MUGEN

2015.7.23

TEAM MUGEN finished 12th in the rough race.

Series name: 2015 Japanese Championship SUPER FORMULA Round 3
Event: 2015 Japan Championship Super Formula
Round 3 Fuji Speedway
Course: 4.563km × 55 laps (250.9651km)
Qualifying: July 18 (Sat) / Overcast, and rain later / Attendance 11,000 (Announcement from the organizer)
Race: July 19 (Sun) / Sunny, and overcast later / Attendance 19,700 (Announcement from the organizer)

On July 18 (Sat.) and 19 (Sun.), the 2015 Japanese Championship SUPER FORMULA Round 3 was held at Fuji Speedway in Shizuoka Prefecture.

Due to the typhoon No. 11, which directly hit western Japan, we expected severe weather for the weekend. However, on Saturday when the cars started, we had occasional strong wind but less rain than expected, so the event started all right. But it was expected that the qualifying sessions would be tough since we had to decide when to make time attacks by forecasting conditions.

The instantaneous fuel flow restrictor specification was increased from 90 kg/h, which was for the previous race, to 95 kg/h as it was for the season-opening race. With the overtake system (OTS), which is available in the final race, the fuel flow restriction will increase from 95 kg/h to 105 kg/h for 20 seconds, which increases power. It is allowed to use this system five times in one race.

July 18 (Sat)

■  Free practice first round
#16 Naoki Yamamoto, 10th position (00:01:38.139)

The free practice was held for one hour starting at 09:15 on Saturday, July 18. The rain was not heavy. With occasional strong wind and slight rain, part of the track surface started to dry, and this made the conditions difficult. They announced the condition as WET, and #16 Yamamoto entered the track with rain tires. Once the free practice started, tires raised a spray of water.

Though #16 Yamamoto kept a faster pace among Honda drivers, he could not break away from the middle group as a whole. The machine balance was not great with our originally fixed setting, and he could not take full control of the car.

The team thought it was difficult to target pole position in the situation, so we made #16 Yamamoto come back to the pit lane. After taking time to change setting, he returned to the track. It was raining just slightly at the end of the session, and Yamamoto's lap time improved. However, lap time of competitors also improved as a whole. He could not break away from the middle group until the end, and finished 2nd among Honda drivers, 10th among all drivers in the session.

■  Official qualifying
#16 Naoki Yamamoto (Q1:19th position, 00:01:44.018, Q2: DNS, Q3: DNS)

The qualifying race by a knockout-based qualifying format with three sessions was held for 20 minutes starting at 13:45 under the announced WET condition. Though it was sprinkling, the whole track surface was wet. Once the cars started, tires raised a spray of water. It was expected that the weather would be worse.

# 16 Yamamoto entered the track with rain tires. He carefully warmed up the tires, and made a time attack early in the race. However, he had to suspend the time attack on the lap 1 since a car ahead was driving slowly and blocked his way. He allowed the tires to cool for one lap, and made a time attack again on the next lap. However, the tires might have got too cold during the cool-down. He overran in the first corner, returned to the track, but failed to make a time attack. His time ended up 00:01:44.018.

Unfortunately, the rain started to get heavy. The condition was too bad and there was not enough time left to change the setting and make a time attack again. So, the team and #16 Yamamoto decided to keep driving the remaining laps without any setting change and finish the session. Though #16 Yamamoto drove 11 laps, he could not recover the loss. Eventually, he could not make Q2.

Jul 19 (Sun)

■   Free practice, second session
#16 Naoki Yamamot, 15th position (00:01:26.855)

The second session of the free practice was held for 30 minutes starting at 08:50 for the final race. Unlike the day before, the track of Fuji Speedway was in dry condition with strong sunshine. The team set the machine of #16 Yamamoto for dry condition to send him off for the session. #16 Yamamoto drove the car at his pace to check the setting for the final race as usual.

■   Final Race
#16 Naoki Yamamoto, 12th position (55 laps / 01:29:33.675 / Best lap 00:01:26.993)

The Fuji Speedway area got slightly cloudy around 14:00 when the final race started. The sunshine shone through the cloud. The temperature was 28°C, and the track surface temperature was 37°C. #16 Yamamoto was on the last starting grid.

After the start, #16 Yamamoto successfully accelerated the car, and he was almost overtaking a car ahead when he got closer to the first corner. However, a minor collision occurred in the first corner. At this point of time, #16 Yamamoto moved up to the 13th position. However, because of the accident, a safety car joined the track to be in lead.

As the SF14 engine is very much aerodynamically designed, downforce tends to be lost when the machine gets close to another machine in front before overtaking, which can damage tires. Therefore, #16 Yamamoto had to keep a distance to the machine in front to keep a stable air distribution to the body, and there was very little he could do to overtake the car in front but waiting for the driver in front to make a mistake.

The safety car was in lead until the lap 5 was completed, and the race was resumed from the lap 6. #16 Yamamoto chased a car ahead, moved up to the 12th position on the lap 8, and tried to chase further. However, the team decided it was better to make him drive alone to increase his pace. We made him return to the pit lane when he drove the lap 11, which was the minimum number of laps based on our fueling strategy, fueled the car, and changed tires. To minimize the time taken for the pit work and overtake the car ahead, we adopted a strategy to change only rear tires within the specified fueling time before #16 Yamamoto returned to the track.

However, since the car ahead also made a pit stop and returned to the track on the next lap considering the situation of #16 Yamamoto, our strategy did not work as expected. Yamamoto could not actually move up when the race was in the second half.

On the lap 15, #16 Yamamoto made effective use of the overtake system (OTS) to overtake the car ahead in the Dunlop corner and moved up his position. Though #16 Yamamoto showed a glimpse of his original performance capability, the encouraging dry setting could not change the situation as much as #16 Yamamoto and the team expected. #16 Yamamoto still had to go through the tough race.

#16 Yamamoto tried hard to get closer to the car ahead to move up in his position, but he could not make it. In the meantime, he was overtaken by a car, which was chasing him. He moved down to the 12th position, and the distance to the cars ahead and behind increased. At the end of the race, he drove alone until he finished the race.

Eventually, the checkered flag was shown to #16 Yamamoto in the 12th position. As a result, he did not score any series point, and the driver point was ranked 7th. TEAM MUGEN did not score any point either, and the team point was ranked 6th.

■ Comments from driver, Naoki Yamamoto

The race did not go well at all. From the start, I could not make balance. Since I was pretty confident in the dry condition, I expected the situation would turn out all right once the condition changed. But, contrary to my expectations, things turned out worse even with the dry condition.

We did not do anything special for this race. We just incorporated ideas that had worked before. I don't think it was wrong, but they might not have worked under the conditions this time. It is obvious that we have to do something for the next race.

We should not compete at positions like in this race. We could not achieve results this time, but I believe there should be some tips in the data obtained that we will be able to make us of in the next race. I feel positive about this race. We are in a very tough situation in terms of the championship, but we will do our best so that we will be able to win late races.

I did pretty good in the race at the Twin Ring Motegi last year, so I think we will be able to deliver a good result. However, since this machine can be easily affected by conditions, I think we will need to further assess conditions and take a wider variety of measures.

■ Comments from the team director, Nagataka Tezuka

All I can express to our supporters is words of apology. We were so excited when we came to this circuit that we went around in circles.

For our originally fixed setting, Yamamoto and engineers tried hard on it. However, with the wet condition, the machine balance was bad from the start. We made some improvements for the qualifying race, but, unfortunately, we had the sad, frustrated, and surprising results in the qualifying race.

The final race was in the dry condition, and it showed some signs of recovery, but we could not catch up to the performance of the leading group.

Competitors are also working hard to improve their cars. We just could not achieve their levels. We take the results seriously and will make efforts for improvements. We will carefully examine, analyze, and understand the data to head in a good direction. I know our team will do it, and I'm sure that we will make it.

In the next race at the Twin Ring Motegi, we will compete for the top. I want you to expect from us good results. In the next race, I would like to show our supporters more exciting races, battles that will be able to make you feel our great efforts.

♦ Photo Gallery (Round3)