KCMG has announced an unusual car-sharing arrangement involving Giuliano Alesi and Seita Nonaka for next week’s Super Formula triple-header at Fuji Speedway.

The Toyota-powered team revealed on Thursday that Alesi, the son of Formula 1 cult hero Jean, will drive the team’s #9 car for Rounds 6 and 7, while Nonaka will contest Sunday morning’s sprint race, the replacement for the cancelled Autopolis round.

A consortium of manufacturers led by Japanese racing car constructor Dome has launched a bid to produce Super Formula’s next-generation car.

The Japan Motor Racing Industry Association (JMIA), a non-profit organisation that features 80 member companies, has produced a prototype known as the JNFP-1 that it hopes will form the basis of a challenger to eventually displace the series’ current Dallara SF23.

The JNFP-1 is built to current Formula 1 safety standards and is designed to be fitted with the current generation two-litre, four-cylinder turbo engines supplied by Honda and Toyota.

Unlike the SF23, it features low-profile 18-inch wheels, and despite comparable dimensions, at 750kg, including driver, it is 73kg heavier than the current machine.

Dallara has been the sole chassis supplier to Super Formula since 2014, replacing American constructor Swift, and has produced two unique chassis, the SF14 and SF19. The SF23 was brought in three years ago as an aero upgrade to the SF19.

Almost two decades on from its failed effort to join the Formula 1 grid, Dome returned to producing single-seaters in 2015 when it created the F110 to race in Japan’s domestic F4 series, and more recently produced the F111/3 car to Formula Regional rules.

While Dome was responsible for the overall design, many other companies, including Toyota subsidiary TGR-D, Team Mugen parent M-TEC, Toda Racing and Toray Carbon Magic, which produces the current GT500 chassis for Super GT, were involved in various areas.

The JNFP-1 was first displayed to the public in an exhibition in Yokohama in May, before being displayed during this month’s fourth round of the season at Fuji Speedway.

Simulator testing with ex-Super Formula racer Kazuya Oshima started in recent weeks and a first on-track appearance is planned in the coming months.

JRP president Yoshihisa Ueno said at Fuji he was impressed by the JNFP-1, but stressed “nothing has been decided” about whether it could be adopted by the series.

“At the same time, I do not believe that whether or not it is adopted by Super Formula defines the value of this machine,” he added.

“It is remarkable that more than 40 Japanese constructors came together to build this prototype, and it is hoped that this will help elevate Japan’s motorsport industry as a whole.

“Super Formula requires a grid of 30 cars, with safety, supply capability, and cost all needing to be secured, so the selection process is not a simple one.

“The selection of the next‑generation machine is not something determined solely by the promoter.

“What matters is whether entrants genuinely want to race with this machine, and whether a movement emerges in which fans say they want to see racing with this machine.”

Last year, Ueno revealed to Motorsport.com that the lifespan of the current Dallara SF23 could potentially be extended beyond 2027 as it weighs up options for its next-generation car.

The earliest the JNFP-1 could feasibly be produced at a large enough quantity to supply the entire grid would be 2029 or 2030.

On a recent episode of the ‘Speed Street’ podcast with Conor Daly, Pato O’Ward drops a bit of a scoop, stating that he doesn't want to be am F1 reserve driver any longer.

Check out the podcast link from around the 1:12:30 mark

The reasoning Pato gives:

• He wants an off season, to enjoy more of his life

• to have time to train more, eat better and prepare for IndyCar in 2027

• he doesn't have the interest any longer to drive the current F1 cars

• he doesn't see his future there, doesn't enjoy the series and the life as much as IndyCar, even though it was his dream as a kid.

He says he has talked to Zak and says he wishes to "be fired from F1 services".

German F4 Championship rumoured for comeback in 2027

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Could Toyota’s Shockingly Cheap $2,400 GR Kart Finally Save Grassroots Motorsports?

Getting behind the wheel of a proper racing kart shouldn't require massive financial backing. But for an entire generation of younger fans, the brutal economic reality of motorsports has meant that the barrier to entry is just terrifyingly high.

But Toyota is officially stepping in to shatter that financial ceiling. According to a breaking report from Nikkei Asia, Toyota Motor is building a dedicated factory in Aichi prefecture to mass-produce proper racing karts, and they are going to sell them for an absolute fraction of the established market rate.

The $2,400 Financial Wrecking Ball

Slated to hit the Japanese market this autumn under the aggressive "GR kart" banner, these entry-level racing machines will be built to order. The massive disruption? Toyota plans to price them in the upper 300,000 yen range, which translates to roughly $2,180 to $2,400.

To put that into perspective, that price point is about a quarter of the cost of the dominant foreign-built models that currently gatekeep the sport.

The Japanese automaker isn't doing this for charity; they are desperately trying to stop a massive bleeding of enthusiasm. The Japan Automobile Federation reported that just 3,250 kart licenses were issued in 2025, a brutal collapse from the 1995 peak of 9,730. Kids are losing interest in cars because they literally cannot afford the tires, let alone the chassis.

Hooking the Next Generation on the GR Badge

Toyota's motorsports division president, Tomoya Takahashi, didn't mince words about the company's ultimate agenda.

"We'll build entry-level karts and hope to see kids move up to more advanced models," Takahashi stated bluntly.

By leveraging their massive domestic automobile production infrastructure and low-cost materials to keep overhead down, Toyota is willingly taking the hit on kart margins to hook a brand-new generation on the GR badge early. At 25 years old, looking back at how incredibly expensive the traditional karting ladder has always been, an initiative like this is exactly what the industry needs to survive.

Toyota is currently considering bringing the karts to international markets. If they do, it could violently disrupt the global karting scene and finally allow raw, unfunded talent to make it onto the asphalt.

Back in 2002, when Red Bull announced the first year driver selections for their new Red Bull Drivers Search initiative to find and develop a potential American racing driver for Formula 1, both Boston Reid and Bobby East, standout USAC/Sprint talents were both included, perhaps somewhat surprisingly as despite their obvious racing talent, neither had any junior formula car experience.

Both drivers were presented at the official announcement at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway during all the associated PR events, yet only Reid travelled to the evaluation run-offs at the Paul Ricard circuit in France, whilst East pulled out of the programme before the driver shootout even began.

Does anyone have any background as to the reason?

Was East ever realistically going to compete in the run-offs? with his lack of road-racing experience?

Did he not travel to France because he had already signed a deal to race in a domestic US series for 2003?

Would have been fascinating to see how he would have compared to junior formula car American standouts such as Scott Speed, AJ Allmendinger, Patrick Long and others…

RIP Bobby East