Honda’s Super GT line-up for 2019 pretty much remains the same as Jenson Button stays in to defend in title while Narain Karthikeyan joins the fray.
Having made a successful debut in 2018 with Team Kunimitsu in the Honda NSX-GT car alongside Naoki Yamamoto where they won the drivers’ title, the 2009 F1 champion Button will stay on in the Super GT’s GT500 class in 2019 to defend his crown.
The duo will use the #1 car this time around as opposed to the #100 they used last year. Button will be joined by another ex-F1 racer Karthikeyan, who has moved on from Super Formula to make his debut in the Super GT series.
The Indian will be partnered by Tadasuke Makino at Nakajima Racing (#64 car) as the Japanese driver will run a dual programme while also racing in Super Formula. The team is fielding an all-new line-up for the 2019 season.
One of its drivers who raced for them in 2018, Belgium’s Bertrand Baguette, has moved to Real Racing (#17 car) alongside Kodai Tsukakoshi for the 2019 season as the Japanese driver will solely focus on a Super GT programme.
The remaining two outfits, Team Mugen (#16 car) and Autobacs Racing Team Aguri (#8 car) will feature the same drivers as in 2018. The former will have Hideki Muto and Daisuke Nakajima with the latter having Tomoki Nojiri and Takuya Izawa.
Like Tsukakoshi, the pair of Karthikeyan and Izawa will just drive in Super GT in 2019 with Nojiri and Yamamoto continuing with a dual programme. The GT300 class will see an expanded Honda line-up in the 2019 season with the Honda NSX-GT3 car.
It will continue with Drago Corse (#34 car) fielding Ryo Michigami and Hiroki Otsu but they will be joined by two new outfits who have shifted to Honda, they are Team UpGarage (#18 car) and Autobacs Racing Team Aguri (#55 car).
The former will field the pair of Takashi Kobayashi and Kosuke Matsuura while the latter will have Shinichi Takagi and Nirei Fukuzumi – with Fukuzumi running a dual programme alongside his Super Formula drive.
