Japanese Formula 3 Championship

Category	Single seaters
Country	Japan
Inaugural season	1979
Folded	2019
Constructors	Dallara
Engine suppliers	Toyota-TOM'S Mugen-Honda TODA Racing
Tyre suppliers	Yokohama
Last Drivers' champion	Sacha Fenestraz
Last Teams' champion	B-Max Racing with Motopark
Official website	www.j-formula3.com

Japanese Formula 3 Championship (全日本F3選手権, Zen'nihon F3 Senshuken) was a national motor racing championship that takes place in Japan. It is a junior-level feeder formula that uses small single seater Formula Three chassis.

As a result of Formula 3 naming regulations by the FIA, on 13 August 2019, series promoter Japan Race Promotion (jp), split from the Regional Formula 3 formula and rebranded their series as Super Formula Lights to comply with FIA regulations, and remain as the Super Formula feeder championship since the series is prohibited from using "Formula 3" (which belongs to the FIA for the European-based FIA Formula 3 Championship) and "Formula Regional" (which all regional Formula 3 series are being renamed by the 2020 season, first with the Formula Regional European Championship in 2019 for Europe, and the renaming of the North American F3 championship from Formula 3 Americas to Formula Regional Americas Championship). The Series will adopt Euroformula Open Championship regulations.^[1]

Subsequently, the FIA awarded rights to a Formula Regional championship in Japan to K2, promoters of the F4 Japanese Championship, which will name their series the Formula Regional Japanese Championship.

With the rebranding of the series to Super Formula Lights, the Japanese Formula 3 championship officially ended after 41 years. The Japan Formula 3 Association will continue to run the new championship as stated on 28 February 2020.^[2][3]

History

The first Formula Three championship to take place in Japan was held by Nippon Formula 3 Association (Japanese Formula 3 Association) in 1979, which was won by Toshio Suzuki. By 1981, it had evolved into a national-level series, the Japanese Championship, and was organised by the Japan Automobile Federation (JAF).

Foreign drivers' participation has increased since the 1980s and the majority of champions have been foreign since the beginning of the 1990s.

Since 2008 a two-tier championship system was adopted as a bid to increase driver and team participation. The "Championship" class was open to cars conforming to the current three-year cycle, whilst the lower tier "National" class was open to cars meeting the previous three-year cycle and using the spec Toyota engine.

Prior to the changing of super license requirements for the 2016 Formula One season onward, the series used to be one of the four major Formula Three championships that guaranteed the winner an FIA Super Licence.^[4] Under the new requirements the winner of the championship earns 10 points towards their super license, with drivers finishing from 2nd to 5th in the final standings receiving a smaller number of points.^[5]

Equipment

Like most Formula Three championships, competitors in the Japanese Championship are permitted to use any eligible chassis.

• Chassis:

  Only Dallara chassis have been used since 2007. In the past, March, Reynard, Ralt, and Japanese manufacturers like TOM'S and Dome also had supplied chassis.

• Engines:

  Engines are supplied by Toyota-TOM'S, Mugen-Honda, Toda Racing and ThreeBond (Nissan). Volkswagen, HKS (Mitsubishi), Fiat and Opel had previously supplied engines.

• Tyres:

  Hankook will supply tyres in 2009 as the series' sole supplier.^[6] Bridgestone, Dunlop and Yokohama had supplied tyres until 1987. In 1988, Bridgestone took place of the series' sole tyre supplier and supplied until 2008.

Champions

Season	Champion	Team Champion	National Class Champion
1979 [ja]	Toshio Suzuki	Heros Racing	not held
1980 [ja]	Shuroko Sasaki [ja]	Gallop Racing
1981 [ja]	Osamu Nakako	Hayashi Racing [ja]
1982 [ja]	Kengo Nakamoto [ja]	Hayashi Racing [ja]
1983 [ja]	Yoshimasa Fujiwara [ja]	Umeda Racing
1984	Shuji Hyoudo	Hayashi Racing [ja]
1985	Koji Sato [ja]	Le Garage Cox Racing
1986	Akio Morimoto	LeMans Company
1987	Ross Cheever	TOM'S
1988	Akihiko Nakaya	Le Garage Cox Racing
1989	Masahiko Kageyama	Leyton House Racing
1990	Naoki Hattori	Le Garage Cox Racing
1991	Paulo Carcasci	TOM'S
1992 [ja]	Anthony Reid	Tomei Sport [ja]
1993	Tom Kristensen	TOM'S
1994	Michael Krumm	TOM'S
1995	Pedro de la Rosa	TOM'S
1996	Juichi Wakisaka	Nakajima Racing
1997	Tom Coronel	TOM'S
1998 [ja]	Peter Dumbreck	TOM'S
1999 [ja]	Darren Manning	TOM'S
2000	Sébastien Philippe	Mugen Dome Project
2001	Benoît Tréluyer	TOM'S
2002	Takashi Kogure	Dome Racing Team
2003	James Courtney	TOM'S
2004	Ronnie Quintarelli	Inging
2005	João Paulo de Oliveira	TOM'S
2006	Adrian Sutil	TOM'S
2007	Kazuya Oshima	TOM'S
2008	Carlo van Dam	TOM'S	Hideki Yamauchi
2009	Marcus Ericsson	TOM'S	Naoki Yamamoto
2010	Yuji Kunimoto	TOM'S	Takashi Kobayashi
2011	Yuhi Sekiguchi	ThreeBond Racing	Katsumasa Chiyo
2012	Ryo Hirakawa	RSS	Daiki Sasaki
2013	Yuichi Nakayama	TOM'S	Mitsunori Takaboshi
2014	Nobuharu Matsushita	TOM'S	Hiroshi Koizumi [ja]
2015	Nick Cassidy	TOM'S	Ryo Ogawa
2016	Kenta Yamashita	TOM'S	Yoshiaki Katayama
2017	Mitsunori Takaboshi	B-MAX Racing Team	'Dragon'
2018	Sho Tsuboi	TOM'S	Jake Parsons
2019	Sacha Fenestraz	B-Max Racing Team with Motopark	'Dragon'