The 2022 All-Japan Super Formula Championship held its first double-header event in April at the opening rounds of the Championship in Fuji, and on 20-21 August this format was replicated by holding Rounds 7 and 8 at Motegi.

Atsushi Miyake in the No. 53 car started Round 7 in 16^th position, but towards the end of the race he hit the car in front of him causing him to retire.

Atsushi Miyake, Driver No. 55

“I know that Motegi is a difficult track to overtake on, so qualifying and the race start would be really important.  At the start of the Free Practice session on Friday I was able to keep in the top group, but by the middle of the session I was falling back and track conditions were constantly changing.

Following Friday’s Free Practice session I was able to identify some issues for qualifying for Round 7 on Saturday, but unfortunately I was unable to improve my time and due to lack of the correct set-up and not correcting my driving sufficiently, I finished 16^th.  Having been able to run in the top group early in Friday’s Free Practice, despite the high temperatures and dusty track, I believe there is good potential in the car.”

Masashi Yamamoto, Team Director

With regard to Miyake in the No. 55 car, we were working in the same direction as the No. 53 car for qualifying in Round 7, consequently the results for both the No. 53 and No. 55 cars were similar meaning Miyake didn’t have the pace and finished up 16^th.  It crossed my mind in the last few minutes on the grid to go with slicks, but then the rain increased and I made the decision at the last minute to go with wets.  Miyake struggled to quicken his pace in the race because after the Safety Car came in and he tried to get closer to the car ahead, the spray obstructed his vision and he hit the car in front forcing him to retire.

Shintaro Okajima, Engineer No. 55

“Despite there being some differences in conditions, the fastest time in Q1 qualifying for Round 7 was faster than the pole time set in last year’s Super Formula Motegi event, and I think we did not adjust enough for the conditions.

Because conditions were dry during warm-up we chacked the dry set-up for the race in Round 7.  We found a lot of understeer, which would impact our performance, so after our reconnaissance laps we made some changes on the grid to correct it, but then it turned into a wet race.

Miyake struggled to improve his pace in the early stages of the race, but he improved as he settled down.  Despite the changing conditions we were also able to improve the understeer and gather some good data.  For Round 8 on Sunday we knew we were not fast enough to compete with the leaders so we needed to review our qualifying and race set-up.