Randersa's report on the Suzuka season finale

Tommy Randersa rejoined ThreeBond Drago Corse to for the Super Formula season finale weekend. After an eventful weekend, we talk about what happened in detail, and what may come of the future.

Randersa's season was announced to be over after the Spa-Francorchamps weekend in August as he would be busy during the Abu Dhabi round of the Formula 2 championship and he was expected to have exams during the Suzuka round of Super Formula.

However, when it turned out he would in fact be available for the Suzuka round, Randersa started practicing in the Dallara simulator for a potential comeback to the Japanese series. During his preparation, he worked together with the reigning Marunnian Academy champion, Sebastian Bertrand. The simulator efforts were deemed necessary by Randersa as he believed he would need the practice after he was unable to compete last time in Fuji despite having intentions to see the event through. The simulator results were satisfactory for Randersa, by his expectations they would be around the middle of the pack.

The weekend was an important one for the series as it was the season finale and it was down to Nojiri, Fenestraz and Hirakawa to fight for the title. Nojiri had a noticeable lead over the others, but with the weekend hosting two races rather than one, there was still a chance for the Toyota drivers to catch up.

During the championship contenders' press conference, Nojiri seemed very tense and focused. He stated the championship was his only goal, not wins, since the start of the year. Fenestraz was not happy with his inconsistency throughout the season, but still was smiling and had the fight in him to compete for the weekend. Hirakawa, too, was determined to bring his best, as he was glad to had the pace all season to end up here.

Replying to the fans' questions from Twitter, Nojiri said he was feeling more pressure than excitement for his second championship. "There's nothing to look forward to." Fenestraz and Hirakawa, however, were feeling no pressure due to the points gap being quite large to Nojiri. Nojiri stated he was more tense than last season when he was winning his first championship, and attributed it to the weekend having two races rather than just one, so there was still a chance he could lose.

The weekend started with the free practice session - Fenestraz finished 3rd, Hirakawa 5th and Nojiri struggled down in 16th. Nojiri stated to the media his concerns over his lack of pace in practice as he was anxious over the balance of the car. However, his rivals didn't find comfort from this. Fenestraz said he was expecting Nojiri to bounce back for qualifying, especially since Honda engines were expected to be quicker in colder conditions. Hirakawa's interview also shared the same opinions as Fenestraz.

Randersa himself only finished 20th in practice. He was focused on a long run, but he was very unhappy with how he had done and couldn't tell where the others found their extra pace. To try and find a solution, he joined Bertrand at the Dallara simulator to work on the setup and see where they were lacking the performance. The result of this extra work were the slight changes to the setup the team brought for Saturday to better compensate for the extra weight of their SF19 machine. These changes included higher front downforce and different suspension settings to aid stability as the aero balance moved forward.

As the first qualifying group started, Randersa's pace improved massively when switched to low fuel, and demonstrating his single lap expertise, he immediately went to the top of the timing screens, finishing Q1A with 0.884 seconds over Tadasuke Makino. Fenestraz was in the same group but all the way down in 10th out of 11, he was suffering from imbalance in the car that he believes came from the crash in Fuji and stuck around.

In Q2, Randersa continued with the pace from the earlier session and beating Nojiri, who found his pace again, to pole by a second. Perhaps people shouldn't have been so shocked, considering Randersa also took pole position earlier in the season in SUGO, but the additional weight he was carrying was expected to put him nearer to the midfield. Hirakawa qualified 12th out of 12 in Q2, not very happy with his set up and strategy during qualifying.

Before Saturday.'s race, Randersa was quite confident but unsure of how their race would go after the differences between qualifying and practice. There was a genuine worry that the higher fuel loads would completely ruin the car's balance especially when it was sitting on softer suspensions.

At the start of the race, Randersa lost the lead of the race off the line to Nojiri and further dropped all the way down to 5th. His car was running a problem in the turbocharger and he could not access push to pass. This was particularly a problem on Suzuka, where the longer straights are the main locations to pass. Randersa's higher downforce setup allowed him to have the fastest sector 1, but it was harder for him to compete in the latter two sectors.

After assessing his options, Randersa pulled an overtake on Miyata for 4th in the most unexpected place possible - around the outside in the middle of the esses of the first sector, giving him the inside line for the next corner. This brought out a reaction from the commentators as this was the last place anyone would expect to pass, but Randersa had little choice as then he could hold off the charging drivers in the straights as best could instead of attacking. Curiously, Randersa pulled off the same move on Oyu two laps after, bringing him up to the podium places. These overtakes were both judged and praised due to their aggressive nature, a kind of racecraft not very common nor appreciated in Japan.

Randersa would have to retire in the middle of the race due to the turbocharger problem, a result which would then turn to disqualification due to running the car while it had a mechanical problem. Regardless, Randersa believed he could have fought for second or maybe even higher without the problem, and he turned heads in the first race, bringing a lot of attention to him.

Nojiri's teammate, Sasahara, would go on to win the race and Nojiri would finish 2nd. This was enough to give Nojiri the championship as Fenestraz and Hirakawa were 16th and 9th respectively.

Before the day ended, Nojiri approached Randersa about his performances on Saturday. He commented it was unfortunate for his day to end like it did and that it's a shame Randersa didn't get to challenge him in the race, but Randersa's start put pressure off him for the championship. Randersa responded with "As much as I am racing you, you are racing me." This response irritated Nojiri. It was too arrogant an answer from a driver new to the series, to the reigning champion and lead Honda driver no less.

As Sunday dawned, Randersa was fired up and ready to make up for yesterday's race. In qualifying, Randersa once again dominated both Q1B and Q2 with gaps of 6 tenths and 5 tenths respectively, giving him the pole position over Nojiri yet again. This gave Randersa his third Super Formula pole position, out of three sessions (as he didn't take part in qualifying in Fuji), equaling Nojiri's amount in 2022.

In the press conference, Randersa was confident about his chances in the race. He knew he had the pace and all he had to do was put it all together to grab his first win, something he missed under controversial circumstances in SUGO in his debut. Nojiri stated there are many who are looking forward to winning. He believed now that the championship worries are over, he can focus fully on a race that will keep the others at bay. He thought he could truly enjoy the race today, but when he woke up that day, he had no energy. It was only the support from the fans and the team that got his energy back which allowed him to get on the front row.

At the start of the race, Randersa once again fell back to 4th and gave Nojiri the lead. As Randersa chased Sasahara, he couldn't find a way to pass, as Randersa tried to replicate his move from Saturday, but drivers were ready for it this time around with them defending the outside lane Randersa was taking, even if it slowed them down. This slowed Randersa as well as he was stuck behind them, creating more of a gap between him and the leader. A number of these failed moves allowed Miyata and Tsuboi to go past, dropping Randersa to 6th ahead of Hirakawa.

The situation stayed the same until the pit stops, when Sasahara pitted on lap 10 with Otsu and Tsuboi following on lap 11. Nojiri and Miyata went into the pits in lap 13, followed by Fenestraz and Hirakawa but Randersa believed this was too early, so he kept going until lap 16 to get more tyre life later on.

Randersa came out in third as his overcut worked against everyone but Nojiri and Otsu. Randersa was able to warm up his tyres quicker than the rest of the field and he managed to make short work of Otsu on fresh tyres. Nojiri was further up the road, but Randersa closed the gap in the matter of a few laps. Once he started putting pressure on Nojiri, it wasn't long before Randersa got the race lead.

Randersa went on to build a 4 second gap and was leading going into last lap. He had been reporting understeer building up over the course of the second stint and had a few instability moments earlier on in the stint, but all he had to do was bring it home safely from this point on.

Exiting the last chicane, Randersa came onto the main straight wide as he failed to turn, diving the left tyres into the grass and losing control into the gravel. His car hit and bounced back from the tyre wall at the last corner of the last lap, coming back onto the track without full control in front of Nojiri's path as he also came onto the main straight. There was slight contact as they both crossed the line between the cars.

Randersa had technically crossed the line first, but race control wanted to review the incident after the race. It was decided that while Randersa's car was understeering at that point, he could have navigated the corner safely and not cause an unsafe situation which led to the incident. Randersa was given a 10 second penalty and was dropped down to 4th place (formerly 5th, but was later clarified the gap was barely over 10 seconds between Randersa and Fenestraz) right ahead of Fenestraz.

This last lap incident turned what would be a historical weekend for the ThreeBond crew, as it would have been their first ever win in the series, into a massive letdown. While Randersa's performances this weekend have still been very strong, especially relative to teammate Fukuzumi, knowing "what could have been" has soured the mood at the end of the weekend. While the majority of fans were against Randersa after the weekend, Randersa reported some also came to him and expressed their support.

In the post-race press conference, Nojiri took a lot of risks during the race as he no longer had to worry about the championship. He also suffered from understeer as the stint went on, and said the reason why was because he prefers it that way and had the setup changed the night before. He challenged himself throughout the race and stated it was the best race he ever had.

Many comments were made about Randersa's weekend, many claiming his actions were dangerous and too aggressive. However, Drago Corse's founder, Ryo Michigami, came to Randersa's defense. "He is only 20 years old, and the youngest driver currently racing (in Super Formula). People should focus more on what his potential is rather than what he did. When you're young, you make mistakes and you learn from them. We would enjoy having him back at Drago Corse next season."

Nojiri became a double champion, and solidified his place as the lead Honda driver as the former champion Yamamoto has fallen from grace in the last few years following his team switch to Nakajima Racing. After the events of the weekend, it's reported to be very unlikely Nojiri's team, Team Mugen, will have interest in Randersa joining them for 2023, if for nothing else, for the cohesion of their team. Fenestraz, who finished 2nd in the championship, will be going to Formula E with Nissan for 2023. This has ruled out his competing with Toyota in Super GT or Super Formula.

Randersa is unsure whether he will be able to compete in Super Formula next season as he's not sure whether his schedule and other responsibilities will clash with it. However, he's hoping to be part of it if he will get the opportunity to compete in this series again.