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Next month, Formula Nippon starts its pre-season tests, Suzuka will held a two day testing session, march 11th and 12th. After that Fuji will held another two day session in the end of the month, 28th and 29th.

The kick-off for the season will happen at april 17th at Suzuka. The teams are not complete yet, there is still some seats available and doubts of who's going to drive where. The Swift chassis goes for its 3rd seasn in the series, again with Toyota and Honda as engine suppliers.

2011 Formula Nippon Calendar

1st Round - April 16-17 - Suzuka Circuit
2nd Round - May 14-15 - Twin Ring Motegi
3rd Round - June 4-5 - Autopolis
4th Round - July 16-17 - Fuji Speedway
5th Round - August 6-7 - Twin Ring Motegi
6th Round - September 24-25 - Sportsland Sugo
7th Round - November 5-6 - Suzuka Circuit
Special Round - November 12-13 - Fuji Speedway

Confirmed Teams and Drivers

Real Racing-Honda: Takashi Kobayashi
Team Mugen-Honda: Naoki Yamamoto
Nakajima Racing-Honda: Daisuke Nakajima, Takashi Kogure
Docomo Team Dandelion Racing-Honda: Takuya Izawa, Kodai Tsukakoshi
Team Impul-Toyota: João Paulo de Oliveira, Kohei Hirate
TOMS'S-Toyota: Andre Lotterer, Kazuki Nakajima
Le Beausset-Toyota: Koki Saga


Team Le Mans, KCMG, Cerumo-Inging and Kondo still have their drivers to announce, the grid can grow to 17, 18 cars depending if the teams will run 2 cars or just one.

2010 Formula Nippon Season Review

2010 Formula Nippon Teams and Drivers

Docomo Team Dandelion Racing-Honda: #01 Loic Duval, #02 Takuya Izawa
Kondo Racing-Toyota*: #03 Tsugio Matsuda
Team LeMans-Toyota: #07 Kei Cozzolino, #08 Hiroaki Ishiura
HFDP Racing-Honda: #10 Kodai Tsukakoshi
Motul Team-Honda: #16 Yuji Ide
KCMG-Toyota: #18 Katsuyuki Hiranaka
Mobil 1 Team Impul-Toyota: #19 João Paulo de Oliveira, #20 Kohei Hirate
Deliziefollie/Cerumo-Inging-Toyota: #29 Takuto Iguchi
Nakajima Racing-Honda: #31 Naoki Yamamoto, #32 Takashi Kogure
Petronas Team TOM'S #36 Andre Lotterer, #37 Kazuya Oshima

*Kondo Racing did not take part in the first 3 races of the season


2010 Formula Nippon Calendar

Round 01 - April 17-18 - Suzuka Circuit
Round 02 - May 22-23 - Twin Ring Motegi
Round 03 - July 17-18 - Fuji Speedway
Round 04 - August 07-08 - Twin Ring Motegi
Round 05 - September 25-26 - Sportsland Sugo
Round 06 - October 16-17 - Autopolis
Round 07 - November 06-07 - Suzuka Circuit*
Special Round - November 13-14 - Fuji Speedway**

* The last round at Suzuka had two races, with a different scoring system
** Non-championship race

2010 Formula Nippon Drivers Standings

01 - João Paulo de Oliveira - 47,5 pts
02 - Andre Lotterer - 43 pts
03 - Loic Duval - 39,5 pts
04 - Takashi Kogure - 38 pts
05 - Kohei Hirate - 25,5 pts
06 - Kazuya Oshima - 24 pts
07 - Naoki Yamamoto - 20,5 pts
08 - Hiroaki Ishiura - 16 pts
09 - Kodai Tsukakoshi - 09 pts
10 - Kei Cozzolino - 08 pts
11 - Takuya Izawa - 07 pts
12 - Katsuyuki Hiranaka - 04 pts
13 - Takuto Iguchi - 03 pts
14 - Yuji Ide - 01 pt
15 - Tsugio Matsuda - 01 pt


2010 Formula Nippon Teams Standings

01 - Mobil 1 Team Impul - 68 pts
02 - Petronas Team TOM'S - 67 pts
03 - Nakajima Racing - 56,5 pts
04 - Docomo Team Dandelion Racing - 40,5 pts
05 - Team LeMans - 19 pts
06 - HFDP Racing - 09 pts
07 - KCMG - 04 pts
08 - Deliziefollie/Cerumo-Inging - 03 pts
09 - Kondo Racing - 01 pt
10 - Motul Team - 01 pt

For who wants to see what the cars looks like, here is the photos of the 2010 season cars...

#01 Loic Duval - Docomo Team Dandelion Racing



#02 Takuya Izawa - Docomo Team Dandelion Racing



#07 Kei Cozzolino - Team LeMans



#08 Hiroaki Ishiura - Team LeMans



#10 Kodai Tsukakoshi - HFDP Racing



#16 Yuji Ide - Motul Team



#18 Katsuyuki Hiranaka - KCMG



#19 João Paulo de Oliveira - Mobil 1 Team Impul



#20 Kohei Hirate - Mobil 1 Team Impul



#29 Takuto Iguchi - Deliziefollie/Cerumo-Inging



#31 Naoki Yamamoto - Nakajima Racing



#32 Takashi Kogure - Nakajima Racing



#36 Andre Lotterer - Petronas Team TOM'S



#37 Kazuya Oshima - Petronas Team TOM'S

That's really cool. Hope Suzuki makes an attempt with engines in this series one day, it would be cool If we saw Honda, Toyota, Suzuki, Mazda and etc.

JP Oliveira rules!

There are great engine suppliers in Japan, Nissan and Yamaha would be a very nice option too, Yamaha is experieced, they have made engines for Formula 1 in the past, not strong ones, but still, they have the experience of F1 and that's really important, and Nissan is really strong in SuperGT. Japan is fantastic.

Formula Nippon organizers has announced that in 2012 a KERS system will be used in the series, and a new race will be in the calendar, Singapore. A new circuit will be build to host a Formula Nippon race, it will be the first Formula Nippon race outside Japan since Malaysia 2004.

The entry list for 2011 season was revealed, the only team who hasn't announced its driver is Kondo Racing, but it seems to be very close to a final agreement with Milos Pavlovic, who's testing for the team at Suzuka in the pre-season tests, soon the times of the first day at Suzuka...


#01 João Paulo de Oliveira - Team Impul
#02 Kohei Hirate - Team Impul
#03 TBA - Kondo Racing
#07 Kazuya Oshima - Team LeMans
#08 Hiroaki Ishiura - Team KYGNUS SUNOCO
#10 Takashi Kobayashi - Real Racing
#16 Naoki Yamamoto - Team Mugen
#18 Alexandre Imperatore - SGC by KCMG
#31 Daisuke Nakajima - Nakajima Racing
#32 Takashi Kogure - Nakajima Racing
#33 Yuji Kunimoto - Project μ/Cerumo-Inging
#36 Andre Lotterer - Petronas Team TOM'S
#37 Kazuki Nakajima - Petronas Team TOM'S
#40 Takuya Izawa - DoCoMo Team Dandelion Racing
#41 Kodai Tsukakoshi - DoCoMo Team Dandelion Racing
#62 Koki Saga - Le Beausset Motorsports

Due to the horrible situation in Japan, Some cancellations are prononced, like the Okayama round and the officials tests in Super GT?

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Motorsport Lover since 1988
First TBK member to post it with a wiimote

The first round at Suzuka has been postponed to May and races at Motegi postponed indefinitely, as far as I understood from a Google translation of the official site.

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"IT'S CHAOS! ABSOLUTE CHAOS!"

Season first round at Suzuka coming up to May 14~15.
Still unknown who driving Kondo Rancing's car.

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"Brake? Whats that? Is it Delicious?"

Kondo Racing annunced Andrea Caldarelli wii drive Car#3.

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"Brake? Whats that? Is it Delicious?"

Cool! I really wasn't expecting that!

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"IT'S CHAOS! ABSOLUTE CHAOS!"

Kohei hirate crashed heavily during testing session, this photo is not mine, thanks for who caught this.

WOW!! He almost flipped it!

PS: It's great to see you again in the forums Yuya, it has been a long long time since we spoke last time, hope to see you more often around here.

I can't see the image

I had the same issue, try to copy the url to your browser, when you load the image there it will appear in the forums too.

Cheers

Formula Nippon is providing an official live stream, qualifying is on... http://www.ustream.tv/channel/fnf3fcj

Naoki Yamamoto just took the pole position for the first Formula Nippon race in the 2011 season.

What time does the race start?

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"Indy doesn't give you a second chance. You have to earn it."