2020 Super Formula Championship

2020 Super Formula Championship

Drivers' Champion: Naoki Yamamoto
Teams' Champion: Vantelin Team TOM’S

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Support series:
TCR Japan Touring Car Series
Super Formula Lights

The 2020 Japanese Super Formula Championship was the forty-eighth season of premier Japanese open-wheel motor racing, and the eighth under the moniker of Super Formula.

Teams and drivers

Every Honda-powered car used a Honda HR-414E engine and every Toyota-powered car used a Toyota RI4A engine.

Team	Engine	No.	Driver	Rounds
Vantelin Team TOM’S [1]	Toyota	1	Nick Cassidy [2]	All
		36	Kazuki Nakajima [1]	1, 3, 5–7
			Ritomo Miyata [3]	2, 4
Kondo Racing [4]	Toyota	3	Kenta Yamashita [1]	1, 3–7
			Sena Sakaguchi [3]	2
		4	Sacha Fenestraz [1]	All
Docomo Team Dandelion Racing	Honda	5	Naoki Yamamoto [5]	All
		6	Nirei Fukuzumi [5]	All
carrozzeria Team KCMG [4]	Toyota	7	Kamui Kobayashi [1]	1, 3, 5–7
			Yuichi Nakayama [6]	2, 4
		18	Yuji Kunimoto [1]	All
Drago Corse with ThreeBond [7]	Honda	12	Tatiana Calderón [5] [8]	1, 4–7
			Koudai Tsukakoshi [9]	2–3
ROOKIE Racing [a] [10] JMS P.mu/Cerumo・INGING [a] [1] [4] [11]	Toyota	14	Kazuya Oshima [10]	All
		38	Hiroaki Ishiura [1]	All
		39	Sho Tsuboi [1]	All
Team Mugen	Honda	15	Ukyo Sasahara [12] [13] [14]	All
		16	Tomoki Nojiri [5]	All
Itochu Enex Team Impul [1]	Toyota	19	Yuhi Sekiguchi [1]	All
		20	Ryō Hirakawa [1]	All
Buzz Racing with B-MAX	Honda	50	Teppei Natori [15]	1
			Mitsunori Takaboshi [16] [13]	2
			Sérgio Sette Câmara [17]	3
			Nobuharu Matsushita [18]	4–7
		51	Charles Milesi [5]	4–7
TCS Nakajima Racing	Honda	64	Tadasuke Makino [5]	1–6
			Hiroki Otsu [19]	7
		65	Toshiki Oyu [5]	All

Team changes

• Ryo Michigami's Drago Corse returns to the championship in partnership with ThreeBond. This marks the team's first appearance in the championship since 2016.
• Team LeMans left the championship at the end of 2019. This means that 2020 was the first season since 1988 where Team LeMans was not represented. Their place was filled by KCMG and Cerumo Motorsport which both added one car each. Cerumo's third car was entered as ROOKIE Racing.
• Real Racing announced it has withdrawn from the 2020 season. ^[20]

Driver changes

• Tatiana Calderón moves to the revived Drago Corse team from the FIA Formula 2 Championship, becoming the first female driver in the current Super Formula era and the first in top level Japanese open-wheel racing since Ireland's Sarah Kavanagh entered two races in the 1997 Formula Nippon Championship.
• Jüri Vips was scheduled to contest the full season with Team Mugen, having joined the team at the final round of the 2019 Championship as a replacement for Patricio O'Ward. Vips missed the opening rounds at Motegi and Okayama due to his participation in the FIA Formula 2 Championship, and was replaced by Ukyo Sasahara on both occasions. Pandemic-related travel issues further prevented Vips from arriving in Japan, so Sasahara again filled in at Sportsland Sugo. Ahead of the fourth round at Autopolis, it was announced that Sasahara would keep the seat for the remainder of the season.
• Pietro Fittipaldi was initially confirmed in the #50 B-MAX entry. ^[21] Fittipaldi had previously competed in the first round of the 2018 Championship before an injury prevented his return. However, on the eve of a pre-season test at Fuji Speedway, it was announced that Sérgio Sette Câmara would instead occupy the seat, in what was described as a "late reshuffle of race seats due to conflicting sponsors' interests". ^[17] Sette Câmara will be joined by Charles Milesi, who moves up from the Japanese Formula 3 Championship. B-Max's 2019 drivers Lucas Auer and Harrison Newey left the series, both moving to the DTM with BMW and Audi respectively. ^{[22] [23]} Neither driver raced at Motegi with Teppei Natori driving the sole B-Max Dallara.
• Alex Palou left Nakajima Racing to move to IndyCar with Dale Coyne Racing. He was replaced by Japanese F3 and Euroformula Open race winner Toshiki Oyu.
• 2019 Japanese Formula 3 Champion Sacha Fenestraz replaces Yuji Kunimoto at Kondo Racing. Kunimoto will drive the newly acquired second car at Team KCMG.
• Following the departure of Team LeMans, Kazuya Oshima moved to the new ROOKIE Racing entry.

Mid-season changes

• Sergio Sette Câmara, and Charles Milesi unable to travel to Japan for the season opener due to Japan's COVID-19 travel restrictions. B-Max have to run one car for the opening season with Teppei Natori as the driver choice for the number 50 car, and recruited Mitsunori Takaboshi for the second round.
• Tatiana Calderón, Kamui Kobayashi, Kazuki Nakajima, Kenta Yamashita, unable to compete for the second round of the season due to quarantine time after they participated in the 2020 24 Hours of Le Mans. Koudai Tsukakoshi, Yuichi Nakayama, Ritomo Miyata, Sena Sakaguchi covers for them respectively.
• Miyata, and Nakayama returns to compete in the fourth round as Kobayashi, and Nakajima unavailable due to FIA World Endurance Championship commitment.
• Charles Milesi able to compete in the series from the fourth round onwards, and Nobuharu Matsushita takes over Sette Câmara's seat for the remainder of the season.
• Tadasuke Makino have to miss the last round of the season after suffered meningitis. Hiroki Otsu replaces Makino.

Race calendar

The provisional calendar with seven rounds was announced in July 2019. ^[24] However, in September 2019 the calendar was updated to have the Suzuka Circuit as the first round rather than the Fuji Speedway. ^[25] The final round at Suzuka Circuit was pushed back 2 weeks to avoid a schedule conflict with the FIA World Endurance Championship, which competes at Fuji Speedway on 1 November. ^[26] After multiple postponements due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a revised calendar was announced on 9 June 2020 that now sees the season starting in August and running until December. ^[27]

Round	Circuit	Date
1	Twin Ring Motegi	30 August
2	Okayama International Circuit	27 September
3	Sportsland SUGO	18 October
4	Autopolis	15 November
5	Suzuka Circuit	5 December
6		6 December
7	Fuji Speedway	20 December

• On 2 March 2020, the season opener at Suzuka Circuit was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. ^[28] On 7 April 2020, it was announced that the season finale would become a double-header, effectively reestablishing the second round at Suzuka. ^[29]
• The rounds at Fuji Speedway and Autopolis were postponed on 18 March 2020 and 31 March 2020 respectively, both also because of the virus. ^{[30] [31]}
• On 24 April 2020, the former fourth round at Sportsland SUGO was also postponed to a so far unannounced date because of the ongoing pandemic. ^[32]

Results

Season summary

Round	Circuit	Pole position	Fastest lap	Winning driver	Winning team
1	Twin Ring Motegi	Ryō Hirakawa	Kamui Kobayashi	Ryō Hirakawa	Itochu Enex Team Impul
2	Okayama International Circuit	Ryō Hirakawa	Nick Cassidy	Sho Tsuboi	JMS P.mu/Cerumo・INGING
3	Sportsland SUGO	Sérgio Sette Câmara	Nick Cassidy	Nick Cassidy	Vantelin Team TOM’S
4	Autopolis	Tomoki Nojiri	Naoki Yamamoto	Tomoki Nojiri	Team Mugen
5	Suzuka Circuit I	Naoki Yamamoto	Naoki Yamamoto	Naoki Yamamoto	Docomo Team Dandelion Racing
6	Suzuka Circuit II	Nick Cassidy	Nirei Fukuzumi	Toshiki Oyu	TCS Nakajima Racing
7	Fuji Speedway	Tomoki Nojiri	Nirei Fukuzumi	Sho Tsuboi	JMS P.mu/Cerumo・INGING

Championship standings

Scoring system

For the 2020 season, the points system has been overhauled to be more in-line with Super GT. The final points standings only include the five best results. Additionally, bonus points are no longer available for the final race of the season. Points are also given to the top three drivers of qualifying as opposed to just points for pole position. Note that these qualifying points do not count towards the teams' championship. ^[33]

Race points

Position	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th
Points	20	15	11	8	6	5	4	3	2	1

Qualifying points

Position	1st	2nd	3rd
Points	3	2	1

Drivers' Championship

Pos. Driver MOT OKA SUG AUT SUZ1 SUZ2 FUJ Points 1 Naoki Yamamoto 13 6 3 23 11 Ret 53 62 2 Ryō Hirakawa 11 41 22 12 Ret 7 6 60 3 Sho Tsuboi Ret 1 13 Ret Ret 4 12 50 4 Nick Cassidy 6 3 1 7 5 Ret1 4 50 5 Tomoki Nojiri 7 10 4 11 72 5 Ret1 47 6 Toshiki Oyu 15 15 12 10 8 12 2 41 7 Kenta Yamashita 23 6 5 9 6 10 34 8 Nirei Fukuzumi 5 8 10 92 Ret3 2 16 29 9 Yuji Kunimoto Ret 7 5 4 3 Ret 15 29 10 Hiroaki Ishiura 8 2 8 13 6 10 12 27 11 Kazuki Nakajima 4 15 2 16 9 25 12 Tadasuke Makino 9 Ret 7 3 Ret 8 20 13 Sacha Fenestraz 32 Ret3 Ret3 Ret 10 Ret 8 19 14 Yuhi Sekiguchi Ret 5 11 11 DNS 3 DNS 17 15 Nobuharu Matsushita 6 Ret 14 3 16 16 Kamui Kobayashi 14 14 4 15 11 8 17 Ritomo Miyata 92 8 7 18 Ukyo Sasahara 11 13 Ret 14 Ret 113 7 5 19 Kazuya Oshima 10 16 9 17 12 9 14 5 20 Sérgio Sette Câmara Ret1 3 21 Charles Milesi 15 11 13 DNS 0 22 Yuichi Nakayama 11 18 0 23 Tatiana Calderón 12 16 13 12 17 0 24 Koudai Tsukakoshi 12 NC 0 25 Hiroki Otsu 13 0 26 Mitsunori Takaboshi 14 0 — Teppei Natori DNS 0 — Sena Sakaguchi DNS 0 Pos. Driver MOT OKA SUG AUT SUZ1 SUZ2 FUJ Points Edit the results

Colour Result Gold Winner Silver Second place Bronze Third place Green Points finish Blue Non-points finish Non-classified finish (NC) Purple Retired (Ret) Red Did not qualify (DNQ) Did not pre-qualify (DNPQ) Black Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Withdrew (WD) Race cancelled (C) Blank Did not practice (DNP) Did not arrive (DNA) Excluded (EX) Bold – Pole Italics – Fastest Lap 1 – 3 Points for Pole 2 – 2 Points for P2 3 – 1 Points for P3

Teams' Championship

Pos. Team No. MOT OKA SUG AUT SUZ1 SUZ2 FUJ Points 1 Vantelin Team TOM’S 1 6 3 1 7 5 Ret1 4 77 36 4 92 15 8 2 16 9 2 JMS P.mu/Cerumo・INGING 38 8 2 8 13 6 10 12 72 39 Ret 1 13 Ret Ret 4 12 3 Docomo Team Dandelion Racing 5 13 6 3 23 11 Ret 53 72 6 5 8 10 92 Ret3 2 16 4 Itochu Enex Team Impul 19 Ret 5 11 11 DNS 3 DNS 69 20 11 41 22 12 Ret 7 6 5 TCS Nakajima Racing 64 9 Ret 7 3 Ret 8 13 57 65 15 15 12 10 8 12 2 6 Kondo Racing 3 23 DNS 6 5 9 6 10 46 4 32 Ret3 Ret3 Ret 10 Ret 8 7 Team Mugen 15 11 13 Ret 14 Ret 113 7 42 16 7 10 4 11 72 5 Ret1 8 carrozzeria Team KCMG 7 14 11 14 18 4 15 11 37 18 Ret 7 5 4 3 Ret 15 9 Buzz Racing with B-MAX 50 DNS 14 Ret1 6 Ret 14 3 16 51 15 11 13 DNS 10 ROOKIE Racing 14 10 16 9 17 12 9 14 5 11 Drago Corse with ThreeBond 12 12 12 NC 16 13 12 17 0 Pos. Team No. MOT OKA SUG AUT SUZ1 SUZ2 FUJ Points

Notes

1. Car No. 14 entered as ROOKIE Racing, and car No. 38 & 39 entered as JMS P.mu/Cerumo・INGING

References

1. "Cassidy absent from Toyota's Super Formula line-up". www.motorsport.com. 7 February 2020. Retrieved 2020-02-07.
2. "Cassidy agrees fresh TOM'S Super Formula deal". Motorsport Network. 27 February 2020. Retrieved 28 February 2020.
3. "2020 Rd.1 Entry List | Rd.2 Okayama | Race Calendar 2020 | SUPER FORMULA Official Website". superformula.net. Retrieved 2020-09-25.
4. Klein, Jamie (November 21, 2019). "Fenestraz set to replace Nakajima at TOM'S". Motorsport.com . Motorsport Network . Retrieved November 21, 2019.
5. "Calderon becomes first female Super Formula driver". 10 January 2020. Retrieved 10 January 2020.
6. Wood, Elliot (2020-09-23). "Yuichi Nakayama replaces quarantined Kobayashi in Super Formula". Formula Scout. Retrieved 2020-09-23.
7. "Michigami's Drago Corse squad returns to Super Formula grid". motorsport.com. 30 October 2019. Retrieved 30 October 2019.
8. "Calderon to race at Motegi; Vips, Sette Camara still in doubt". motorsport.com. 18 August 2020. Retrieved 18 August 2020.
9. "Tatiana Calderon forced to miss Okayama Super Formula round". www.motorsport.com. 21 September 2020. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
10. "Toyota SF Driver Announced". Super Formula Twitter Account. 6 February 2020. Retrieved 8 February 2020.
11. Klein, Jamie (December 18, 2019). "Cerumo/Inging adds cars in Super GT, Super Formula". Motorsport.com . Motorsport Network . Retrieved December 19, 2019.
12. Wood, Elliot (2020-08-19). "Ukyo Sasahara replaces Vips for Super Formula season opener". Formula Scout. Retrieved 2020-08-19.
13. Wood, Elliot (2020-09-16). "Mugen keeps Sasahara, Mitsunori Takaboshi at B-MAX in Super Formula". Formula Scout. Retrieved 2020-09-24.
14. Wood, Elliot (2020-11-10). "Mugen retains Vips stand-in Sasahara for rest of Super Formula season". Formula Scout. Retrieved 2020-11-10.
15. "Super Formula news: B-Max Racing down to one car for Motegi". www.motorsport.com. 27 August 2020. Retrieved 2020-08-27.
16. "Takaboshi to Race for Buzz Racing with B-Max in Rd. 2 | SUPER FORMULA Official Website". superformula.net. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
17. "Sette Camara makes surprise Super Formula switch". www.motorsport.co. 23 March 2020.
18. Wood, Elliot (2020-11-11). "Matsushita replaces Sette Camara in Super Formula for Autopolis". Formula Scout. Retrieved 2020-11-11.
19. "Makino withdraws from Fuji Super Formula finale". Motorsport Network. 14 December 2020.
20. "Real Racing withdraws from 2020 Super Formula season". Motorsport Network. 27 February 2020.
21. "Fittipaldi back to Super Formula with BMAX/Motopark". Motorsport Network. 12 December 2019.
22. "Auer secures 2020 BMW drive for DTM return". Motorsport Network. 18 December 2019.
23. "Newey secures WRT Audi DTM drive as Jones drops out". www.motorsport.com. 15 July 2020. Retrieved 2020-07-16.
24. "Super Formula unveils provisional 2020 calendar". motorsport.com. 13 July 2019. Retrieved 13 July 2019.
25. "Suzuka reinstated as Super Formula season opener". motorsport.com. 27 September 2019. Retrieved 27 September 2019.
26. "Super Formula changes date to avoid WEC clash". motorsport.com. 23 December 2019. Retrieved 23 December 2019.
27. Wood, Elliot (2020-06-09). "New Super Formula calendar reveals December end date". Formula Scout. Retrieved 2020-06-09.
28. "Coronavirus forces Super Formula to postpone opener". www.motorsport.com. 2 March 2020. Retrieved 2020-03-02.
29. Wood, Elliot (2020-04-07). "Super Formula's Suzuka season finale becomes double header". Formula Scout. Retrieved 2020-04-07.
30. "Super Formula also postpones Fuji race over coronavirus". www.motorsport.com. 18 March 2020. Retrieved 2020-03-18.
31. Wood, Elliot (2020-03-31). "Super Formula season delayed further as Autopolis postponed". Formula Scout. Retrieved 2020-03-31.
32. Wood, Elliot (2020-04-24). "Super Formula postpones Sportsland SUGO race". Formula Scout. Retrieved 2020-04-24.
33. Thukral, Rachit (2019-12-26). "Super Formula overhauls points system for 2020". www.motorsport.com. Retrieved 2020-08-29.

External links

• Japanese Championship Super Formula official website (in English)