Vips leads Japan rookie charge
You usually have to wait until well into the new year for the Japanese manufacturers to unveil their motorsport programmes and driver line-ups for the season ahead, but December’s so-called Rookie Test at Suzuka for Super Formula always lets a few cats out of the bag.
The 2019 running of the test took place last week, and the best of the rookies was Juri Vips. It’s long been known that the
FIA Formula 3 Championship star and
Red Bull Junior was heading to Japan for 2020 – he even did the last round of Super Formula this year – and he was bang on the pace for Honda-powered Team Mugen. Not only was Vips third overall, but he was in the top three in all four sessions across the course of the two days and was fastest of all in one of them.
But he only shaded the rookie honours by a tenth, and herein lies another tale. Alex Palou – a rookie star of 2019 with Nakajima Racing – was initially entered for this test, but the Spaniard has shot into contention for a Dale Coyne Racing Indycar seat, for which he appears to be vying with Formula 2 ace Sergio Sette Camara and in-the-frame-for-everyvacant-seat-at-the-moment Indycar veteran James Hinchcliffe. Palou’s seat became ‘TBA’ for the test, and finally it was shared by Honda-linked Japanese F3 pair Toshiki Oyu and Hiroki Otsu. Despite only driving in two of the four sessions, Oyu finished up fourth overall, 0.099s off Vips.
Among the Toyota ranks, Japanese F3 champion Sacha Fenestraz – who is tipped for a Super GT programme with TOM’S – did the test with Kondo Racing and was fifth on the opening day. His runner-up Ritomo Miyata – who appears to be in a Toyota holding pattern after three years in F3 – tested with TOM’S, but that was only because Kazuki Nakajima was in Paris to be inducted into the FIA Hall of Fame.
As well as Fenestraz, there was another Frenchman on track. Charles Milesi had a miserable JF3 season thanks to breaking his wrist, which forced him to miss some races, but he joined Lucas Auer in the B-max with Motopark line-up.
Dandelion Racing’s pair of Nirei Fukuzumi and two-time champion Naoki Yamamoto topped the times. The time of Fukuzumi (above), an unofficial record, would have given him fastest lap in the Japanese Grand Prix as recently as 2015.