Racing fans of yesteryear have high hopes for the Civic!?
Honda teams will switch from the NSX, which they have used until 2023, to the Civic Type R for 2024. The Civic is a classic car that has fought many battles in Honda’s racing history, including Group A, N1 Endurance, and JTCC in the past. But for a GT car with four doors (the rear doesn’t open), it was a bit “Huh?” I’m sure we’ll get used to seeing them around May.
While the content is likely to be the same as the 2023 season as it will be Class 1 regulation, I’m curious to see how the aerodynamics will be as the body shape has changed from the NSX to the Civic. We look forward to the results of the first round in Okayama to see how they will battle against the aerodynamically mature Toyota and Nissan.
Nissan’s ace team is expected to be active with their new duo
This year Nissan underwent a driver shuffle and the Ronnie Quintarelli/Tsugio Matsuda pairing that worked together for 10 seasons in the works No. 23 car has disappeared, with Katsumasa Chiyo, who drove the No. 3 car until 2023, replacing Matsuda in the team with Ronnie.
Nismo switched from Michelin to Bridgestone tires until 2023. When the footwear changes, so does the car, both for production cars and racing cars. Therefore, we think that Impul, which has been a BS user for a long time, has the edge, but it will be interesting to see how the BS users within Nissan will compete against each other.
Watch out for a showdown between a genuine Toyota-raised driver vs. a transferred Honda-trained driver
In 2023, Ritomo Miyata will concentrate on the WEC competition. This season, Toyota will have two drivers who transferred to the team in a blitz. They are Nirei Fukuzumi and Toshiki Oyu. Of course, they are professionals, so they are free to move to wherever they want to ride as long as they meet the terms of their contract, but doesn’t Toyota have a lot of property drivers from the development quota? So I was a little surprised to see the transfer of the Honda development drivers.
On the other hand, I think that the addition of a Honda-bred driver might be a good stimulus for the Toyota-bred drivers, and for the two Honda-bred drivers, there will be a culture shock, both good and bad, caused by the change of manufacturer, so as an old man watching from the outside, I am very much looking forward to this situation. As for the view of the race within the Toyota camp, it will be really interesting to see the showdown between Toyota Proper and the Honda-trained driver to see who is the fastest.
translated by DeepL
