Rookie driver demonstrates strong wet-weather pace as the team takes valuable lessons from a challenging opening weekend

Motegi, Japan (Tuesday, 7 April 2026) TEAM GOH, led by Representative Kazuhiro Ikeda and Team Director Misato Haga, contested Rounds 1 and 2 of the 2026 All-Japan Super Formula Championship season opener at Mobility Resort Motegi in Tochigi, Japan, from 3-5 April, with rookie driver Charlie Wurz. Entering the weekend with a new line-up and a single-car programme powered by TOYOTA for the first time, the team ran the TOYOTA/TRD01F developed by TGR-D (TOYOTA GAZOO Racing Development).

Across the weekend, including Friday’s free practice sessions, the team faced difficult conditions and a number of challenges, while also showing clear signs of potential and progress. Despite a demanding opening event, valuable experience and useful data were gathered to build on ahead of the next round at Autopolis.

Round 1 on Saturday was heavily affected by rain, which began falling around late morning after qualifying and showed no sign of easing by the time the race was due to start. The race got underway behind the Safety Car in wet conditions and, after a red-flag interruption, ran to the maximum time permitted under the event regulations, with the chequered flag falling after 23 laps. With only two green-flag laps completed out of the 23, opportunities were extremely limited, but Wurz still delivered bold overtaking moves on his Super Formula debut. After starting 19th on the grid, he took the chequered flag in 15th place, with the team encouraged by the car’s competitiveness in the wet.

Sunday’s Round 2 presented a different set of challenges. The mandatory tyre change was completed at the earliest possible pit window, although the team was unfortunate to lose time due to an external factor during the stop. While there were still areas to improve in both the race start — Wurz’s first in Super Formula competition — and in overall set-up execution, the pace shown in the second half of the race was a positive sign. Just as importantly, the team was able to gather useful data and information that should contribute to future development.

Qualifying proved difficult on both days, particularly in terms of set-up fine-tuning and tyre warm-up. Even so, the lessons learned across the opening weekend have given the team a clearer direction heading into the next round at Autopolis, where TEAM GOH will aim to convert its early promise into stronger overall performance.

Driver Comment – Charlie Wurz
“Saturday’s Race 1 was extremely difficult because the conditions were so wet and visibility was very poor, but I’m glad the race went ahead and I think race control made the right call. We only had a couple of short periods of proper racing, but I was able to make my first overtakes in Super Formula and our pace in the wet looked strong, which was a big positive.

Sunday was more difficult overall. We missed the chance to start a second lap in qualifying by seven seconds, and in those cold conditions that extra lap would have been very important for tyre temperature. We tried a few different things for Race 2 and not everything worked, but that is part of the learning process. Even so, we made progress as a team, collected a lot of useful data and built a strong foundation for the next round. We still haven’t shown our full potential, so hopefully we can surprise a few people next time.”

Team Director Comment – Misato Haga
“As this was my first Super Formula event, it was an extremely valuable and eye-opening experience for me, and a race weekend from which I learned a great deal. I am sincerely grateful to have joined the team as Team Director in time for the opening round of the season.

While we were not yet in a position to challenge at the front, our direction is clear. We will continue to build step by step, with the immediate target of finishing inside the top six in our Q1 group, progressing to Q2 and putting ourselves in a position to fight further up the order. The season has only just begun, and I am confident there is much more to come from this team. We will keep pushing, keep learning and keep improving, and we hope everyone will continue to follow our progress in the rounds ahead.

Although the opening weekend exposed clear areas for improvement — particularly in qualifying execution, tyre warm-up, start procedure and set-up precision — it also provided important encouragement in terms of wet-weather competitiveness, race pace and the data collected across both days. TEAM GOH will now take those lessons forward and continue its push for stronger results at the next round of the 2026 Super Formula Championship at Autopolis.”

Engineer Comment
“Looking back at Saturday qualifying, we believe we slightly missed the tyre warm-up procedure. We followed the same process as on Friday, but with track temperatures more than 10 degrees lower, we were unable to bring the tyres in properly, which left us too far down the order. In Race 1, the wet conditions made it difficult to draw firm conclusions, but we were still able to make a few overtakes and there were signs of reasonable pace within the pack.

For Sunday, we kept the same basic set-up direction that had shown relatively good balance on Friday and reviewed the tyre warm-up approach, but we were still unable to extract the grip we expected in qualifying. In Race 2, we did not maximise the start and then lost further time in the pit stop. Even so, once we were able to push, the pace improved and we closed quickly on car No. 9, although dirty air, tyre overheating and the lack of a tyre-life advantage made overtaking difficult. The key positives were the performance we showed on Friday when the conditions came together, and our pace in Sunday’s race before catching car No. 9. Looking ahead, our focus is on improving start execution and refining the set-up more precisely.”