The 2023 Super Formula Lights Championship was the fourth Super Formula Lights Championship season, after the Japanese Formula 3 Championship was rebranded following the end of the 2019 season. It featured drivers competing in Dallara 320 chassis and with engines made by three different manufacturers, a similar regulation format to the Euroformula Open Championship.
Honda junior Iori Kimura won the Drivers' Championship, while his team, B-Max Racing, won the Teams' Championship. His teammate Nobuhiro Imada won the Masters' Class title, while Spiess won the Engine Manufacturer's Championship.
HELM Motorsports, who made their debut in the championship in 2022, left Super Formula Lights after already missing the final two rounds of 2022.
TOM'S signed 2021 Formula 4 UAE champion Enzo Trulli, who moved over to Japan to replace the reigning champion Kazuto Kotaka. Kotaka graduated to Super Formula with Kondō Racing.[1]
Toda Racing promoted reigning Japanese F4 champion Syun Koide to replace Kakunoshin Ohta at Toda Racing, as Ohta was promoted to Dandelion Racing in Super Formula.[3]
B-Max Racing's owner "Dragon" switched from using Spiess engines like the rest of his team to using a TOMEI engine for his car. The team signed two international drivers in David Vidales and Igor Fraga, both graduating from Formula 3, where the former came 16th in 2022 and the latter came 24th in 2020.[4][6] Gentleman driver Takashi Hata rejoined the team after not competing in 2022, while Togo Suganami and Roberto Merhi left the series.
HELM Motorsports' two drivers, Reiji Hiraki and Yuya Hiraki, left the series when their team pulled out.
Rn-sports saw all three of their drivers, gentleman driver Masayuki Ueda, as well as Kohta Kawaai and Seiya Motojima, who shared a cockpit in 2022, leave the series. The team signed Yuui Tsutsumi, who has been competing in Super GT since 2020.[7]
Togo Suganami replaced Nobuhiro Imada in the No. 4 B-Max car for the Suzuka weekend.
Imada was back for the round at Fuji, with Suganami switching to the No. 53 car of the same team to replace Takashi Hata.
Both Hata and Imada returned for Okayama, so Suganami left the series. Yuui Tsutsumi and his team, Rn-sports, also did not attend round five.
Rn-sports returned to competition for the final round, albeit with Formula Regional Japanese champion Sota Ogawa piloting the No. 10 car instead of Tsutsumi. Suganami also returned to the series, again in place of Hata.
The calendar for the 2023 season was announced on 30 November 2022. With the first event being in late May, the season started six weeks later than usual.[10] Only three events were held supporting the parent Super Formula Championship, a significant reduction from previous years.
The fourth Super Formula Lights Championship began at Autopolis in late May with B-Max Racing's Iori Kimura taking two pole positions. His teammate Igor Fraga qualified second, but started his campaign with a stall and retired a few laps later. This promoted the TOM'S pair of Hibiki Taira and Yuga Furutani onto the podium, where they stayed until the end of the race. Race two began with Toda Racing's Syun Koide challenging Kimura for the lead, but the latter prevailed and the former had to settle for second. Furutani completed the podium once again. The third race was another calm affair for Kimura to complete his clean sweep of the weekend, while Taira and Furutani battled out the podium places behind him. Taira would established himself in second. The field left the first round with Kimura as the points leader, already 20 points ahead of Taira and Furutani.[11]
Sportsland Sugo played host for the second round, and this time Taira was the one to claim both pole positions. Multiple stalls and accidents at the start of the first race meant a lengthy safety car with Fraga and Kimura following Taira home when it was finally retracted. Race two saw another controlled effort by Taira to claim his second win. Kimura behind him stayed close, but was unable to mount an attack for the lead. Koide had a quiet race to finish third. The final race of the weekend looked set to grant Taira a triple win, before his car got stuck in fourth gear three laps from the end. This saw him drop down, before he spun around. Fraga inherited the lead and took the win, with his teammate Enzo Trulli and Koide completing the podium. Kimura did not score either in the third race, allowing Taira to shorten the points gap to ten points.[12]
Championship leaders Taira and Kimura shared pole positions for round three at Suzuka. The first race began in foggy conditions with Fraga running himself and two other cars off the road, before hitting Kimura when he rejoined. More chaos ensued when rain then started to fall, with B-Max Racing's Togo Suganami coming through to win the race ahead of Taira and his teammate Seita Nonaka. The second race was more straightforward: Kimura won from pole position, while Taira took second from Nonaka on the final straight to come home 0.185 seconds ahead. Suganami had pole position for the final race, but Taira was quicker off the line to take the lead. Nonaka started third and also finished there to make it three straight podiums. Taira won race three, taking the championship lead in the process as Kimura's non-score in the first race saw him drop two points behind.[13]
Fuji Speedway kicked off the second half of the championship with Trulli and Taira sharing pole positions. The Italian was unopposed at the start of the first race and managed his pace from then on to take his maiden win. Rn-sports driver Yuui Tsutsumi held second, until Taira started closing up to him late in the race, but he was unable to get past. Kimura and Taira had a heated battle all throughout the second race, with both drivers earning five-second penalties. This would have allowed Trulli to inherit the win, but he was disqualified for an underweight car and Koide claimed the win. Trulli bounced back from his disqualification to win race three lights-to-flag. Taira finished second after keeping Kimura behind, thereby extending his championship lead to six points. By now, the top pair had distanced themselves by over thirty points from the rest of the field.[14]
Okayama hosted the penultimate round of the season, where Koide and Fraga shared pole positions. The pair started the first race alongside each other, and Koide kept ahead of Fraga as both led Nonaka home. Kimura had a disastrous race and came home last. The second race began with Koide taking the lead from Fraga into the first turn, but panned out much the same afterwards, albeit with Kimura in third this time. The front row for the third race was the same once again, with Koide coming out ahead for the third time. Once again the leading pair remained the same until the end of the race, but third was hotly disputed before B-Max Racing's David Vidales came through to take his maiden podium. Taira had an anonymous weekend, but still grew his advantage to ten points after Kimuras race one non-score. Koide was now only six points further back.[15]
The season final at Motegi began with championship chaser Kimura taking two pole positions. He seemed to be on a mission from the get-go, winning the first race and claiming the fastest lap ahead of Suganami and Fraga. Taira came fourth, now only a single point ahead of Kimura. Race two was much the same, with Kimura again taking the maximum of twelve points. Taira, now relegated to second in the standings, could once again only manage fifth place. This time, Fraga came second and Koide rounded up the podium. Kimura's run slowed in the third race where he had to relinquish the victory to Suganami after the latter made a strong start. But with Taira once again finishing behind him in third, Kimura secured his title eleven points in the lead.[16]
Both Kimura and Taira looked on course to win the title during different stages of the season, with Taira the strongest during the middle part and Kimura clearly the fastest at the start and at the end. This led to an enjoyable battle throughout the season that could have been a three-way fight had Koide's sudden surge of pace come a bit earlier and held on for a bit longer. Three drivers switching from racing in Europe to Japan made for a renewed international spotlight on the series. Sadly, this did not translate into more cars competing, with the field still consisting of around twelve regular entries, as it did in years past. The series will cease to be a multi-engine championship in 2024. It remains to be seen if this will prove effective in bringing down costs and thereby attracting more entries.
The points were awarded as follows:
Only a teams' best finishing driver was eligible for points.
Only an engine manufacturers' best finishing driver was eligible for points.