Formula Nippon

[tomasengefan]

What kind of impression do you have to "Formula Nippon"?
Please tell me.

[gomick]

seems competitive when you see the qualifying times.....think the racing would be like f3000 - difficult to overtake, but possible.

doesnt seem to get much recognition lately, but ralf schumacher, frentzen and eddie irvine have all raced in the series

[tomasengefan]

Thank you for the reply.
Do you think that the level of driver decreases?

[gomick]

its hard to say considering that there are a lot of drivers in f1/cart/f3000 etc who only get there drives by bringing in big sponsorship $$$$ - saying that japanese drivers won british/german & french formula 3 championships this year

[Speeedo]

Nippon was designed to act as a feeder for Jap F1 drivers in the mid 90's. Obviously it didnt work. They have big budgets, are quicker than F3000, but the only hitch is if you are a non-jap, forget about winning the c'ship.

[tomasengefan]

gomick,who do you think the capable Japanese driver except for F3 winners?

[tomasengefan]

Thank you for the reply,Speeedo.
Why do you think that if you are a non-jap, forget about winning the c'ship?
Until now,Non-Jap is champion,too?

[formula-3000net]

Originally posted by Speeedo
Nippon was designed to act as a feeder for Jap F1 drivers in the mid 90's. Obviously it didnt work. They have big budgets, are quicker than F3000, but the only hitch is if you are a non-jap, forget about winning the c'ship.

Unless you are Ralf Schumacher, Pedro de la Rosa, Tom Coronel, Marco Apicella....

The difference is that if you are European and win F Nippon, you go to Formula One, but if you are Japanese you stay in F Nippon (with the exception of Ukyo Katayama).

[tomasengefan]

Hello,formula-3000net.
Do you think the difference what to be a cause?

[gomick]

tora takagi won formula nippon in 2000 after spending a year in formula 1 - raced in CART this year and did better than shinji nakano, tora might get another year in CART next year

i dont know much about satoshi motoyama, but he is now a 2-time champion in f-nippon.....maybe he is to old to race in europe

formula nippon champions

there are a few non-japanese championship winners in this list

[ABHIJIT ABRAHAM]

what speed o means it the fact that most drivers driving nippon stay in the serise for a while before thy win
learning tracks is tough due to lack of testing time forigen drivers also suffer from comunication problems
narain in particular cant stomach the food i think lol so he lives in india and flies out before races
learns the track as he qualifies
well the results are up there for one to see

[Speeedo]

What we plan often doesnt happen. Same with F Nippon organisers. This series was started for getting Japs into F1. Obviously conditions for foreigners were made difficult. So when guys like Ralf and Pedro won this c'ship, they were immediately recognised in Europe and got into F1. Hence even the F1 bosses realising how dificult it is for a non-Jap to win Nippon. Narain's failure is a good example Abhijit.

[tomasengefan]

I agree that conditions for foreigners were made difficult.
But Tom Coronel(he is Formula Nippon champion too)couldn't get into F1.
So I don't agree that non-Jap champion were immediately recognised in Europe.

By the way,I sympathizes with the conditions that Narain is left.

[Fan]

I went to a Formula Nippon race this year and it is indeed very proffesional. The cars are quick and quality of drivers generally good. GT's is more popular in Japan so the crowds are relativly small, but probably the same as a European F3000 race.

Can't say I agree with Speeedo about a non-Jap not being able to win the championship, Tom Coronel won it a couple of years ago and Firman would have been up there this year if his car had been more reliable. Motoyama this year was very consistant and deserved the championship. Hattori and Firman both won races and kept him on his toes. Europeans tend to struggle as most teams can't afford much testing and the language barrier doesn't help. Should be a couple of interesting European drivers in the series next year so worth keeping an eye on.