Super Formula (Japan)

[mikael]

Super Formula, the premier formula car  class of Japan (previously Formula Nippon) will be using the Dallara SF14 chassis for the fifth and final year in 2018.

The successor, Dallara SF19, was revealed in the autumn of '17. It's interesting to note that it does not feature a "halo" or anything similar - it isn't even mentioned in the news article (link given below). Instead, aerodynamic problems related to overtaking will be dealt with thoroughly for '19.

I'm sure that grid girls - a concept that Japan has embraced wholeheartedly, calling them instead for "racing queens" - will be present on the grid as well, both in '18 and in '19 - and beyond ;-)

Link to a description (in English) of the Dallara SF19:
superformula.net/sf/apf/ap/NList02.dll/?id=4178&code=NS023014 


Dallara SF19 for Japan's Super Formula (2019 - )

[chrisb]

Mikael, thank you for this, it certainly looks dramatic and dare I say exciting?

isn't there an irony here? re grid girls- , eco-freindly warriors of the future Formula E will use them and F1, dragons of a bygone misogynistic age won't - does that mean I am missing something?

[Carl]

Feb 10, 2018 6:26:34 GMT chrisb said:

Mikael, thank you for this, it certainly looks dramatic and dare I say exciting?

isn't there an irony here? re grid girls- , eco-freindly warriors of the future Formula E will use them and F1, dragons of a bygone misogynistic age won't - does that mean I am missing something?

Sir Chris,

You forget that rational good sense and racing are like fire and water.  The flame of reason was doused for years by Bernie and Max and this pathology still has momentum. 

It's possible Formula E feels it needs to have as many established traditions as possible rather than seem too progressive. But this makes sense and is probably not true. 

Cheers, Carl

 

[René]

That car looks very aggressive, I like it. The sharp lines and angles are very much like the styling we see on the newest Lexus and Toyota road cars.

As for the racing queens, Japan has its own customs and traditions so its not for us to judge I guess.

[charleselan]

Great thread Mikeal. I have been catching snippets of the highlights from 2017 on the quite new UK FreeSat channel by motorsport.com and it is good. The Japanese circuits are much better than the majority used in F1, some really challenging from what I have seen. Racing wise it is also good; the cars sound excellent and the driving standards are top quality. Many I would venture could hold their own in F1 and a few could be real stars, young Gasly of course is on his way and Andre Lotterer always impresses me but never had a half decent chance.

The very fact that the "toilet seat" is not even mentioned is pure heaven and the young ladies gracing the grid etc is a poke in the eye to the PC brigade.

[mikael]

Yesterday evening, on a Japanese TV channel, there was an interesting program that featured the "Super GT" series. But that turned out to be just an overture to the main topic, which was about the grid girls, or the "race queens", as they are called here. It was said that the Super GT races are just as much "race queen events" as they are motor races, and that the race queens are just as much the stars of the events as the drivers are. So it was kind of confirmed that they are not on their way out in Japanese racing, in spite of F1's abandonment of the grid girls. (This was discussed in the program too.)

An amusing episode was mentioned by the guest in the TV-studio (a guy of name Shu-ichi Wakisaka, former racer and present team owner - and husband to a race queen!): A certain girl (race queen) was assigned to the team owned by former F1 driver Aguri Suzuki. An important guest had arrived and this girl was standing nearby, so Suzuki-san asked her, "please make us a couple of cups of coffee, will you?"   "Why don't you make them yourself?" was the answer he got -- understood that, "I'm one of the stars here; I'm not your servant" ...

(In Japan, normally, such an answer is absolutely unthinkable - particularly when it's such an important person as Aguri Suzuki who's asking - so it was a very self-assured lady for sure ...)