The rising Japanese star with his sights set firmly on IndyCar

Fans of Super Formula have been spoiled by some close championship fights over the past three seasons but, at the halfway point of 2026, it looks like this year’s title battle could be decided before we even arrive at Suzuka for November’s finale.

That’s because Kakunoshin Ohta has absolutely taken this year’s campaign by the scruff of the neck, scoring four wins from the first seven races to open up a massive 50.5-point lead in the drivers’ standings (when 12 is awarded for a win). Not even Tomoki Nojiri had such a huge advantage over the field at this stage of the year when he sauntered to a second crown in 2022. 

Even at the start of the year, Dandelion Racing driver Ohta had a fresh aura around him after his agonising defeat in last year’s title decider. A double victory to kick off the campaign at Motegi was a sign of things to come, and such has been his imperious pace in just about all conditions that he could very well have won six of the year’s seven races so far. 

It’s evident that Ohta has been boosted by his time racing in the United States over the past 18 months, driving for the Acura Meyer Shank Racing team in the IMSA SportsCar Championship’s top GTP tier. He has always had the raw pace since his Super Formula debut in 2023, but he has become more confident, more adaptable and, critically, a lot more consistent. No other driver this year has scored points in every race so far. 

Heading into Fuji in mid-July, it looked like the season was shaping up to be a three-way battle between Ohta, Team Mugen’s reigning champion Iwasa and Nirei Fukuzumi, who picked up the one-car Rookie Racing’s first ever win at Suzuka. But Iwasa mustered just seven points all weekend at Fuji, earning one for 10th in the opener after qualifying a woeful 22nd in the wet, and then a subdued fifth in the finale after spending most of the race stuck behind team-mate Nojiri. 

Iwasa’s one opportunity to land a blow on Ohta in the sprint race, when the Dandelion driver was handed a 10-second penalty for one of his mechanics using a blower to try to dry out his grid slot, went up in smoke when he made a poor launch from pole, before being squeezed into contact at Turn 1, sandwiched by Zak O’Sullivan to his left and Fukuzumi to his right. 

Ohta kicked off the Super Formula season with two victories at Motegi

Photo by: Masahide Kamio

For Fukuzumi, three points for eighth in the finale represented a disappointing return as the pace that took him to victory at Suzuka deserted him. At least he had the consolation of returning to the same track just over a week later to sample Haas F1 machinery for the first time, having been handed an outing in the Toyota-aligned team’s latest TPC test. 

With five races over three weekends to go, it’s hard to see what Iwasa, Fukuzumi or anybody else is going to be able to do to threaten Ohta. Even Nojiri’s crushing 2022 campaign was arguably not as impressive as the one Ohta is assembling so far – the Team Mugen driver only won twice that year.

Not since Andre Lotterer’s romp to the title for TOM’S in 2011 has one driver imposed his will on the rest of the field in such brutal fashion. 

The 27-year-old from Kyoto has made no secret of his aim to follow in the footsteps of Super Formula alumni Alex Palou and Felix Rosenqvist in making the leap

Could such dominance be the springboard to the seat in IndyCar that Ohta so desires? Certainly, the 27-year-old from Kyoto has made no secret of his aim to follow in the footsteps of Super Formula alumni Alex Palou and Felix Rosenqvist in making the leap.

Rosenqvist leaving Meyer Shank to rejoin McLaren for next season has opened up a space, but Ohta admits that 2028, when MSR is set to pick up a third entry as a result of Honda gaining a charter of its own, is a more realistic target. Besides that factor, he has only tested an IndyCar once, at Mid-Ohio with MSR last summer, and is aware that he needs more experience. 

But, given the level of his performances this year, Ohta’s rivals in Japan will surely be hoping he gets an IndyCar chance sooner rather than later.  

This article is one of many in the monthly Autosport magazine. For more premium content, take a look at the Summer 2026 issue and subscribe today.

Ohta shares #93 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06 with Renger van der Zande and Nick Yelloly at selected IMSA rounds

Photo by: Brandon Badraoui / Lumen via Getty Images