!’ ‘Almost everybody will pit on lap one!’ Ahead of last weekend’s Super Formula season opening double-header at Suzuka, there were no shortage of people in the paddock airing concerns about how the first weekend of the new season would go.

That was because of two key changes heading into 2025: the introduction of a new Yokohama spec tyre, featuring a higher percentage of renewable materials than before (46% versus the 33% of the previous tyre), and some small but significant changes to the race format, which series organiser JRP had made following the increase in double-header race weekends.

In a bid to try and make each race in double-header weekends more distinct, the decision was made to cut the distance of the Saturday contest by 20km, which meant four laps at Suzuka. But, more significantly, while the Saturday race retained the traditional lap 10 pit window, the longer Sunday race was made completely free for the first time since 2019.

This meant that drivers could come in to complete their mandatory tyre change on the opening tour. And some did, but not as many as predicted – only five out of 22 in fact.

Indeed, both races at Suzuka were very entertaining, vindicating the decisions made by JRP that had attracted a healthy degree of scepticism in the build-up to the season.

In retrospect, it would be fair to say that a pre-season impacted by bad weather had clouded the picture to a degree. The sole two-day test at Suzuka in February was impacted by snow, causing the second day to be called off entirely. And with the first day starting with a wet track, meaningful dry running was essentially restricted to a single two-and-a-half hour session.

Virtually no driver had done any representative long runs heading into last Friday’s opening practice session, with matters not helped by the partial resurfacing of Suzuka that had taken place over the winter, covering the final chicane through to Turn 7 (formerly Dunlop Corner).

The new asphalt featured some unwelcome bumps, which notably caught out no lesser driver than Sho Tsuboi during the test, as the reigning champion uncharacteristically spun into the gravel at the end of the morning session on the one and only day of running. Several drivers voiced concerns at the bumps, with two-time champion Tomoki Nojiri stating: “The shape of the track is the same, but it feels like a completely different Suzuka.”

But the Honda-owned venue soon swung into action, and by the time the paddock reconvened at Suzuka on Thursday, barely two weeks on from the test, the areas where the bumps had been at Turns 3 and 7 had been re-resurfaced, and the drivers amazed at how smooth the track had become. “I was surprised at how quickly they were able to fix it,” said Naoki Yamamoto, the now retired three-time champion who has taken up a role with JRP.

Still, with the focus of Friday practice for most drivers being very much loaded towards short runs, it wasn’t until Saturday’s opening race that drivers would discover how the new tyres would behave over a longer stint. And the degradation, while less than recent seasons, was still significant enough to cause some drivers headaches, leading to some fierce battles.

There was still plenty of strategic variety on offer and, while Ohta’s penalty took the sting out of the lead battle, there were no shortage of overtakes going on up and down the field

The irony was that, in the race that featured the lap 10 pit window, the entire field pitted in unison as an incident involving Toshiki Oyu and Kazuto Kotaka had brought out the safety car just prior to the window opening. Several teams were forced into double-stacking their drivers, which served to remove Team Mugen’s Nojiri and Dandelion Racing’s Tadasuke Makino from the equation, as they had been running behind respective team-mates Ayumu Iwasa and Kakunoshin Ohta.

With all element of strategy removed, the race could have easily been a procession, but instead Iwasa and Ohta delivered a thriller, with Ohta using his superior tyre warm-up to get the better of Iwasa once the race resumed and then holding off the Red Bull junior driver by a scant 0.197 seconds, the fourth-closest finish in series history.

The entertainment factor lost from the lesser degradation was arguably made up for by the fact that the new, stiffer rubber – one engineer described them to this writer as ‘plastic tyres’ – was proving difficult to get up to temperature in the relatively chilly conditions at Suzuka.

Ohta beat Iwasa to take victory in the opener, but a misjudged move in the second race cost him dearly

Photo by: Masahide Kamio

Still, enough teams were concerned by the degradation that pitting on lap one – which Makino had boldly predicted would be the choice of up to 15 drivers after Friday practice – was much less popular than expected, as only five drivers took the plunge, and more than half of the field went for what could be called a ‘long’ strategy of trying to use a combination of the fuel effect (the car getting lighter and lighter on lower fuel) and fresh tyres to their advantage.

First and second places went to Makino and Tsuboi, who did exactly that. Saturday winner Ohta, who pitted on lap one, was on course to be third after picking up a five-second penalty for illegally passing fellow early stopper Iwasa at the chicane. But a late safety car, triggered by rookie Zak O’Sullivan coming to grief, bunched up the pack and meant Ohta plummeted to 12th once his penalty was applied, despite finishing second on the road.

When all was said and done, there was still plenty of strategic variety on offer and, while Ohta’s penalty took the sting out of the lead battle, there were no shortage of overtakes going on up and down the field as the other late stoppers made up time on fresh rubber.

In other words, it was the same old Super Formula that we know and love, and JRP can certainly feel a sense of relief that the paddock’s worst fears proved unfounded.

The established top teams will also draw comfort from the fact that the new tyres didn’t herald a major reshuffle in the familiar pecking order. Only three teams have won races since the beginning of the SF23 era, Mugen, TOM’S and Dandelion and, on the evidence of Suzuka, that particular state of affairs isn’t going to change any time soon.

Despite falling short yet again of a first Super Formula win, it’s Iwasa who holds the early championship lead ahead of Tsuboi – who got his title defence off to a strong start around what is not usually a good track for Toyota – Ohta, Makino and Nojiri, who started on pole in both races but ended up finishing seventh and fourth.

The battle lines are well and truly drawn, and it looks like we could be in for a monumental five-way scrap for the title in Super Formula’s longest-ever season.

Iwasa leaves the Super Formula opening round with a seven-point lead over Tsuboi

Photo by: Masahide Kamio