Rikuto Kobayashi made his Super Formula debut for Team Impul this past weekend at Motegi, the circuit where he took his maiden win in single-seaters back in 2022. Feeder Series spoke to the Toyota junior about his call-up from Super Formula Lights and what it could mean for his future.

By Finjo Muschlien

Team Impul announced on 8 April that Kobayashi, currently third in Super Formula Lights, would replace the injured Oliver Rasmussen for the series’ third and fourth races at Motegi. Rasmussen, likewise a Super Formula rookie, is still recovering from a fractured thoracic vertebra he sustained in an accident in practice for Super Formula’s first round at Suzuka on 7 March.

This meant that Kobayashi, aged 19 years and 292 days, became the third-youngest domestic driver to race in Super Formula after Juju Noda and Ryō Hirakawa. 

Toyota’s decision to choose Kobayashi to replace Rasmussen came as no surprise. Fellow Toyota junior Seita Nonaka, who had stood in for Rasmussen at Suzuka, raced for KCMG over the weekend in place of Kamui Kobayashi, who was in Imola to fulfill his duties in Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Hypercar team in the World Endurance Championship. The 19-year-old Kobayashi, last year’s Super Formula Lights runner-up, was the only other Toyota junior driver alongside Nonaka to have tested Super Formula machinery in the 2024 post-season rookie test. 

“A couple of weeks ago, one of the members of the Toyota young drivers programme approached me regarding this project,” Kobayashi told Feeder Series about the opportunity to replace Rasmussen. 

Prior to the weekend, Kobayashi completed 56 laps in the 2024 rookie test while driving for TOM’S, his SF Lights team. The difference between a test and a full race weekend, however, is immense.

“Last year, I did have a one-day test. At the time I was just trying to be able to stay in the car and learn the car,” he said.

“The cornering speeds in Super Formula are not significantly different compared to Super Formula Lights, but it has twice the horsepower. Therefore, in Super Formula, which powerslides a lot, I paid a lot of attention to throttle control. In addition, the car is really sensitive, so I tried to drive carefully, without disturbing the car’s behavior.”

“Regarding this weekend, everything was a learning process – qualifying, … the race itself, pit stop strategies, overtake system,” he added. “All of this I had to input and have in me, but of course it was the first time that I had actually experienced it, so I had to learn it beforehand and then be alert and ready for anything. And of course the battles – all of that was very new for me.”

And Kobayashi’s Motegi weekend had plenty of action. In qualifying one on Saturday, he finished 15th overall but set an even faster time than former Formula 2 driver Zak O’Sullivan, who was classified 14th on account of the group qualifying format. Kobayashi outqualified, among others, 2019 Super GT GT500 champion Kazuya Oshima, 2022 Super Formula Lights champion Kazuto Kotaka and 2013 and 2017 Japanese F3 champion Mitsunori Takaboshi. 

In Saturday’s race, Kobayashi stalled on the grid, dropping to last position. A first-lap collision brought out a safety car period, which helped the Yamagata-born driver to catch up again. He then overtook Atsushi Miyake on lap five and made impressive passes on teammate Takaboshi at Turn 2 and Juju Noda at Turn 6 on lap six. 

His first competitive pit stop in single-seaters on lap 17, however, did not go to plan as he had a slow getaway and lost several seconds. In the end, he finished the race in 16th position out of 19 finishers.

On Sunday, he qualified 16th, beating all the same drivers as he did on Saturday except Oshima. This time, he was just 0.008 seconds away from reigning Super Formula champion Sho Tsuboi, but he would have started behind him either way because of the qualifying format.

In the second race on Sunday, Kobayashi had a better getaway than he did in the first race, gaining a position in the opening lap before the safety car neutralised the race. Half the field decided to pit at the end of the first lap, which moved Kobayashi up to sixth. That remained his position until lap 17, when Tsuboi slowed down with a clutch issue and Kobayashi gained a place.

Kobayashi pitted on lap 20 but had another slow getaway, which cost him a few seconds and dropped him to 20th position overall. His race was then cut short on lap 26 after his car began weaving as he exited the last corner. Kobayashi came to a halt at Turn 1, reporting on the radio that a tyre ‘felt weird’.

Though his performances were strong for a debutant, Kobayashi was not pleased with his weekend.

“From a positive point of view, it was a great experience for myself,” the Toyota junior said. “But there are many, many regrets, many things that I wanted to do better. It’s a first experience, but still, we’re here to battle for the top positions. It’s just not to have the experience, not only that. Of course, all of us drivers are here aiming to battle for the top, so of course, as an experience, it was good, but performance-wise, I can do better with experience.”

Kobayashi’s hunger for the top spot has been evident since his debut in single-seaters in 2022, when he impressed by finishing sixth overall in Japanese F4 as the series’ second-best rookie. The next year, he won the championship by a mere 12 points over fellow Toyota junior Jin Nakamura, who finished two places ahead of him in the standings the year before. 

In 2024, Kobayashi stepped up to Super Formula Lights with TOM’S. After a difficult opening two rounds, he found his footing and went on to finish second overall with three wins. He scored 86 points, 15 more than Nakamura, the next-best rookie, in fourth.

Throughout 2024, both Kobayashi and Nakamura were rumoured to be making a switch to European junior single-seater series. While Nakamura tested with FRegional Europe team R-ace GP throughout 2024 and will race for the team in the championship in 2025, Kobayashi was never spotted in any testing activities in Europe despite being rumoured for FIA F3.

While staying in Super Formula Lights seemed a setback for Kobayashi at the time, Toyota’s decision may have worked to his advantage, for he got to prove himself on an even bigger stage than Nakamura has done. 

Kobayashi’s performances at Motegi certainly won’t go unnoticed. It’s a rarity that a debutant with just one previous test day in a Super Formula car manages to compete in the midfield positions against much more experienced drivers. He is no doubt one of the top candidates to step up to Super Formula in 2026, but he remains calm about the prospect.

“It is not my thing or my decision,” he said, “but if I am given the chance, I will obviously do my best to perform better and better and to achieve the best results I can.”

Header photo credit: Super Formula