Rising Sun Racing

**Team Name**

Conda Rising Sun Racing

**Chief Executive Name**

Hojo Oda Won (Raven, Japanese)

**Deputy Chief Executive Name**

Tokugawa Ryuu (Kishinoue's Giant Skink, Japanese)

**Team Principal Name**

Hiro Hideyoshi (Mandarin Duck, Japanese)

**Team Headquaters**

Kyoto, Japan

**Team Factory**

Suzuka, Japan

**Team Primary Sponsor**

Conda Motor Company

**2022 Furmula One World Championship**

**Race Drivers:** *76* Salomé Montés, *42* Trey Goodwin

**Reserve Drivers:** *2* Ordagova Nevarol

**Test Drivers:** *45* Logan Riverbanks

**Chassis:** RS-3

**Engine:** Conda F1 23B V-Tec

**Tyres:** Bridgestork

**Team Background**

Rising Sun Racing is a Japanese Furmula One team competing in the 2021 F1 World Championship that will be based in Kyoto and Suzuka Japan.

The team was renamed Rising Sun Racing after Hojo Oda Won led a consortium to by out it's predecessor, Hamad Force, after previous Emirati, Hamad Al Nahyan filed for liquidation in October 2020. Hojo Oda Won managed to negotiate a deal where he will take over all existing contracts associated with the Furmula One team and his partners within Tamashi Racing will take over the Hamad Force B Furmula Two operations.

**2021 Season**

The team continued to operate out of Hamad Force's facilities within Dubai, United Arab Emirates, for the first half of the 2021 season with administation moving to a new office in Kyoto, Japan. During the summer-break the team is planned to move all equipment and departments to its new facility next to the Suzuka International Racing Course.

In February of 2021 Hojo Oda Won confirmed that Hideyoshi Hiro would join Rising Sun Racing as Team Principal, ariving from former Super Furmula champions Equiknox Team IDQK. Hiro's arrival was shortly preceded by the confirmation that Petri Saukkonen will continue his existing contract with the team. Salomé Montés, 2020 F2 Championship runner-up, was shortly confirmed to be promoted from the former Hamad Force B team to drive for Rising Sun Racing in 2021. Sources also suggest that Cassandra Ouellet was also approached by Hojo Oda Won to be a reserve driver for the team after her absense from the sport in 2020 but this was dismissed when she was signed by Cuzata Racing.

The team did not expect to do well in their first season, focusing on moving the team to it's new facilities in Japan and the brand new 2022 regulations. Because of this, the RS-1 car was the repainted H-Force20 chassis from it's previous owners and did not recieve any significant upgrades or development in the 2021 season, with the exception of a minor engine upgrade from Conda.

Despite the weak car, Petri Saukkonen rewarded the team with their first podium at the second round of the 2021 championship in Malaysia, and second podium at round 10 in Great Britain. By this point in the season it was common knowlege within the F1 community that Saukkonen was looking to move to Scuderia Maranello the following season. Before his disparture, he gave the team it's first gran prix victory at the penultimate race in Mexico. Saukkonen scored a total of 90 points placing him 13th in the championship, with 1 victory, 2 podiums and 6 other points finishes. He had a total of 7 finishes out of the points and 6 DNFs.

Salomé Montés was a rookie in Furmula One and had signed a two year contract with the team after coming second in the 2020 IAFSC Furmula 2 Championship. Over the course of the season she acrewed 25 points across 5 points-finishes, with her highest finish of 4th. She had 10 no-points finishes and a further 5 DNFs.

The Team struggled to manage the transfer of facilities from the UAE to Japan within the targeted deadline of the end of the 2021 summer break and over ran into the second half of the season. Despite this, the team still accumilated 115 points, finishing 9th in the championship, 34 points away from Tremblant Motors F1 in 8th, and 28 points ahead of Redding-Comet Racing in 10th.

**2022 Season**

Having lost Petri Saukkonen to Scuderia Maranello, Hojo Oda Won courted Trey Goodwin as a replacement for thier star driver. Goodwin was quickly signed after finishing his contract with Team Alpine, a contract the team inherited from former owners, Longtails Furrari.

Rising Sun Racing then continued to sign a formal sponsorship contact with Conda Motor Company to secure the team's future and funding after becoming the only remaining customer team to the engine manufacturer. The deal includes a segment on future cooperation and becoming works team for the Conda brand.

The team built their first original car, within the new 2022 regulations, and named it the RS-2. The car scored double points at it's debut at the 2022 Australian GP. The team continued to push hard with development of the car over the course of the season as new innovations were found within the new regulations to exploit. Turning up the the Belgian GP after the summer break, the team appeared to have radically changed the design of the car to a slimmer shape with smaller air intakes. Team principal Hiro Hideyoshi confirmed that that development was always in the works in close cooperation with Conda Powertrains.

Trey Goodwin scored the team's first pole position in at the 2022 Canadian GP before procceding to finish 4th. Two races after, Salomé Montés scored her first pole position in Furmula One, finishing 3rd for her first podium the day after. She later on got her second pole position at the Belgian GP but finished 7th after a team strategy error that forced her to complete an additional pitstop. Montés then went on to win the final round of the 2022 season in Brazil from 5th on the grid.

Rising Sun Racing Conda finished 4th in the Constructors Championship, fighting Ventus F1 Team closely after the summer break, trading places in the Constructors Championship after every round, eventually coming out on top. The team scored one win in 2022 with an additional four other podiums. The Team was also awarded three pole positions. Across the whole season, the team only suffered two retirements.

The day after the Japanese GP, reigning Furmula E Champion, Ordagova Nevarol, was announced to the public as the offical reserve driver on a multi-year contract.

**2023 Season**

On the 1st of Janurary 2023, the team announced that it will offically be known as Conda Rising Sun Racing, owing to a 50% purchase of the team from Conda Motor Company, becoming the offical works team for the brand in the 2023 season.

The team had a slow but consistant start to the season, scoring points at every round until the Belgian Grand Prix, only later joined by both Abu Dhabi and Mexico. The team's first win came in Australia from Salomé Montés who then went onto also win in Monza and Brazil, scoring a podium at the Dutch GP. Trey Goodwin had a much poorer start to the season but proved to be more consistant during the race, netting him wins at Hockenheim and Motegi which put him in the lead of the championship heading into Bahrain, which he left the seat vacant for Bathurst. The seat in Bahrain was filled by Ordagova Nevarol who qualified 6th and finished 5th on his debut strengthening his bid for a permanent seat in 2024 after calls from Conda representative and deputy chief exective Tokugawa Ryuu to get the Guatemalan in the car thanks to his huge fanbase in Japan.

Trey Goodwin was unable to defend and retake the championship lead on his return to Furmula One in Abu Dhabi and only scored a further 6 points in Texas, finishing 3rd in the driver's championship, 8 points and 4 positions ahead of his teammate Salomé Montés.

The Team finished 2nd overal in the constructors championship, having only lead it breifly on countback in Japan, tied with Cuzata, before falling back to 2nd again and then surpassed by a dominant Scuderia Maranello in the last four races. Despite being out of championship contention in season finale, Salomé Montés rewarded the team points for pole, fastest lap and the win that allowed the team to overtake Cuzata at the final race and finish the season in 2nd.

**Rising Stars Junior Team**

There have been four drivers linked to the Rising Stars junior team, of which two are still members, as of Janurary 2024.

Logan Riverbanks has participated in FP1 sessions the 2021 German GP and 2022 Canadian GP. He also participated in the FP3 session of the Canadian GP whilst main driver Salomé Montés was still uncertain to be able to participate in Qualifying on medical grounds after crashing in FP1 the day before. Riverbanks is due to participate in FP1 at the 2022 Abu Dhabi GP.

On the 29th of December 2023, Park Min-Jae was confirmed to have been dropped from the Rising Stars academy. This was shortly followed by the announcement of Han Jae Sun being adopted by the Japanese group on New Years Day 2024 after defecting from North Korea to the South.

Whilst not part of the Rising Stars junior team. 2021-2022 Furmula E champion, Ordagova Nevarol, tested the 2022 RS-2 car in FP1 at both the 2022 Japanese GP and 2022 Mexican GP.

**Current drivers**

**Former drivers**

As part of the sale of Hamad Force, Rising Sun Racing took over the operation of the Hamad Force B junior team, of which Salomé Montés was the only member. Salomé Montés was promoted to the main Rising Sun Racing team in 2021.

**Racing record**

* Constructors' Championships winning percentage: 0.0%
* Drivers' Championship winning percentage: 0.0%
* Winning percentage: 11.3%

\* Season still in progress. \*\*Driver deputised for another driver during a race.