While not a form of sports car racing, Monday’s publication of the entry list for this week’s Super Formula Championship winter test at Suzuka Circuit has also confirmed that former Honda Racing Corporation works drivers Nirei Fukuzumi and Toshiki Oyu have joined Toyota Gazoo Racing for the 2024 racing season.
This single-seater notice will certainly have ramifications in the Autobacs SUPER GT Series – as both drivers are all but confirmed to join the Toyota GT500 fleet.
They’re positioned to take the places of drivers such as retired three-time GT500 Champion Yuji Tachikawa, and reigning Japanese ‘Double Champion’ Ritomo Miyata who has left Japan to pursue racing opportunities in the West.
Fukuzumi, the 2019 GT300 Champion and 2021 GT500 & Super Formula runner-up, had been affiliated with Honda since stepping up from karting to JAF Formula 4 in 2014. A race winner in both SUPER GT classes, Super Formula, and All-Japan Formula Three (now Super Formula Lights), Fukuzumi also raced overseas in the GP3 Series (now FIA Formula 3) and Formula 2 with Honda’s support.
The 26-year-old (pictured above, left) will test one of KCMG’s Toyota-powered Dallara SF23s this Wednesday and Thursday, where he could find himself becoming the team-mate to TGR’s WEC driver/manager Kamui Kobayashi. As it pertains to his future in GT500, Fukuzumi is expected to join ROOKIE Racing this coming season.
Meanwhile, Oyu’s departure from Honda brings an end to a partnership that began in 2016 when he was part of the same Suzuka Circuit Racing School Formula (SRS-F) class that also produced future Formula One star Yuki Tsunoda, and won a scholarship to continue his FIA Japanese F4 career in 2017.
Victories in Super Formula and GT500 followed, with Oyu scoring his maiden SUPER GT victory this September at Sportsland Sugo. He also made a winning cameo appearance in the 2019 Euroformula Open Championship at Silverstone.
Many had speculated about Oyu’s standing within Honda after the manufacturer and driver could not agree on a suitable place for him in Super Formula before the year – leading Oyu to have to pay for his ride at TGM Grand Prix – and again after he abruptly departed the team before the JAF Suzuka Grand Prix.
His first opportunity with Toyota will be to test for P.MU/Cerumo-INGING, and thanks to his experience with Bridgestone tyres in GT500, Oyu is set to replace the legend Tachikawa at TGR Team Cerumo next season.
After weeks of rumours linking them to transfers out of Honda, Fukuzumi and Oyu made their final appearances as Honda factory drivers this Sunday at Honda Racing Thanks Day in Mobility Resort Motegi.
Toyota will officially announce Fukuzumi and Oyu as part of its camp in the coming weeks. Honda, meanwhile, will have two open seats for its new Honda Civic Type R-GT to fill in the same timeframe.
This is the latest in a string of high-profile transfers from Honda in recent years: Bertrand Baguette was “traded” to Nissan in exchange for Nobuharu Matsushita’s return to Honda two years ago, and last off-season, Ukyo Sasahara departed Honda for Toyota.
Images © GTA
