Super Formula has insisted that the removal of the planned South Korea race from the 2025 calendar doesn’t mean the top of plans to expand its footprint in Asia.
In August, the Japanese Championships announced that they might visit the Inje Speedium track next yr and this might be their first overseas races since 2004.
However, earlier this month, in the course of the final round at Fuji, it was revealed that the Inje race wouldn’t happen in any case, as negotiations between Super Formula organizer JRP and the promoter of the Inje event had not ended positively.
In an interview with Motorsport.com, JRP president Yoshihisa Ueno made it clear that the door is open to a brand new round of negotiations with Inje, although he stressed that there are not any “concrete” plans to incorporate the ability on the 2026 calendar.
“We set the deadline for completing the negotiations in mid-September because we had to start out preparing for next yr and likewise submit the ultimate version of the calendar to the Commission [JAF]Ueno explained.
“Unfortunately we were unable to arrive in time, but this is not the end of the road and we would like to continue discussions with them to try and organize a race in the future.”
Pit lane
Photo: Masahide Kamio
Inje will not be Super Formula's only choice to host an overseas round in 2026, with Ueno revealing there have been approaches from “several tracks in Asia”, without revealing any specific countries or tracks.
However, Ueno cautioned that any agreement to host the race in Asia have to be mutually helpful and ultimately result in a rise in Super Formula's popularity abroad.
“We want to play a role in developing the motorsport culture in this country, which will lead to increased fan interest in the championship,” he said. “It must be to our benefit as well.”
Even if there are not any overseas races on the 2025 schedule, Super Formula remains to be set for its largest ever variety of races in a single season – 12, up from nine this yr.
This comes because the variety of double-headers increases from two this season to 5, with only the Autopolis and Sugo rounds remaining single-race weekends.
While Super Formula has worked to extend the variety of races in recent seasons, Ueno admits that the tight nature of the domestic motorsport calendar makes it difficult to extend the variety of events held on Japanese soil.
He suggested that a maximum of three overseas rounds could possibly be held in the longer term, with fewer restrictions on available dates on account of warmer climates in other Asian countries.
“Our goal is to eventually organize 10 events a year,” Ueno said. “But since the schedule in Japan is quite crowded with SUPER GT and Super Taikyu, the additional people will have to take place outside Japan.”
Ueno added that the best scenario for Super Formula could be to arrange all weekends as double-headers, which could mean a 20-race schedule in the longer term.
“We are considering going in this direction,” he admitted. “But for this to happen, a lot still needs to happen.”
