MUGEN

2012.11.07

Japanese Championship Formula NIPPON Round7

Due to unexpected trouble TEAM MUGEN ended this season with regret

Series name: 2012 Japanese Championship Formula NIPPON Round7
Event name: 2012 Japanese Championship Formula NIPPON Round7 SUZUKA CIRCUIT
Race 1 Course: 5.807km × 20 laps (116.14km)
Race 2 Course: 5.807km × 28 laps (162.60km)
Qualifying: 2012-11-03 sat / Cloudy / Attendance 12,000 (Announcement from the organizer)
Race: 2012-11-04 sun / Partly coludy / Attendance 14,000 (Announcement from the organizer)

The final race of the Formula NIPPON 2012 was held at Honda’s home ground course, SUZUKA CIRCUIT. From next season Formula NIPPON will be renamed Super Formula, therefore this race can be counted as the very last race of the Formula NIPPON era, which started 1996. Ex-Formula One, and current Indy car driver, Takuma Sato, who joined the series at the previous race as a TEAM MUGEN driver again joined Team MUGEN regular driver, Naoki Yamamoto, and both were fully-prepared for this final race.

With both drivers being graduates of the SRS-F (Suzuka Circuit Racing School Formula racing schools) based at SUZUKA CIRCUIT this is, in a manner of speaking a home course for them. With Sato having twice won points at the F1 Japanese Grand Prix, and Yamamoto winning the pole position at his very first race after becoming a driver at TEAM MUGEN, both were keen to demonstrate their undoubted skills as brilliant drivers on this circuit. Since TEAM MUGEN has been running two cars, the team has benefited a lot from the stand point of exchange of the technical data, so hopes were high for wining the race for their fans.

█ Race 1
#16 Naoki Yamamoto 15th place (20 laps: 35mins 14.753secs. / Best lap: 1min 44.107secs.)
#15 Takuma Sato 17th place (20 laps: 35mins 20.276secs. / Best lap: 1min 43.789secs)

In contrast to the previous day the weather, although partly cloudy, provided ideal race conditions. Team MUGEN got ready for the race 1 without huge modification, and with a crowded race programme to get through on the day there was no time in the schedule for the normal 9:00 free practice session. Therefore the 20 lap sprint race, with no mandatory tyre change or fuelling was scheduled to be Race 1 of the day. Air temperature of 17 °C and track surface at 23 °C gave good conditions for the 8 minute warm-up run with all cars lined up at dummy grid at 9:48.

After singing of the national anthem and opening declaration the formation lap was started, however, under severe pressure both drivers wanted to win the race at any cost, and #15 Sato’s machine engine stalled, leaving him no option other than to start from the back of the grid in 18th place.

At the race start #16 Yamamoto remained in 7th place, but again #15 Sato suffered a stalled engine and he was critically left behind. While #16 Yamamoto battled with #32 Kogure in the middle of the race, #15 Sato tried to run at the same pace as the top driver to catch up the time loss. #16 Yamamoto recorded the fastest lap at 1min44.107secs at 5th lap, but was not able to improve after that.
Though #15 Sato started out late, he created some audience excitement when he passed the #18 at the chicane on the 9th lap. The race settled down and nothing remarkable happened for a while, but cruelly on the final lap of the race #16 Yamamoto started to slow down with apparent drive-train problems. Despite almost coming to a stop at the Degner Curve #16 Yamamoto was able to finish the race albeit in 15th place with team-mate Sato following behind in 17th. Although the results were not satisfactory, both of the drivers could complete the race having gathered precious driving data.

█ Race 2
#15 Takuma Sato 10th place (28 laps: 49mins 42.759secs. / Best lap: 1min 43.992secs.)
#16 Naoki Yamamoto NO RECORD due to shortage of laps (4 laps: 7mins 122.409secs. / Best lap: 1min 45.113secs.)

For the 28-lap feature race the participants are required to pit to exchange tires and, since fueling is also permitted, each team can consider various strategies for the race. The warm-up run started at 13:45 for 8 minutes with the typical echo of formula cars around the circuit under a clear blue sky. #15 Sato started out very smoothly, but on the contrary #16 Yamamoto had a problem that required his machine to remain in the pit for ongoing repairs.

At 13:53, after finishing check run at 13:58, all the machines were at the grid, with the exception of #16 Yamamoto who was still at his pit for frantic repair work on his machine. With barely 3 minutes to spare before he would have had a penalty to place him at the back of the grid Yamamoto was able to leave his pit and make his way to his 4th spot on the grid. Work continued during the pre-race rituals and after a lot of hard effort by the Team MUGEN crew it was finally completed at 14:20 and the team members were able to leave the car with just minutes to spare before penalties would be imposed.

At 14:30 the formation lap started at a slightly lower ambient temperature of 17 °C, and track surface of 20 °C, compared to the morning race, with each driver aggressively zig-zagging and completing burn-outs to get vital temperature into their tyres. At 14:33 all the machines lined up. From the start both #15 Sato and #16 Yamamoto began quite smoothly but a slow launch off the line saw #16 Yamamoto passed at the first corner and relegated to 5th place, and by the 3rd lap he was forced into retirement due to further troubles with his drive train. On the other hand #15 Sato was driving quite steadily, and his 9th lap pass on one machine positioned him in 4th place. On the 10th lap he was in the pit where his crew exchanged his tyres in 8.3 seconds before sending him back out on to the circuit. On his 12th lap Sato recorded his fastest lap, 1min43.992secs, in an effort to catch up some places, however he eventually finished the race in 10th place.

█ Comments from the team spokesman Katsumata
Overall this performance, including qualifying, was not satisfactory. Although we were able to set up the machine of #16 Yamamoto the end result was quite regrettable. We were astonished at the trouble we suffered with the drive train as this is not something that has happened to us before. We believed we could fix it in time but ... This race is the last race in a season, which in truth has contained several races that have left me feeling frustrated. Good race results stem from better qualifying positions. It was good for us to have #15 Sato join the team as our driver from the Sugo race. His contributions have been invaluable and dramatically increased our efficient collection of race data. We will do our best at JAF. Please look forward to our race.

♦ Photo Gallery for Takuma Sato

♦ Photo Gallery for Naoki Yamamoto