ROSSITER HOPS INTO LOTTERER’S SHOES IN JAPAN
ANDRE LOTTERER’S decision to call time on his Japanese career has at last given James Rossiter the belated chance he undoubtedly deserves in high-level single-seater racing.
Rossiter’s Super Formula seat with
TOM’S was confirmed at last week’s annual announcement of Toyota’s global motorsport programme. It means that the 34-year-old will partner Kazuki Nakajima, a driver he knows well from sharing a car with him in Super GT.
Rossiter (above) spent 2014-16 racing in SF with Toyota’s second-string Kondo Racing team, but dropped out of the series last year. That was the latest single-seater blow for a driver who rivalled Lewis Hamilton in Formula Renault UK, acted as Formula 1 test driver for BAR, Honda and Super Aguri, and then saw his Indycar hopes fall through.
The Toyota reshuffle does mean that Rossiter is out of the Super GT ranks, with top talent Yuhi Sekiguchi shuffled over from the Bandoh Lexus LC500 into the
#36 TOM’S car with Nakajima, and reigning champion team-mates Nick Cassidy and Ryo Hirakawa running as #1.
Hirakawa’s reward for his Super GT title is a return to the SF ranks. He joins the Team Impul squad of Japanese racing legend Kazuyoshi Hoshino alongside Sekiguchi, while Jann Mardenborough is dropped, but keeps his seat in Impul’s
Super GT Nissan attack.
Kobayashi and Rosenqvist in GT
There are two highprofile recruits to the Toyota/lexus Super GT assault in the forms of Felix ‘Mr Versatile’ Rosenqvist and ex-f1 racer Kamui Kobayashi. Rosenqvist has given up on his Team Le Mans SF seat after just one season – in which he finished third in the points – but makes his Super GT debut in the same team’s Lexus, replacing Andrea Caldarelli, who has cut his links with Toyota, which backed him since his earliest days in car racing.
Kobayashi, who has never done a full season in Super GT, replaces exgp2 racer Kohei Hirate alongside 2016 champ Heikki Kovalainen in the SARD Lexus. Kobayashi also keeps his KCMG drive in SF.
Nissan also launched its Super GT programme (the manufacturer does not compete in SF).
Daiki Sasaki replaces Hironobu Yasuda at Impul alongside Mardenborough, while Sasaki’s old seat at Kondo Racing alongside Joao Paulo de Oliveira is taken by reigning Japanese F3 champion Mitsunori Takaboshi.