Urabe leads Giltaire in SF Lights test teasing 2026 driver moves

Photo: Super Formula Lights

Kazuhisa Urabe set the pace in Super Formula Lights post-season testing at Suzuka this week.

The TOM’S driver set the benchmark pace on his penultimate lap of the opening session on Tuesday morning, a 1m51.094s putting him 0.66 seconds clear of team-mate Sho Tsuboi whose personal best had been set in the middle of his run plan.

Tsuboi was one of four drivers from Japan’s top-tier single-seater series Super Formula to contest the test, along with Nobuharu Matsushita (Delightworks Racing), Atsushi Miyake (B-MAX Racing) and Mitsunori Takaboshi (B-MAX).

Matsushita was third fastest in session one, and Eurocup-3 racer Oscar Wurz was fourth for TOM’S and the last driver within a second of the pace. His older brother Charlie Wurz is understood to be in contention to step up from the FIA Formula 3 Championship to SF next year with Team Goh, and drove for them in that championship post-season test last week.

Urabe, who was 10th in SF Lights and third in the FRegional Japanese Championship this year, also drove in the SF test.

B-MAX’s Evan Giltaire set the quickest laptime of the afternoon, a 1m51.398s, as a second covered the top six but those six drivers were split by 0.283s. Giltaire led TOM’S driver Kiyoshi Umegaki by 0.072s and Matsushita by 0.112s.

The French teenager was FRegional Middle East champion at the start of 2025 then fifth in the FRegional European Championship in his third year with ART Grand Prix, and is understood to have already secured a step up to SF Lights for 2026.

Five drivers improved their pace in Wednesday’s sessions, while six drivers joined the entry list after missing the previous day’s running. This included Akshay Bohra, who came sixth in FREC and 14th in FRME this year as a category rookie and is evaluating multiple options for next year. He was part of Porsche Carrera Cup Asia’s talent pool assessment last month.

Giltaire posted a 1m51.498s late in session three to top the timesheet by 0.135s over Umegaki, and this time nine drivers were within a second of the pace. Just 0.015s split Tokiya Suzuki (TOM’S) and Yusuke Mitsui (Delightworks) in third and fourth.

Urabe’s advantage at the top in the test’s overall classification was reduced in session four, in which he was only eighth fastest.

Giltaire was fastest once again, and a late improvement to 1m51.174s put him 0.08s off Urabe’s session one benchmark. Umegaki was 0.145s behind Giltaire, putting him third overall, and Suzuki was a further 0.031s behind to be fourth fastest overall in the test.

Fifth in the session and sixth overall was B-MAX’s Yuto Nomura, who won the 2025 SF Lights title so will not be staying in the paddock next year.

Test results