Two of Formula 1’s newest superstars will make a surprise appearance in the Japanese Super Formula Championship’s annual winter test at Suzuka Circuit. Mercedes’ Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Haas’ Oliver Bearman will drive at Suzuka for the first time on Friday, the third and final day of the test which is reserved for rookie drivers.
Both will be behind the wheel of the Dallara SF23, a step up from the Dallara F2 2024s that they drove in the FIA Formula 2 championship this past season.
Bearman will drive the No.7 entry from Hong Kong-based KCMG, which is usually driven by Toyota Gazoo Racing WEC driver and team principal Kamui Kobayashi. The English driver will partner Esteban Ocon at Haas in 2025 after running three races last season as a relief driver at Haas and Ferrari.
“I’m really excited to be driving at Suzuka in the Super Formula car. It’s one of the circuits which will be new to me next season, so getting the chance to experience it, and in such an amazing car, will be super helpful! Big thanks to Ayao Komatsu and MoneyGram Haas F1 Team for putting this together with KCMG,” said Bearman.
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Antonelli will drive the No.14 car of Rookie Racing, the Japanese team established by Toyota Motor Corporation Chairman Akio Toyoda. Rookie Racing also participates in Super GT’s premier GT500 class with Toyota, and has multiple entries in the Super Taikyu endurance series, including the hydrogen-fueled Toyota GR Corolla H2 Concept, and a Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO.
The 18-year-old Italian graduates to F1 next season as Mercedes’ hand-picked successor to seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton. Antonelli finished sixth in the F2 standings for PREMA after winning multiple Formula 4 and Formula Regional championships between 2022–2023.
Though not a rookie, former Nissan Formula E driver Sacha Fenestraz is another headliner at this week’s tests. Just three months after being released from his Formula E contract, the French-Argentine driver will drive the No.37 car of Toyota’s powerhouse TOM’S Racing squad. Fenestraz is heavily rumored to rejoin Toyota as a factory driver in 2025. Before moving to Formula E, Fenestraz was the 2022 Super Formula championship runner-up behind Team Mugen’s Tomoki Nojiri.
Antonelli and Bearman are just two out of 14 ‘rookie’ candidates that will run at Suzuka. Kondo Racing will give testing opportunities to fellow F2 alumni Juan Manuel Correa, and GB3 Series race winner James Hedley. Correa will run on Thursday while Hedley, who made a one-off FIA Formula 3 appearance at Monaco this year, will run on Thursday and Friday.
Former Hertz Team JOTA driver Oliver Rasmussen will be behind the wheel of the No.19 Team Impul car on Thursday and Friday. Rasmussen will be sharing with Toyota Gazoo Racing Driver Challenge (TGR-DC) academy member Hibiki Taira, who helped fill the Impul seat left vacant by Theo Pourchaire’s sudden departure after the 2024 season-opening round. Impul’s No.20 car will be driven by Mitsunori Takaboshi, the Nissan Super GT factory driver who has been the test driver for one of Super Formula’s research and development cars since 2023.
At Nakajima Racing, Igor Fraga, a race winner in the Super Formula Lights series, will drive all three days in the No.64 Dallara-Honda, as the favourite to replace three-time series champion Naoki Yamamoto, who retired from Super Formula at the end of the season. Fraga, who is also renowned as a multi-time esports champion in the Gran Turismo World Series, was Nakajima Racing’s reserve driver in 2024.
Miki Koyama will run on Friday in the No.8 KCMG Dallara/Toyota, opposite Bearman. Koyama, the 2022 Formula Regional Japanese Champion and a veteran of the W Series, hopes to be the next woman to race in Super Formula, following recent debutants Tatiana Calderon and Juju Noda.
There are several other drivers looking to make the step up from Super Formula Lights, the top feeder category to Super Formula. Reigning series champion Syun Koide, a top prospect of the Honda Formula Dream Project (HFDP) in Japan, will run all three days in the No.50 Dallara-Honda from B-Max Racing.
Series runner-up Rikuto Kobayashi out of the TGR-DC stable will run on Friday for TOM’S Racing, taking over the No.36 car normally driven by the reigning Super Formula and Super GT GT500 Champion Sho Tsuboi. Fellow TGR-DC member Seita Nonaka will drive the No.7 KCMG car on Thursday, the day before Bearman is set to drive the same car.
Cerumo–INGING will furnish Friday testing opportunities for Super GT GT300 title challenger Yuui Tsutsumi, and Toyota-backed Formula 4 prospect Kazuhisa Urabe. Honda GT500 factory driver Riki Okusa will also run on Friday in the No.65 Nakajima Racing car.
Super Formula fans will also note some other changes involving experienced drivers. Toyota factory driver Ukyo Sasahara, who drove for TOM’S the last two years, will test with Kondo Racing in the No.4 car shared with Correa. Likewise, Kazuto Kotaka, who’s spent the last two seasons at Kondo Racing, will drive the No.14 Rookie Racing car in Wednesday’s first session before handing it over to veteran Kazuya Oshima, who will then turn the wheel over to Antonelli.
Yuhi Sekiguchi, KCMG’s reserve driver and a multi-time Super Formula race winner, will come out of his semi-retirement to drive the No.8 car on Wednesday. Dandelion Racing and Team Mugen will only run their two Honda-powered cars on Wednesday and Thursday. One team that raced last season that will be absent from the test completely is TGM Grand Prix, which fielded two cars including one for Juju Noda.
Wednesday and Thursday will feature a pair of two-hour test sessions, starting at 10:00 AM and 2:00 PM JST (local time). The two rookie test sessions will be on Friday from 9:30–11:00 AM and 1:00–2:00 PM JST. Interested viewers can watch all on-track activity on the official Super Formula streaming service SFgo, which is available for ~$80/year or ~$10/month.