Red Bull junior Iwasa set for Super Formula move in 2024
Honda and Red Bull junior driver Ayumu Iwasa is set to return to Japan in 2024 to contest Super Formula after spending two seasons in FIA Formula 2.
Iwasa, who placed fifth in F2 last year and sits third in this year’s standings with one round remaining, has been linked to the Team Mugen seat currently occupied by Liam Lawson.
Helmut Marko, Red Bull motorsport advisor and head of its junior scheme, confirmed to Autosport at last weekend’s Formula 1 race in Austin that Iwasa will indeed race in Super Formula.
“There will be an announcement in Japan pretty soon and we will wait for that announcement,” said Marko.
It will mark Iwasa’s first full season of car racing on home soil, as he has raced in Europe since becoming a Honda junior off the back of winning the Suzuka Racing School (now Honda Racing School) scholarship in 2019.
He won the French F4 title in 2020 before stepping up to FIA F3 the following year, finishing 12th overall, and then graduating directly to F2 with the DAMS squad in 2022.
Iwasa has a total of five F2 wins, including three so far this season, to his credit with next month’s Abu Dhabi finale still to go.
While Lawson is in theory free to contest another season of Super Formula following the news that AlphaTauri will field Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo in F1 next season, such a prospect currently appears unlikely.
Liam Lawson, TEAM MUGEN
Photo by: Masahide Kamio
Instead, the New Zealander seems on course for full-time F1 reserve and simulator duties ahead of a potential promotion to a race seat in 2025.
Iwasa meanwhile will hope to use Super Formula to stake his claim for a future F1 drive in much the same way as Lawson has done this year, and is set to face the same challenge of going up against two-time champion Tomoki Nojiri as his team-mate.
The 22-year-old is likely to get his first experience of the Dallara SF23 in the post-season Suzuka test on 6-8 December.
Ex-Red Bull Formula 1 driver Daniil Kvyat is also expected to be present at Suzuka driving for Nakajima Racing.
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