2021 Super Formula Championship

2021 Super Formula Championship season
Drivers' champion: Tomoki Nojiri Teams' champion: carenex Team Impul
Previous:	2020	Next:	2022
Support series: TCR Japan Touring Car Series Super Formula Lights

The 2021 Japanese Super Formula Championship was the forty-ninth season of premier Japanese open-wheel motor racing, and the ninth under the moniker of Super Formula. Naoki Yamamoto entered the 2021 season as the defending drivers' champion.

Tomoki Nojiri took his first drivers' championship at the penultimate round at Motegi, while Team Impul took their first teams' championship since 2010 at the season finale.

Teams and drivers

Engine	Team	No.	Driver	Rounds
Honda	TCS Nakajima Racing	1	Naoki Yamamoto	All
		64	Toshiki Oyu	All
	Docomo Team Dandelion Racing	5	Nirei Fukuzumi	All
		6	Ukyo Sasahara	1–2
			Tadasuke Makino	3–7
	Drago Corse with ThreeBond	12	Tatiana Calderón	1–2, 6–7
			Koudai Tsukakoshi	3–5
	Red Bull Mugen Team Goh	15	Hiroki Otsu	All
	Team Mugen	16	Tomoki Nojiri	All
	B-Max Racing	51	Nobuharu Matsushita	2–7
Toyota	Kondō Racing	3	Kenta Yamashita	All
		4	Yuichi Nakayama	1–5
			Sacha Fenestraz	6–7
	carrozzeria Team KCMG	7	Kazuto Kotaka	1–5, 7
			Kamui Kobayashi	6
		18	Yuji Kunimoto	All
	NTT Communications ROOKIE	14	Kazuya Oshima	All
	carenex Team Impul	19	Yuhi Sekiguchi	All
		20	Ryō Hirakawa	1–3, 5–7
			Mitsunori Takaboshi	4
	Kuo Vantelin Team TOM'S	36	Kazuki Nakajima	1, 6
			Giuliano Alesi	2–5, 7
		37	Ritomo Miyata	All
	P.mu/cerumo・INGING	38	Sho Tsuboi	All
		39	Sena Sakaguchi	All

• Yves Baltas was scheduled to compete for B-Max Racing, but did not enter any rounds.

Driver changes

• Three-time and defending series champion Naoki Yamamoto moved to TCS Nakajima Racing after spending two seasons with Dandelion Racing. This was Yamamoto's first time driving for Nakajima Racing since his rookie season in 2010.
• Tadasuke Makino moved to DoCoMo Team Dandelion Racing after two seasons with Nakajima Racing.
• Reigning Super Formula Lights champion Ritomo Miyata drove full-time for Vantelin Team TOM's, after running two races in 2020 in relief of Kazuki Nakajima.
• Reigning Formula Regional Japanese Champion Sena Sakaguchi drove full-time for P.mu/Cerumo-INGING, after appearing in the 2020 Okayama round in relief of Kenta Yamashita.
• Two-time series champion Hiroaki Ishiura has retired from the series.
• 2019 series champion Nick Cassidy has exited the series, following his move to the FIA Formula E World Championship with Envision Virgin Racing.

In-season changes

Illness:

• Tadasuke Makino: missed the first two rounds of the season due to a bout with meningitis. Ukyo Sasahara was his replacement.

Visa issues:

• Sacha Fenestraz: missed the first five rounds because of visa issues. Yuichi Nakayama was his replacement.

International protocols:
Drivers who participated in 2021 FIA World Endurance Championship races or testing sessions missed rounds because of Japanese 14-day quarantine rules. Date clashes were with the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps on 1 May, which clashed with Suzuka (25 April) and Autopolis (16 May), the 8 Hours of Portimão, which clashed with Sugo (19 June), and the 8 Hours of Bahrain, which clashes with the Suzuka date on 31 October.

• Kamui Kobayashi: missed all but the sixth round at Motegi due to commitments in the WEC and IMSA. Kazuto Kotaka was his replacement.
• Kazuki Nakajima: missed both Suzuka rounds, Autopolis, Sugo, and the fifth round at Motegi. Giuliano Alesi was his replacement, and won a rain shortened race from pole position at Autopolis.
• Tatiana Calderon: missed Autopolis, Sugo, and the fifth round at Motegi (was able to participate in the April Suzuka round because of local regulations with her licence, which is from the ACC, the Colombian ASN of the FIA, unlike the Japanese drivers, who have JAF licences). Koudai Tsukakoshi was her replacement.
• Ryo Hirakawa: missed Sugo. Mitsunori Takaboshi was his replacement.

Other

• Nobuharu Matsushita: joined B-Max Racing from the second round at Suzuka. He was initially denied an engine lease from Honda, after signing a factory racing contract with Nissan in the Super GT Series. This prevented him from racing in the opening round at Fuji. Honda would reverse their decision after Masaya Nagai replaced Hiroshi Shimizu as the Director of Motorsport at Honda.

Race calendar

The provisional calendar was announced on 6 August 2020. After heavy disruptions to the 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the series returned to a more traditional schedule, with Suzuka Circuit hosting the season finale as it was usual. On 12 April 2021, the organisation announced the cancellation of the Okayama round, which was due to be held in the first week of October. Instead, a second round at Motegi was confirmed.

Round	Circuit	Date
1	Fuji Speedway	4 April
2	Suzuka International Racing Course	25 April
3	Autopolis	16 May
4	Sportsland SUGO	20 June
5	Twin Ring Motegi	29 August
6		17 October
7	Suzuka International Racing Course	31 October

Results

Season summary

Round	Circuit	Pole Position	Fastest Lap	Winning driver	Winning team
1	Fuji Speedway	Tomoki Nojiri	Toshiki Oyu	Tomoki Nojiri	Team Mugen
2	Suzuka International Racing Course	Nirei Fukuzumi	Hiroki Otsu	Tomoki Nojiri	Team Mugen
3	Autopolis	Giuliano Alesi	Tomoki Nojiri	Giuliano Alesi	Kuo Vantelin Team TOM'S
4	Sportsland SUGO	Yuhi Sekiguchi	Tomoki Nojiri	Nirei Fukuzumi	Docomo Team Dandelion Racing
5	Twin Ring Motegi	Tomoki Nojiri	Yuhi Sekiguchi	Tomoki Nojiri	Team Mugen
6	Twin Ring Motegi	Hiroki Otsu	Toshiki Oyu	Hiroki Otsu	Red Bull Mugen Team Goh
7	Suzuka International Racing Course	Nobuharu Matsushita	Tomoki Nojiri	Nirei Fukuzumi	Docomo Team Dandelion Racing

Championship standings

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

Overall

Pos	Driver	FUJ	SUZ1	AUT	SUG	MOT	MOT2	SUZ2	Points
1	Tomoki Nojiri	11	12	5	6	11	53	3	86
2	Nirei Fukuzumi	3	Ret1	13	1	Ret	12	13	55
3	Yuhi Sekiguchi	17†	4	10	31	22	4	4	55
4	Ryō Hirakawa	4	2	Ret		4	Ret	2	46
5	Toshiki Oyu	22	103	7	2	6	14	112	41
6	Hiroki Otsu	16	5	6	10	10	11	5	38.5
7	Sena Sakaguchi	9	11	23	83	5	2	13	35.5
8	Nobuharu Matsushita		13	3	4	33	6	121	33.5
9	Tadasuke Makino			14	52	7	3	10	24
10	Ritomo Miyata	7	6	42	7	8	9	14	22
11	Giuliano Alesi		9	11	9	16		8	20
12	Ukyo Sasahara	53	3						18
13	Naoki Yamamoto	6	8	9	12	12	Ret2	9	13
14	Kenta Yamashita	12	12	11	14	15	8	6	8
15	Sho Tsuboi	Ret	7	Ret	15	9	Ret	16	6
16	Kazuki Nakajima	11					7		4
17	Sacha Fenestraz						13	7	4
18	Yuji Kunimoto	8	Ret	Ret	13	11	Ret	15	3
19	Kazuya Oshima	10	15	8	18	Ret	11	17	2.5
20	Kamui Kobayashi						10		1
21	Mitsunori Takaboshi				11				0
22	Koudai Tsukakoshi			12	16	Ret			0
23	Yuichi Nakayama	14	14	15	Ret	13			0
24	Tatiana Calderón	13	17				Ret	19	0
25	Kazuto Kotaka	15	16	16†	17	14		18	0
Pos	Driver	FUJ	SUZ1	AUT	SUG	MOT	MOT2	SUZ2	Points

Teams' championship

Pos	Team	No.	FUJ	SUZ1	AUT	SUG	MOT	MOT2	SUZ2	Points
1	carenex Team Impul	19	17†	4	10	3	2	4	4	88
		20	4	2	Ret	11	4	Ret	2
2	Docomo Team Dandelion Racing	5	3	Ret	13	1	Ret	12	1	86
		6	5	3	14	5	7	3	10
3	Team Mugen	16	1	1	5	6	1	5	3	77
4	TCS Nakajima Racing	1	6	8	9	12	12	Ret	9	47
		64	2	10	7	2	6	14	11
5	P.mu/cerumo・INGING	38	Ret	7	Ret	15	9	Ret	16	37.5
		39	9	11	2	8	5	2	13
6	Kuo Vantelin Team TOM'S	36	11	9	1	9	16	7	8	37
		37	7	6	4	7	8	9	14
7	Red Bull Mugen Team Goh	15	16	5	6	10	10	1	5	35.5
8	B-Max Racing	51		13	3	4	3	6	12	29.5
9	Kondō Racing	3	12	12	11	14	15	8	6	12
		4	14	14	15	Ret	13	13	7
10	carrozzeria Team KCMG	7	15	16	16†	17	14	10	18	4
		18	8	Ret	Ret	13	11	Ret	15
11	NTT communications ROOKIE	14	10	15	8	18	Ret	11	17	2.5
12	Drago Corse with ThreeBond	12	13	17	12	16	Ret	Ret	19	0
Pos	Driver		FUJ	SUZ1	AUT	SUG	MOT	MOT2	SUZ2	Points

External links

• Japanese Championship Super Formula official website