Ayumu Iwasa

Ayumu Iwasa (岩佐歩夢) is a Japanese racing driver who is competing in the Super Formula Championship for Team Mugen.

He previously competed with DAMS in the FIA Formula 2 Championship, earning Rookie of the Year honours by finishing fifth overall in 2022 and finishing fourth the following year.

Iwasa started karting in Japan in 2005 and began racing competitively in 2014.

He finished 11th in Race 3.

In Sochi, Iwasa finished tenth and ninth in Race 1 and Race 3, respectively.

The Japanese driver finished the season in twelfth place overall, and fourth among rookies in the series.

He also beat both of his teammates in the standings.

Iwasa participated in post-season testing in FIA F2 at the Yas Marina circuit with DAMS.

Some of his notable campaigns were winning the 2014 Suzuka Karting Championship Yamaha-SS Class and becoming champion of the Suzuka Karting Championship X-30 class.

Iwasa also competed in the JAF Junior Karting Championship FP in the junior class during his karting career.

He recovered to 14th in Race 2, and in a chaotic Race 3 scored points once more in sixth place.

At the Hungaroring, he qualified tenth.

Starting third, he remained in the position until lap 8, where he was up to second following leader Jonny Edgar's retirement.

He would finish second behind Lorenzo Colombo, but Colombo would penalised for a safety car infringement, giving Iwasa for his maiden and only F3 win.

He would score a tenth and a twelfth place finishes in Race 2 and Race 3 respectively.

A difficult round at Spa-Francorchamps, saw Iwasa score no points, but bounced back in Zandvoort with ninth place in qualifying.

He achieved his second podium in Race 1, finishing third behind Arthur Leclerc and Logan Sargeant after reverse polesitter Amaury Cordeel spun.

In Race 2, Iwasa went off wide and dropped to last, ultimately retiring from the race.

Iwasa made his single-seater debut in 2017 in the F4 Japanese Championship competing in two races for B-Max Racing, finishing 15th in both of them.

That year he also took part in two races of the Asian Formula Renault Series.

He took pole for both races and finished both races in second place.

In 2018 he made another cameo appearance in Japanese F4, driving for Rn-Sports, as he scored points in the first race.

In that year Iwasa also finished third in the final round of the JAF F4 Suzuka series.

Iwasa did his first full season of car racing in the Suzuka Racing School's Single Seater Series in 2019, where he won the title.

At the Red Bull Ring, Iwasa started 19th in Race 1 and finished ninth, but was disqualified due to disobeying the instruction to pit while being shown the black and orange flag.

He is a member of the Red Bull Junior Team and the 2020 French F4 champion.

In 2020, he was made a Honda Junior Driver and was signed to race in the French F4 Championship.

Iwasa won two of three races during the first round, Despite not winning during the next round in Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours, he would win two races in every round for the next three rounds.

Iwasa wrapped up the title with three races still to run by taking a double pole during the final round at the Circuit Paul Ricard.

Overall, the Japanese driver took five pole positions, nine wins and 15 podium finishes whilst also claiming a podium in every round and placing no lower than sixth in every race.

At the start of 2021 Iwasa competed in the F3 Asian Championship, partnering Roy Nissany, Roman Staněk and Reece Ushijima.

He scored his only podium of the campaign in the first race of the fourth round at the Dubai Autodrome and ended up eighth in the championship.

Following the championship, Iwasa stated that he needed to "control his psyche".

Iwasa's focus for the year would lie in the FIA Formula 3 Championship, where he drove for the same team alongside Staněk and fellow Red Bull Junior Jak Crawford.

He had a difficult first round, a poor qualifying saw Iwasa take seventh place and two points during Race 2, in his only points' finish during that weekend.

The next round went better for him in Circuit Paul Ricard, he qualified eighth.

In Race 1, he jumped two places to third at the start and later made a position on Calan Williams on lap 7, soon passing Logan Sargeant three laps later.

However that move would be deemed illegal as he passed the American off-track, and was given a five-second time penalty.

Iwasa finished third at the flag and was demoted to eighth.

Race 2 saw Iwasa fall from fourth to ninth, while in Race 3 he ended the weekend with more points in seventh.