‘There's no tyre degradation!’ ‘There won’t be any strategy!’ ‘Almost everybody will pit on lap one!’ Ahead of last weekend’s Super Formula season opening double-header at Suzuka, there were no shortage of people in the paddock airing concerns about how the first weekend of the new season would go.
That was because of two key changes heading into 2025: the introduction of a new Yokohama spec tyre, featuring a higher percentage of renewable materials than before (46% versus the 33% of the previous tyre), and some small but significant changes to the race format, which series organiser JRP had made following the increase in double-header race weekends.
