Written by Jamie Klein at Japan Racing Insider
Ever since former FIA F2 racer O’Sullivan joined Team Impul for his second season in Super Formula, there has been a chance of a big result in every weekend so far…..and this time O’Sullivan made it count. Pole position in the wet and a close second behind Kakunoshin Ohta was even more impressive….
Lead lap stats can be misleading in Super Formula, because often drivers taking wild gambles on safety cars or otherwise going long tend are credited with leading. But the 22 laps that O’Sullivan spent at the head of the order were 100 percent genuine.
Only a combination of an Ohta undercut, Honda power unit superiority and Impul’s choice to go with a slightly higher downforce set-up stopped the cut glass-accented Londoner from being the series’ first British winner since Richard Lyons in 2005.
O’Sullivan was also keenly aware of the significance of the achievement for Team Impul, who didn’t score so much a point last year, and took a huge punt on scaling back to a single car and entrusting it to the 21-year-old. Not since Ryo Hirakawa finished second at Motegi in 2023 had the team celebrated a top-three finish.
“It’s great for the team and myself as well,” said O’Sullivan. “It has been very good overall, I’m happy I can deliver a result for them. I know how hard we are working behind the scenes, so to reward the team with something close to a win is fantastic.”
A year-and-a-half on from his first taste of Super Formula, O’Sullivan seems increasingly happy and settled, even picking up the odd word of Japanese.
“It has been a lot more difficult in Japan than I anticipated — it seems like if I do well in one championship, I do badly in the other!” he said, referring to a tougher-than-expected second season in SUPER GT with the CarGuy MKS Ferrari team.
“But I am enjoying it. Super Formula is very tough, and it seems there is a solid pecking order with the top eight cars, so trying to break into Q2 is tough…I have got used to the way of working and I have got better at leading the team. That’s why I feel I have made some good progress this year. For sure we are not there yet, there is still a bit of a gap to the top guys, but we’ll keep trying.”