2018 F4 Japanese Championship Explained

The 2018 F4 Japanese Championship season was the fourth season of the F4 Japanese Championship. It began on 7 April in Okayama and finished on 11 November on Twin Ring Motegi after seven double header rounds.^{[1] [2]}

Teams and drivers

All teams and drivers were Japanese-registered

Team Driver Class Rounds TOM'S Spirit 1 Kazuto Kotaka^[3] 2–7 36 Sota Ogawa^[4] All Team Right Way 2 Keizi Nakao All Yuichi Sasaki 4 Yuichi Sasaki 2, 4–5, 7 Honda Formula Dream Project 5 Yuki Tsunoda^[5] All 6 Teppei Natori All 7 Takuya Otaki All 8 Ren Sato All Rn-sports 10 Ayumu Iwasa^[6] 3 Toshihito Funai 7 11 Masayuki Ueda All M2 Engineering 12 "Ryo" 3 B-MAX Engineering 13 "Syuji" 2–3 Motoyoshi Yoshida^[7] 4 "Dragon" 7 27 "Syuji" 4, 7 Media Do Kageyama Racing 15 Hiromichi Hayase 1–5, 7 Yuui Tsutsumi 6 16 Shinji Sawada All Ateam Buzz Motorsport 17 Yusuke Shiotsu All 18 Daichi Okamoto 1, 3 Hideki Hirota 4, 6–7 Corse Ceramiche Racing 20 Hiroyuki Honda 2 N-Speed 23 "Yugo" All Field Motorsports 25 Kiryu Hosoda All 55 Rikiya Kanazawa All 95 Miki Koyama All Eagle Sports 28 Makio Saito 1–3 Yasushi Ide 4 Atsushi Miyake 7 29 Yasushi Ide 1–3 MYST 31 Kakunoshin Ohta 4 Inging Motorsports 38 Reiji Hiraki All Saccess Racing 39 Yuki Urata 1, 3–4 Miku Ikejima 2 Daichi Okamoto 7 Succeed Sports 88 Sena Kuronuma All Bionic Jack Racing 44 Sho Onodera 2–5 "Ikari" 7 98 Mizuki Ishizaka All Le Beausset Motorsports 62 Shota Ogura All 63 Kohta Kawaai All leprix sport with SSR 70 Ryohei Tanaka 1–2 Norio Kubo 3 C.S.I.-Reon Kids Racing 73 Shunsuke Hanawa 1–5, 7 Skill Speed 77 Takuya Okada 1–3 Takeshi Ohi 4–7 OTG Motor Sports 80 Yuko Tamaki All 81 Togo Suganami All 82 Yuma Shouji All NRS 83 Kazuki Hirokawa 4 Zap Speed Racing Team 86 Hachiro Osaka All

Race calendar and results

All rounds were held in Japan and were part of the Super GT events.^[1]

Round		Circuit	Date
1	1	Okayama International Circuit, Mimasaka	7 April	Yuki Tsunoda	Kohta Kawaai	Teppei Natori	Honda Formula Dream Project	Keizi Nakao
	R2		8 April	Yuki Tsunoda	Yuki Tsunoda	Yuki Tsunoda	Honda Formula Dream Project	Masayuki Ueda
2	R1	Fuji Speedway, Oyama	3 May	Yuki Tsunoda	Ren Sato	Yuki Tsunoda	Honda Formula Dream Project	Miku Ikejima
	R2		4 May	Yuki Tsunoda	Togo Suganami	Yuki Tsunoda	Honda Formula Dream Project	Miku Ikejima
3	R1	Suzuka Circuit, Suzuka	19 May	Yuki Tsunoda	Kazuto Kotaka	Yuki Tsunoda	Honda Formula Dream Project	Keizi Nakao
	R2		20 May	Yuki Tsunoda	Teppei Natori	Yuki Tsunoda	Honda Formula Dream Project	Norio Kubo
4	R1	Fuji Speedway, Oyama	4 August		Yuki Tsunoda	Kazuto Kotaka	TOM'S Spirit	Yasushi Ide
	R2		5 August			Kazuto Kotaka	TOM'S Spirit	Masayuki Ueda
5	R1	Sportsland SUGO, Murata	15 September	Yuki Tsunoda	Ren Sato	Teppei Natori	Honda Formula Dream Project	Yuichi Sasaki
	R2		16 September	Yuki Tsunoda	Yuki Tsunoda	Yuki Tsunoda	Honda Formula Dream Project	Keizi Nakao
6	R1	Autopolis, Hita	20 October	Togo Suganami	Togo Suganami	Togo Suganami	OTG Motor Sports	Keizi Nakao
	R2		21 October	Togo Suganami	Togo Suganami	Togo Suganami	OTG Motor Sports	Keizi Nakao
7	R1	Twin Ring Motegi, Motegi	10 November		Yuki Tsunoda	Yuki Tsunoda	Honda Formula Dream Project	Keizi Nakao
	R2		11 November			Teppei Natori	Honda Formula Dream Project	Hideki Hirota

Championship standings

Points are awarded as follows:

Position	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th
Points	25	18	15	12	10	8	6	4	2	1

Drivers' standings

Pos Driver OKA FUJ1 SUZ FUJ2 SUG AUT MOT Points 1 Yuki Tsunoda Ret 1 1 1 1 1 2 3 3 1 8 11 1 2 245 2 Teppei Natori 1 4 2 17 3 4 3 2 1 2 3 3 2 1 231 3 Kazuto Kotaka 3 2 2 2 1 1 5 6 2 2 21 3 188 4 Kohta Kawaai 8 8 4 4 5 7 5 7 2 3 4 6 5 6 135 5 Togo Suganami 10 10 Ret 3 8 Ret 6 4 9 9 1 1 4 4 119 6 Shinji Sawada 3 3 Ret Ret 12 8 7 26 16 4 6 10 10 9 64 7 Ren Sato 15 9 6 Ret 4 5 10 6 10 8 14 13 7 7 58 8 Takuya Otaki 19 DNS 20 20 16 3 8 11 6 14 5 4 6 Ret 57 9 Sota Ogawa 5 6 11 21 9 9 4 5 8 10 9 12 8 24 55 10 Mizuki Ishizaka 11 11 10 Ret 7 6 30 33 7 7 Ret 5 9 5 49 11 Shota Ogura 13 14 9 7 33 10 11 10 4 5 10 15 3 DNS 48 12 Rikiya Kanazawa 4 5 8 6 11 16 31 13 13 Ret 7 7 16 25 46 13 Reiji Hiraki 7 7 5 5 Ret 12 28 8 12 11 12 9 Ret Ret 38 14 Kiryu Hosoda 2 2 Ret Ret 18 11 13 14 11 12 13 17 13 14 36 15 Miki Koyama 16 12 7 14 14 13 9 9 15 17 11 16 12 Ret 10 16 Yuki Urata 6 Ret 10 14 16 12 9 17 Ayumu Iwasa 6 Ret 8 18 Yuko Tamaki 20 18 Ret 11 25 31 12 19 20 13 Ret 8 Ret 8 8 19 Takuya Okada 12 13 12 8 21 17 4 20 Sena Kuronuma 17 17 13 9 15 19 15 20 Ret 15 18 26 18 13 2 21 Daichi Okamoto 9 15 20 Ret 14 20 2 22 Sho Onodera 14 10 19 18 DNQ DNQ 1 23 Takeshi Ohi 29 15 17 16 19 18 15 10 1 24 Atsushi Miyake 11 11 0 25 Yusuke Shiotsu 14 16 Ret Ret 13 15 18 18 14 21 17 19 Ret 12 0 26 Yuma Shouji 18 19 16 12 17 20 14 16 22 Ret 16 20 WD WD 0 27 Miku Ikejima 15 13 0 28 Yuui Tsutsumi 15 14 0 29 Hiromichi Hayase 23 Ret 17 15 24 23 17 23 21 23 20 15 0 30 Shunsuke Hanawa 24 22 19 19 22 22 19 30 18 22 17 16 0 31 Masayuki Ueda 22 21 18 16 Ret 25 26 21 Ret 19 21 22 22 23 0 32 Hideki Hirota Ret 27 22 23 23 17 0 33 Kazuki Hirokawa Ret 17 0 34 Keizi Nakao 21 Ret 25 18 28 21 Ret 22 Ret 18 20 21 19 Ret 0 35 Hachiro Osaka 28 24 22 Ret 27 24 22 28 23 24 23 24 26 18 0 36 Yuichi Sasaki 24 22 24 24 19 20 0 37 Toshihito Funai 25 19 0 38 Yasushi Ide 26 26 27 25 26 27 20 25 0 39 Ryohei Tanaka 25 20 DNQ DNQ 0 40 "Syuji" 26 23 32 30 21 29 Ret 21 0 41 Makio Saito 27 23 21 24 31 29 0 42 "Yugo" 29 25 23 26 29 28 25 31 Ret 25 24 25 27 22 0 43 Motoyoshi Yoshida 23 32 0 44 Norio Kubo 23 Ret 0 45 "Ikari" 24 Ret 0 46 "Ryo" 30 26 0 47 Kakunoshin Ohta 27 Ret 0 — "Dragon" Ret Ret 0 — Hiroyuki Honda DNQ DNQ 0 Pos Driver OKA FUJ1 SUZ FUJ2 SUG AUT MOT Points

Bold – Pole Italics – Fastest Lap † — Did not finish, but classified

Teams' standings

Pos	Team	Pts.
1	Honda Formula Dream Project	316
2	TOM'S Spirit	210
3	Le Beausset Motorsports	140
4	OTG Motor Sports	119
5	Field Motorsports	69
6	Media Do Kageyama Racing	64
7	Bionic Jack Racing	50
8	Inging Motorsports	38
9	Saccess Racing	9
10	Rn-sports	8
11	Skill Speed	5
12	Ateam Buzz Motorsport	2
13	Succeed Sports	2

Independent Cup Standings

Pos	Driver	OKA		FUJ1		SUZ		FUJ2		SUG		AUT		MOT		Points
1	Masayuki Ueda	22	21	18	16	Ret	25	26	21	Ret	19	21	22	22	23	207
2	Keizi Nakao	21	Ret	25	18	28	21	Ret	22	Ret	18	20	21	19	Ret	201
3	Hachiro Osaka	28	24	22	Ret	27	24	22	28	23	24	23	24	26	18	177
4	"Yugo"	29	25	23	26	29	28	25	31	Ret	25	24	25	27	22	116
5	Yasushi Ide	26	26	27	25	26	27	20	25							98
6	Yuichi Sasaki			24	22			24	24	19	20					85
7	Hideki Hirota							Ret	27			22	23	23	17	80
8	Makio Saito	27	23	21	24	31	29									65
9	"Syuji"			26	23	32	30	21	29					Ret	21	61
10	Miku Ikejima			15	13											50
11	Norio Kubo					23	Ret									25
12	"Ryo"					30	26									20
13	Motoyoshi Yoshida							23	32							14

Notes and References

1. Web site: JAF国内モータースポーツカレンダー2018(JAF domestic motorsports calendar 2018). Japan Automobile Federation. 20 February 2018.
2. Web site: TOYOTA GAZOO Racing OUTLINES 2018 MOTORSPORTS ACTIVITIES. 8 February 2018. 20 February 2018. Toyota Motor Corporation.
3. News: 018 FIA-F4 Championship 3rd / 4th Fuji Competition entry list. 3 May 2018. fiaf4.jp. GTA Co. 13 April 2018. Japanese. 4 May 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180504010853/https://fiaf4.jp/news/single/386. dead.
4. News: 018 FIA-F4 Championship 1st / 2nd Okayama Competition entry list. 3 April 2018. fiaf4.jp. GTA Co. 25 March 2018. Japanese. 3 April 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180403173712/https://fiaf4.jp/news/single/367. dead.
5. Web site: Honda 2018 Motorsports Program Overview. 12 January 2018. 20 February 2018. Honda Motor Co., Ltd. Honda Motor Co., Ltd.
6. News: 018 FIA-F4 Championship 5th / 6th Suzuka Competition entry list. 6 May 2018. fiaf4.jp. GTA Co. 6 May 2018. Japanese. 7 May 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180507153405/https://fiaf4.jp/news/single/402. dead.
7. News: 018 FIA-F4 Championship 7th / 8th Fuji Competition entry list. 2 August 2018. fiaf4.jp. GTA Co. 2 August 2018. Japanese. 3 August 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180803044350/https://fiaf4.jp/news/single/418. dead.