The car shared by Tomoki Nojiri and Toshiki Oyu has been handed the penalty for a change of chassis, something not permitted by the regulations except in cases of force majeure.
Nojiri and Oyu will most likely have to serve their penalty in the early laps of the 82-lap race on Sunday, although exactly when it is issued is at the discretion of the stewards.
That will almost certainly drop the #8 car to the rear of the field, although forecast rain and the increased potential for safety cars could help bring the team back into play.
ARTA’s decision to change its de facto number one car’s chassis for the start of the new season follow Nojiri’s comments made during pre-season testing, when he said he was surprised how different the Mugen-run squad’s two cars were behaving.
«The difference between the cars is so great that [the #8 and #16 ARTA crews] can’t use each other’s data,” said Nojiri. “For that reason, we can’t fully get rid of the things we don’t like about each car.”
ARTA has become the third team in the GT500 class to perform a chassis change this year, after Toyota team Rookie Racing and fellow Honda squad Nakajima Racing.
Both Rookie and Nakajima were able to take penalty-free changes as their cars were both damaged heavily during winter testing, suffering almost identical crashes at Suzuka’s 130R corner with Kenta Yamashita and Kakunoshin Ota respectively.
Likewise, Nissan squad NDDP Racing escaped a penalty when it switched its chassis following Mitsunori Takaboshi’s huge crash at Fuji last year, Takaboshi and team-mate Katsumasa Chiyo going on to win the very next race at Suzuka.
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