2015 Japanese Championship Super Formula

[Bo]

Seeing as the new season started last weekend, I may as well start a thread for it.

The season schedule is as follows:

Suzuka - April 19
Okayama - May 24
Fuji - July 19
Motegi - August 23
Autopolis - September 13
SUGO - October 18
Suzuka - November 8

Race one was fantastic, although Lotterer checked out well and truly from the start, Yamamoto's pressure on Nakajima was relentless, until his engine went on the last lap. Even more impressive was Rossiter's defense on 43 lap old tyres, but ran out of fuel from 4th with 2 corners to go.

Here are qualifying and race highlights:

 

[SagarisGTB]

Naoki

He's had no luck since becoming champion.

 

[Bo]

Buller's foray looked a little tentative to begin with, certainly didn't put up much of a fight from the round of stops, but he bedded in fairly nicely after that and picked up some pace.

Even though it was out of misfortune, Karthikeyan's podium really wasn't something anyone expected. I don't know whether it was a fluke, since his rhythm and consistency was never there in such a manner over at IMPUL, or whether he's just clicked with Dandelion. Okayama will tell, but I'd like to start some discussion on that.

 

[ASSCVCCS]

Haven't even acknowledged this discipline since the old Formula Nippon game for the PS1. I just found it after browsing Wikipedia and wondering "What's Kamui Kobayashi up to?".

Having just watched the last round, I may start following Super Formula now, because that was really entertaining. Maybe it's because the last bit of motorsport I watched was the Chinese GP, but still.

 

[Bo]

Breaking news - Bridgestone are to leave the series after 20 years of partnership, and will be replaced by Yokohama.

 

[jake2013guy]

Is it me or do these cars look like the Project CARS Formula B car?

 

[Bo]

Is it me or do these cars look like the Project CARS Formula B car?

Entirely possible. I don't know what performance levels the Formula B cars have though. If it's around 3-ish seconds off F1, then they probably are based off them.

 

[DK]

Looks more like a GP2 car to me.

 

[JockeP22]

Yamamoto's pressure on Nakajima was relentless

Is that Sakon?
I didn't know he was still active.

 

[Bo]

Is that Sakon?
I didn't know he was still active.

Naoki. Or as my phone wishes to put it, Naomi.

 

[Bo]

Breaking news - Bridgestone are to leave the series after 20 years of partnership, and will be replaced by Yokohama.

Yokohamas have been tested within the past 24 hours.

 

[trustjab]

Going to be interesting to see who replaces Kazuki Nakajima and if Kobayashi makes it back in time to the next round from his Toyota lmp1 test at Spa.

 

[Bo]

Okayama entry list:

1 Kazuya Oshima 28 Gunma, Japan
PETRONAS TEAM TOM’S

PETRONAS TOM’S SF14 TOYOTA
RI4A

2 Andre Lotterer 33 Germany
PETRONAS TEAM TOM’S

PETRONAS TOM’S SF14 TOYOTA
RI4A

3 James Rossiter 31 United Kingdom
KONDO RACING

FUJI×D'station KONDO SF14 TOYOTA
RI4A

4 William Buller 22 United Kingdom
KONDO RACING

FUJI×D'station KONDO SF14 TOYOTA
RI4A

7 Ryo Hirakawa 21 Hiroshima, Japan
KYGNUS SUNOCO Team LeMans

ACHIEVEMENT Team KYGNUS SUNOCO SF14 TOYOTA
RI4A

8 Kamui Kobayashi 28 Hyogo, Japan
KYGNUS SUNOCO Team LeMans

Team KYGNUS SUNOCO SF14 TOYOTA
RI4A

10 Koudai Tsukakoshi 28 Tochigi, Japan
REAL RACING

REAL SF14 HONDA
HR-414E

11 Takuya Izawa 30 Tokyo, Japan
REAL RACING

REAL SF14 HONDA
HR-414E

16 Naoki Yamamoto 26 Tochigi, Japan
TEAM MUGEN

TEAM MUGEN SF14 HONDA
HR-414E

18 Yuichi Nakayama 23 Tokyo, Japan
KCMG

KCMG Elyse SF14 TOYOTA
RI4A

19 Joao Paulo de Oliveira 33 Brazil
LENOVO TEAM IMPUL

LENOVO TEAM IMPUL SF14 TOYOTA
RI4A

20 Andrea Caldarelli 25 Italy
LENOVO TEAM IMPUL

LENOVO TEAM IMPUL SF14 TOYOTA
RI4A

34 Takashi Kogure 34 Gunma, Japan
DRAGO CORSE

DRAGO CORSE SF14 HONDA
HR-414E

38 Hiroaki Ishiura 33 Tokyo, Japan
P.MU/CERUMO · INGING

P.MU/CERUMO · INGING SF14 TOYOTA
RI4A

39 Yuji Kunimoto 24 Kanagawa, Japan
P.MU/CERUMO · INGING

P.MU/CERUMO · INGING SF14 TOYOTA
RI4A

40 Tomoki Nojiri 25 Ibaraki, Japan
DOCOMO TEAM DANDELION RACING

DOCOMO DANDELION M40S SF14 HONDA
HR-414E

41 Narain Karthikeyan 38 India
DOCOMO TEAM DANDELION RACING

DOCOMO DANDELION M41Y SF14 HONDA
HR-414E

64 Daisuke Nakajima 26 Aichi, Japan
NAKAJIMA RACING

NAKAJIMA RACING SF14 HONDA
HR-414E

65 Bertrand Baguette 29 Belgium
NAKAJIMA RACING

NAKAJIMA RACING SF14 HONDA
HR-414E

 

[SagarisGTB]

Ishiura on pole at Okayama, Nojiri 2nd, Yamamoto only 3rd. The biggest surprise has to be Lotterer being eliminated in the mad scramble at the end of Q2. Nakayama spun and stalled which forced a red flag with less than two minutes to go.

This is Q3. Q1 and Q2 are also available on the same youtube channel.

 

[trustjab]

Kobayashi qualified 4th. Hes not familiar with most these circuits and hes a 'rookie', so I think thats impressive to be that high up.

 

[Bo]

Race starting soon. TOM'S strategy will be interesting.

 

[SagarisGTB]

The top Hondas are just too slow off the line (again). Nojiri and Yamamoto's races are compromised stuck behind Kobayashi.

 

[Bo]

Buller got swamped horribly. I'd like a lap 1 onboard from him. Oliveira also looks like he's chewing up his tyres trying to get up to Ishiura.

Caldarelli pits, could be a sign of what they want to do with JP.

 

[SagarisGTB]

Rossiter out.

 

[Bo]

Well this has livened up quite considerably.

 

[SagarisGTB]

Ishiura won, Kobayashi a popular second. Not a bad race for Okayama.

 

[Bo]

I think Kobayashi killed his only shot with that half dive. Should've waited just one more lap. Ishiura had him covered completely on OTS.

Well deserved for Ishiura though. £21k for the win too.

 

[mustafur]

Kobayashi qualified 4th. Hes not familiar with most these circuits and hes a 'rookie', so I think thats impressive to be that high up.

Well yes, in reality he is very much a European based Japanese driver, apart from karting he has done next to no racing in Japan.

His first Time racing at Suzuka for example was actually in 2010 in F1.

 

[Bo]

Motegi tomorrow. Ishiura on top, more pain for Rossiter.

 

[Bo]

Sorry for double post, but here's a roundup of the weekend so far with an eye on tomorrow. Start time is 6am for the Brits. I hope we'll get a few people following it, should be a cracker. 👍

 

[catamount39]

Man I should have found this series sooner, these cars are fantastic!

 

[Bo]

I really would like to see more from Buller. He has the potential, but something isn't clicking at all with the car.

 

[SagarisGTB]

Naoki-kun wins!

Well done to Ishiura for taking the championship. Really solid, though unexpected, season from him.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

The season schedule is as follows:

Suzuka - April 19
Okayama - May 24
Fuji - July 19
Motegi - August 23
Autopolis - September 13
SUGO - October 18
Suzuka - November 8

For such a good series, it's a shame it's got such a short calendar. Especially when there is so much potential for expansion: Mokpo and Inje in South Korea, Zhuhai and Shanghai in China, Sepang in Malaysia, Buriram in Thailand and Buddh in India.

 

[Bo]

Ishiura has been an utter class act from start to finish. Consistent from the get-go, solid strategies, no errors. Fully deserving of the title.

For such a good series, it's a shame it's got such a short calendar. Especially when there is so much potential for expansion: Mokpo and Inje in South Korea, Zhuhai and Shanghai in China, Sepang in Malaysia, Buriram in Thailand and Buddh in India.

There are several drivers, and key personnel in teams, who have to double up with Super GT though - that makes 16 big race weekends to manage. Any expansion would have to be very carefully planned.