2024 Super Formula Championship

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

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]	1–3
		4	Kazuto Kotaka[3]	1–3
Docomo Team Dandelion Racing[4]	Honda	5	Tadasuke Makino[4]	1–3
		6	Kakunoshin Ohta[4]	1–3
Kids com Team KCMG[3]	Toyota	7	Kamui Kobayashi[3]	1–3
		8	Nirei Fukuzumi[3]	1–3
ThreeBond Racing[4]	Honda	12	Atsushi Miyake[4]	1–3
docomo business ROOKIE[3]	Toyota	14	Kazuya Oshima[3]	1–3
Team Mugen[5]	Honda	15	Ayumu Iwasa[5]	1–3
		16	Tomoki Nojiri[5]	1–3
Itochu Enex Team Impul[3]	Toyota	19	Théo Pourchaire[3]	1
			Ben Barnicoat[6]	2
			Hibiki Taira[7]	3
		20	Yuji Kunimoto[3]	1–3
Vantelin Team TOM’S[3]	Toyota	36	Sho Tsuboi[3]	1–3
		37	Ukyo Sasahara[3]	1–3
Vertex Partners Cerumo・INGING[3]	Toyota	38	Sena Sakaguchi[3]	1–3
		39	Toshiki Oyu[3]	1–3
San-Ei Gen with B-Max[4][8]	Honda	50	Iori Kimura[4]	1–3
TGM Grand Prix[4]	Honda	53	"Juju"[4][9]	1–3
		55	Nobuharu Matsushita[10]	1–3
PONOS Nakajima Racing[4]	Honda	64	Naoki Yamamoto[4]	1–3
		65	Ren Sato[4]	1–3

Team changes

• 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".^[8]

Driver changes

• Reigning champion Ritomo Miyata left the series and moved 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]
• Championship runner-up Liam Lawson also left the series to focus on his dual reserve driver role at Red Bull Racing and RB Formula One Team 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]
• Cerumo・INGING signed former Honda and TGM Grand Prix driver Toshiki Oyu to replace Sho Tsuboi. Sena Sakaguchi took over Tsuboi's old number 38, and Oyu was given the number 39.^[3][11]
• 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 the 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 in Formula One and Yuhi Sekiguchi joining KCMG as a reserve driver and team coordinator.^[3][12][13]
• KCMG signed former Honda and ThreeBond Racing driver Nirei Fukuzumi to replace Yuji Kunimoto in the renumbered No. 8 entry, alongside team-mate Kamui Kobayashi.^[3]
• TGM Grand Prix signed Juju Noda to drive its No. 53 car, replacing Toshiki Oyu.^[3][9][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. Before the opening round of the season, TGM signed former B-Max Racing driver Nobuharu Matsushita to drive the No. 55 car.^[10] Matsushita replaced Cem Bölükbaşı, who left the series after one year and went on to race in the European Le Mans Series for DKR Engineering.
• Atsushi Miyake rejoined Super Formula after a one-year absence, signing with ThreeBond Racing to replace Nirei Fukuzumi.^[4]
• B-Max Racing Team recruited reigning Super Formula Lights champion Iori Kimura to drive the team's single No. 50 car.^[4] Nobuharu Matsushita left B-Max after four seasons, and Raoul Hyman left after just one season in the No. 51 car.

Mid-season

• Théo Pourchaire signed a contract to join Arrow McLaren for the remainder of the 2024 IndyCar Series replacing David Malukas in April, departing Team Impul and Super Formula after just one race.^[14] 2023 IMSA GTD Pro Champion and Toyota (Lexus Racing USA) works driver Ben Barnicoat replaced Pourchaire at Autopolis.^[6] 2023 Super Formula Lights and Super GT - GT300 runner-up Hibiki Taira was announced to be filling the seat for the third round at SUGO.^[7]

Race calendar

The provisional calendar was announced on 3 August 2023.^[1] The final two rounds were later made to be double-headers.^[15] 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.^[16]

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	Fuji Suzuka Sugo Autopolis Motegi
2	Autopolis	Hita, Oita	19 May	Super Formula Lights Honda N-One Owner's Cup
3	Sportsland SUGO	Shibata, Miyagi	23 June	Super Formula Lights Honda N-One Owner's Cup
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

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	Ayumu Iwasa	Ben Barnicoat	Tadasuke Makino	Docomo Team Dandelion Racing
3	Sportsland SUGO	Tomoki Nojiri	Tomoki Nojiri	Tomoki Nojiri	Team Mugen
4	Fuji Speedway
5	Mobility Resort Motegi
6	Fuji Speedway
7
8	Suzuka International Racing Course
9

Championship standings

Race points

Qualifying points

Drivers' championship

Pos Driver SUZ1 AUT SUG[a] FUJ1 MOT FUJ2 SUZ2 Points 1 Tomoki Nojiri 13 9 11 36 2 Ayumu Iwasa 9 21 22 29.5 3 Tadasuke Makino 10 12 4 27 4 Kenta Yamashita 2 7 6 21.5 5 Naoki Yamamoto 3 43 DNS 20 6 Sho Tsuboi 11 3 33 17.5 7 Kakunoshin Ohta 42 5 14 16 8 Sena Sakaguchi 71 6 12 12 9 Nirei Fukuzumi 6 8 13 8 10 Ren Sato 5 Ret 11 6 11 Toshiki Oyu 16 15 5 3 12 Nobuharu Matsushita 8 16 19 3 13 Yuji Kunimoto Ret 19 7 2 14 Kazuto Kotaka Ret 18 8 1.5 15 Kamui Kobayashi 19† 10 10 1.5 16 Iori Kimura 12 14 9 1 17 Kazuya Oshima 13 11 Ret 0 18 Ukyo Sasahara 15 12 16 0 19 Ben Barnicoat 13 0 20 Atsushi Miyake 14 17 15 0 21 "Juju" 17 20 18 0 22 Hibiki Taira 17 0 23 Théo Pourchaire 18 0 Pos Driver SUZ1 AUT SUG FUJ1 MOT FUJ2 SUZ2 Points

Key Colour Result Gold Winner Silver Second place Bronze Third place Green Other points position Blue Other classified position Not classified, finished (NC) Purple Not classified, retired (Ret) Red Did not qualify (DNQ) Did not pre-qualify (DNPQ) Black Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Race cancelled (C) Blank Did not practice (DNP) Excluded (EX) Did not arrive (DNA) Withdrawn (WD) Did not enter (cell empty) Text formatting Meaning Bold Pole position Italics Fastest lap

Teams' championship

Pos	Team	SUZ1	AUT	SUG[a]	FUJ1	MOT	FUJ2		SUZ2		Points
1	Team Mugen	1	2	1							56.5
		9	9	2
2	Docomo Team Dandelion Racing	4	1	4							39
		10	5	14
3	PONOS Nakajima Racing	3	4	11							25
		5	Ret	DNS
4	Kondo Racing	2	7	6							23
		Ret	18	8
5	Vantelin Team TOM’S	11	3	3							16.5
		15	12	16
6	Vertex Partners Cerumo・INGING	7	6	5							12
		16	15	12
7	Kids com Team KCMG	6	8	10							9.5
		19†	10	13
8	TGM Grand Prix	8	16	18							3
		17	20	19
9	Itochu Enex Team Impul	18	13	7							2
		Ret	19	17
10	San-Ei Gen with B-Max	12	14	9							1
11	docomo business ROOKIE	13	11	Ret							0
12	ThreeBond Racing	14	17	15							0
Pos	Team	SUZ1	AUT	SUG	FUJ1	MOT	FUJ2		SUZ2		Points

Notes

References

External links

• Super Formula official website

This page was last edited on 23 June 2024, at 18:26