Super Formula Lights team Delightworks Racing has announced it will expand its operations next year to race in Japan’s top-tier single-seater series Super Formula.
Calling themselves a “human resource development motorsports team” and seeking to bring team personnel up the ladder as well as drivers, Delightworks will enter SF with one car in 2026 and it will be driven by Nobuharu Matsushita.
The 31-year-old SF and Super GT race-winner, who won in Formula 2 as a Honda protege, will also take on a two-fold management role. It will combine technical leadership with fronting the team’s driver development in junior single-seaters.
Established by gaming company Delightworks, the team’s first racing venture was the 2024 Formula Regional Japanese Championship season finale. It entered one car, with its development driver Yugo Iwasawa at the wheel, and made the podium on debut.
It was due to continue racing in FRJC for 2025, but instead moved up to the third-tier SF Lights series as a two-car operation. Yusuke Mitsui currently sits eighth in the standings, with a best finish of fourth, while Souta Arao and Iwasawa have shared the second car but neither have scored in the first three rounds.
Delightworks’ cars have received technical support from Toda Racing, which will also be heavily involved in vehicle operations for the SF programme due to its extensive experience as an engine-builder as well as a racing team.
Toda has a race-winning history in SF Lights, but dropped off the grid this year as it aligned itself with Delightworks’ entry.
Another junior single-seater outfit looking to move up the ladder is TC Racing, founded by Belgium and Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois. His career CV includes four La Liga titles and third place in the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
He launched his team with the help of Spanish former Formula 1 driver Roberto Merhi in late 2023 and it has been racing in Spanish Formula 4 since then. Its best finish so far is a fourth place, and the team now has an Esports spin-off.
Eurocup-3 announced that TC Racing will join its grid next year as it goes from being a FRegional-based series to a third-tier entity by upgrading to machinery and technical regulations very similar to SF Lights.
Courtois has attended several F1 races this year, and in trackside interviews with broadcasters has mentioned that he seeks to take TC Racing into F2 and FIA Formula 3 on F1’s support bill. For that to be possible, during the current cycle of technical regulations, Courtois would need to wait for another team to sell their entry and assets in either championship.