The Toyota junior with a point to prove in Super Formula

When it became clear that Sacha Fenestraz wouldn’t be able to stick around at Kondo Racing this year in light of his Nissan Formula E deal, there was talk of Toyota signing another non-Japanese driver to take the place of last year’s series runner-up.

Theo Pourchaire was at one stage pursued, but ultimately went back on his previous pledge not to continue in Formula 2 with ART Grand Prix. Roberto Merhi’s name was also mooted, but it appears that talks did not progress very far with the Spanish ex-Formula 1 driver.

Instead, the seat was handed to Kazuto Kotaka, last year’s Super Formula Lights champion. Although new to the series as a full-time driver, he doesn’t technically qualify as a rookie, owing to his six outings for KCMG in place of Kamui Kobayashi in 2021.

While he might have gone into that 2021 season somewhat underprepared, there’s no two ways about it: Kotaka was a major disappointment, failing to finish higher than 14th and only managing to outqualify teammate Yuji Kunimoto on only one occasion  - and even then, somehow managing to slip from a season-best 11th on the grid to 17th at the finish at Sugo.

 

Kotaka sacrificed his season in Super Formula Lights for this unimpressive campaign, with TOM’S suggesting at the time he was not deemed physically up to the task of competing in both series concurrently (unlike Giuliano Alesi). He found himself back in the feeder series last year, and it was clear that nothing less than the title would be acceptable.

In the end, eight wins from 18 races combined with three further podiums was just about enough for him to see off the threat of Honda protege Kakunoshin Ota, but the final gap between the pair was only six points - arguably not hugely impressive for a driver who had been part of the TOM’S stable in Japanese F3/Super Formula Lights since 2019.

Even so, Toyota policy is to hand Lights champions promotions to the main series even if they haven’t won particularly convincingly or have taken three or four seasons to do so. Hence Kotaka being chosen to fill the vacated seat at Kondo alongside Kenta Yamashita.

 

And so, 23-year-old Kotaka joins Super Formula as a full-timer with some pressure on his shoulders to demonstrate that he belongs after the events of the past two seasons, and all the more so as he’s taking over the seat of Toyota’s top driver of 2022.

“At the very least I’m aiming to be on the podium, but of course I want to win a race, as I already have a year of experience under my belt,” Kotaka told Motorsport.com when asked about his targets for the year. “I want to consistently make it through to Q2 in qualifying and get good results throughout the season.

“Sacha [Fenestraz] had good results at Kondo, but I still have access to his data, so I can compare myself to him, and I want to ‘steal’ what I can from him.”

 

Kotaka made his Kondo Racing debut in December’s post-season test at Suzuka. With Yamashita taking over the chassis used last year by Fenestraz, Kotaka was essentially driving his new teammate’s old mount, albeit with the race numbers reassigned.

As well as the chassis, the chief engineers within the Kondo stable were also swapped and will remain so for the season to come. That means Kotaka will be working with Kazuya Abe, the man who took Naoki Yamamoto to his first two titles at Team Mugen, but for whatever reason couldn’t replicate the same magic with Yamashita in the last three seasons.

“I couldn’t set a good time at the end [in the test], but the feeling wasn’t bad,” added Kotaka. “I’ve been able to communicate well with Abe-san so far, and I’ve known Yamashita since our karting days, so I think the atmosphere in the team is good.

“I don’t think [my driving style] is that different [to Yamashita’s]. But we’ve only run together at Suzuka so far, but I want to take advantage of his strengths and do my best to beat him.”

 

In common with the ‘real’ rookies of 2023, including the aforementioned Ota, Red Bull junior Liam Lawson and Raoul Hyman, Kotaka arguably is (re)joining the series at a good time, with the arrival of the overhauled SF23 chassis and its new aerodynamic package.

It means that a lot will come down to how quickly he and the Kondo team can get their heads around the intricacies of the new car, something that will be made even more vital by the fact that there is only one pre-season test planned before the season opens at Fuji in April.

“I don’t think it will change things that much, but everyone is starting afresh with a new car, so if I can adapt to it quickly, the results will go in a good direction,” said Kotaka. “I want to understand the new aero as fast as possible so I can be fast.”

 

While replicating the kind of performances that took Fenestraz to the runner-up spot in the championship would be too much to expect from Kotaka, Yamashita’s indifferent form in the other side of the Kondo garage in 2022 means that the latter also finds himself under serious pressure to re-assert himself as the clear team leader this term.

Against that backdrop, and with a somewhat levelled playing field provided by the updated car, Kotaka is unlikely to get more favourable circumstances in which to prove once and for all that he deserves to be a permanent fixture of the Super Formula landscape.