Photo: XPB/James Moy Photography
New Formula 2 champion Theo Pourchaire has secured his racing future by landing a seat at Team Impul for the 2024 Super Formula season.
The Frenchman will be the first non-Japanese driver run by the team in the series since 2017, and so far he is the only foreigner on the 2024 grid. He will continue to be Sauber’s Formula 1 reserve driver next year alongside his race programme.
Pourchaire got his first taste of SF last week in the official post-season test at Suzuka, doing two days of driving in one of Impul’s Toyota-powered cars. He will be new to all SF tracks, and the only driver he has raced against before is F2 rival Ayumu Iwasa who will step up to the top level of single-seater racing in Japan with the Honda-powered Team Mugen.
The 20-year-old started his car racing career in Formula 4, coming third in the French championship in 2018 then becoming a Sauber junior in 2019 and winning the ADAC title. In 2020 he stepped up to FIA Formula 3 and was championship runner-up, and since then has been racing in F2. He won two races as a rookie, three last year, and just one in his title-winning campaign.
There are several other past examples of GP2/F2 title contenders heading to SF after failing to find F1 seats.
Red Bull junior Liam Lawson came third in the F2 standings last year then was 2023 SF championship runner-up, 2017 F2 runner-up Artem Markelov spent 2019 in SF and the 2016 GP2 champion Pierre Gasly made his way into F1 by fighting for the 2017 SF title and coming just half a point shy of being champion.