Japanese Formula 3 Championship

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 FIA Formula Regional regulations 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.

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.

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. 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.

Equipment

File:2010 All-Japan Formula 3 Championship Motegi round (May) formation lap.jpg

All competitors in the championship use Dallara chassis, as of 2010.

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 supplied tyres in 2009 as the series' sole supplier. 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
Template:Interlanguage link multi	Template:Flagicon Toshio Suzuki	Template:Flagicon Heros Racing	not held
Template:Interlanguage link multi	Template:Flagicon Template:Interlanguage link multi	Template:Flagicon Gallop Racing
Template:Interlanguage link multi	Template:Flagicon Osamu Nakako	Template:Flagicon Template:Interlanguage link multi
Template:Interlanguage link multi	Template:Flagicon Template:Interlanguage link multi	Template:Flagicon Template:Interlanguage link multi
Template:Interlanguage link multi	Template:Flagicon Template:Interlanguage link multi	Template:Flagicon Umeda Racing
1984	Template:Flagicon Shuji Hyoudo	Template:Flagicon Template:Interlanguage link multi
1985	Template:Flagicon Template:Interlanguage link multi	Template:Flagicon Le Garage Cox Racing
1986	Template:Flagicon Akio Morimoto	Template:Flagicon LeMans Company
1987	Template:Flagicon Ross Cheever	Template:Flagicon TOM'S
1988	Template:Flagicon Akihiko Nakaya	Template:Flagicon Le Garage Cox Racing
1989	Template:Flagicon Masahiko Kageyama	Template:Flagicon Leyton House Racing
1990	Template:Flagicon Naoki Hattori	Template:Flagicon Le Garage Cox Racing
1991	Template:Flagicon Paulo Carcasci	Template:Flagicon TOM'S
Template:Interlanguage link multi	Template:Flagicon Anthony Reid	Template:Flagicon Template:Interlanguage link multi
1993	Template:Flagicon Tom Kristensen	Template:Flagicon TOM'S
1994	Template:Flagicon Michael Krumm	Template:Flagicon TOM'S
1995	Template:Flagicon Pedro de la Rosa	Template:Flagicon TOM'S
1996	Template:Flagicon Juichi Wakisaka	Template:Flagicon Nakajima Racing
1997	Template:Flagicon Tom Coronel	Template:Flagicon TOM'S
Template:Interlanguage link multi	Template:Flagicon Peter Dumbreck	Template:Flagicon TOM'S
Template:Interlanguage link multi	Template:Flagicon Darren Manning	Template:Flagicon TOM'S
2000	Template:Flagicon Sébastien Philippe	Template:Flagicon Mugen Dome Project
2001	Template:Flagicon Benoît Tréluyer	Template:Flagicon TOM'S
2002	Template:Flagicon Takashi Kogure	Template:Flagicon Dome Racing Team
2003	Template:Flagicon James Courtney	Template:Flagicon TOM'S
2004	Template:Flagicon Ronnie Quintarelli	Template:Flagicon Inging
2005	Template:Flagicon João Paulo de Oliveira	Template:Flagicon TOM'S
2006	Template:Flagicon Adrian Sutil	Template:Flagicon TOM'S
2007	Template:Flagicon Kazuya Oshima	Template:Flagicon TOM'S
2008	Template:Flagicon Carlo van Dam	Template:Flagicon TOM'S	Template:Flagicon Hideki Yamauchi
2009	Template:Flagicon Marcus Ericsson	Template:Flagicon TOM'S	Template:Flagicon Naoki Yamamoto
2010	Template:Flagicon Yuji Kunimoto	Template:Flagicon TOM'S	Template:Flagicon Takashi Kobayashi
2011	Template:Flagicon Yuhi Sekiguchi	Template:Flagicon ThreeBond Racing	Template:Flagicon Katsumasa Chiyo
2012	Template:Flagicon Ryo Hirakawa	Template:Flagicon RSS	Template:Flagicon Daiki Sasaki
2013	Template:Flagicon Yuichi Nakayama	Template:Flagicon TOM'S	Template:Flagicon Mitsunori Takaboshi
2014	Template:Flagicon Nobuharu Matsushita	Template:Flagicon TOM'S	Template:Flagicon Hiroshi Koizumi
2015	Template:Flagicon Nick Cassidy	Template:Flagicon TOM'S	Template:Flagicon Ryo Ogawa
2016	Template:Flagicon Kenta Yamashita	Template:Flagicon TOM'S	Template:Flagicon Yoshiaki Katayama
2017	Template:Flagicon Mitsunori Takaboshi	Template:Flagicon B-MAX Racing Team	Template:Flagicon 'Dragon'
2018	Template:Flagicon Sho Tsuboi	Template:Flagicon TOM'S	Template:Flagicon Jake Parsons
2019	Template:Flagicon Sacha Fenestraz	Template:Flagicon B-Max Racing Team with Motopark	Template:Flagicon 'Dragon'

External links

• Japan Formula 3 official website – Japanese / English
• All-Japan Formula 3 Championship at forix.com