Could Goh hand snubbed Sasahara a Super Formula lifeline?

When Honda revealed its 2022 Super Formula driver roster last week, there was one significant surprise in store: Team Goh being listed as a standalone entity.

It’s not the first time that the outfit that won the 1996 JGTC title and the 2004 Le Mans 24 Hours had cropped up on a Super Formula entry list. That came last year, when Mugen’s Red Bull-backed #15 entry was listed under the ‘Red Bull Mugen Team Goh’ banner.

Despite the branding, and the fact Mugen’s two cars were classified separately in the teams’ championship, this was simply a continuation of the Red Bull-backed #15 entry that had been raced by Pierre Gasly, Dan Ticktum, Pato O'Ward and Juri Vips in seasons prior.

Hiroki Otsu became the first full-time occupant of the car not belonging to the Red Bull junior scheme, with Goh’s influence helping to give the eventual Rookie of the Year the nod over Vips’ 2020 stand-in Sasahara.

But instead of the ‘Mugen Team Goh’ collaboration continuing for another year as had been anticipated, the two outfits have gone their separate ways for 2022, with Mugen now operating just the #1 car (previously the #16) of reigning champion Tomoki Nojiri and Goh setting up shop on its own with a two-car team.

For the first time since 2016, Mugen will be operating only one car in Super Formula next year.

After testing for Mugen last month at Suzuka, Honda junior driver Ren Sato has been confirmed as one driver for the new squad, which will be run by the Servus Japan organisation, with the other listed as TBA. Servus boss Kazuhiro Ikeda has been named as team director, taking over from team founder Kazumichi Goh.

In some ways, this is the logical next step of the unusual split arrangement that’s been in place at Mugen for some years now. Servus’s main responsibility was the maintenance of the Red Bull-liveried #15 car, although it also helped out with the running of team’s primary entry, not least by supplying Nojiri’s engineer Toshihiro Ichise (who has now left Servus to join Mugen parent company M-TEC).

Servus, which also operates the ARTA Honda squad in SUPER GT, is known to have been keen on taking on the responsibility of running an entire team in Super Formula. Goh’s desire to have its own entry offered the perfect chance to do so – Servus was founded by ex-Team Goh members, so the relationship between the two organisations is so close as to be virtually synonymous.

Although not confirmed, it would also be a surprise if Red Bull didn’t have some involvement in the new outfit considering its close links with Honda and the expense it incurred by holding last month’s street demo in Tokyo involving its cars from both SUPER GT and Super Formula.

The Red Bull Race Day event took place in early December in Jingu Gaien, near Tokyo's Olympic Stadium

A brief communique from Goh released on Tuesday to confirm its two-car entry said that further information on the team structure, sponsors and – critically – the second driver will be released later.

Efforts are thought to have been made to find a foreign driver to join Sato in the squad, but with Japan still not issuing new visas following the onset of the Omicron variant of COVID-19, the chances of any drivers from abroad being able to make the trip to Japan in time for the opening pre-season test at Suzuka in March look to be fading by the week.

So, if Goh is restricted to Japanese drivers that are affiliated to engine supplier Honda, options are thin on the ground. In fact, there’s only really one logical choice: Sasahara.

After replacing an unwell Tadasuke Makino at Dandelion Racing for two races and scoring a podium in one of those, and then spending the rest of the season on reserve duty for the team, Sasahara has every reason to feel hard done by that he was passed up to replace Drago Corse-bound Nirei Fukuzumi at Dandelion this year, again losing out to Otsu.

Sasahara finished third in the second round of the season at Suzuka last year, in just his second race for Dandelion

Besides being available and quick, Sasahara would be a logical choice for Goh, as it was Servus that ran his side of the Mugen garage in 2020. His experience would also be useful as the team tries to get rookie Sato up to speed, and certainly preferable to another novice.

While there were two ‘TBA’ slots on the Honda roster when it was unveiled on Friday, it seems doubtful that the other, at B-Max Racing, would be a realistic option for Sasahara.

B-Max’s own press release made it clear that it, too, is on the lookout for a foreign driver that can bring a budget, and that if one cannot be found, it may focus on running a single car for Nobuharu Matsushita as it did last season.

So, it looks like Goh or bust for Sasahara’s hopes of being on the Super Formula grid this year. It would be a crying shame if the talented 25-year-old was forced to spend another year on the sidelines, so fingers crossed he gets the nod.