After the season opener in Motegi had to be canceled due to safety concerns with the new car, the 2024 Super Formula Lights season finally gets underway this weekend at the Autopolis circuit in Hita. In this preview article you will get an overview of all the teams and their drivers, race calendar, pre-season tests and more.
Eleven drivers from three different teams are taking part in the first three races of the year. The B-Max Racing Team has split its six cars into four different teams: one car each will run under the names “JMS Racing Team” and “GNSY Racing”, two cars will be entered under the name “Team Dragon”, while Frederick and Koide will continue to compete under the name B-Max Racing Team.
B-Max Racing Team
Kaylen Frederick, Syun Koide
The official B-Max Racing Team is entering two drivers. Kaylen Frederick comes from FIA F3 to Super Formula Lights and will contest his first car races in Japan next weekend. The 21-year-old American-German dual national won the British Formula 3 Championship in 2020 with nine victories and three more podium finishes. During his time in FIA Formula 3, he never made it onto the podium. His best result was a fifth place in the sprint race at Silverstone in 2022. His team-mate Syun Koide already has one year of experience in the Super Formula Lights Championship. The 24-year-old Japanese driver from Higashiōsaka won the Japanese F4 Championship in 2022 with nine victories and a total of 12 podium finishes from 14 races. In the previous year, he had already won four races in Super Formula Lights as well. With four further podium finishes, he finished the championship in a strong third place.
Toda Racing
Souta Arao
Toda Racing will be on the grid this year with Honda Junior Souta Arao. In the past two years, the 18-year-old Japanese driver from Tokyo was still racing in Europe. In 2022, he contested his rookie season in the French F4, where he won two races, finished on the podium a further seven times and ended the championship in third place. In the previous year, he was not quite as successful in the British GB3 championship. His best results were two fifth places in Zandvoort and at Donington Park. He finished 17th in the overall standings.
TOM'S
Jin Nakamura, Seita Nonaka, Yuga Furutani, Rikuto Kobayashi
TOM'S is relying on two experienced drivers and two Super Formula Lights rookies for the 2024 season. Jin Nakamura was still racing in Japanese F4 last year and is contesting his first season in the Super Formula Lights championship this year. The 18-year-old Japanese driver from Chiba has won a total of four Formula 4 races in two years. After finishing fourth in the 2022 championship, he took the runner-up title in the drivers' championship last year with three wins and six further podium finishes. One of his team-mates for this season is Seita Nonaka. The 23-year-old Japanese driver from Saitama will be contesting his fourth year in Super Formula Lights in 2024. After three podium finishes and seventh place in the championship in his debut season in 2021, he took his first and so far only race win at the season opener at Fuji Speedway in 2022. He finished the championship in fourth place with eight further podium finishes. Last year, he again had to settle for four podium finishes and seventh place in the championship. Yuga Furutani will also be entering his third Super Formula Lights season in 2024. In 2022, he took six podiums and finished the championship in sixth place. Last year, the 23-year-old Japanese driver from Hiroshima only managed three podiums and eighth place in the overall standings. In 2021, he won the Formula Regional Japanese Championship with four victories and a total of ten podium finishes from 13 races. The team is completed this year by Rikuto Kobayashi. The 18-year-old Japanese driver from Yamagata is the reigning Japanese Formula 4 champion. The Toyota Junior won the championship last year with five victories and a total of nine podium finishes from 14 races.
Team Dragon
Rin Arakawa, "Dragon", Makoto Fujiwara
Team Dragon from B-Max Racing is starting the new season with two cars. Rin Arakawa is entering his first Super Formula Lights season after four years in the Japanese F4 championship. The 24-year-old Japanese driver won two races during his time in Formula 4 and finished on the podium a further 18 times. He even finished the 2021 championship as runner-up. Ryuji Kumita, better known by his pseudonym "Dragon", is the owner of B-Max Racing and namesake for "Team Dragon". The 57-year-old from Yokohama has been competing in the Masters Cup of the Japanese F3/Super Formula Lights since 2013. Makoto Fujiwara is not yet on the grid for the first weekend, but is nevertheless entered for the championship. The Masters Cup driver from Japan has already contested several races in the Independent Cup of the Japanese F4 Championship in recent years.
GNSY Racing
Yasuhiro Shimizu
GNSY Racing from B-Max will start with Masters Cup driver Yasuhiro Shimizu. The 41-year-old from Osaka used to compete in Super GT Japan in earlier years.
JMS Racing Team
Nobuhiro Imada
Masters Cup driver Nobuhiro Imada is competing for the JMS Racing Team from B-Max this year. The 59-year-old from Yamaguchi will start his fourth season in Super Formula Lights in 2024. Last year, he also took part in various Ferrari Challenge events.
This year, the season was once again set to consist of eighteen races, which will be held over six weekends on six different race tracks. After the season opener was cancelled, the organizers are still working on adding the missing three races back to the calendar. Four of the events will take place as part of the Super Formula Championship supporting program.
Cancelled: Mobility Resort Motegi, Motegi (26-28 April)
Round 1: Autopolis, Hita (17-19 May)
Round 2: Sportsland SUGO, Murata (21-23 June)
Round 3: Fuji Speedway, Oyama (19-21 July)
Round 4: Okayama International Circuit, Mimasaka (13-15 September)
Round 5: Suzuka International Circuit, Suzuka (8-10 November)
Round 6: TBA
Three races are held on each race weekend. Points are awarded for the best six from each race. Ten points are awarded for a win, seven points for second place, and five points for third place. From fourth to sixth place there are three, two and one points. In addition, there is one extra point each for the fastest lap and pole position.
P1: 10, P2: 7, P3: 5, P4: 3, P5: 2, P6: 1
The first test sessions with the new Dallara 324 car took place over four days in March. After two days at the Mobility Resort Motegi, testing continued more than two weeks later at the Fuji Speedway.
MOTEGI
On March 11, the first pre-season test for the start of the 2024 Super Formula Lights Championship began at Mobility Resort Motegi. On the first day, which was blessed with dry conditions, a three-hour session was held, with Rikuto Kobayashi setting the top time of 1m42.987s. Souta Arao followed just 0.012 seconds behind in second place. Jin Nakamura finished third, 0.115 seconds behind. Since stormy weather was forecasted for the afternoon of the second day, the time schedule was hastily changed. Session 2 was extended by one hour, and Session 3 was cancelled. Syun Koide set the fastest time on a rainy day with 1m57.197s, just 0.075 seconds ahead of his TOM'S teammate Jin Nakamura.
Results Session 1:
P1: Rikuto Kobayashi - TOM'S / 1m42.987s
P2: Souta Arao - Toda Racing / + 0.012s
P3: Jin Nakamura - TOM'S / + 0.115s
P4: Syun Koide - B-Max / + 0.134s
P5: Seita Nonaka - TOM'S / + 0.202s
P6: Yuga Furutani - TOM'S / + 0.239s
P7: Iori Kimura - Team Dragon / + 0.755s
P8: Daiki Sasaki - JMS Racing Team / + 1.756s
P9: Togo Suganami - Team Dragon / + 2.300s
P10: Kaylen Frederick - B-Max / + 2.532s
Results Session 2:
P1: Syun Koide - B-Max / 1m57.197s
P2: Jin Nakamura - TOM'S / + 0.075s
P3: Seita Nonaka - TOM'S / + 0.770s
P4: Souta Arao - Toda Racing / + 0.866s
P5: Kaylen Frederick - B-Max / + 0.935s
P6: Iori Kimura - Team Dragon / + 1.010s
P7: Yuga Furutani - TOM'S / + 1.175s
P8: Rikuto Kobayashi - TOM'S / + 1.336s
P9: Daiki Sasaki - JMS Racing Team / + 2.237s
P10: Togo Suganami - Team Dragon / + 3.046s
FUJI
The second joint test of the Super Formula Lights Championship was held at Fuji Speedway over the two days of March 26 and 27. Session 1 was cancelled due to heavy rain that fell throughout the day, but on Wednesday, the second day of testing, the weather was fine, and the cars completed a series of laps in sessions 2 and 3, each lasting two hours. In the first session in the morning, the TOM'S drivers were almost unbeatable. Rikuto Kobayashi set the fastest time with a 1m32.712s, closely followed by Seita Nonaka and Jin Nakamura. The second session in the afternoon was again more than a second quicker. Seita Nonaka was the fastest driver on the Fuji Speedway with a time of 1m32.648s. He was followed by Souta Arao and Rikuto Kobayashi by less than two tenths of a second.
Results Session 2:
P1: Rikuto Kobayashi - TOM'S / 1m32.712s
P2: Seita Nonaka - TOM'S / + 0.049s
P3: Jin Nakamura - TOM'S / + 0.115s
P4: Iori Kimura - Team Dragon / + 0.358s
P5: Yuga Furutani - TOM'S / + 0.478s
P6: Souta Arao - Toda Racing / + 0.481s
P7: Kaylen Frederick - B-Max / + 0.765s
P8: Syun Koide - B-Max / + 1.673s
P9: Togo Suganami - Team Dragon / + 2.541s
P10: Nobuhiro Imada - JMS Racing Team / + 3.226s
Results Session 3:
P1: Seita Nonaka - TOM'S / 1m32.648s
P2: Souta Arao - Toda Racing / + 0.149s
P3: Rikuto Kobayashi - TOM'S / + 0.163s
P4: Jin Nakamura - TOM'S / + 0.216s
P5: Yuga Furutani - TOM'S / + 0.505s
P6: Kaylen Frederick - B-Max / + 0.559s
P7: Togo Suganami - Team Dragon / + 1.357s
P8: Syun Koide - B-Max / + 1.566s
P9: Nobuhiro Imada - JMS Racing Team / + 2.659s
P10: Makoto Fujiwara - Team Dragon / + 2.825s
All races will be broadcast live with Japanese commentary on the Super Formula Lights YouTube channel.
As I already did last season, I dare to make a little prediction for this years SF Lights championships as well.
Drivers Championship Prediction
P1: Syun Koide
P2: Jin Nakamura
P3: Rikuto Kobayashi
P4: Seita Nonaka
P5: Kaylen Frederick
Syun Koide, Jin Nakamura and Rikuto Kobayashi are my favorites in the battle for the drivers' championship title. After a strong debut season and four victories last year, I think Syun Koide is slightly better than the two rookies Nakamura and Kobayashi at the moment. Behind them, Seita Nonaka, Yuga Furutani, Rin Arakawa and Kaylen Frederick will also regularly fight for podium places. I still rate Souta Arao as the least strong of all the non-Masters Cup drivers at the moment, but the testing has already looked promising and there is a lot to suggest that he can now really turn up the heat in his home country.
Teams Championship Prediction
P1: TOM'S
P2: B-Max Racing
P3: Team Dragon
The favorites to win the championship this year are probably the reigning champions from B-Max Racing. For me, however, team TOM'S will prevail this year, as they have the most stable driver pairing of all the teams. Behind them, Toda Racing and Team Dragon will probably duel for third place, with the better end for Rin Arakawa and Team Dragon.
written by Claudio Graf / 14th May, 2024