The Honda outfit was left with just four points from the Fuji double-header earlier this month thanks to Oyu’s recovery drive to seventh place in the first race.
Teammate Naoki Yamamoto fared even worse as he could muster only a pair of 14th-place finishes to open his bid for a fourth title, finishing behind Oyu in both races despite qualifying ahead of his younger teammate.
Suzuka is the scene of Oyu’s first and so far only Super Formula victory in 2020, while the Japanese Grand Prix venue has always been a favourite of Yamamoto, a six-time winner at the track.
However, with Saturday’s weather at Suzuka currently forecast to be even warmer than the conditions that prevailed at Fuji, Oyu is not hopeful of a sudden change in fortunes for the team.
“If things continue as they are now, I can’t show what I’m capable of, and that’s a bad situation,” Oyu said after finishing 11th in the second race at Fuji.
“Suzuka is a different circuit from Fuji and one where Nakajima Racing is relatively strong, so we want to get results there. But if we don't solve the fundamental problems, this kind of thing could happen anywhere.
“Things especially didn’t go well [at Fuji] when the track temperature rose, but because it will be warmer from now on and Suzuka is a circuit that is tough on tyres, it feels like we’re in a ‘crisis’.”
Oyu enjoyed a strong sophomore season for Nakajima Racing last year, finishing fifth in the standings with two podium finishes, but admitted after the conclusion of pre-season testing at Fuji that his usual one-lap pace had deserted him.
Going into more detail at the curtain-raiser, Oyu said that the constantly-changing behaviour of the car has made it difficult to set it up correctly.
“Ours is a car very easily influenced by small changes,” explained Oyu. “I couldn’t drive properly in qualifying because the setup was so far off.
“It’s become a car that changes a lot when the ride height fluctuates. With used tyres, the tyre pressures are low, but as you drive, the pressure increases and so does the ride height, and even when that happens just a little, the feeling changes.”
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