Whether Super Formula is a feeder series or not probably depends on whether you ask Japanese or international racing fans, but the number of drivers that will make the step to Formula 1 after a campaign in the series may increase this year, as both F2 alumnus Théo Pourchaire and Ayumu Iwasa take on the hunt for the crown of Japanese most prestige single-seater series. Last year’s championship fight wasn’t decided until the final race of the season, where Ritomo Miyata secured the title ahead of Red Bull junior Liam Lawson and two-time Super Formula champion Tomoki Nojiri, who‘s aiming for another title. Feeder Series tells you all you need to know about the 2024 season.

By Finjo Muschlien

Super Formula has been the springboard to the pinnacle of motorsport for five drivers since the series’ rebranding in 2013. André Lotterer, Stoffel Vandoorne, Pierre Gasly, Pietro Fittipaldi and Liam Lawson all competed in at least one Super Formula race before making their F1 debut. This year, the number may increase, as the 2023 F2 champion Pourchaire and fourth place finisher Iwasa compete in the top-tier championship of Japan.

Some drivers rate Super Formula as the best category to race in, if you want to have a shot of reaching F1. The downforce that the cars have and the speed they carry on in comparison to other feeder series’ like F2 is the closest you can get to F1 machinery.

Nevertheless, last year’s champion – TOM’S driver Ritomo Miyata – wasn’t able to make the step to F1 and will instead made the switch to Formula 2 with Rodin Motorsport, despite beating Mugen’s Lawson in the championship, who was AlphaTauri’s replacement for the injured Daniel Ricciardo and stood in for six rounds that year. He performed outstandingly, as he finished ninth at Singapore but took the headlines by outqualifying world champion Max Verstappen at the same venue. 

However, even the top rookie and championship runner-up Lawson will not race in Super Formula this year, as he focuses on his reserve driver role at Red Bull and Visa Cash App RB in F1, meaning that his 2023 Mugen team-mate and two-time champion Tomoki Nojiri will the the highest placed returning driver.

The biggest rule change for 2024 is the regulations on dampers. In 2024, teams will run spec dampers, which will reduce development costs and make the field more balanced. Except for the engines, all cars will run the same chassis and dampers. 

The calendar

The calendar looks somewhat different to last year’s. The season kicks off at Suzuka in early March, a whole month earlier than 2023. Suzuka and Fuji will be the venue for three races each this year, while Autopolis, Sugo and Motegi will host one race each. 

The series already had its pre-season test at Suzuka from 21 to 22 February, however a mid season test at Fuji between round three and four, on 5 and 6 July and a post-season and rookie test at Suzuka from 11 to 13 November will follow. 

• Round 1: Suzuka Circuit (8-10 March)
• Round 2: Autopolis International Racing Course (17-19 May)
• Round 3: Sportsland SUGO (21-23 June)
• Round 4: Fuji Speedway (19-21 July)
• Round 5: Mobility Resort Motegi (23-25 August)
• Round 6/7: Fuji Speedway (11-13 October)
• Round 8/9: Suzuka Circuit (8-10 November)

The format

Super Formula’s format remains the same as in 2023. Single-race rounds will run from Saturday to Sunday, starting with a 90-minute free practice session on Saturday morning. Qualifying takes place on Saturday as well, starting with a Q1 session split into two groups. The results of this session set the grid for the lower placed drivers with the top six of every group advancing to Q2, which sets the grid for the top 12. On Sunday, the series holds another 90-minute free practice session before the race of over 250 kilometres takes place. 

Double-race rounds run from Friday to Sunday, starting with the weekend’s only 90-minute free practice session on Friday. Saturday kicks off with Qualifying, using the same format as the single-race rounds. The first of two races follows later that day. Sunday begins with qualifying for the second race. The results of Q1 are taken, but the top 12 again have to shoot out their positions. The second race follows later on Sunday.

The races, as mentioned, last over 250 kilometres and require a mandatory pit stop, where drivers have to switch from softs to mediums or the other way around. Along with F2, Super Formula is the only feeder series around the world that includes mandatory pit stops.

Points are awarded for qualifying and the races. Qualifying awards the pole sitter three points, the runner-up two points and the third-placed driver one point. 

For winning a race, drivers will receive 20 points, the second-place finisher receives 15 points, third-place finisher 11 points, fourth-place finisher 8 points and fifth-place finisher 6 points, while the seventh-placed to tenth-placed receives one point less each.

Where to watch

Super Formula will be internationally broadcasted on motorsport.tv for a monthly or yearly subscription fee. If you are living in Canada, you can access Super Formula on REV TV and in Japan, the series will be broadcasted on J Sports. 

Teams and drivers

Team Mugen

2023 teams’ champions Mugen faced a challenge, replacing top rookie Lawson after his amazing campaign last year in which he came close to becoming the series’ first rookie champion since the series’ rebranding in 2013. Mugen kicked 2024 off well, as they completed a total of 224 laps in the pre-season test at Suzuka in February. Although testing results are never a reliable reference, they finished a solid second and third in the first session of four over the two test days. Similar to 2023, the Honda-powered team will run Red Bull liveries for both of their drivers, as one of their drivers is a Red Bull junior.

The team onboards F2 alumni and 2020 French F4 champion Ayumu Iwasa (#15) for this year’s campaign. The 22-year-old was involved in the 2023 F2 championship fight until the final round of the season, but eventually finished fourth in the championship. For this year, the Osaka-born racer has clear goals.

“In order to realise my dream of racing in the world’s highest category, I’ll aim for victories and the championship while learning from Nojiri’s strength and speed in each race.” He fills the vacancy created by Lawson’s departure and results-wise was the best rookie in pre-season testing.

Iwasa will race alongside Super Formula veteran Tomoki Nojiri (#16), who enters his eleventh consecutive season in the series and his sixth with Mugen. After winning the championship twice in 2021 and 2022, the 34-year-old is ready to take on the hunt for his third championship title.

Team TOM’S

TOM’S had the same challenge that Mugen faced, as the team had to replace 2023 champion Ritomo Miyata following his departure to F2. The Toyota-powered team finished second in last year’s championship after Miyata scored 114.5 points over the season. However, the team’s second car, which was driven by Giuliano Alesi for the opening five rounds and Ukyo Sasahara for the final four rounds, only contributed three points to the teams’ points tally.

Sho Tsuboi (#36) set the fastest laps in testing for them and joins the team for 2024 following his move from fellow Toyota-powered team Inging. The 28-year-old is the 2015 Japanese F4 champion and 2018 Japanese F3 champion, dominating that campaign by winning 17 out of 19 races. Tsuboi already has two Super Formula race wins to his name, and with the move to TOM’S, everything is set up for his first drivers’ championship.

Alongside Tsuboi, TOM’S fields 2019 Asian F3 champion Ukyo Sasahara (#37). The 27-year-old previously raced for Mugen from 2020 to 2022 and joined TOM’S for the final three races last year as replacement for Alesi. Like his team mate, Sasahara has two Super Formula wins to his name. 

Dandelion Racing

Honda-powered team Dandelion Racing finished third in the teams’ championship and will be the highest-placed team of 2023 with an unchanged driver lineup. The team completed significantly fewer laps than Mugen and TOM’S, however they showed great pace when they were on track.

Tadasuke Makino (#5) topped the timing tower in three sessions of pre-season testing. The 2015 Japanese F4 runner-up has won a total of seven races in his single-seater career so far, but he hasn’t won any races in Super Formula yet. He remains with his team Dandelion for a the fourth consecutive season.

Alongside Makino, Kakunoshin Ohta (#6) enters his second season of Super Formula. The 24-year-old made his debut with Dandelion in 2023 and won the final race of the season at Suzuka. He previously finished runner-up in the 2022 Super Formula Lights season, where he won a total of four races.

Inging

Toyota-powered team Inging have just completed 144 laps in pre-season testing, the fewest laps of any teams fielding two drivers. The teams’ former lead-driver Tsuboi left the team, and Inging faced a tough task to replace him. The team finished fourth in last year’s teams’ championship. 

Sena Sakaguchi (#38) remains with the team for his fourth consecutive season. The Osaka-born won the 2020 Formula Regional Japan title with a perfect season, winning all 11 races that he took part in. He has been part of Inging since his rookie season in 2021 and already has two second-place finishes to his name. However, his Super Formula results so far have been a rollercoaster, as he finished seventh in the championship in his rookie season but only 18^th and 12^th in the past two years.

Toshiki Oyu (#39) was chosen by Inging to replace Tsuboi and partner Sakaguchi. Oyu shocked the paddock ahead of the 2023 post-season test when it was announced that he would be taking part in the test with Inging, a Toyota-powered team. The 25-year-old previously raced at Honda-powered teams Nakajima Racing and TGM Grand Prix.

Team Impul

Team Impul will field a whole new lineup for this year’s season of Super Formula after coming fifth in last year’s championship. Back-to-back WEC champion and McLaren development driver Ryō Hirakawa left the series for 2024, focusing on his duties with Toyota in WEC and McLaren in F1, while Yuhi Sekiguchi switched to Team KCMG as reserve driver.

Impul’s new lineup brings talent and experience to the same spot. Théo Pourchaire (#19) joins the team, after missing out on an F1 seat for this year. The Sauber junior won the 2019 ADAC F4 championship and 2023 F2 championship but hasn’t found any open spots on this year’s F1 grid and instead makes the switch to Super Formula with Impul. He took the team’s best result of sixth in pre-season testing, the second-best result of any rookie taking part.

Alongside Pourchaire, the team fields Yuji Kunimoto (#20), who enters his 12^th season in Super Formula and previously also competed in Formula Nippon, Super Formula’s original branding, for two years. The 33-year-old is the 2016 Super Formula champion and, after four years with KCMG, gets promoted to Impul this year. 

Kondō Racing

Kondō Racing remains with an unchanged driver lineup for 2024, after finishing sixth in the teams’ championship in 2023.

In testing, the teams’ fastest laps were set by Kenta Yamashita (#3), who set the best lap time of any driver over the two days. The 28-year-old is the 2016 Japanese F3 champion and enters his eighth season with Kondō in Super Formula. In those eight seasons, Yamashita won one race and finished on the podium in four more occasions, securing a best result of fifth in the drivers’ championship in 2019.

2022 Super Formula Lights champion Kazuto Kotaka (#4) stays with the team for a second consecutive season. Previously, he had a lacklustre and points-less season of Super Formula in 2021 with KCMG and wasn’t signed on for 2022. He then stepped down to Super Formula Lights and won the championship before he returned to Super Formula, this time with Kondō Racing. In 2023, he finished inside the top 10 on three occasions and scored 10 points en route to 15^th in the drivers’ championship.

Nakajima Racing

The Honda-powered team, founded and run by former F1 driver Satoru Nakajima let speculations come up at the 2023 post season test when Igor Fraga tested with the team on the second official test day and the third day, the rookie test. Fraga, however, wasn’t chosen as a Nakajima Racing driver and instead will settle for a reserve driver role in 2024. The team’s lineup remains unchanged for 2024, with the same drivers who took them to seventh in the championship. Nakajima completed 239 laps over the two testing days, the most laps of any team.

Naoki Yamamoto (#64) not only scored the best result of the team in testing but also in last year’s’ championship, where he finished fourth in the opening race at Fuji. Yamamoto has participated in Super Formula since 2010 and won the championship three times, in 2013 and 2018 with Mugen and in 2020 with Dandelion Racing. Yamamoto also got a taste of F1 machinery in 2019, when he took part in FP1 with Toro Rosso during the Japanese GP weekend. 

Alongside Yamamoto, former Red Bull junior Ren Sato (#65) stays for a second season with the team. The 2019 Japanese F4 champion enters his third season of Super Formula and beat his championship-winning team mate Yamamoto in the championship last year. 

Team KCMG

Hong Kong-based team KCMG finished eighth in last year’s teams’ championship, the best result for the team since 2020.

Ex-F1 driver Kamui Kobayashi (#7) remains with the team for his eighth consecutive season, although his 2021 campaign consisted of just one race due to his parallel WEC campaign. Kobayashi hasn’t won either championships or races in Super Formula so far, but he finished sixth in the drivers’ championship in 2015 and 2019 and finished on the podium seven times so far. 

Since Kunimoto left KCMG after 2023, the team signed Nirei Fukuzumi (#8) as their second driver. Fukuzumi partook in a seat shootout by KCMG at the 2023 post-season test. Eventually, Fukuzumi was chosen over his competitor Yuhi Sekiguchi and was rewarded with the seat. The Ishii-born finished third in GP3 in 2017 and made the step up to F2 in 2018, but he had a lacklustre season with the Arden team and added just 17 points to his team’s tally, while teammate Maximilian Günther scored 41 points.

Along with his F2 duties, which he prioritised, he was driving for Mugen in Super Formula but couldn’t score any points in the four races he participated in. Three seasons with Dandelion Racing would follow and a win and best result of second in the drivers’ championship would highlight his time with the team. For 2022 and 2023, two disappointing seasons with Honda-powered team ThreeBond Racing would follow, so Fukuzumi’s move to KCMG for 2024 comes with high hopes. 

TGM Grand Prix

Last year’s ninth-place finisher TGM Grand Prix had a very interesting lineup going into the 2023 post-season test, as the team fielded Juju Noda and Rasmus Lindh. Promising results from Lindh and words in the paddock meant that everyone was expecting Lindh to race for the team, but the announcement never came, and Feeder Series suspects this was down to sponsorship issues. 

The other driver who took part in the 2023 post-season test was Juju Noda (#53). She will be the only female driver on this year’s Super Formula grid as well as the youngest driver at just 18 years of age. She took part in both the post-season and pre-season tests, which helped her to gain experience in the SF-23 car.

The other seat was filled at 2024 pre-season testing by Raoul Hyman, who raced in Super Formula with B-Max Racing in 2023, but as was announced today, Hyman’s 2023 teammate Nobuharu Matsushita (#55) is the driver who will end up taking it for the season. The 30-year-old spent five years in GP2 and F2 before returning to his native Japan midway through 2020. His first two seasons with B-Max yielded one win and two podiums, though a lacklustre campaign in 2023 brought him just one points finish, taken in the final race at Suzuka. Matsushita was not on the entry list for this weekend’s round at the time of publication.

Rookie Racing

Toyota-powered team Rookie Racing are certainly no rookies in Super Formula anymore, as they already have four seasons under their belt. The single-driver team had its best season in 2023, where they scored 13 points and finished 10^th in the teams’ championship, the best position of all single-driver teams. 

As in previous years, Kazuya Oshima (#14) will be the teams’ driver. The 36-year-old has been in Formula Nippon and Super Formula since 2009, with some interruptions in 2013, 2014 and 2016, and has been with Rookie since their entry into Super Formula in 2020. Oshima is the 2005 Formula Toyota Series champion and 2007 Japanese F3 champion and had a best result of fifth in the Formula Nippon championship in 2011. The results in pre-season testing were promising, as he completed 95 laps and finished fourth on the first day’s morning session.

ThreeBond Racing

ThreeBond Racing experienced a reduction in their status, as they lost 2021 Super Formula runner-up Fukuzumi to KCMG for the 2024 season, who guided them to 11^th in the teams’ championship. However, their replacement was able to get comfortable with his new team, as he was already taking part in the 2023 post-season test.

Atsushi Miyake (#12) completed 98 laps in the 2024 pre-season test, in which he secured a best result of 12^th on the opening test session. The 2019 Japanese F4 runner up returns to Super Formula after his 2022 campaign with TGM Grand Prix, where he secured a third-place finish in just his fourth race. 

B-Max Racing

B-Max Racing reduces their team size to just one driver again, as they already did in 2021 and 2022. Having had a difficult season, scoring just four points, the team finished 12^th and last in the teams’ championship. Despite fielding just one driver, B-Max will be fielding a rookie who got to taste Super Formula machinery for the first time at the 2023 post-season test.

2023 Super Formula Lights champion Iori Kimura (#50) makes the step up to Super Formula for 2024. After finishing third in Japanese F4 in 2021 and the Super Formula Lights title last year, the Russian-Japanese driver brings a lot of experience for a rookie. It is also noteworthy that Kimura has beaten other B-Max driver Syun Koide on both days of the 2023 post season test.

Header photo credit: Toyota Gazoo Racing