Japanese F3 2008 off season

[Monkey Head]

After the dominant in Macau GP(top 5 drivers raced in 2007 JF3),sounds like there are more attention overthere,however looks like the shipping problem of new chassis makes their preparation later than last serval years(I heard Dallara sells them chassis on last).Anyway TOM'S are going to test an Fuji on thursday and Friday(7th-8th Feb),I belive all TOM'S and Nissan-Tomei will be in there.Just received some information and let me generate that....

Regining champion TOM'S has a all new line-up as all of their drivers promoted to higher class(Ishiura and Jarvis) or goes to euro(Oshima).2007 German F3 cup champion Carlo Van-Dam's soild peformance in Macau(complete the weekend without crash)attracted TOM'S signed him as their 1st driver to defend their title.Two youngster from FCJ and FT will partner him,FCJ champion Keisuke Kunimoto and 6th place man Takuto Iguchi will be Carlo's teamate.

2007 2nd place team INGING is in uncertain condition as they have remoured downsized to national class team because of they want to concentrate in FN business.However looks like thay still using F308 cars.No drivers linked to them..

Honda team Real looks like closing on Yuki Sekaguchi,who has raced in Now Motorsport last year but kicked out from TDP,that may be reason why he tested in Formula Master in last October......TODA should keep in championship class too,but no driver linked

Threebond should keep two car line up however previous remoured driver Seb Hohenthal not in list.former Double R Racing driver Jonathan Kennard was named overthere,that should be good for him as he can't find any seat in europe.

Now Motorsport continue on hiring last season Formula toyota champion,2007 FT champion,Japan born Italian Kei Cozzolino is going to race for them.

another team lebeausset motorsports continue in championship class and Keigo aga will driver with them in 4th year(be honest I have no idea why both driver and team pleasure to keep in field without decent result).And they are going to enter one car in national class with Hideto Yasuoka.

For National class sound like there are 4-5 team interested such as Shinon formula,DTM and ZAP SPEED.....

[climb]

Good post mh!

One of the most important challenges for the JF3 this year is IMO to expand the grid numbers via the junior series; Japan deserves a 20-spot grid

[Monkey Head]

First Joint test has been finished yesterday at Fuji.

serval toyota supported teams(without INGING and Now) and Threebond was in there but only 4 new chassis arrived so far forced Threebond to use old chassis to test.
new chassis users are TOM'S and Lebeausset motorsports.

Jonathan Kennard and Yasuda testing with threebond and Yasuda doing some good laps with old chassis.In national class 4 cars were in test and noteable drivers are Hideki Yamauchi(TOM'S Spirit)and former FFord Takeshi Nagase(Hanashima Racing).

TOM'S 3rd driver Takuto Iguchi is overall fastest with 0.01 to Van Dam.Yamaauchi is the fastest in national class



Petronas has confirmed as TOM'S new sponser for all cetogry(F3,SGT and FN).

On the other hand,Daisuike Nakajima,younger brother of Kazuki,has confirmed for TODA F3

[Monkey Head]

Honda Team REal confirmed Naoki Yamamoto and Yuki Nakayama

[Monkey Head]

'Vaild points' requlations cancelled which all points allocated in every races will be counted as championship points

[META4]

Nico Verdonck tested with THREEBOND at Twin-Ring Motegi

http://www.formula3.cc/content/view/22853/1/

[Monkey Head]

Entry List has issued,only one threebond car for Matsuda....:
http://www.j-formula3.com/j-formula3...e_08entry.html

Asian F3 team PTRS also joined this series with former JF3 team dtm,they will be the first oversea team compete in Japanese F3.I would like to see they will promote to championship class in future......

just looked on machines name all three of TOM'S cars has named by petronas...seems they have piad plenty of money,as TOM'S japanese teenagers was using red/white TDP livery on last serval years.

[META4]

A chance they created a "National Class" because they lost again 2 more cars in the "Big Championship" :IngIng and one from ThreeBond


Anyway good to see more cars than last season even if most of these drivers are not experienced at all with F3 , i guess Van Dam will have easy life this season to win the championship ...

[Monkey Head]

First official of the season has been taken place in Fuji.
TOM'S Kumimoto set the fastest time lap,who is the only driver in 1m35s backet.another TOM'S teenager Iguchi 2nd,Vam Dam on 3rd to complete TOM'S 1-2-3.

Yamauchi from TOM'S Spirit on the top of National class,Matsus h i t a on 2nd and Nagase 3rd.

Threebond's Yasuda hasn't taken part in 1st day morning session(may be delay of F308 reception) and PTRS' Zahir Ali suffer mechnical problem/accident whatever in 2 sessions,they are only two drivers complete less than 100laps within 2 days test.Moreover PTRS hasn't test any 2nd driver candidate so only 15 cars has hit on track.


Hideki Mutoh style livery on Honda team REAL's car

they completed test with 4th and 5th fastest.

[Lam Pak]

monkey, is ptrs the hong kong team of f3 asia? no hong kong drivers?

[Monkey Head]

Originally Posted by Lam Pak

monkey, is ptrs the hong kong team of f3 asia? no hong kong drivers?

yes the same one
with co-operation a team manager from Japanese,who worked for INGING's streit sponsership/management during last Macau GP.Seems the project already confirmed serval months ago.

they have serval cadidates for their 2nd cars,and 2 of them are either running with HK Flag or lived in HK from what I heard.Let see what happen as some younger Japanese also in shortlist.

moreover,Ali only did 11 laps in first day morning session due to he just arrive Tokyo airport at that morning,I have to Clarify what I said on previous post.

[META4]

Results of the Morning Testing Session at Suzuka

1-k.Kunimoto - TOMS 1'54"343
2-Yamamoto - Honda Real 1'54"920
3-Nakayama - Honda Real 1'55"183
...
7-Carlo VanDam - TOMS 1'55"737

http://www.j-formula3.com/pdf/2008/T...uz-test-S1.PDF

[META4]

Result of the Day

1-Kunimoto - TOMS 1'54"193
2-Van Dam - TOMS 1'54"834
3-Yasuda - ThreeBond 1'54"899
4-Yamamoto-Honda Real 1'54"920

http://www.j-formula3.com/pdf/2008/T...-1st%20day.PDF

[Valker]

ThreeBond enters only one car this year?

[META4]

yes they do, i think they tried to get a "gaijin" (Verdonck , heard as well about Hohental) but nothing happened ...

Actually i think you can find some reasons when last Year Marko Asmer was racing in British and Japanese F3 at the same time ... dominating the BF3 and struggling in Japanese F3 ... not a really good publicity for them ...

[Lam Pak]

the grid is pin-drop quality for less. western driver quality or lack of it could kill the championship reputation.

[META4]

the quality is there, look at the macau result last year ...

Kumimoto, despite his low experience of F3 is doing very well

for sure this year miss some good "gaijin" drivers like it was last year with Streit,Jarvis and Asmer

[Lam Pak]

meta:you know why this year the japan teams wont make through europe to get winner driver?

[sunseeker]

question for all the JF3 experts...

If you had to choose a team in Japanese F3, who would you pick to drive for??

and what sort of $$$ are we talking here?

[META4]

Originally Posted by Lam Pak

meta:you know why this year the japan teams wont make through europe to get winner driver?

Easy answer.... IngIng Motorsports, who used to run Gaijins (Treluyer,Quintarelli,Streit,Reid...) pulled out of the championship to focus on the Formula Nippon where they will enter 3 cars and Threebond who also has raced some drivers like Carbone,Asmer,Montin... enter only one car this season and here we go ...


TOM'S is the only one the follow "the Tradition" to have one foreign driver

I guess the Japanese Championship has the chance to have the Support from makers like Toyota (Tom's),Nissan (Threebond) and Honda (Team Real and Toda-Racing) otherweiz it would be "dead" championship

[META4]

Originally Posted by sunseeker

question for all the JF3 experts...

If you had to choose a team in Japanese F3, who would you pick to drive for??

and what sort of $$$ are we talking here?

At this time Tom's is probably the Strongest Team in Japanese F3 (see Macau 2007,P1 and P3)


I reckon plenty of drivers in "Championship Class" do not bring any budget , they even maybe get some prize money for some of them

In "National Class" i believe they all pay for drive ...

[META4]

Overall Results of the Pre-Seasson Test at Suzuka

1-Kunimoto-Tom's 1'54"193
2-Van Dam-Tom's 1'54"295
3-Yasuda- ThreeBond 1'54"899
...
National Class

1-Matsu****a-AIM 1'57"701
2-Zahir Ali - PTRS 1'57"953
3-Yamauchi- Tom's Spirit 1'58"124

[Monkey Head]

Originally Posted by META4

I reckon plenty of drivers in "Championship Class" do not bring any budget , they even maybe get some prize money for some of them

team only care how fast the drivers is,that's why there are so few car overthere:don't accpet pay drivers and don't select driver who can't give them confidence

[Lam Pak]

maybe after macau gp the teams of japan saw japanese driver are quicker than western and decide to not contract westerns. kunimoto is overlaping van dam.

[META4]

Kunimoto is definitly a very good driver like Oshima and Sekiguchi are but you should not forget that he raced already Formula Toyota and FCJ instead of Van Dam who has to learn all the tracks

Many "gaijin" drivers who came to Japan to drive Japan Formula 3 , had record of F3 in Europe and proved they were able to be quick... Antinucci,De Oliveira,Jarvis,Streit,Van Dam....

As Monkey Head said, Japanese teams do not really care about nationality just how quick is the driver

One good point in Japan is the good promotion done by Toyota,Nissan and Honda for theirs young drivers also in the FCJ where they all have "Driver Development Programm"


I believe if Threebond could have lined up a 2 car team they would have done it ... probably financial issues