Words and Photos by Gavin Oliva
When it comes to the cars, they may look similar to the untrained eye, but there are a few differences.
The power plant in the SF cars uses a Toyota or Honda supplied 2.0-liter turbocharged inline-4 engines. While F1 cars have utilized different variants of a 1.6L turbocharged V6 made by Mercedes, Ferrari, Renault, or Honda since 2014.
F1 teams have more freedom over chassis, aerodynamics, and many internal part choices. In contrast, SF teams all use the SF19 chassis, and everything else is almost identical or very similar. As you can imagine, this makes it very competitive in the Super Formula series.
The Super Formula season consists of seven races held at circuits held across Japan, while F1 has now added a whopping 22 stops to their schedule held in cities across the globe. While Super Formula doesn't have quite the draw of the crowds as Super GT (if it were judged on fan attendance alone, it would probably be the indisputable Motorsports series in Japan ), it is undeniably just as exciting to watch as any other. So if you ever in Japan while one of these races are happening, go down and check it out. We know we will.
In this race for round 4, the top winners were, in first place Alex Palou in the #64 TCS NAKAJIMA RACING, Second place went to Sho Tsuboi in the #39 JMS P.MU/CERUMO ･ INGING, and in third place was Nick Cassidy in the #37 VANTELIN TEAM TOM' S. Let us know in the comments below if you'd like to see more of this series here.