The 2025 Japanese Super Formula Championship was the fifty-third season of premier Japanese open-wheelmotor racing, and the twelfth under the moniker of Super Formula. The season started in March at Suzuka Circuit and was contested over 12 rounds in seven race weekends, ending in November at Suzuka.[1]
Ayumu Iwasa, driving for Team Mugen, won his first Super Formula Drivers' Championship at the final race, ahead of defending champion Sho Tsuboi. Dandelion Racing won the Teams' Championship for the second time in a row.
The 2025 Super Formula Championship was the last season for Kazuya Oshima, as after its conclusion, he ended his career after 13 seasons.
Teams and drivers
All teams used identical Dallara-built SF23 chassis with either Honda or Toyota engines. Every Honda-powered car used a Honda HR-417E engine and every Toyota-powered car used a Toyota TRD-01F engine. All teams competed with tyres supplied by Yokohama.
The entry co-run by Inging Motorsport and Cerumo added another title sponsor alongside Vertex Partners, with Industrial manufacturer Sanki Shokai joining the series and the team competing under the name Sanki Vertex Partners Cerumo・Inging.[5]
TGM Grand Prix underwent substantial changes within its organization. The team ended its engine contract with Honda and instead became part of Toyota Gazoo Racing, joining Rookie Racing in serving as a Toyota junior team and receiving Toyota engines. The team, co-run by TGM and TOM'S, acquired a new title sponsor in telecommunications operator KDDI and entered the 2025 season under the name KDDI TGMGP TGR-DC.[3][6]
A new team entered the championship in Triple Tree Racing, established by Hideki Noda, former Formula One and father of Juju Noda. It used Honda engines and was operated by motorsport management company 4Minutes. Construction company Hazama Ando was confirmed to be the entry's title sponsor, with the team running under the name Hazama Ando Triple Tree Racing.[7]
Red Bull ended their partnership with Team Mugen after seven years of cooperation.[8]
Team Impul added another title sponsor in Itochu's subsidiary company, used car dealer Wecars, with the team competing under the name Itochu Enex Wecars Team Impul.[9]
Newly rebranded team TGMGP also took on two new drivers as Juju Noda and Hiroki Otsu both left the team following its switch from Honda to Toyota engines, with Noda switching to the new Triple Tree Racing team and Otsu electing to focus on his Super GT GT500 efforts with ARTA. Kazuto Kotaka joined the team after coming 14th with Kondo Racing in his second season in 2024. Hibiki Taira, who drove Team Impul's No. 19 car on four occasions in 2024, completed TGMGP's lineup on his full-time debut in the series.[3]
Juju Noda joined the new Triple Tree Racing team for her second season in the championship after finishing her debut season with TGM Grand Prix in 21st.[7]
Mid-season changes
Oliver Rasmussen was forced to withdraw from the first two rounds at Suzuka after suffering a back injury in a crash in free practice.[14] Rasmussen's replacement for the two races was announced to be TGMGP's reserve driver Seita Nonaka, who came 3rd in Super Formula Lights with TOM'S and made his series debut.[15][16]
Kamui Kobayashi missed the Motegi double-header due to a calendar clash with the WEC's 6 Hours of Imola. Nonaka deputized once again after doing so for Team Impul at the Suzuka season opener.[17] With Rasmussen still not cleared for competition after his crash at the opening round, Team Impul signed 2024 Super Formula Lights runner-up Rikuto Kobayashi to make his series debut in his place.[18]
Oliver Rasmussen returned for the third round at Autopolis after he recovered from his back injury.[19]
Toyota reevaluated the lineup of its TGMGP junior team after round five at Autopolis: reserve driver Seita Nonaka was promoted to one of the team's race seats, while Hibiki Taira was in turn demoted to serve as Toyota's reserve driver.[20][21]
All weekends except the ones at Autopolis and Sportsland Sugo were scheduled as double-headers, making this the longest calendar in Super Formula history. The Sugo round moved from June to August, while the Motegi round moved from August to April
The series originally planned its first race outside Japan since 2004 with a round held at Inje Speedium.[22] These plans, however, were cancelled in October 2024. It marked the second time that a planned round at Inje was cancelled.[23]
Race ten, originally scheduled to be held on the same weekend as race nine, was postponed to the final meeting at Suzuka because of fog.[24]
Regulation changes
Double-header race weekends now held two 60-minute practice sessions on a Friday instead of a single 90-minute session. The rounds held at Autopolis and Sugo retained the format previously employed for single-race events, with 90 minutes of practice prior to qualifying on Saturday. Races held on Saturday were now run over a reduced distance of 165km, while races held on Sunday, including those held during the single-race weekends at Autopolis and SUGO, were run over 185km. These longer races no longer had a pre-determined pit window, while the shorter races retained the existing pit window.[25]
A restriction on the teams' activity on race weekends was employed in order to prevent fatigue among staff members. Teams were now required to stop all work carried out in the paddock four hours after the end of the final session, although there were exemptions in cases of cars becoming seriously damaged in incidents.[25]
On October 27, 2025, the Suzuka schedule was changed to accommodate the three-race format. Qualifying sessions for both afternoon races were held on Saturday morning. The Saturday race and Sunday afternoon race retained their standard distances. The Sunday morning race, which was the postponed Fuji race with the grid set by the results of qualifying at Fuji for Round 10, was held over 19 laps (110km) with a 50 minute time limit and no mandatory pit stops.[26]
†– Driver did not finish the race, but was classified as they completed more than 90% of the race distance.
Notes
↑Oliver Rasmussen entered the first double-header at Suzuka, but withdrew ahead of the first qualifying session after sustaining an injury in free practice. He was replaced by Seita Nonaka.
123456Postponed second race of the penultimate race weekend of the season.
↑Ayumu Iwasa set the fastest time in qualifying, but had all his times deleted after causing a red flag. Fenestraz inherited pole position.
↑Race ten, postponed to the final round at Suzuka, had its grid formed according to the results of the qualifying session held at Fuji Speedway on race ten's original date. Tadasuke Makino started the race from pole position.[24]
1234The first race was stopped due to bad weather conditions after less than 75% of laps were completed. Therefore, half points were awarded.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
