MUGEN

2015.10.23

TEAM MUGEN finished in 2nd place, marking this season's first ascent to the victory podium. It was an excellent race, backed by strategy and the pit team.

Series name: 2015 Japanese Championship SUPER FORMULA Round 6
Event: Japanese Championship SUPER FORMULA Round 6: Sportsland SUGO
Course: 3.704km × 68 laps (251.872km)
Qualifying: October 17 (Sat) / Fine / Attendance 6,300 (Announcement from the organizer)
Race: October 18 (Sun) / Fine / Attendance 12,400 (Announcement from the organizer)

Round 6 of the 2015 Japanese Championship SUPER FORMULA Series was held on October 17 (Sat) and 18 (Sun) at Sportsland SUGO in Miyagi Prefecture.

It was held in September last year. This year, signs of autumn were visible there. The weather was good, and the weather forecast called for clear skies throughout the weekend.

October 17 (Sat)

■  Free practice first round
#16 Naoki Yamamoto, 16th position (00:01:06.176)

We conducted an exclusive drive for 1 hour beginning from 9:00 on the morning of Saturday the 17th. The autumn skies above Sportsland SUGO were clear, and the course conditions were dry. The team had considered the direction of the settings that had produced a good feel at Autopolis in Round 5, and decided the settings for this race before bringing the vehicle to the course. Although #16 Naoki Yamamoto felt good about the initial settings at the start of driving, he decided that some additional fine adjustments were necessary, as well as calibration to match the course conditions, and the team began that work.

During this time, #16 Naoki Yamamoto's time was down in the lower ranks of the participating vehicles, but the team made steady progress on the settings. Finally with less than 10 minutes left in the session, they achieved conditions that satisfied the driver. At this time, he began practicing for a time attack, and #16 Naoki Yamamoto immediately shortened his time and recorded a lap of 00:01:06.176, jumping him to 3rd position.

After that, a machine appeared which beat his time, and as he was about to begin the another time attack, a stopped vehicle occurred on the course and the session was ended with the red flag with 5 minutes remaining, giving #16 Naoki Yamamoto no opportunity to improve his time.

■  Official qualifying
#16 Naoki Yamamoto (Q1:7th position, 00:01:05.955, Q2: 5th position, 00:01:05.566, Q3: 4th position, 00:01:05.314)

The three knockout formula qualifying sessions started at 13:45.

The conditions were the same as during the morning, with a dry course and the wide blue autumn sky above. However a stopped vehicle occurred 5 minutes after the start and a red flag stopped the session. Although it was resumed at 13:57, soon thereafter there was another red flag and continuous driving was not possible.

At 14:04, the session started with 13:39 minutes remaining. All teams returned to the pit to check their vehicles' conditions and prepared for a time attack. When there was a little less than 7 minutes remaining in the session, all vehicles entered the course and began a time attack. #16 Naoki Yamamoto recorded a lap time of 00:01:05.955 that was 0.318 seconds behind the top time, placing him in 7th position as he cleared Q1 and advanced to Q2.

The Q2 session was scheduled to start at 14:28 and last for 7 minutes. #16 Naoki Yamamoto was the 13th of the 14 vehicles to enter the course for Q2, and he warmed up the tires and began a time attack. After 2 laps for warm-up, he recorded a time of 00:01:05.566, advancing to Q3 in 5th position out of the 14 vehicles.

The Q3 session started at 14:45. Because the Sportsland SUGO course is short, with each lap only 3.7 km, it is necessary to properly position the vehicle so that its path will not be blocked during a time attack. #16 Naoki Yamamoto entered the course early among the 8 participating vehicles, and after 1 warm-up lap, he recorded the top time of 00:01:05.314. Because later drivers recorded better times, he ended the session in 4th position.

October 18 (Sun)

■   Free practice, second session
#16 Naoki Yamamoto, 17th position (00:01:08.033)

After ending the qualifying sessions in 4th position and feeling satisfied with the performance of the machine, during this exclusive drive #16 Naoki Yamamoto focused on adjustments to be made for the final race. His best time after 17 laps was 00:01:08.033 and he ended in 17th position out of 19.

■   Final Race
#16 Naoki Yamamoto, 2nd position (68 laps / 01:18:16.432 / Best lap 00:01:07.864)

At 13:45, an 8 minutes warm-up drive was conducted in advance of the main race. During this session, when all vehicles were driving with settings and weight configured for the start of the final race, #16 Naoki Yamamoto drove 6 laps and recorded a time of 00:01:08.329, putting him in 3rd position.

After the warm-up drive, the competing vehicles formed up in the dummy grid, and following the start ceremony, the 68 lap final race began at 14:30. #16 Naoki Yamamoto got off to a good start, beginning the race by passing one vehicle before the first corner and moving up to 3rd place.

Subsequently, #16 Naoki Yamamoto hung on tenaciously as he pursued the two leading vehicles, however little by little they pulled away from him, and before the 10th lap, the team switched to a strategy of protecting the 3rd place position. Engine control was changed to a lean map to buy fuel efficiency, and #16 Naoki Yamamoto began monitoring the distance from 4th place driver Hiroaki Ishiura, who was slightly more than one second behind.

On Lap 26, Hiroaki Ishiura entered the pit to refuel. The team originally had planned to get a few more laps on the board before going into the pit, but in consideration for the duel with Hiroaki Ishiura, #16 Naoki Yamamoto entered the pit on the next lap for refueling only and no tire change, returning to the course in rapid time. He returned to the race in apparent 8th place, however in fact he kept the 3rd place position ahead of Hiroaki Ishiura, who had finished the pit work one lap earlier.

When the 2nd place driver later made a refueling pit stop, because the work took extra time, #16 Naoki Yamamoto was able to reverse their positions, moving to 7th place apparent and 2nd place actual. Because the time difference from the leading driver was more than 15 seconds, #16 Naoki Yamamoto and the team spent the second half of the race focused on protecting the distance from the 3rd place driver, and on tire and fuel management.

On Lap 45, #16 Naoki Yamamoto's apparent position had advanced to 5th place. The driver who was in the actual 3rd place position continued to pursue and had closed the gap to 2 seconds. However on Lap 53, the driver who was in the apparent 2nd place position entered the pit for refueling, returning to the course between #16 Naoki Yamamoto and the driver who was in actual 3rd place. This moved #16 Naoki Yamamoto to apparent 4th place and changed the driver who was immediately behind him.

On Lap 55, #16 Naoki Yamamoto advanced to apparent 3rd place. After all vehicles completed pit stops on Lap 59, he had moved up to 2nd place. From that point on, he controlled his pace well, with consideration for fuel economy, and protected his position. He continued the rest of the race in 2nd place and took the checkered flag. The victory podium marked #16 Naoki Yamamoto's first victory of the season.

As a result, #16 Naoki Yamamoto added 8 points to the series score for a total of 17, moving him up from No. 8 to No. 6 in the drivers' point rankings. Team MUGEN also added 8 points to their series total, however this did not change their position and they remained at No. 6 in the team point rankings. The next race is the series final Round 7, and will be held on November 7 - 8 at the Suzuka Circuit in Mie Prefecture.

■ Comments from driver, Naoki Yamamoto

This weekend, I think that both the team and myself put together a good package. However I also stumbled a bit at the exclusive drive on Saturday, and I wish we could have had the car finished earlier in preparation for the qualifying session, so there are some regrets. But even so, we got a spot in the second row of the starting grid, and were able to achieve a good start - which had been a problem for us before.

What concerned me at the start was JP (João Paulo de Oliveira) behind me and Hiroaki Ishiura within my field of vision (diagonally ahead). I saw Ishiura spin his wheels and lose speed at the start, so I was able to emerge in front. I expected JP to come up behind, so I concentrated on blocking his line.

After that, I was helped by our strategy. We came close to the limit on fuel. I drove at the limit in order to reduce the amount of refueling in the pit. After refueling, I continued to save fuel while watching the pace of the car behind me, however just when I thought that the other car would pass me if I continued, the following car suddenly dropped its pace and I was able to concentrate on fuel-efficient driving until the end.

However because I entered the pit at the same time as Hiroaki Ishiura, the car was heavy with gasoline during the second half of the race, and the tires which we had not changed were in bad shape, so the driving was difficult at the end.

I was happy to be on the victory podium for the first time since winning the championship in 2013, but it is frustrating that we did not win the race. However I think that this race will lead us to a good result in the final round.

We captured the pole position at Suzuka during the first round of this year, however we were unable to achieve any results at all after that point. During Round 6 at Autopolis, we made large changes to the car's settings and finally got back on track. What direction to take for the next race in Suzuka is a problem that I and the engineers will be worrying over.

In any case, although we will not be involved in the competition for the title, I want to make it a race where the other drivers will say, “That Yamamoto, what a nuisance”.

■ Comments from the team director, Nagataka Tezuka

Although the 2nd place result was a great improvement from our earlier performance, there is still one more spot above us and it is regrettable that the top driver finished ahead of us by such a wide margin. The trouble at the start of driving on Saturday was shown in our qualifying position.

During the qualifying session, I had hoped to get a position at least in the 2nd row, and somehow we ended in 4th place - in the 2nd row of the grid. Naoki Yamamoto got a good start and moved up one place, and I am very happy that he was there on the victory podium!

This time, we had planned on not changing the tires. In order to shorten our pit time as much as possible, including time for refueling, Naoki Yamamoto drove somewhat on the lean side while taking into account tire-management, and saved us fuel!

Although our pit work was not especially fast, Yamamoto's fuel-efficient driving and the good work of the pit crew combined to get us back on the course quickly. I want to praise both the staff and the driver.

Now all we need to do is win.

We cannot be satisfied with being happy over this result, and I expect everyone to work hard for the final round. The final round consists of two races, and we will do our best to finish on top in this round.

♦ Photo Gallery (Round6)