2009 Formula Nippon Championship

META4 · 12 Feb 2009, 21:48 (Ref:2396413)

As it has been announced for a while already the Formula Nippon will switch from Lola to Swift in 2009. Toyota and Honda will be back as engine suppliers with new 3.4L Engine,600Hp and Bridgestone as tyre supplier.

Further informations

http://www.f-nippon.co.jp/fn_eng/news/09-11jrpe.html

Today Docomo Dandelion comfirmed Richard Lyon and Takuya Izawa

Provisional Entry list

C : Comfirmed
L: Likely
? : Possible

Impul (Toyota) : 3 Cars
Tsugio Matsuda (C)
Benoît Tréluyer (C)
Kohei Hirate (C)

5Zigen (Honda) : 1 Car
Toshihiro Kaneishi (?)
Yuji Ide (?)
Satoshi Motoyama (?)

Team Le Mans (Toyota) : 2 Cars
Hiroaki Ishiura (P)
Keisuke Kunimoto (P)

Cerumo/Inging (Toyota) : 1 Car
Yuji Tachikawa (?)
Ronnie Quintarelli (?)

Nakajima Racing (Honda) : 2 Cars
Loïc Duval (C)
Takashi Kogure (C)

TOM'S (Toyota) : 2 Cars
Kazuya Oshima (P)
André Lotterer (P)

Dandelion (Honda) : 2 Cars
Takuya Izawa (C)
Richard Lyons (C)

Real Racing (Honda) : 1 or 2 Cars
Kodai Tsukakoshi (P)
Toshihiro Kaneishi (?)
Yuji Ide (?)

First Colective test will be held from 17Th of February to 20Th of February at Fuji Speedway

Lam Pak · 13 Feb 2009, 11:54 (Ref:2396751)

few foreigners. nippon not atractive. well state.

META4 · 13 Feb 2009, 12:07 (Ref:2396753)

yes, brazilian drivers like De Oliveira and Streit disapeared
Kondo Racing as well...

**chunterer** · 16 Feb 2009, 17:12 (Ref:2398581)

What about Yamamoto?

He'll be after a decent drive if he can't get a full time GP2 season?

META4 · 16 Feb 2009, 17:36 (Ref:2398591)

Quote:

Originally Posted by chunterer

What about Yamamoto?

He'll be after a decent drive if he can't get a full time GP2 season?

Yes he could bring some cash on the grid ...

mountainstar · 16 Feb 2009, 18:00 (Ref:2398601)

Can't wait to see these cars in action.

Japanese Samurai · 18 Feb 2009, 12:24 (Ref:2399593)

New car's test photos!
http://uproda11.2ch-library.com/src/11160191.jpg
http://uproda11.2ch-library.com/src/11160193.jpg
http://uproda11.2ch-library.com/src/11160194.jpg
The lamp of the roll bar shows that the over take mode operates.

Japanese Samurai · 18 Feb 2009, 12:59 (Ref:2399613)

Sorry, direct link cannot be done.
ttp://uproda11.2ch-library.com/src/11160207.jpg
ttp://uproda11.2ch-library.com/src/11160212.jpg
ttp://uproda11.2ch-library.com/src/11160217.jpg
ttp://uproda11.2ch-library.com/src/11160228.jpg

notguilty · 19 Feb 2009, 04:36 (Ref:2400036)

why does Motoyama keep jumping teams? He won with Impul and then he jumped around to 5zigen and the Impul satelite team and hasn't really been as good as he is in SuperGT. He's won two SuperGT titles in the same period of time he has yet to win a single Nippon title and he once won them both in the same year. His actions confuse me.

Alex K · 19 Feb 2009, 10:01 (Ref:2400119)

For money?

Japanese Samurai · 19 Feb 2009, 10:11 (Ref:2400127)

Motoyama doesn't participate in Formula Nippon this year.
Honda announced this year's motor sports activity today.
The number of machines of Honda Engine has decreased to five.

Nakajima Racing
31 Loic Duval
32 Takashi Kogure
DOCOMO TEAM DANDELION RACING
40 Richard Lyons
41 Takuya Izawa
HFDP RACING
10 Kodai Tsukakoshi

SALEEN S7R · 19 Feb 2009, 20:51 (Ref:2400437)

Slightly off topic but I had a quick look around on youtube and found this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPzeg...eature=related - At around 1:55 in it changes and you get lots of nice on board footage, the car seems fast, just a shame about the wings. Personally I prefer the outgoing Lola for looks. Hopefully there will be somewhere we can see some sort of coverage of this years championship, havent had anything here for the last few years.

**gomick** · 21 Feb 2009, 23:36 (Ref:2401576)

great looking cars - leave the indycars for dead...

runshaw · 22 Feb 2009, 12:26 (Ref:2401799)

I prefer the older cars, but these look great. I'm surprised Kodai Tsukakoshi is back in Japan already, he's quite clearly proven his talent in Europe last year. Did he have budget problems? He stated that he wanted to continue in the F3 Euroseries in 2009. Would FNippon cars match the pace of GP2 cars?

SALEEN S7R · 22 Feb 2009, 13:07 (Ref:2401814)

Quote:

Originally Posted by runshaw

I prefer the older cars, but these look great. I'm surprised Kodai Tsukakoshi is back in Japan already, he's quite clearly proven his talent in Europe last year. Did he have budget problems? He stated that he wanted to continue in the F3 Euroseries in 2009. Would FNippon cars match the pace of GP2 cars?

Going by the test times from Fuji and comparing them to last years F1 pole time and then comparing any GP2 pole time to the F1 pole time I would say no.

2008 F1 pole time at Fuji: 1:18.404
Formula Nippon 2009 leading test time: 1:32.173
Differnce: 13.7 seconds.

Now comparing the GP2 pole time at a similar track, Barcelona for example.

2008 F1 pole time at Barcelona: 1:21.813
GP2 Pole time at Barcelona: 1:27.547
Differnce: 5.7 seconds.

Going by those lap times I would say the new Nippon cars are closer to that of say A1 GP in terms of pace.

META4 · 22 Feb 2009, 17:52 (Ref:2401939)

not sure where you got the lap time of 1.32.173 ... but the best time of the testings last week at fuji has been set by Benoit Treluyer in 1.24.141 with the new car.

http://www.f-nippon.co.jp/news/09pr_test.html

SALEEN S7R · 22 Feb 2009, 23:01 (Ref:2402057)

The 1:32.173 I used was that posted by Swede9 here on this thread. However after seeing the article you have posted it appears I was wrong. Judging by the test times it looks very much like the new Nippon car could well be faster than the current GP2 machinery. Now all the series needs is some decent international tv coverage.

Roninho · 23 Feb 2009, 11:25 (Ref:2402338)

Why did they chose to come up with new cars? Didn't Nippon have a new chassis in like 2006?

It's not like F-Nippon has 30 cars on the grid all full of sponsorship, so the costs of new cars after 3 years seems like an unnecessary cost?!

swede9 · 23 Feb 2009, 17:48 (Ref:2402572)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Roninho

Why did they chose to come up with new cars? Didn't Nippon have a new chassis in like 2006?

It's not like F-Nippon has 30 cars on the grid all full of sponsorship, so the costs of new cars after 3 years seems like an unnecessary cost?!

The current cars were from 2003 they had an aero update in 2006, this update included going from flat bottom to tunnels. This years increase form 3.0 to 3.4 motors required a stronger drivetrain.

META4 · 23 Feb 2009, 18:01 (Ref:2402581)

Quote:

Originally Posted by swede9

The current cars were from 2003 they had an aero update in 2006, this update included going from flat bottom to tunnels. This years increase form 3.0 to 3.4 motors required a stronger drivetrain.

Sorry but that is wrong, cars used in the last 3 years (from 2006) in formula Nippon were completly different cars than the ones running from 2003.

I mean monocoques and engines were completly new packages.Nt only a new aero package

Of course for a company like Lola it is easier to build up a new car on the one built before. In fact B02/50 was an "evolution" of the B99/50 which was also an "evolution" of the T96/50 for the formula 3000 cars.

Same logic goes for the Formula Nippon cars.

swede9 · 26 Feb 2009, 18:47 (Ref:2404807)

Quote:

Originally Posted by META4

Sorry but that is wrong, cars used in the last 3 years (from 2006) in formula Nippon were completly different cars than the ones running from 2003.

I mean monocoques and engines were completly new packages.Nt only a new aero package

Of course for a company like Lola it is easier to build up a new car on the one built before. In fact B02/50 was an "evolution" of the B99/50 which was also an "evolution" of the T96/50 for the formula 3000 cars.

Same logic goes for the Formula Nippon cars.

Yes you are correct, my mistake.

There were new cars in 2006 (Lola B06/51) the main differance was the Aero Package / Bodywork. Suspension & GBX were the same. The chassis was slightly modified to accept the IRL based motors upper mounting location.

META4 · 13 Mar 2009, 12:45 (Ref:2414879)

Motegi Test Result

1-Lotterer Tom's 1.33.917
2-Matsuda Team Impul 1.34.095
3-Kogure Team Nakajima 1.34.141
4-Duval Team Nakajima 1.34.173
5- Ishiura Team Lemans 1.34.235
6-Treluyer Team Impul 1.34.322
...
10- Richard Lyons Team Docomo 1.35.081

Only 13 cars on the track

Mekola · 23 Mar 2009, 05:24 (Ref:2422440)

We're near first round of the championship, at Fuji, next April 5th.

Japanese Samurai · 1 Apr 2009, 09:54 (Ref:2430416)

Car Graphic magazine reports the engine of FN.
Honda HR09E engine has valvetrain(timing chain) on the monocoque side.
On the other hand, Toyota RV8K engine has valvetrain on the gearbox side.
Honda valued the weight balance in the formula.
Toyota might have considered use with S-GT.

Japanese Samurai · 1 Apr 2009, 15:09 (Ref:2430653)

Sorry, it is not a timing chain but it might be a timing gear.

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