Turkish driver Bolukbasi moved to the Japanese series this year after contesting part-season in F2 in 2022, signing up to join the rebranded TGM Grand Prix squad.
He made a good impression on the Servus Japan-run team despite his relative lack of single-seater experience, scoring five points to end the season 18th in the standings, with a best finish of eighth in the opening race of the year at Fuji.
Bolukbasi’s place at TGM is dependent on his funding, but he is thought to have a strong chance of keeping his seat should this prove forthcoming.
The 25-year-old sim racing convert however says he is looking at other options to complement what is expected to be a nine-race Super Formula season in a bid to catch up to his more experienced competitors.
“I’m really not sure about next year yet,” Bolukbasi told Motorsport.com. “I would love to do one more year in Japan, but it totally depends on sponsors and everything.
“Super Formula is amazing, the car is great, Liam [Lawson] has shown how close it is to F1. But the mileage is very limited.
“Next season if we do Super Formula, I’d like to do something else on the side, maybe SUPER GT or something else in Europe to get the mileage up.
“I’m in a position where I need to do more miles than the others so I can catch up to them, because I don’t have the experience.
“Hopefully we can fix that for next year and do more races, but we’ll see. I’ve enjoyed my time here, but the sponsors have a big say in this."
Assessing Bolukbasi’s rookie Super Formula season
After a strong start to the season that yielded two points finishes in the opening three races, Bolukbasi didn’t manage to breach the top 10 again, with his next-best results being 11th at Motegi and a pair of 15th-place finishes at Autopolis and in the Suzuka finale.
There’s no doubt that Bolukbasi struggled badly in qualifying all season. His average grid slot across the year was 19th, beating only Raoul Hyman, the only other full-season driver that went the entire year without ever clearing Q1. Bolukbasi came close to making Q2 in qualifying for Round 8 at Suzuka, but fell just shy, giving him his best grid slot of 14th.
It was Bolukbasi’s misfortune that the one time he qualified in the mid-pack, it was the race that was essentially cut short after three laps due to Ukyo Sasahara’s huge 130R crash.
Race engineer Shintaro Okajima explained the underlying issue was that Bolukbasi’s lack of experience means he still is not able to access the full capabilities of the Super Formula car in qualifying, with chances to run on fresh tyres in the series extremely limited.
“He’s shown some improvement since the beginning of the season, but the thing he still needs to improve is using the potential of new tyres,” Okajima told Motorsport.com.
“I was always considering the run plan [to give him more chances on new tyres]. We would often use two sets in free practice in order to allow him to progress quicker.
“The other drivers have a better understanding of the grip and the car behaviour, and what’s going to happen in qualifying, but Cem is still not sure how the tyre grip will be. That’s why he struggled a bit, especially in Round 9 qualifying at Suzuka.”
Okajima nonetheless thinks that Bolukbasi’s strong long-run pace means that, once he can get on top of his qualifying issues, the Turkish driver can be competitive.
“Cem is still fairly new to formula racing, so I think he learned a lot this year,” Okajima said. “He knows he needs to get more experience to beat the Japanese drivers who have raced in Japan all their careers.
“But on long run pace, he is really good at managing the tyres through the stint. That’s why he could overtake Kamui [Kobayashi] in Round 9. So once he can find a way to use the full tyre performance [in qualifying], he can be more competitive.”
