2003 Formula Nippon Championship

2003 Formula Nippon Championship

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2002

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2004

Related series:
2003 International Formula 3000 Championship
2003 Euro Formula 3000 Series

The 2003 Formula Nippon Championship was the thirty-first season of premier Japanese single-seater racing, and the eighth under the Formula Nippon moniker. The series was contested over 10 races at five venues, including the final races at Fuji Speedway before a comprehensive renovation of the circuit began later that year.

10 different teams and 21 different drivers competed in the series. For the first time, the series adopted a spec chassis supplied by Lola, who replaced Reynard as the series' chassis supplier.

Satoshi Motoyama of Team Impul won his third series championship, becoming only the third driver after Kazuyoshi Hoshino and Satoru Nakajima to win three or more championships in Japanese top formula racing. Motoyama also became the second driver to win both the Formula Nippon and All-Japan Grand Touring Car GT500 Championships in the same year.

Teams and drivers

All teams used tyres supplied by Bridgestone, Lola B03/51 chassis, and Mugen MF308 engines.

Team	#	Driver	Rounds
PIAA Nakajima Racing	1	Takashi Kogure	All
	2	André Lotterer	All
Olympic Kondo Racing Team	3	Yuji Tachikawa	All
	4	Dominik Schwager	All
Team 5ZIGEN	5	Ryō Michigami	All
	6	Ryo Fukuda	1–5
		James Courtney	7–10
Forum Engineering ARTA Team LeMans	7	Toshihiro Kaneishi	All
	8	Takeshi Tsuchiya	All
Planex EBBRO Nova Kacchao TCPRO Nova Team Nova Oizumi Team Nova	9	Haruki Kurosawa	All
	10	Tetsuya Fujisawa	1–4
		Yudai Igarashi	5–7
		Hiroki Katoh	8–10
Cosmo Oil Racing Team Cerumo	11	Tsugio Matsuda	All
	12	Yuji Ide	All
Team Impul	19	Satoshi Motoyama	All
	20	Benoît Tréluyer	All
Team 22	22	Juichi Wakisaka	All
Carrozzeria Team MOHN	28	Hideki Noda	All
DoCoMo Team Dandelion Racing	40	Richard Lyons	All
	41	Naoki Hattori	All

Race calendar and results

All races were held in Japan.

Race	Track	Date	Pole position	Fastest race lap	Winning driver	Winning team
1	Suzuka Circuit	23 March	Ryō Michigami	Richard Lyons	Satoshi Motoyama	Team Impul
2	Fuji Speedway	6 April	Satoshi Motoyama	Takeshi Tsuchiya	Satoshi Motoyama	Team Impul
3	Mine Circuit	27 April	Satoshi Motoyama	Yuji Tachikawa	Satoshi Motoyama	Team Impul
4	Twin Ring Motegi	8 June	Juichi Wakisaka	Satoshi Motoyama	Juichi Wakisaka	Team 22
5	Suzuka Circuit	6 July	Richard Lyons	Satoshi Motoyama	Richard Lyons	DoCoMo Team Dandelion Racing
6	Sportsland SUGO	27 July	André Lotterer	Satoshi Motoyama	Satoshi Motoyama	Team Impul
7	Fuji Speedway	31 August	Satoshi Motoyama	Satoshi Motoyama	Benoît Tréluyer	Team Impul
8	Mine Circuit	21 September	Satoshi Motoyama	Satoshi Motoyama	Benoît Tréluyer	Team Impul
9	Twin Ring Motegi	19 October	Toshihiro Kaneishi	Takeshi Tsuchiya	Toshihiro Kaneishi	Forum Engineering ARTA Team LeMans
10	Suzuka Circuit	2 November	Satoshi Motoyama	Richard Lyons	Juichi Wakisaka	Team 22

• For Round 5, an 18-lap (104.526 km) sprint race set the grid for the main race. The sprint race winner Richard Lyons started from pole in the main race. Takeshi Tsuchiya set pole position for the sprint race.

Championship standings

Drivers' Championship

Scoring system

Position	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th
Points	10	6	4	3	2	1

Rank	Name	SUZ	FUJ	MIN	MOT	SUZ	SGO	FUJ	MIN	MOT	SUZ	Points
1	Satoshi Motoyama	1	1	1	9	14	1	2	13	2	3	56
2	Benoît Tréluyer	Ret	2	Ret	NC	2	4	1	1	9	Ret	35
3	Juichi Wakisaka	Ret	5	Ret	1	3	3	Ret	6	Ret	1	31
4	Toshihiro Kaneishi	3	8	5	7	Ret	8	Ret	2	1	Ret	22
5	André Lotterer	2	4	7	6	Ret	2	3	9	5	Ret	22
6	Richard Lyons	9	Ret	Ret	3	1	5	Ret	Ret	3	9	20
7	Yuji Ide	4	7	3	2	7	10	Ret	3	12	5	19
8	Takeshi Tsuchiya	Ret	NC	2	4	5	7	6	12	6	4	16
9	Ryō Michigami	Ret	3	4	5	4	NC	Ret	NC	13	6	13
10	Takashi Kogure	12	6	Ret	DNS	6	Ret	Ret	14	4	2	11
11	Tsugio Matsuda	5	9	Ret	Ret	15	6	5	5	14	Ret	7
12	James Courtney							4	7	Ret	Ret	3
13	Naoki Hattori	8	Ret	Ret	11	8	9	9	4	7	11	3
14	Hideki Noda	6	10	8	DNS	12	Ret	Ret	10	Ret	10	1
15	Ryo Fukuda	7	Ret	6	Ret	13						1
16	Dominik Schwager	Ret	Ret	Ret	8	9	11	7	8	10	8	0
17	Hiroki Katoh								Ret	11	7	0
18	Yuji Tachikawa	10	12	10	Ret	Ret	NC	Ret	Ret	8	Ret	0
19	Haruki Kurosawa	Ret	Ret	9	10	11	Ret	Ret	11	Ret	Ret	0
20	Yudai Igarashi					10	12	Ret				0
21	Tetsuya Fujisawa	11	11	Ret	12							0

Teams' Championship

Rank	Team	Car	SUZ	FUJ	MIN	MOT	SUZ	SGO	FUJ	MIN	MOT	SUZ	Points
1	Impul	19	1	1	1	9	14	1	2	13	2	3	91
		20	Ret	2	Ret	NC	2	4	1	1	9	Ret
2	Team LeMans	7	3	8	5	7	Ret	8	Ret	2	1	Ret	38
		8	Ret	NC	2	4	5	7	6	12	6	4
3	PIAA Nakajima	1	12	6	Ret	DNS	6	Ret	Ret	14	4	2	33
		2	2	4	7	6	Ret	2	3	9	5	Ret
4	Team 22	22	Ret	5	Ret	1	3	3	Ret	6	Ret	1	31
5	Cosmo Oil Cerumo	11	5	9	Ret	Ret	15	6	5	5	14	Ret	23
		12	4	7	3	2	7	10	Ret	3	12	5
6	DoCoMo Dandelion	40	9	Ret	Ret	3	1	5	Ret	Ret	3	9	23
		41	8	Ret	Ret	11	8	9	9	4	7	11
7	5ZIGEN	5	Ret	3	4	5	4	NC	Ret	NC	13	6	17
		6	7	Ret	6	Ret	13		4	7	Ret	Ret
8	Team MOHN	28	6	10	8	DNS	12	Ret	Ret	10	Ret	10	1
9	Team Nova	9	Ret	Ret	9	10	11	Ret	Ret	11	Ret	Ret	0
		10	11	11	Ret	12	10	12	Ret	Ret	11	7
10	Kondo Racing Team	3	10	12	10	Ret	Ret	NC	Ret	Ret	8	Ret	0
		4	Ret	Ret	Ret	8	9	11	7	8	10	8

External links

• 2003 Japanese Championship Formula Nippon