Photo: Super Formula Lights
Toyota junior Rikuto Kobayashi will make his Super Formula debut with Team Impul next weekend at Twin Ring Motegi.
The 19-year-old Japanese driver will take the place of Oliver Rasmussen for the double-header event, with the Dane having not actually raced for the team yet after getting injured in a crash during practice for the opening round at Suzuka.
Kobayashi is only in his fourth year of car racing, and his main programme for 2025 is with TOM’S in Japan’s Formula 3-level Super Formula Lights championship. Following round one, he sits third in the standings with two podiums. He is also due to race in Super GT’s GT300 class this year.
For his first two years in single-seaters, Kobayashi raced for Toyota’s own junior team in the Japanese Formula 4 championship. He was sixth in the standings as a rookie, taking a pole and then a podium mid-season before hitting the front in the final round at Motegi where he claimed his first victory from pole and took the fastest lap too.
His sophomore campaign kicked off at Fuji Speedway with a double pole position, which were converted into a win and a third place, then on the return to the track he claimed two more victories. In the final two rounds he had strong form again, with three poles and then two wins, a second and a third in the races.
That earned him the title, and a graduation up to SF Lights and Super GT for 2024. In the former he was championship runner-up, with three wins and eight other podiums, and he then stepped down to Formula Regional to contest the Macau Grand Prix with TOM’S. After qualifying 23rd and finishing 21st in the qualification race, he climbed to 12th in the main race.
While Rasmussen remains contracted to Impul, the former World Endurance Championship regular remains out of the cockpit as a precaution. Following Motegi, there is another month before the next SF races for which he will aim to be fit for.