The 2024 Japanese Super Formula Championship is the fifty-second season of premier Japanese open-wheel motor racing, and the twelfth under the moniker of Super Formula. It started in March at Suzuka Circuit and is due to be contested over seven race weekends, ending in November at Suzuka.[1]
Reigning drivers' champion Ritomo Miyata did not defend his title in 2024 after leaving the series to compete in the FIA Formula 2 Championship and European Le Mans Series.[2] Team Mugen entered 2024 as the defending teams' champion.
Teams and drivers edit
All teams use identical Dallara-built SF23 chassis with either Honda or Toyota engines. Every Honda-powered car uses a Honda HR-417E engine and every Toyota-powered car uses a Toyota TRD-01F engine.
| Entrant | Engine | No. | Driver name | Rounds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Kondo Racing[3]
|
Toyota | 3 | Kenta Yamashita[3]
|
1 |
| 4 | Kazuto Kotaka[3]
|
1 | ||
| Docomo Team Dandelion Racing[4]
|
Honda | 5 | Tadasuke Makino[4]
|
1 |
| 6 | Kakunoshin Ohta[4]
|
1 | ||
 Kids com Team KCMG[3]
|
Toyota | 7 | Kamui Kobayashi[3]
|
1 |
| 8 | Nirei Fukuzumi[3]
|
1 | ||
| ThreeBond Racing[4]
|
Honda | 12 | Atsushi Miyake[4]
|
1 |
| docomo business ROOKIE[3]
|
Toyota | 14 | Kazuya Oshima[3]
|
1 |
| Team Mugen[5]
|
Honda | 15 | Ayumu Iwasa[5]
|
1 |
| 16 | Tomoki Nojiri[5]
|
1 | ||
| Itochu Enex Team Impul[3]
|
Toyota | 19 |  Théo Pourchaire[3]
|
1 |
| 20 | Yuji Kunimoto[3]
|
1 | ||
| Vantelin Team TOM’S[3]
|
Toyota | 36 | Sho Tsuboi[3]
|
1 |
| 37 | Ukyo Sasahara[3]
|
1 | ||
| Vertex Partners Cerumo・INGING[3]
|
Toyota | 38 | Sena Sakaguchi[3]
|
1 |
| 39 | Toshiki Oyu[3]
|
1 | ||
| San-Ei Gen with B-Max[4][6]
|
Honda | 50 | Iori Kimura[4]
|
1 |
| TGM Grand Prix[4]
|
Honda | 53 | "Juju"[4][7]
|
1 |
| 55 | Nobuharu Matsushita[8]
|
1 | ||
| PONOS Nakajima Racing[4]
|
Honda | 64 | Naoki Yamamoto[4]
|
1 |
| 65 | Ren Sato[4]
|
1 |
Team changes edit
Cerumo-INGING acquired a new title sponsor in finance advisory firm Vertex Partners, and the team is now known as Vertex Partners Cerumo-INGING.[3]
Nakajima Racing acquired a new title sponsor in video game developer PONOS to replace Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), and the team is now known as PONOS Nakajima Racing.[4]
B-Max Racing Team downsized from running two cars in 2023 to a single-car entry in 2024. The team also gained a new title sponsor in food ingredient manufacturer San-Ei Gen, and is now known as San-Ei Gen with B-Max.[6]
Driver changes edit
Championship runner-up Liam Lawson left Team Mugen and the series to focus on his reserve driver role at Red Bull Racing in Formula One. He was replaced at Team Mugen by fellow Red Bull Junior Team member Ayumu Iwasa, who returned to Japan to make his series debut.[5]
Reigning champion Ritomo Miyata left Team TOM'S and the series to move to Formula 2 and the European Le Mans Series in preparation to step up to the FIA World Endurance Championship with Toyota Gazoo Racing.[2] Miyata's replacement at Vantelin Team TOM'S was Sho Tsuboi, who spent the last five seasons at INGING, and was Miyata's co-driver in their 2023 Super GT GT500 class championship campaign. Ukyo Sasahara, who raced with TOM'S for the last three rounds of the 2023 season, returned on a full-time contract for 2024. Both drivers swapped numbers from the end of last season with Tsuboi driving the No. 36 car and Sasahara the No. 37 car.[3]
Cerumo・INGING signed Toshiki Oyu, who left Honda after losing his Super Formula ride with TGM Grand Prix before the end of the 2023 season. He joined Toyota and the team, replacing Sho Tsuboi. Sena Sakaguchi took over Tsuboi's old number 38, and Oyu was given the number 39.[3][9]
Itochu Enex Team Impul recruited an all-new lineup of 2023 FIA Formula 2 Champion Théo Pourchaire, who made his series debut as the only non-Japanese driver on that year's grid, and 2016 Super Formula champion Yuji Kunimoto, who had spent the last four seasons with KCMG.[3] Impul's former drivers left the series, with Ryō Hirakawa electing to focus on his new role as the reserve driver for McLaren Racing in Formula One and Yuhi Sekiguchi joining KCMG as a reserve driver and team coordinator.[3][10][11]
KCMG replaced Impul-bound Kunimoto with Nirei Fukuzumi, who left ThreeBond Racing and also left Honda after being contracted by the manufacturer since his junior years, to join Toyota and drive the No. 8 entry alongside Kamui Kobayashi.[3]
TGM Grand Prix entered 2024 with an all-new driver lineup, as Cem Bölükbaşı left the team and the championship after a single season to join DKR Engineering in the LMP2 class of the European Le Mans Series, and Toshiki Oyu joined Cerumo・INGING.[12][3] The team signed Juju Noda to drive its No. 53 car, driving under the mononym "Juju".[7][4] Noda became the first Japanese woman and youngest driver to race in the history of the series, after spending 2023 in Euroformula Open, the Drexler-Automotive Formula Cup, and BOSS GP.[13] Nobuharu Matsushita also joined TGM, the week before the opening round of the season, to drive the No. 55 car.[8]
ThreeBond Racing signed Atsushi Miyake to replace KCMG-bound Nirei Fukuzumi. Miyake returned to Super Formula after driving for Team Goh during the 2022 season, where he finished 14th in the standings.[4]
B-Max Racing Team recruited reigning Super Formula Lights champion Iori Kimura to drive the team's single car, the number 50.[4] Nobuharu Matsushita left B-Max after four seasons, and Raoul Hyman left after just one season in the number 51 car.
Race calendar edit
The provisional calendar was announced on 3 August 2023.[1] The final two rounds were later made to be double-headers.[14] Fuji Speedway's double-header weekend has been moved from the start of the season to 12–13 October, serving as the sixth and seventh rounds of the championship. Suzuka now hosted the opening round of the championship on 10 March. On 25 December 2023, the calendar was slightly amended, with the season finale moved forward by two weeks.[15]
| Round | Circuit | Location | Date | Support bill | Map of circuit locations |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Suzuka International Racing Course | Suzuka, Mie | 10 March | All Japan Road Race Championship Formula Regional Japanese Championship |
|
| 2 | Autopolis | Hita, Oita | 17–19 May | Super Formula Lights | |
| 3 | Sportsland SUGO | Shibata, Miyagi | 21–23 June | Super Formula Lights | |
| 4 | Fuji Speedway | Oyama, Shizuoka | 19–21 July | Super Formula Lights Kyojo Cup | |
| 5 | Mobility Resort Motegi | Motegi, Tochigi | 23–25 August | Formula Regional Japanese Championship | |
| 6 | Fuji Speedway | Oyama, Shizuoka | 11–13 October | Formula Regional Japanese Championship | |
| 7 | |||||
| 8 | Suzuka International Racing Course | Suzuka, Mie | 8–10 November | Super Formula Lights | |
| 9 |
Race results edit
| Round | Circuit | Pole position | Fastest lap | Winning driver | Winning team |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Suzuka International Racing Course | Sena Sakaguchi
|
Naoki Yamamoto
|
Tomoki Nojiri
|
Team Mugen
|
| 2 | Autopolis | ||||
| 3 | Sportsland SUGO | ||||
| 4 | Fuji Speedway | ||||
| 5 | Mobility Resort Motegi | ||||
| 6 | Fuji Speedway | ||||
| 7 | |||||
| 8 | Suzuka International Racing Course | ||||
| 9 |
Championship standings edit
- Race points
| Position | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9th | 10th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Points | 20 | 15 | 11 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
- Qualifying points
| Position | 1st | 2nd | 3rd |
|---|---|---|---|
| Points | 3 | 2 | 1 |
Drivers' championship edit
|
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Teams' championship edit
| Pos | Team | No. | SUZ1 | AUT | SUG | FUJ1 | MOT | FUJ2 | SUZ2 | Points | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Team Mugen
|
15 | 9 | 22 | ||||||||
| 16 | 1 | |||||||||||
| 2 | PONOS Nakajima Racing
|
64 | 3 | 17 | ||||||||
| 65 | 5 | |||||||||||
| 3 | Kondo Racing
|
3 | 2 | 15 | ||||||||
| 4 | Ret | |||||||||||
| 4 | Docomo Team Dandelion Racing
|
5 | 10 | 9 | ||||||||
| 6 | 4 | |||||||||||
| 5 | Kids com Team KCMG
|
7 | 19† | 5 | ||||||||
| 8 | 6 | |||||||||||
| 6 | Vertex Partners Cerumo・INGING
|
38 | 7 | 4 | ||||||||
| 39 | 16 | |||||||||||
| 7 | TGM Grand Prix
|
53 | 17 | 3 | ||||||||
| 55 | 8 | |||||||||||
| 8 | Vantelin Team TOM’S
|
36 | 11 | 0 | ||||||||
| 37 | 15 | |||||||||||
| 9 | San-Ei Gen with B-Max
|
50 | 12 | 0 | ||||||||
| 10 | docomo business ROOKIE
|
14 | 13 | 0 | ||||||||
| 11 | ThreeBond Racing
|
12 | 14 | 0 | ||||||||
| 12 | Itochu Enex Team Impul
|
19 | 18 | 0 | ||||||||
| 20 | Ret | |||||||||||
| Pos | Team | No. | SUZ1 | AUT | SUG | FUJ1 | MOT | FUJ2 | SUZ2 | Points | ||
Notes edit
References edit
- ^ a b "Provisional Super Formula calendar hints at F1 support race". motorsport.com. Retrieved 2023-08-03.
- ^ a b "Toyota star Miyata gets dual F2, ELMS programme in 2024". www.motorsport.com. 2023-11-20. Retrieved 2023-11-20.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x "TOYOTA GAZOO Racing Presents its 2024 motorsport team setups in Japan". Toyota Gazoo Racing. 12 December 2023. Retrieved 12 December 2023.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p "Honda 2024 Motorsports Program Overview". Honda Racing. 19 January 2024. Retrieved 19 January 2024.
- ^ a b c d "Red Bull junior Iwasa gets 2024 Mugen Super Formula seat". motorsport.com. Retrieved 23 November 2023.
- ^ a b "2024年スーパーフォーミュラ参戦体制". b-maxracing.co.jp. 9 February 2024. Retrieved 9 February 2024.
- ^ a b "Noda secures Super Formula drive with Honda squad TGM". motorsport.com. 9 January 2024. Retrieved 9 January 2024.
- ^ a b Klein, Jamie (5 March 2024). "Nobuharu Matsushita completes 2024 Super Formula grid". Japan Racing Insider. Retrieved 5 March 2024.
- ^ Klein, Jamie (2024-01-25). "What's the deal with Honda drivers moving to Toyota?". Japan Racing Insider. Retrieved 2024-02-06.
- ^ "Hirakawa joins Miyata, Lawson in Super Formula exodus". motorsport.com. 2023-11-22. Retrieved 2023-11-22.
- ^ Klein, Jamie (2024-02-20). "Super Formula Suzuka test: Media day paddock notes". Japan Racing Insider. Retrieved 2024-02-20.
- ^ "Bolukbasi Lands LMP2 Drive with DKR Engineering". sportscar365.com. 2024-03-05. Retrieved 2024-03-05.
- ^ "Juju Noda becomes first Japanese woman to contest Super Formula". Motorsport Week. 2024-01-09. Retrieved 2024-01-10.
- ^ "２０２４年全日本レース選手権カレンダー申請一覧" (PDF).
- ^ "Super Formula on X: "2024年スーパーフォーミュラ レース日程変更のお知らせ"". X. 23 December 2023. Retrieved 26 December 2023.