Drivers got here from close to and much to run in Tremendous System’s post-season winter check at Suzuka Circuit earlier this month for a lot of causes. For a couple of, it was about utilizing this check to place themselves for full-time seats on the 2025 grid.
Maybe no driver put forth a extra convincing case than Igor Fraga, who was the quickest ‘rookie’ in each session throughout three days – together with the ultimate day, reserved for rookie candidates like him.
It helps that this isn’t Fraga’s first time behind the wheel of a Tremendous System automobile. He has attended the final three winter checks in a row, however that is the closest that the Brazilian-Japanese driver – greatest recognized for profitable 4 Gran Turismo World Sequence esports championships – has come to a full-time experience in Tremendous System.
“The testing on each days, I believe went fairly effectively,” Fraga stated after the second day of testing on December 12. “Yesterday there was a whole lot of adaptation happening. I drove the identical automobile final yr, however I solely drove GT3 vehicles this season so it was an enormous step. It’s 20 seconds per lap faster, this automobile, in comparison with what I used to be driving this season.
“I wanted to attempt to discover the restrict. However each time that I used to be attempting to push the automobile, the restrict was not there, so it was like a repetition of me looking for the restrict of the automobile till I might lastly begin to attain it on the finish of the day. However nonetheless, on excessive velocity corners, I felt… I wouldn’t say scary, however I couldn’t really feel assured sufficient to push.”
Fraga and his Nakajima Racing engineers then made adjustments for the second day that helped him extract extra tempo.
“The automobile felt much more snug for me to drive, and I might really feel much more confidence in pushing the automobile in direction of the restrict,” Fraga stated. “I believe the instances (on new tires) have been fairly first rate, and I believe on the finish of the day it was very optimistic.”
Since restarting his ‘full-metal’ racing profession in 2023 after two misplaced seasons due partly to pandemic-related journey restrictions, Fraga has primarily raced full-time in Tremendous GT GT300 with perennial minnow staff Arnage Racing, and has solely managed two high 10 finishes in 16 races.
He’s had a a lot better time in single-seaters although: In 2023, Fraga was fourth within the Tremendous System Lights championship with six podiums and a victory at Sportsland Sugo. After becoming a member of Tremendous System as a sequence ambassador, Fraga turned Nakajima Racing’s reserve driver in 2024.
“I believe seeing their drivers, how they cope with the staff, and in addition realizing the engineers, the mechanics, and every little thing, made me ready for the testing,” he mirrored. “I felt much more snug being contained in the staff, and the communication itself was rather a lot simpler to do, and I believe it helped rather a lot throughout these two days.”
Esports alumni Fraga needed to recalibrate himself to the velocity of a Tremendous System automobile after spending the season racing GT3s. Picture through Tremendous System
Nakajima Racing’s want for a reserve driver was created after three-time Tremendous System Champion Naoki Yamamoto suffered career-threatening neck and again accidents in a Tremendous GT accident at Sugo in September 2023. After Yamamoto narrowly escaped one other damage in a crash at Fuji this October, the 15-year veteran retired from Tremendous System after this season, primarily out of concern for his well being.
And Fraga – who was toiling by way of a tough season in FIA System 3 simply 4 quick years in the past – is now the presumptive favourite to interchange one among Tremendous System’s best champions on the staff owned by Japan’s first actual F1 hero, Satoru Nakajima.
“To be sincere, I strive not to consider it,” Fraga responded when requested about this risk. “I simply attempt to do my greatest. So if I get a possibility to drive in Tremendous System, I’ll do my greatest to be up there. The objective each time is to win, so nothing adjustments actually.
“I don’t really feel like I left something behind, I really feel like I’ve accomplished the job quietly, and I believe it was fairly optimistic. So I imagine there’s an opportunity, and I hope that I can get a seat for subsequent yr. It’s what I’m searching for.”
It has been over eight years for the reason that remaining class of the well-known GT Academy, and just one earlier GT Academy graduate, Jann Mardenborough, ran as a lot as one full season in Tremendous System in 2017.
However now Fraga has carried the torch for a brand new technology of drivers leveraging esports success into advancing up the racing ladder in the actual world, and he’s not the one one in Japan. Rikuto Kobayashi, a Gran Turismo World Sequence championship runner-up, was this yr’s Tremendous System Lights runner-up and examined the Dallara SF23 for the primary time. Yusuke Tomibayashi, who received one of many very first GTWS exhibition occasions again in 2016, has received 4 consecutive championships within the Tremendous Taikyu endurance sequence.
“It’s actually cool. And there’s an increasing number of drivers having the prospect to get an actual racing seat. For me, I believe this very optimistic,” Fraga stated of the continued connection from sim to actual racing.
“Motorsports may be very costly, and it’s a means that opens up a whole lot of alternatives for those that couldn’t start in real-life (racing) due to many causes.
“Having the ability to unfold extra and share with extra individuals the eagerness for motorsport, and every little thing… I believe it’s actually cool to see. I hope that extra individuals are in a position to step into actual motorsport, and even get professionalized in esports, and be capable of get an ideal life doing that!”
Fraga’s journey has been well-documented all over the world, however outdoors of Japan, 25-year-old Syun Koide doesn’t have a lot of a following with followers abroad – one thing he hopes to alter in a short time.
Honda-aligned Koide is hoping to dovetail Tremendous System along with his already-confirmed spot on the Tremendous GT grid. Picture through Tremendous System
Koide is a product of the Honda System Dream Undertaking (HFDP) that despatched Yuki Tsunoda on the trail to F1, and most not too long ago noticed fellow graduate Kakunoshin Ohta transfer in direction of IMSA.
He acquired his begin in single-seaters at 20, a quite late begin in comparison with numerous youngsters who went straight up out of karting. The late begin didn’t deter Koide although: he received the FIA Japanese F4 title in 2022 – his third yr within the sequence – and final yr he received the Tremendous System Lights Championship in his second yr. He additionally turned one among only a handful of Tremendous GT drivers to win on debut, doing so in 2023.
Koide’s already secured a promotion to Tremendous GT’s GT500 class with Honda subsequent season, due to Ohta’s new IMSA commitments opening up a spot in one among its 5 vehicles, and now he hopes {that a} promotion to Tremendous System is confirmed within the coming days.
This was Koide’s second time testing a Tremendous System automobile with B-Max Racing Workforce, and versus his debut check final yr, this time he might extract a bit extra tempo, consultant of the shape that these inside Honda imagine he’s able to.
“I used to be in a position to management the automobile and improved my efficiency much more than final yr,” he stated.
“My expertise within the Tremendous System Lights sequence and changing into the champion there enabled me to truly really feel the automobile rather a lot higher. I used to be in a position to predict what the automobile would do rather a lot higher. I’d say I’m not one hundred pc but, however I can pull it up there by taking just some extra steps.”
It wasn’t an ideal three days of testing for Koide – he did run off beam a few instances earlier that day as he tried to seek out the restrict – however he managed to submit respectable lap instances and accomplished 178 laps over three days.
B-Max Racing is strengthening its ties to Honda, however nonetheless has a tough job to maintain up with established super-teams like Mugen and TOM’S. Even a veteran like Nobuharu Matsushita had problem elevating the staff’s degree outdoors of a masterful wet-weather win at Suzuka in 2022.
However Koide is prepared for the problem if B-Max or Honda in the end decides to go along with him in 2025, although it will come on the expense of Iori Kimura being one-and-done after he received the Tremendous System Lights title in 2023 – the yr earlier than Koide.
“I’ve confidence if I can grasp a seat subsequent yr. In that case, I’m actually motivated to get good outcomes,” he stated.
“I additionally wish to enchantment to the followers in America and elsewhere, and wish them to see how I carry out subsequent yr.”
“After all, my efficiency is one among my strongest traits. However I even have an open thoughts – I’ll go and watch races abroad, I actually benefit from the setting there. And having the ability to join with a wider viewers, I’d be capable of get extra followers!”
