FORMULA 1 RESERVE DRIVER IWASA CLINCHES SUPERFORMULA TITLE: THE RUN TOWARDS IT
In 2025 Ayumu Iwasa came from P4 heading into the final race, to take the title in the Japanese SuperFormula. The 24-year-old Japanese driver had deputised in the 2024 season for Team Mugen and had a solid first season, taking three podiums on his way to P5 overall. However, this season he showed his true quality. Before we dive deeper into this year lets take a look at Iwasa’s past within motorsport.
After sporadic appearances within Japanese motorsport in 2017, 2018 and 2019, Iwasa was given a great chance to head to France with Honda backing and compete in the French F4 championship in 2020. The season started off strongly taking two wins in the opening round. This form continued throughout the season and Ayumu took nine wins over the course of the season and a further six podiums. He took the overall title ahead of fellow Honda junior Ren Sato.
In 2021 he graduated straight into Formula 3 with the Hitech team, in his one and only season of Formula 3. He secured one win and one third place finish on his way to P12 overall and crucially ahead of teammate and Red Bull junior colleague at the time, Jak Crawford. These performances helped convince Red Bull to promote him to Formula 2 in 2022 with the Dams team.
Iwasa completed two seasons of Formula 2 with Dams, where he took P5 in 2022 and P4 in 2023. During these two seasons he secured five race wins, three of which were features in Le Castillet and Abu Dhabi in 2022 and one at Albert Park in his second season, and a further seven podiums, looking like a title contender and comfortably beating teammates Roy Nissany and Arthur Leclerc.
However, 2025 was the year where Ayumu put all his pace into another title. He took top four finishes every time he scored points, which was in eight of the twelve races. As previously mentioned Iwasa headed into the final race of the season P4 in the standings behind last year’s champion Sho Tsuboi, the Dandelion Racing rising star Kakunoshin Ohta and the ever consistent Tadasuke Makino. Ayumu did everything he could to secured the title by winning the final race and thankfully the combination of Tsuboi in P8, Ohta in P3 and Makino in P5 allowed Iwasa to secure the title.
In addition to his Super Formula duties Iwasa has taken part in several FP sessions with both Red Bull and VCARB in Formula 1 this season, a role he is expected to reprise in future years.
This poses the question of why he has not been given a chance in Formula 1. Liam Lawson does not seem like a long term option for Red Bull and Arvid Lindblad could have been given a second season of Formula 2. One reason may be the fact Honda is switching allegiances to Aston Martin.
In terms of Super Formula Iwasa will be retained by team Mugen and will be hoping to retain his title against the likes of Tsuboi and Ohta. However he could be joined by more drivers from Europe. Several drivers could be switching to the series next season, this includes Formula 3 driver Charlie Wurz, and Formula 2 race winner Roman Stanek. Originally F2 champion Leonardo Fornaroli and title contender Richard Verschoor were linked, however after joining the Mclaren program, they may be deployed elsewhere. Williams junior Luke Browning is also looking at joining the series. Two time WRC champion Kalle Rovanpera is also expected to join after he completes the Formula Regional Oceana season in the winter.
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