Formula Racing
Japan's Super Formula cars explained
We reveal the tech secrets behind the powerful Japanese single seaters as reigning GP2 champion Pierre Gasly prepares to make his Super Formula debut.
Up-and-coming single-seater drivers have been plying their trade in Japan for years now. In the early 1990s, future F1 racers like Eddie Irvine, Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Mika Salo were all making a decent living racing in the Japanese Formula 3000 series, a championship which later morphed into Formula Nippon before being rechristened the Japanese Super Formula Championship.
In recent years, we’ve seen top talent like Stoffel Vandoorne, André Lotterer and Kamui Kobayashi competing in Super Formula, while this year, reigning GP2 champion Pierre Gasly will make his debut in the series with Team Mugen.
Over in Europe, though, we’re still a little bit in the dark about what Super Formula actually is. So to explain more about the cars that race in the series, hover over the buttons on Pierre Gasly’s Team Mugen machine below to find out its vital statistics, and see how it compares to an F1 car.
Super Formula at a glance…
- Series launched: 2013 (formerly Formula Nippon)
- Cars: Dallara SF14 chassis powered by turbocharged 2.0-litre Honda or Toyota four-cylinder engines producing around 550bhp
- Notable drivers for 2017: Pierre Gasly, Kamui Kobayashi, Kazuki Nakajima, Jann Mardenborough, André Lotterer, Narain Karthikeyan
- Circuits for 2017 season: Suzuka, Okayama, Fuji, Twin Ring Motegi, Autopolis, Sportsland SUGO
- 2016 champion: Yuji Kunimoto