Could Sasahara’s return alter Super Formula title battle dynamic?

That’s the belief of Sasahara’s former chief engineer Tomo Koike, who is now masterminding Red Bull junior Liam Lawson’s title bid at Team Mugen.

Miyata took the lead of the standings in last month’s fifth round of the season at Sugo, as he notched up a second win in the last three races, and now leads Lawson by 12 points with four races remaining this year.

However, there will be a major change inside the TOM’S garage starting in this weekend’s Fuji race, as Sasahara – who lost his Mugen drive to Lawson at the end of last year before quitting Honda – joins the team in place of Giuliano Alesi.

While the struggling Alesi was unable to get anywhere near Miyata during the first five races of the season, Koike believes Sasahara will offer a much firmer challenge than the Frenchman, and reckons this could result in the championship leader taking his eye off the ball.

“Miyata’s situation will change because Ukyo is coming back,” Koike told Motorsport.com. “It might not be good for him because Ukyo will be more competitive than Alesi. 

“I think Ukyo will be driving to beat Miyata as well, and Miyata might not be able to focus just on himself. He will also have to take into consideration what Ukyo is doing. 

“He was in a good place before, but the situation is changing and I think Miyata will be under more pressure now.

“Ukyo’s mindset is a bit different from other Japanese drivers. He will support Miyata’s title bid, but he will also be determined to win a race this season. 

“Look at Round 9 last year – he overtook [team-mate] Tomoki [Nojiri] at Suzuka.”

Sasahara in the Mugen garage last year with Koike (second to right)

Koike believes the next two races at Fuji and Motegi will be critical for Lawson’s ambitions of becoming Super Formula’s first rookie champion since Ralf Schumacher in 1996.

Fuji was the scene of Lawson’s historic debut win in April, while Motegi has historically been a weak track for Miyata and is deemed one of the easier tracks for rookies to master.

While Koike is confident of repeating Lawson’s previous strong form at Fuji, he admits any hopes of a strong result at Motegi will require an improvement in terms of one-lap speed.

“The target is to gain as many points as possible in the next two races because Ritomo will be very strong at Suzuka,” said Koike. “Ideally, we need to get ahead of him in the next two rounds.

“At Motegi, qualifying position is very important, so we have to improve our qualifying set-up. We have to try and work on our procedure from Q1 to Q2 and put everything together there.”

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