2004 Formula Nippon Championship Explained

The 2004 Formula Nippon Championship was contested over 9 rounds, with 8 teams and 17 drivers competed. All teams had to use Lola chassis (Lola B3/51) and Mugen Honda (Mugen MF308) engines.

Teams and drivers

Team		Driver	Chassis	Engine	Rounds
ADiRECT Team 5ZIGEN	1	Satoshi Motoyama	Lola B3/51	Mugen MF308	All
	2	Toshihiro Kaneishi			All
Yellow Hat Kondo Racing Team	3	Ryo Michigami	Lola B3/51	Mugen MF308	All
	4	Yuji Tachikawa			1–3
Team LeMans	7	Juichi Wakisaka	Lola B3/51	Mugen MF308	All
	8	Takeshi Tsuchiya			All
Cosmo Oil Racing Team Cerumo	11	Tsugio Matsuda	Lola B3/51	Mugen MF308	All
	12	Masami Kageyama			6–9
mobilecast Team Impul	19	Benoît Tréluyer	Lola B3/51	Mugen MF308	All
	20	Yuji Ide			All
LeMans Spirit	25	Tatsuya Kataoka	Lola B3/51	Mugen MF308	All
Carrozzerria Team MOHN	27	Koji Yamanishi	Lola B3/51	Mugen MF308	4–5, 8
	28	Hideki Noda			All
PIAA Nakajima Racing	31	André Lotterer	Lola B3/51	Mugen MF308	All
	32	Takashi Kogure			All
DoCoMo Team Dandelion Racing	40	Richard Lyons	Lola B3/51	Mugen MF308	All
	41	Naoki Hattori			All

Race calendar and results

Race	Track	Date	Pole Position	Fastest Race Lap	Winning Driver	Winning Team
1		28 March		Richard Lyons		PIAA Nakajima Racing
2		2 May		Takashi Kogure		DoCoMo Team Dandelion Racing
3		6 June		Richard Lyons		PIAA Nakajima Racing
4		4 July		Naoki Hattori		DoCoMo Team Dandelion Racing
5		1 August		Juichi Wakisaka	Satoshi Motoyama	ADiRECT Team 5ZIGEN
6		29 August		Juichi Wakisaka		mobilecast Team Impul
7		19 September		Richard Lyons		PIAA Nakajima Racing
8		24 October		André Lotterer		mobilecast Team Impul
9		7 November		Yuji Ide		mobilecast Team Impul

• At race 4 a sprint race of 18 laps (104.526 km) set the grid for the main race. The sprint race winner Richard Lyons started from pole in the main race.
• At race 7 a sprint race of 20 laps (110.72 km) set grid for the main race. The sprint race winner André Lotterer started from pole in the main race. Naoki Hattori set pole position for the sprint race.

Championship standings

Drivers' Championship

Scoring system:

Position	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th
Points	10	6	4	3	2	1

Rank	Name	SUZ	SGO	MOT	SUZ	SGO	MIN	MYS	MOT	SUZ	Points
1		8	1	8	1	4	8	9	2	3	33
2	André Lotterer	2	4	1	8	Ret	Ret	1	3	7	33
3		12	2	2	3	7	7	10	1	2	32
4	Benoît Tréluyer	Ret	6	4	2	10	1	7	Ret	1	30
5		13	3	Ret	5	3	2	3	Ret	4	23
6		5	12	5	4	1	6	Ret	5	6	21
7		1	9	9	7	2	Ret	6	9	8	17
8	Tatsuya Kataoka	10	11	3	13	Ret	4	5	4	12	12
9		7	7	Ret	10	6	10	2	Ret	10	7
10		3	5	6	Ret	Ret	11	8	10	13	7
11		4	NC	12	9	DSQ	12	4	6	Ret	7
12		6	13	10	Ret	12	3	Ret	Ret	11	5
13	Takeshi Tsuchiya	11	10	7	11	8	5	Ret	Ret	5	4
14		Ret	NC	Ret	6	5	9	Ret	7	9	3
15		9	8	11	Ret	11	Ret	Ret	11	14	0
16	Koji Yamanishi				12	9			8		0
17							Ret	11	Ret	15	0

Teams' Championship

Rank	Team	Car	SUZ	SGO	MOT	SUZ	SGO	MIN	MYS	MOT	SUZ	Points
1	mobilecast Impul	19	Ret	6	4	2	10	1	7	Ret	1	62
	20	12	2	2	3	7	7	10	1	2
2	PIAA Nakajima	31	2	4	1	8	Ret	Ret	1	3	7	50
	32	1	9	9	7	2	Ret	6	9	8
3	DoCoMo Dandelion	40	8	1	8	1	4	8	9	2	3	40
	41	7	7	Ret	10	6	10	2	Ret	10
4	LeMans LeMans Spirit	7	13	3	Ret	5	3	2	3	Ret	4	37
	8	11	10	7	11	8	5	Ret	Ret	5
	25	10	11	3	13	Ret	4	5	4	12
5	ADiRECT 5ZIGEN	1	5	12	5	4	1	6	Ret	5	6	26
	2	6	13	10	Ret	12	3	Ret	Ret	11
6		3	3	5	6	Ret	Ret	11	8	10	13	10
	4	Ret	NC	Ret	6	5	9	Ret	7	9
7	Cosmo Oil Cerumo	11	4	NC	12	9	DSQ	12	4	6	Ret	7
	12						Ret	11	Ret	15
8	Team MOHN	27				12	9			8		0
	28	9	8	11	Ret	11	Ret	Ret	11	14

External links

• 2004 Japanese Championship Formula Nippon