Photo: SUPER GT
Despite a convincing one-two victory in the Super GT round at Fuji Speedway this month, Honda still needs to “work on the racing speed of the Civic Type R-GT,” believes Nobuharu Matsushita.
Along with teammate Tomoki Nojiri in the No. 8 ARTA Honda, Matsushita took the first win for the four-door Civic since its introduction in just the fourth race. The duo led the Team Kunimitsu duo of Naoki Yamamoto and Tadasuke Makino.
Matsushita and Nojiri went to Fuji as clear favorites, as after the previous two races in Fuji and Suzuka they had the lowest handicap of 6 kg among the Bridgestone GT500 teams.
At the same time, the championship-leading No. 36 TOM’S Toyota GR Supra, shared by Sho Tsuboi and Kenta Yamashita, defied a second-stage fuel limiter and a nominal 74kg success handicap to finish seventh from 14th on the grid.
Matsushita believes this is proof that Honda needs to improve the Civic’s tyre usage to be able to fight for the championship.
“Over a single lap, we were never far away, even with the No. 36,” Matsushita told Sportscar365. “But in terms of race pace, we’re still a bit behind them.”
“We have the same tendency as with the NSX-GT, namely that we push the tires a bit hard. We have to work on that now to improve the race pace.”
“(Toyota) can use a softer tyre than us. If we use that tyre we will damage it a lot. But last weekend in Fuji we were the lightest Bridgestone car, that made everything easier.”
“Even though we won the race, we can’t be too optimistic because the #36 is flying. Even with 74 kg (success ballast) they have caught up like crazy.
“I don’t understand how they can be so fast in the corners. They have the fuel flow restrictor, but also the weight, and their race pace is better than ours.”
Matsushita and Nojiri are now in sixth place in the drivers’ standings at the halfway point of the season, 15 points behind the TOM’S pair Tsuboi and Yamashita.
Although the No. 8 car will be equipped with a first-stage fuel limiter for the next race at Suzuka, Matsushita is convinced that the track could be well suited to the Civic.
“I think Suzuka is not that bad,” he said. “In the last qualifying (for lap 3) I was P2 (in Q1). In qualifying, even if you lack downforce, you can use the peak performance of the tyres and maximise your speed on the straight.”
“The Civic is competitive, but we still have some work to do in terms of racing speed. That’s my feeling.”
Otsu is baffled by the speed problems on the No. 16 straight
On the other side of the ARTA garage, the No. 16 car shared by Hiroki Otsu and Ren Sato trudged to the finish line at Fuji with no points in 11th place.
Otsu revealed after the race that the car suffered from a strange lack of speed on the straights, which prevented it from making any progress from its tenth place on the grid, while Sato’s understeer issues in Q2 also pushed the pair’s qualifying average down.
“Our time in Q2 was much slower than we had imagined and we didn’t really understand the reason for that,” Otsu told Sportscar365. “And then in the race, from the beginning, I felt that the straight line speed was too bad and I couldn’t overtake anyone.”
“There are many possible factors, but at the moment we don’t know the exact reason.
“It seemed to us that we were not only lacking speed on the straights, but also in the corners. Now we need to compare ourselves with the No. 8 car to find out what they did better and what we did worse, and to find out the reason for our lack of speed.”
Otsu and Sato finished third in SUPER GT’s last visit to Suzuka in June and Otsu remains optimistic for the series’ next race at the track later this month. The No. 16 car will be the lightest car fitted with Bridgestone tyres, carrying 30kg of ballast.
“We are still lightly loaded for Suzuka. The No. 16 car won there last year and we were able to continue to collect points that kept us in the title fight until the end. I think that this time we can at least go to Suzuka with the aim of achieving another podium finish.”
