Michael Sauter became the 2024 Formula Regional Japan champion at the penultimate round of the season at Fuji. The achievement would have been scarcely imaginable just one and a half years ago, when Sauter was racing in F4 with a small family-ran team reliant on support from rivals to participate.

By Finjo Muschlien

Sauter was considered one of the championship favourites ahead of the season, being more experienced than his international rivals and G Force Driver Development Program stablemates Jesse Lacey and Sebastian Manson. That the 20-year-old would win the championship in such dominant fashion, however, was on few people’s bingo cards.

When he sealed the title after the 12th race with two still to go, Sauter had six wins and three further podium finishes. He added another third-place in the final round at Fuji last weekend.

Early career and the move to Japan

Sauter’s family has been involved in motorsport for multiple generations. Young Michael found his passion for the discipline in 2011, aged seven, when he received a kart for Christmas. He began racing with it in 2012 and stayed in karting until 2020, winning the Swiss Vega Trofeo twice in 2014 and 2016 but making only occasional appearances internationally.

Sauter’s step up to F4 came in 2021 after his family bought a Tatuus F4 car at the end of 2020 and set up a family team. Under the name Sauter Engineering + Design, the team entered the ADAC F4 Championship in 2021 and 2022, with Sauter at the wheel.

In this period, Sauter was part of competitive grids featuring 2025 F1 drivers Ollie Bearman and Kimi Antonelli, soon-to-be FE racer Taylor Barnard and recent F2 graduate Luke Browning. Sauter finish lasted of all full-time participating drivers in both seasons, but he and his team were already fan favourites for their determination in fighting bigger, better-resourced teams.

Late in the 2021 season, the difficulties of being with a very small team came to light for Sauter. During qualifying at the fourth round at the Sachsenring, Sauter crashed and damaged the clutch housing of his car. The damage was so extensive that his team was about to withdraw from the remainder of the weekend.

“It was a low point and a highlight for me,” Sauter explained to Feeder Series. “In qualifying, I put the car into the wall and the clutch housing was damaged. It was cracked. We wanted to go home because we couldn’t repair that, but then [Sebastian] Tietz of ADAC helped us encourage the other teams to help us in fixing the car.

“Incredibly, it worked. Because of the help of ADAC and the Van Amersfoort, R-ace and US Racing teams, it was possible. You don’t see that often, but I think all are good people at the racetrack, even if there is competition.”

He still missed the first race of the round, but in the two events on Sunday, he finished ninth and fifth, the latter being the best F4 result of his short car racing career until then. He more than doubled his points tally in the 2022 season with 41 compared to 2021’s 19.

A more successful year followed in 2023, when Sauter participated in the newly established F4 CEZ championship. He finished the season third overall with nine podium finishes, highlighted by his maiden win in single-seaters at the penultimate race of the season at Balaton Park.

That summer, Sauter also made his FR Japan debut after being offered a drive by Sutekina Racing Team for the fourth round at Motegi. He finished the three races in fourth, fifth and fourth.

He joined rival outfit Bionic Jack Racing for the final round of the 2023 FR Japan season at Sugo and compounded his successful F4 season with a win in the final race.

Sauter’s 2024 season

Sauter’s initial move to Japan came because of a contact through his mother, who is Japanese. But his performances quickly led to more.

“We considered all options and just wanted to find a seat,” Sauter explained. “Then came the two guest starts, and because of that, a door opened. We weren’t sure if it was enough for [2024]. Otherwise, I am not sure if we would have added another year of F4 or if it would have been over. Luckily, it worked out.”

Sauter teamed up with Birth Racing Project for the 2024 season and became a member of the G Force driver development programme. As a member of the programme, he received coaching from Super GT and former FNippon driver Seiji Ara and current Super Formula driver Ren Sato throughout the year.

“The speed [in 2023] was very good, and then came the opportunity that I could race the whole season the following year thanks to G-Force and Birth Racing Project,” Sauter said. “Because of them, I was able to drive this season, and obviously I’m very happy that it went so well.

“Obviously, the development programme should help young drivers in motorsport. I’m happy to have found a seat there. I just hope that this is an opportunity to stay in motorsport and to build onto it in the future.”

Sauter qualified third for the first race of the year at Suzuka – but in cold, challenging conditions in the race, he made a costly error on the second lap.

“It was a pretty stupid mistake that shouldn’t have happened,” Sauter recalled. “It started raining, and in the second corner at the exit … I got wheelspin and I spun out. The car unfortunately stopped on the kerb, and because of that, one wheel was in the air. And with the differential, you can’t go forward.”

The 2024 season started well for Sauter. He made a great first impression at Suzuka and won the second and third races of the weekend despite cold, challenging conditions – which  caused him to retire from the first race.

The self-inflicted mistake was awkward, but Sauter bounced back. He won the second and third races to put himself just 11 points off championship leader Jiei Okuzumi, who only contested that round. 

“The whole weekend from qualifying on, the pace was very good,” Sauter said. “The setup was very good. In qualifying, we had no luck with the red flag and traffic. If you are in front as I was in the second race, you can show your real pace.”

At Sugo, a delayed flight from Paris to Tokyo meant that Sauter missed the first practice and driver coach Sato had to deputise for him. He arrived just in time for the second practice session, but it was too late. He and BRP struggled to find a good setup and couldn’t beat debutant Fuma Horio that weekend, finishing the races second and third.

“The team is new as well and therefore the experience in the data wasn’t there,” he said. “But we’ve caught up by now. In my first practice, I drove the best time, but it’s only practice and you never know how qualifying goes. The car didn’t feel that good in practice, and every race was like a test. It was a lot of learning but you couldn’t really see the progress in the races, which is sad. I think we still maximised the results.”

“Some things you can make irrelevant if you drive differently,” he added. “I think the basic setups, so downforce level and mechanical grip, are essential for a good lap or good race pace.”

A return to the top step of the podium came at the following rounds at Okayama and Motegi. Sauter crossed the line as the winner in all five races but was demoted to second in the second race at Okayama after earning a 10-second time penalty for a jump start.

“I never had a jump start. I think I never even stalled,” he said. “In F4, I never had problems with starts. Of course, I had bad starts, but I never jumped or stalled. In Okayama, it was rainy. You build the car up, you hit the bite point and push the brakes with the right amount of throttle – but it was just too much throttle. I had wheelspin. The front tyres didn’t move, but with the rears I did a burnout. That was already enough for a jump start.”

The other races at Okayama, however, saw him make no errors. Sauter won the first race by more than six seconds over runner-up Yoshiaki Nakamura and triumphed in the rain-affected third race as well.

At Motegi, held in late August, Manson was set for his first win in the series but ran wide in the final corner with a suspected problem. Sauter overtook his teammate to steal the win despite falling back earlier in the race.

“It was a wild race,” Sauter said. “It was very hot and very humid, during mid-summer at a place where it usually becomes really warm.

“The start was actually very good, much better than Manson’s. I got alongside him. He forced me to the inside. My line was compromised for the first two corners. Then Horio got past me around the outside.

“Throughout the race, I had a challenge with the temperature and the temperatures of the engine. It got too high, [but] the pace was good in the race.

“Overtaking of course is tricky at Motegi. I think Horio did a mistake in Turn 11, and then I was able to overtake him on the main straight. It was a very good one, by the way. You couldn’t see it in the live stream. It was a dive bomb,” Sauter continued.

“In the final lap, Manson I think had an issue with his engine. And then I assume he panicked and was already excited for the first win and lost his focus in the final corner, ran wide and I passed him.”

Drama ensued moments later as Manson and third-placed Fuma Horio came together after the flag. But the second race was less eventful for all involved, including Sauter, who again dominated and won the race by more than 14 seconds over the New Zealander.

With 100 points left for the taking, Sauter entered the penultimate round of the season with a 77-point gap over Manson and 89 points over Jesse Lacey. For the first time in his car racing career, Sauter was in a position to win a competitive single-seater championship, something no one expected just two years prior, when Sauter raced against the giants in Europe in a one-car privateer entry.

To secure the title in the first race, Sauter needed to forfeit no more than two points to Manson. With Toyota juniors Yuki Sano and Kazuhisa Urabe from Japanese F4 debuting in FR Japan that weekend, Sauter faced tougher competition than in previous rounds.

“Given that Fuji is their home circuit, they are surely very familiar with the circuit,” Sauter said about the debutants. “They have driven there in F4, but I think they are not very familiar with the car. One of them had the newer engine. They showed good pace in the race stint.”

Sano dominated the round, but Sauter faltered, colliding with Urabe in a battle for second position and knocking him out of the race. He crossed the line second but dropped to sixth after earning a 10-second penalty for the incident, promoting Manson to third and keeping the title fight narrowly alive.

“[Urabe] should have won the first race, but because of my mistake, it didn’t happen,” Sauter said. “Driving into Turn 10, my front wing hit his rear tyre and he spun. Based on the pace, it would have been a very good race.”

Manson was now 70 points behind Sauter, and he could remain in contention by winning the second race. But while the round went from bad to worse on track for Sauter, who retired after completing just one lap, Manson finished only sixth. With that, he fell out of championship contention, and Sauter was crowned champion at the end of the race.

“I got off the line and the first 10 metres very well actually, but then the clutch didn’t fully go back and rubbed the whole lap,” Sauter said. “I was able to drive back, but the clutch rubbed the whole time.”

With the championship sealed, Sauter entered the final round of the season without any pressure.

“Well, mathematically it was very obvious, but you have to finish everything first,” he said. “I the first race, I messed it up. Winning the title makes me very happy even if it didn’t go the way I wanted. But the title is secured and I could look forward to the final two races.”

Urabe and Fuji returned for the final round, as did Delightworks Racing driver Yugo Iwasawa, who impressed. Sauter managed to finish fourth and third, behind the Toyota juniors in both races and behind Iwasawa in the first race but ahead of Manson and Lacey in both races.

With Sauter’s closest season-long rivals and fellow G Force programme members consistently finishing behind him, it’s easy to question the competitiveness of FR Japan. But for the 20-year-old, Sauter, however, it’s clearly not an uncompetitive championship.

“I mean, you saw that already last year, with Enzo Trulli who participated but did not win every race,” he said about the former F3 and Super Formula Lights racer. He added, “You have to say that [Fuji] is quite challenging, often a bit underestimated, because everyone always just says that Suzuka is a technical circuit. But the final sector in Fuji is one of the most challenging sections I have ever driven because there are so few reference points.”

What’s on the horizon for Sauter in 2025?

The last FR Japan champion to move further up the ladder was 2021 winner Yuga Furutani, who moved to Super Formula Lights alongside GT racing campaigns. Both 2022 champion Miki Koyama and 2023 champion Sota Ogawa left full-time single-seater racing and switched to GT cars after winning their titles, though Super Formula outfit TGM Grand Prix signed Ogawa as a simulator driver and confirmed an entry for him for the FR World Cup in Macau.

Sauter told Feeder Series that he had held talks about participating in this year’s Macau Grand Prix, the first to run FR-spec cars, but added that entering the event was “not an option at the moment”.

Sauter said his plans for 2025 were still uncertain, Even as a member of G Force, he may join Koyama and Ogawa in having his progress stalled without manufacturer backing. But the fact he’s made it this far – up the ladder and across the world – is a surprise even to him.

“[Next year] is still far away. Nothing is planned. I just hope that I can still drive next year. But nothing is really planned yet.

“Generally, I’m just happy as long as I can drive races. It’s a privilege that you can drive Formula 3. It’s something only very few achieve, or even Formula 4. It’s a goal to still be driving next year,” he continued. “I just don’t want to make any promises or rule out anything. I’m open to whatever comes.”

Header photo credit: F4 CEZ