【SUPER FORMULA Round 1 / Suzuka】

Nick Cassidy wins 2019 season opener at Suzuka.
Two spec tires stage thrilling SF19’s maiden race.

SUPER FORMULA Round 1

Date	2019/04/19-21
Venue	Suzuka Circuit
Weather	Fine
Surface	Dry
Race Lap	43Laps (1Lap = 5,807m)

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The 2019 Super Formula season started with its opening race at Suzuka. From this season on, the series will use the all new Super Formula car, SF19, as its proven and perfected predecessor, SF14 which the drivers had been relying on to deliver so many fantastic races, was decommissioned at the end of last year.

The new SF19 chassis was designed and built by Dallara in Italy. The series organizers asked the established race car manufacturer to create a car which is “easier to make overtaking move for drivers”, while keeping the same concept “quick and light” with its predecessor.

In the testing session that was held earlier, SF19 set the lap time faster than the existing course record, while it was unofficial, and confirmed itself as a clear step forward. Probably because of the higher air and track temperatures, the car didn’t break the lap record by older cars at its first official appearance, but it is almost certain that some new records will be set in the following rounds.

Another major focus along with the new car was the lineup of participating drivers. The series has nine new comers this year, including five fresh faces from abroad. In addition, some of the known faces moved to different teams from last year, so no one knew the true picture of a power balance in this new season when the first race weekend came.

The qualifying session on Saturday, April 20th, saw multiple red flags in Q1, which caused some of the drivers who attracted a lot of attention, including Harrison Newey (B-Max Racing with Motorpark) and Daniel Ticktum (Team Mugen), failing to set proper qualifying times in Q1 and losing out.

While most of veterans deftly survived the difficult situation, the speed of two rookie drivers from TCS Nakajima Racing came as a shock to everyone. Alex Palou was the fastest in Q1 and Q2, and then his teammate Tadasuke Makino set 1’36”000 which was quite close to the existing course record and secured the pole position!

This broke Nakajima Racing’s nine-year pole position drought. And this was the first time ever in Japanese top formula races, not only in Super Formula but in the preceding categories as well, that a rookie driver took the pole position in his debut race.

On Sunday, April 21st, it was warm and sunny as if it were an early summer day. The race got underway with the air/track temperatures at 25/37 degrees Celsius and Makino, starting from the pole position, led the field in early laps. Palou was once passed by Naoki Yamamoto (Docomo Team Dandelion Racing) who was the third fastest in the qualifying session but regained the position soon, so the race saw a one-two of TCS Nakajima Racing’s rookies in the early part.

There was a lot of position changes behind them. At the end of Lap 6, Nick Cassidy (Vantelin Team Tom’s) decided to make a very early pit stop to change to the soft tires and started to push hard from the bottom of the field.

Shortly after that, Ryo Hirakawa (Itochu Enex Team Impul) and Tristan Charpentier (Real Racing) stopped their cars on the track side due to mechanical problems, which caused the first Safety Car period of the day.

Many drivers used this opportunity to make their pit stop, therefore, Cassidy automatically moved up to fifth when racing resumed on Lap 12. As he managed to overtook Makino in front of him at Turn 1 immediately after the restart and passed another opponent on the same lap, the Kiwi was running in third when he completed Lap 12 and now he was effectively leading the race because the two cars ahead of him had yet to make a mandatory stop later.

On Lap 15, there was an accident involving two cars, which required the Safety Car to come out for the second time until Lap 18. Then at almost the same time with the restart, one of the stars on Saturday, Palou, had to stop the car on the track side because of a technical problem. The work to remove his cars caused the third Safety Car period from Lap 19 and, alas, Makino faced the same fate with his teammate nine laps later, calling for the Safety Car for the fourth time!

When everything settled down, Cassidy was running in second and all he had to do after the fourth restart was to keep enough gap with the cars behind him. As the interim leader, Kamui Kobayashi (Carrozzeria Team KCMG), had to head to pit lane at the end of penultimate lap, Cassidy got into the final lap as the leader and won the race. This was his second victory in Super Formula and came at the first race after moving to his new team.

The reigning champion Yamamoto finished in second, followed by Kenta Yamashita (Kondo Racing) who started the race from the sixth grid. Interestingly, this top three on the podium was the same with the last year’s final round