Six Japanese F4 races have been run in 2024, and five drivers have already found themselves on the top step of the podium as the top four in the drivers’ standings stand separated by a mere 18 points. Who are the ones to watch in the series’ nearly 40-strong grid, and what makes this year’s title race significant?

By Finjo Muschlien

Few would have predicted that at the first round of the season, there would be a race without Toyota or Honda juniors on the podium, something that hadn’t happened since November 2016.

That’s exactly what took place, and it set the tone for the wide-open title battle seen so far. From among many candidates seeking to win the title and move up to Super Formula Lights or Formula Regional Japan, four have stood out.

With six of 14 races competed, current championship leader Ryota Horachi of B-Max Racing leads the championship with 91 points, followed closely by teammate Yuto Nomura and Drago Corse’s Hironobu Shimizu, both tied on 87 points. HELM Motorsports driver Tosei Moriyama, another driver without manufacturer support, is fourth with 73 points.

Five different drivers won a race after just six races, meaning that the historical record of eight different drivers winning in a season, set in 2016, could get broken if this trend continues. Owing primarily to Shimizu and Moriyama’s presence in the title battle, 2024 could also mark the first year ever in which a driver without support from Toyota or Honda wins the championship.

Ryota Horachi, HFDP with B-Max Racing Team (P1)

Honda’s newest signing to the Formula Dream Project at the F4 level didn’t score a single podium in the 2023 season, but this year, he turned the tables and has finished every race he started on the podium. The highlight of his impressive performances throughout the season was his first win at the third round at Fuji.

Horachi started the first race there from pole position and won the race by 2.059 seconds, facing no threat from Moriyama behind him. Horachi also started race two from pole position, but he made a mistake on the opening lap while defending from those behind him and dropped down to fifth position. Still, he fought back to second position with a solid recovery drive to keep his podium streak alive, and with Nomura finishing only eighth, he also earned the championship lead.

Even at the season opener at Fuji, Horachi marked himself out as one to watch. He started from sixth position but quickly matched the pace of the frontrunners, overtaking Ponos’ Kento Omiya to move into fifth place during the early stages of the race. After Moriyama and Kageyama’s Kotaro Shimbara collided in front of him – an incident for which Moriyama received a penalty – Horachi inherited third place and secured his first-ever podium in the series.

At Suzuka he qualified second and third and finished each race in the same position he qualified. With Nomura winning both contests, Horachi’s results made it two double podiums for HFDP.

While with Akiland Racing as a rookie in 2023, Horachi was the team leader, bringing home 56 of the 63 points the team scored. His race results in 2024 remain impressive, as does his qualifying pace, one of his standout skills.

The 18-year-old currently leads the championship with 91 points, four points ahead of teammate Nomura. If he can maintain his consistent results and run of podium finishes, he will remain the driver to beat.

Yuto Nomura, HFDP with B-Max Racing Team (P2)

In his third year of F4 racing, 18-year-old Nomura finds himself second in the Japanese F4 standings after six races. The former Red Bull junior and current Honda junior is the highest-placed returning driver in 2024, having finished fourth in the points last year. Prior to the most recent race, Nomura had a four-race podium streak, including a sweep of the second round at Suzuka, which placed him at the top of the championship standings before the third round.

Nomura has especially excelled in qualifying, never qualifying lower than fourth and securing two pole positions at the second round at Suzuka. At the first round he qualified third and fourth, 0.3 and 0.15 seconds behind the polesitters respectively, while at the third round he qualified third for both races, 0.23 and 0.15 seconds behind the pole times.

Nomura’s strong qualifying performances this year mirror his consistency in the sessions in 2023, when he never qualified more than 0.26 seconds off the pole time and had a worst qualifying result of seventh place at Autopolis.

Being fast in qualifying is no doubt helpful, but it is worth nothing if the one-lap performance can’t be translated into race performance. Nomura had proven his speed and consistency in  2023, when he took eight podiums from the first nine rounds and ended his streak with his sole win of the season. Yet he missed out on the title because of a drop in performance at the final two rounds.

Nomura has seemingly recovered from that dip in 2024. He finished the season opener in second following a close fight with Toyota junior Yuki Sano before going on to dominate the second round at Suzuka, where he led every single lap of both races. After beating teammate Horachi in the first contest, he won the second race by more than four seconds over Moriyama.

The third round at Fuji proved to be more eventful for Nomura. In the first race, he started third and fended off Shimizu to hold the position at the finish. Things were looking even better in the second race when he moved from third on the grid to the lead by the third corner. He held the lead until lap eight, when Shimizu, having pressured him on the lap before, made a move down the inside of the first corner. Although Nomura briefly regained the lead with a switchback manoeuvre at the exit, Shimizu overtook him again on the following lap.

Shortly after, Toyota junior Tokiya Suzuki made contact with Nomura’s rear, causing the 18-year-old to spin and drop to 13th position with just five laps remaining. Nomura fought his way back to ninth place and was later promoted to eighth after Ryo Shirasaki received a post-race penalty.

Had it not been for the incident in the second race of the third round, Nomura would likely still be at the top of the standings. While his chances of winning the championship remain strong, he faces tougher competition than expected, with drivers who are not Honda or Toyota juniors realistically in the championship fight for the first time.

Hironobu Shimizu, Drago Corse (P3)

It’s unusual for a driver who is third in the championship and just four points behind the leader to have remained relatively unnoticed. That changed when Hironobu Shimizu won the second race at the third round at Fuji.

Until that round, Shimizu had flown under the radar despite consistently bringing in strong results. He had never finished lower than fifth and secured a podium in the second race of the season opener at Fuji, from which both the TGR-DC and HFDP teams were absent. That came off the back of a challenging 2023 season in which he never managed to finish inside the top 10.

In 2023, the 19-year-old’s best qualifying result was 13th place, whereas in 2024, his worst qualifying result thus far has been eighth in Suzuka’s second qualifying session. Shimizu never qualified less than 0.7 seconds behind the pole time in 2023, but in 2024, he has only exceeded that gap in Suzuka’s second qualifying session and otherwise qualified within half a second of the pole time.

Shimizu’s improved qualifying positions have translated into better race results. He had a best race result of 11th place in 2023, but in 2024 he has a worst result of fifth. The Nagasaki-born driver even secured his first win in the series in the second race at Fuji after overtaking Nomura and withstanding multiple battles.

Even without a standout trait, Shimizu well-roundedness is down to an improvement in his general performance level and Drago Corse’s strong package in 2024, the first season of the series’ new chassis and engine.

Shimizu qualified fifth and sixth at the opening round at Fuji, making him the third- and fourth-best driver respectively without manufacturer support, and translated those into fourth- and second-place finishes. And when he qualified just eighth at Suzuka’s second race, Shimizu still managed to finish the race in fifth position, coming out on top in a long fight with Toyota juniors Sano and Kiyoshi Umegaki and Ponos driver Omiya.

Tosei Moriyama, HELM Motorsports (P4)

After being dropped by the Honda Formula Dream Project and losing his seat at the dominant HFDP team in 2023, Moriyama switched to HELM Motorsports in 2024, the team that finished just eighth in the teams’ standings in 2023. But he has found a new lease on life at the outfit, which also runs a car in Formula Regional Japan.

Like 2023 teammate Nomura, Moriyama has been strong in qualifying so far. He has never qualified outside the top three or finished more than 0.25 seconds off the pole position time, remarkable feats for an independent driver.

He qualified second and first at the opening round at Fuji, outqualifying all Honda and Toyota juniors and securing his first ever Japanese F4 pole position in the process. At Suzuka, he again impressed, this time qualifying third and second and being the fastest driver without academy support in both sessions, while at the third round at Fuji, he qualified second for both races, just 0.12 and 0.02 seconds behind the pole times.

Moriyama was also the first driver without academy support to win a race in 2024, leading every lap of the second race at Fuji after all Toyota and Honda juniors withdrew. He could well have won two races had he not earned a drive-through penalty in race one for rear-ending leader Shimbara at Turn 3 on lap five, an incident that put the Kageyama Racing driver out of the race.

In the first race at Suzuka, which was interrupted by several safety car periods, he lost a position at the start and finished fourth. The second race brought him more fortune as he kept second position for the whole race, though he had a challenge with keep Horachi behind him.

Moriyama again proved his consistency in the first race at the third round, which he started and finished second. But in the second race, he spun on the final lap while attempting to pass Horachi for second. Before that incident, he ran in the top four positions and was part of the group of cars battling for the lead.

Moriyama currently finds himself fourth in the championship, 18 points behind championship leader Horachi, ahead of the series’ fourth round and halfway point at Suzuka in two weeks’ time.

Header photo credit: Japanese F4 Championship