Tsukuda Formula A Team

Hiroshi Saito (Lead Mechanic)

**Tsukuda Formula A Team** is the Formula A division of Tsukuda Motor Co., the largest Japanese automaker in the world. Producing over 8 million vehicles annually, the company also has an incredibly vast history in motorsport, spanning multiple sports cars and open-wheel series. They first entered IFS after supplying engines to smaller teams and eventually entered a factory effort in 2006, where they ran until the demise of the series and entered Formula A.

## **History**

### Foundation and Expansion

Tsukuda was founded by Yoshiro Tsukuda in 1955, producing compact and utility vehicles, quickly expanding their business across Japan. The company became incredibly successful, taking advantage of new business structures that quickly became known as the “Tsukuda Way” which allowed the company to rapidly expand into different sectors. Tsukuda would be one of the first Japanese manufacturers to provide factory support to their teams, allying with Iwakura Motor Racing to dominate smaller series across Japan. The Tsukuda Akemi proved to be an incredibly versatile platform for touring car racing and rallying, where the car would dominate stage rallying across Europe, with many European racing teams buying it in droves for its cheap price and incredibly reliable construction. Tsukuda would enter the sports car market by creating their first sports car, the Alpha. The car would be powered by a monstrous but unwieldy V10 engine that produced 300 horsepower. Despite the impressive technology it boasted for the 1960s, the car proved to be unreliable and had a reputation for being incredibly hard to drive, and it was never homologated for any racing programs. Tsukuda would not let this be the end and develop multiple other sports cars that would become revered across the automotive community. With the establishment of the Global Stage Rally Series (GSRS, precursor to the GRC, Global Rally Championship) in 1967, Tsukuda would enter one of their most popular sports cars, the Ikari, a mid-engine 4-cylinder platform that proved to be perfect for the various stages across some of the roughest terrain in the world.

### Continued Motorsports Presence

The 1970 Oil Crisis would see Tsukuda and fellow Japanese manufacturers Tachibana and Azusa skyrocket in popularity in the United States, giving them a massive influx of revenue. This would lead to Tsukuda entering the smaller open-wheel series in Japan, primarily the GPJ series, the predecessor to the International Formula Juniors series. They would create an incredibly successful engine program in the regional Japanese series and the international series, winning 4 championships in a row from 1973 to 1977 in the international series before engine regulations changed. Tachibana would have fierce competition with them, with the 2 engine manufacturers fighting neck and neck throughout most of the 70s. Tsukuda would continue to be at the forefront of rallying, competing with other manufacturers such as Louvet, Carlson, Sienna, and Torino. They would be the first manufacturer to use an AWD system in 1979, winning the championship in dominant fashion as the now-named GRC would transition into an AWD-dominated era. In 1980, the GRC would establish the now legendary Class O regulations, where they would join the many manufacturers that fought for the championship in the few short-lived years of the category. Their entry would be the Suzuha, an evolution of the Ikari using a similar drivetrain but a radically different aerodynamic design. Although the car achieved multiple rally wins, it never managed a championship, only managing to achieve 3rd in the drivers’ championship in 1983 as their highest result.

Throughout the 70s, Tsukuda would make multiple ventures into the world of sports car racing, joining the Group 5 category during the height of its popularity, battling against the likes of Carlson, Braun, and Kreuzer, where they would find themselves consistently behind the curve. They would prove to be quick but not amount to any great results in the multiple series it competed in. They attempted Le Mans twice in 1977 and 1978, where they would end up with a double retirement in both races. At the turn of the decade, they would design multiple cars for the Group C category, proving to garner large amounts of success. Although trailing behind Kreuzer in the early years of the category, they would find themselves competing with them in multiple years of the GSC. They would find much domestic success in the Japanese Sports Car Championship, achieving multiple titles against Kreuzer and Azusa. Despite this, they would never win a championship against the unstoppable Kreuzer team, nor would they win Le Mans. As the category continued to expand, manufacturers such as Azusa, Carlson, Kruse, Panther, Sienna, and many more joined. Tsukuda would continue to find much success, competing down to the wire with Panther in the 1987 championship, before falling behind Kruse and their dominant Group C program. At the end of Group C, Tsukuda would achieve their first Le Mans win in 1992, after much of the competition faltered to reliability issues.

In domestic series, Tsukuda would enter the newly established Japanese Touring Car Series, fighting against multiple different manufacturers. They would achieve early success, winning the first 2 titles in 1985 and 1986. Heading into 1987, they would fall behind the rapidly developing Carlson team, who would take the next two titles. Despite this, they continued to contend for wins and proved themselves to be consistent fighters for the championship. Eventually, Azusa’s entry with the dominant Horizon would win the next 6 years of the championship in dominant fashion, cementing itself in motorsport history as one of the most dominant cars ever created. With the demise of the JTCS, the Japanese GT Series would come in its place, where Tsukuda would compete against the dominant Azusa and the new Tachibana entries. To do this, they would develop the Kairiki, facing off against the Horizon and the new Tachibana Haruko. Other entries from McKenzie would also join the fray in the mid-90s when the formula was still primarily based on GT1. The series would prove to be incredibly competitive, with each manufacturer trading the championship back and forth almost every season. Tsukuda would be the first to win back-to-back championships in 1997, in an incredibly tense battle between the historic Iwakura team and the Tachibana-backed Kyoto Engineering Works. Tsukuda would also compete in the lower GTO class, supplying multiple customer models but primarily relying on their tried and tested Suzuha platform. They would achieve multiple championships, fighting against the customer Kreuzer, Tachibana, and Masataka teams.

With the demise of the Class O regulations in rallying, Tsukuda continued into the new Class R regulations. They would once again have early success, creating one of the most famous GRC cars in the Hitagi. The car would win championships in 1990, 1992, 1995, and 1996. The Tsukuda team would end up disqualified in 1996 due to an illegal turbo in one of the largest cheating scandals in GRC history. After the scandal, many other manufacturers would join in what would be considered a golden era of the GRC. After 2001, when Tsukuda had fallen to the back of the grid after producing many uncompetitive cars, it pulled out of the GRC and reoriented its focus on sports cars and eventually open-wheel racing.

### Entry into IFS

After supplying multiple teams in the IFS throughout most of its history, Tsukuda would announce in 2004 that they would be entering the series with a full factory effort in 2006. Tsukuda would also announce that they would be entering the NAFS with an engine program, supplying multiple large customer teams. They would achieve much success in the series, having the largest role as an engine supplier in the series besides Sampson. Their IFS program would have one of the largest budgets of any IFS team and the largest of any team entering the series. Their drivers would be Flavio Torres of Barzetti fame and Kenji Ikeda, a 2-time winner of the JGTS with Tsukuda’s backing. The two would prove to be a dynamic duo and maintain a great relationship on and off the track. 2006 would come and pre-season testing would prove Tsukuda to be running in the mid-pack, although with the potential of pace. Their first season would prove unremarkable, finishing 5th in the constructors, a high of any new factory effort, but critics and analysts expected more from how much money was sunk into the effort. 2007 would prove much more successful and bring the team a new high of 4th in the constructors, slotted behind Barzetti, SAMB, and McKenzie, although not far off of the competition. After Flavio Torres left, Chris Harvey would come in to fill his seat. 2008 would be the best season of Tsukuda’s continual improvement before the 2009 regulations change, finishing 3rd in the championship, with Ikeda taking the team’s first win in the home ground of Suzuka along with 4 others on the season. Despite his best efforts, Ikeda would pale in comparison to SAMB’s Vyktor Melnyk, dominating the season as he struggled with reliability.

### IFS - 2009-2021: Consistent Title Contention

Over the offseason, Tsukuda would develop the revolutionary double diffuser concept, which would change the balance of the championship completely in their favor. They would dominate out the gate against the rest of the field, winning 6 of the first 7 races. The rest of the field would rush imitations of the design or struggle to try to replicate it as best they can. SAMB would be the first to develop a solid iteration of the double diffuser. Vyktor Melnyk would once again be the main competitor against Kenji Ikeda, who would take his first championship after a stellar late-season comeback from Melnyk. Into 2010, they would fall back to Barzetti, who would take the next drivers’ championships. During this time, they would also be involved in the Gatecrash Scandal with Polaris, where Polaris would knowingly attempt to breach the contracts of many Tsukuda engineers by trying to bring them to the team or by bribing them. Oreki Hoshino would blow the whistle on this, resulting in Polaris’s disqualification from the 2010 season and one of the largest fines in the history of motor racing. They would roll into 2011 with a new mindset, with Kenji Ikeda continuing to bring much success to the team, with the second driver slot becoming a revolving door of multiple drivers. After an unsuccessful 2011, Chris Harvey would leave the team, replaced by Lucas Costa. After a difficult 2012, plagued by reliability issues, Tsukuda would finish 5th in the constructor’s championship, superseded by the surging Polaris. After a successful 2013 and 2014, finishing 3rd in the constructors, they would once again take a backseat to the title fight between SAMB and Polaris in 2015, maintaining their solid 3rd place position. In 2015, Tsukuda would promote Japanese junior hopeful Yuki Suzumiya from their junior team, becoming the second female driver to make it to IFS. She would become the first female driver to win an International Formula Series race in 2016, and overall she'd post decent results throughout her career, finishing in decent positions in the championship. After capitalizing on Polaris's reliability problems in 2016, Tsukuda would claim 2nd in the constructors’ championship, only to drop back to 4th after a horribly unreliable car ruined their 2017 season. Kenji Ikeda would announce his retirement at the end of the 2018 season, putting an end to a storied career across multiple racing disciplines. That season would see Ikeda finishing 3rd in the drivers’ championship, but Tsukuda only managed to finish 4th in the constructors’ championship. 2020 and 2021 would find Tsukuda in similar positions, however; Tsukuda would finish no higher than 4th until its departure from the series in 2021, citing costs.

### Transition to Formula A

Tsukuda would eventually enter Formula A for its inaugural season in 2023, where they would finish 4th in the constructors’, with drivers Matthyas Van De Velde and Dillon Bolton taking 7th and 8th in the drivers’ respectively. They would be granted their first win in Formula A at the 2024 Spanish Grand Prix, with Dillon Bolton piloting the Tsukuda TRC-2 to their first win since 2018.