Honda ace Tomoki Nojiri clinched a second straight Super Formula title on Saturday. But while he may never get to drive an F1 car, unlike compatriot Naoki Yamamoto, his success could help other Japanese drivers earn a chance on the world stage sformula
Last weekend, Tomoki Nojiri wrapped up his second Super Formula title at Suzuka as he concluded a season even more dominant than his breakout 2021 campaign. There were only two wins in 10 races, but he scored pole an incredible six times, giving himself an average grid slot of 2.2, and finished on the podium eight times. On the two occasions he didn’t finish in the top three, he finished fourth, which were his worst finishes.
No matter how dominant he may have been in Super Formula, the F1 paddock is unlikely to ever be interested in a 33-year-old driver whose experience of racing outside of Japan in cars amounts to just two Formula BMW races more than a decade ago, and who speaks little English. Even a free practice run at Suzuka in Red Bull or AlphaTauri like colleague Naoki Yamamoto had in 2019 is unlikely while Honda is not officially engaged in F1.
In a rare foray outside of Japan, Nojiri shared a Formula BMW podium with Sainz and Blomqvist in 2010Nojiri revealed on Twitter in the aftermath of his second Super Formula title that there had been talks about him racing in the Macau Grand Prix during his time racing in All-Japan F3 in 2011-13, but these came to naught.
When somebody does finally manage to dislodge Nojiri from the top of the Super Formula tree, the F1 paddock should sit up and take notice After going through a mini-boom with the likes of Stoffel Vandoorne , Pierre Gasly and Alex Palou , the Super Formula grid hasn’t really featured any serious F1 aspirants for a couple of seasons now, with matters not helped by the COVID-19 pandemic that all but prevented non-Japanese drivers from racing in the series for a time.
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