Subaru and its motorsport subsidiary STI (Subaru Technica International) announced an overview of its 2025 racing activities during yesterday’s presentation at the annual Tokyo Auto Salon in Chiba, Japan. They will be headlined by factory-supported efforts in the Autobacs SUPER GT Series and the Nürburgring 24-Hour Race.
Takuto Iguchi and Hideki Yamauchi will return for their 11th season as the drivers of the #61 Subaru BRZ GT300 race car for R&D Sport, and Dunlop will return as the team’s tyre supplier.
The championship-winning driver line-up from 2021 has captured four GT300 class wins and 18 podiums together, and individually, Yamauchi is the joint-record holder for most GT300 pole positions. They had a difficult 2024 season though, posting only two top-ten finishes and finishing 16th in the Drivers’ Championship.
To counter, Subaru has redesigned the body of the ZD8-generation BRZ GT300 race car to increase downforce and rigidity while reducing drag. Subaru has also promised improved performance from its Dunlop tyres with a more aggressive setup, and accommodations have been made for scheduled tyre regulation changes that take effect in 2025.
Subaru’s Masahiro Ozawa will continue as Team General Manager, who will run the team alongside R&D Sport Team Manager, Minoru Sawada.
Subaru will also aim for its second consecutive SP4T class win – and eighth win all-time in all classes – at the Nürburgring 24 Hours, with the Subaru WRX NBR Challenge race car.
Takaya Sawada will return to manage the Subaru N24 team, also featuring eight selected service technicians from Subaru dealerships across Japan that will support the effort. Subaru retains its four-driver lineup of Dutchman Carlo van Dam, German Tim Schrick, and Japanese drivers Kota Sasaki and Rintaro Kubo.
Van Dam has been part of Subaru’s seven previous wins, including the previous six in the SP3T class from 2011 to 2019.
Finally, Subaru will continue to compete in the Super Taikyu Series ST-Q class through Team SDA Engineering, consisting mostly of Subaru in-house engineers.
2025 will be the first full season for the Subaru High Performance X Future Concept, which is based on the current Subaru WRX, featuring a 2.4-litre, turbocharged Boxer-4 engine. The “HiPerfX”, which made its debut in the third Super Taikyu round at Autopolis, will continue to test carbon-neutral synthetic fuel for horizontally opposed turbo engines, and also aims at further refinement of Subaru’s all-wheel drive systems.
SUPER GT ace drivers Iguchi and Yamauchi will drive alongside Subaru employee drivers, Kazuhiro Ito and Masafumi Hanazawa, who all return from the 2024 programme.
Images © Subaru
