2004 Formula Nippon Championship

2004 Formula Nippon Championship

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2003

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2005

Related series:
2004 International Formula 3000 Championship
2004 Euro Formula 3000 Series

The 2004 Formula Nippon Championship was the thirty-second season of premier Japanese single-seater racing, and the ninth under the Formula Nippon moniker. Eight teams and 17 drivers competed in the series.

The series was contested over nine rounds at five venues. Fuji Speedway was closed for 2004 due to renovations, and for the first time, the series raced outside of Japan as Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia was added to the calendar.

Dandelion Racing driver Richard Lyons won his first series championship, defeating André Lotterer after scoring more points in the final race of the season, which was the championship tiebreaker. ^[1] Lyons became the third driver to win 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
ADiRECT Team 5ZIGEN	1	Satoshi Motoyama	All
	2	Toshihiro Kaneishi	All
Yellow Hat Kondo Racing Team	3	Ryō Michigami	All
	4	Yuji Tachikawa	All
Team LeMans	7	Juichi Wakisaka	All
	8	Takeshi Tsuchiya	All
Cosmo Oil Racing Team Cerumo	11	Tsugio Matsuda	All
	12	Masami Kageyama	6–9
mobilecast Team Impul	19	Benoît Tréluyer	All
	20	Yuji Ide	All
LeMans Spirit	25	Tatsuya Kataoka	All
Carrozzeria Team MOHN	27	Koji Yamanishi	4–5, 8
	28	Hideki Noda	All
PIAA Nakajima Racing	31	André Lotterer	All
	32	Takashi Kogure	All
DoCoMo Team Dandelion Racing	40	Richard Lyons	All
	41	Naoki Hattori	All

Race calendar and results

Race	Track	Date	Pole position	Fastest race lap	Winning driver	Winning team
1	Suzuka Circuit	28 March	Yuji Ide	Richard Lyons	Takashi Kogure	PIAA Nakajima Racing
2	Sportsland SUGO	2 May	Richard Lyons	Takashi Kogure	Richard Lyons	DoCoMo Team Dandelion Racing
3	Twin Ring Motegi	6 June	Richard Lyons	Richard Lyons	André Lotterer	PIAA Nakajima Racing
4	Suzuka Circuit	4 July	Richard Lyons	Naoki Hattori	Richard Lyons	DoCoMo Team Dandelion Racing
5	Sportsland SUGO	1 August	Richard Lyons	Juichi Wakisaka	Satoshi Motoyama	ADiRECT Team 5ZIGEN
6	Mine Circuit	29 August	Benoît Tréluyer	Juichi Wakisaka	Benoît Tréluyer	mobilecast Team Impul
7	Sepang International Circuit	19 September	André Lotterer	Richard Lyons	André Lotterer	PIAA Nakajima Racing
8	Twin Ring Motegi	24 October	Juichi Wakisaka	André Lotterer	Yuji Ide	mobilecast Team Impul
9	Suzuka Circuit	7 November	Richard Lyons	Yuji Ide	Benoît Tréluyer	mobilecast Team Impul

• In Rounds 4 and 7, sprint races set the grid for the main race.
• Round 4 sprint race winner Richard Lyons started from pole in the main race.
• Round 7 sprint race winner André Lotterer started from pole in the main race. Naoki Hattori 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	SGO	MOT	SUZ	SGO	MIN	MYS	MOT	SUZ	Points
1	Richard Lyons	8	1	8	1	4	8	9	2	3	33
2	André Lotterer	2	4	1	8	Ret	Ret	1	3	7	33
3	Yuji Ide	12	2	2	3	7	7	10	1	2	32
4	Benoît Tréluyer	Ret	6	4	2	10	1	7	Ret	1	30
5	Juichi Wakisaka	13	3	Ret	5	3	2	3	Ret	4	23
6	Satoshi Motoyama	5	12	5	4	1	6	Ret	5	6	21
7	Takashi Kogure	1	9	9	7	2	Ret	6	9	8	17
8	Tatsuya Kataoka	10	11	3	13	Ret	4	5	4	12	12
9	Naoki Hattori	7	7	Ret	10	6	10	2	Ret	10	7
10	Ryō Michigami	3	5	6	Ret	Ret	11	8	10	13	7
11	Tsugio Matsuda	4	NC	12	9	DSQ	12	4	6	Ret	7
12	Toshihiro Kaneishi	6	13	10	Ret	12	3	Ret	Ret	11	5
13	Takeshi Tsuchiya	11	10	7	11	8	5	Ret	Ret	5	4
14	Yuji Tachikawa	Ret	NC	Ret	6	5	9	Ret	7	9	3
15	Hideki Noda	9	8	11	Ret	11	Ret	Ret	11	14	0
16	Koji Yamanishi				12	9			8		0
17	Masami Kageyama						Ret	11	Ret	15	0

Teams' Championship

Rank	Team	Car	SUZ	SGO	MOT	SUZ	SGO	MIN	MYS	MOT	SUZ	Points
1	mobilecast Impul	19	Ret	6	4	2	10	1	7	Ret	1	62
		20	12	2	2	3	7	7	10	1	2
2	PIAA Nakajima	31	2	4	1	8	Ret	Ret	1	3	7	50
		32	1	9	9	7	2	Ret	6	9	8
3	DoCoMo Dandelion	40	8	1	8	1	4	8	9	2	3	40
		41	7	7	Ret	10	6	10	2	Ret	10
4	LeMans LeMans Spirit	7	13	3	Ret	5	3	2	3	Ret	4	37
		8	11	10	7	11	8	5	Ret	Ret	5
		25	10	11	3	13	Ret	4	5	4	12
5	ADiRECT 5ZIGEN	1	5	12	5	4	1	6	Ret	5	6	26
		2	6	13	10	Ret	12	3	Ret	Ret	11
6	Yellow Hat Kondo	3	3	5	6	Ret	Ret	11	8	10	13	10
		4	Ret	NC	Ret	6	5	9	Ret	7	9
7	Cosmo Oil Cerumo	11	4	NC	12	9	DSQ	12	4	6	Ret	7
		12						Ret	11	Ret	15
8	Team MOHN	27				12	9			8		0
		28	9	8	11	Ret	11	Ret	Ret	11	14

External links

• 2004 Japanese Championship Formula Nippon

1. "Super Formula: The rules that cost Andre Lotterer two titles". Archived from the original on 2023-10-29. Retrieved 2026-02-03.