2001 Formula Nippon Championship

The 2001 Formula Nippon Championship was the twenty-ninth season of premier Japanese single-seater racing, and the sixth under the Formula Nippon moniker. It was contested over ten rounds at five venues. 11 different teams, 23 different drivers, and two different chassis suppliers competed in the series. This would be the last season with multiple chassis suppliers after G-Force Technologies stopped supplying chassis after 2001.

Satoshi Motoyama of Team Impul won his second series championship.

Teams and drivers

All teams used tyres supplied by Bridgestone and Mugen MF308 engines.

Team	#	Driver	Chassis	Rounds
PIAA Nakajima Racing	1	Japan Tsugio Matsuda	Reynard 2KL	All
2	Republic of Ireland Ralph Firman Jr.	Reynard 99L	All
Olympic Kondo Racing Team	3	Japan Yuji Tachikawa	Reynard 99L	All
4	Japan Katsutomo Kaneishi	All
Team 5ZIGEN	5	Japan Naoki Hattori	Reynard 99L	All
6	Germany Michael Krumm	Reynard 99L Reynard 01L	All
Team LeMans	7	Malaysia Alex Yoong	Reynard 99L	1–6
Japan Koji Yamanishi	7–10
8	Japan Yudai Igarashi	All
Team Morinaga Nova	9	United Kingdom Richard Lyons	G-Force GF03C	All
10	Portugal André Couto	G-Force GF03C Reynard 99L	All
Cosmo Oil Racing Team Cerumo	11	Japan Masami Kageyama	Reynard 99L	All
12	Japan Seiji Ara	All
Mooncraft	14	Japan Ryō Michigami	Reynard 01L	2–10
excite Team Impul	19	Japan Satoshi Motoyama	Reynard 01L	All
20	India Narain Karthikeyan	Reynard 99L	All
Takagi B-1 Car Club	36	Japan Tetsuji Tamanaka	Reynard 2KL Reynard 99L	All
37	Japan Masahiko Kageyama	Reynard 99L	All
Autobacs Racing Team Aguri	55	Japan Juichi Wakisaka	Reynard 99L	All
56	Japan Takeshi Tsuchiya	All
DoCoMo Team Dandelion Racing	68	Japan Hideki Noda	Reynard 2KL	All
69	Poland Jaroslaw Wierczuk	Reynard 99L	1–4
Japan Hidetoshi Mitsusada	5

Race calendar and results

All races were held in Japan.

Race	Track	Date	Pole position	Fastest race lap	Winning driver	Winning team
1	Suzuka Circuit	25 March	Japan Naoki Hattori	Japan Juichi Wakisaka	Japan Naoki Hattori	Team 5ZIGEN
2	Twin Ring Motegi	22 April	Japan Satoshi Motoyama	Japan Juichi Wakisaka	Japan Naoki Hattori	Team 5ZIGEN
3	Mine Circuit	20 May	Japan Satoshi Motoyama	Japan Satoshi Motoyama	Japan Satoshi Motoyama	excite Team Impul
4	Fuji Speedway	3 June	Japan Satoshi Motoyama	Japan Naoki Hattori	Japan Naoki Hattori	Team 5ZIGEN
5	Suzuka-East Circuit	1 July	Japan Ryō Michigami	Republic of Ireland Ralph Firman Jr.	Japan Satoshi Motoyama	excite Team Impul
6	Sportsland SUGO	29 July	Japan Juichi Wakisaka	Japan Juichi Wakisaka	Japan Satoshi Motoyama	excite Team Impul
7	Fuji Speedway	2 September	Japan Juichi Wakisaka	Japan Juichi Wakisaka	Japan Juichi Wakisaka	Autobacs Racing Team Aguri
8	Mine Circuit	23 September	Japan Juichi Wakisaka	Japan Ryō Michigami	Japan Satoshi Motoyama	excite Team Impul
9	Twin Ring Motegi	21 October	Republic of Ireland Ralph Firman Jr.	Japan Juichi Wakisaka	Republic of Ireland Ralph Firman Jr.	PIAA Nakajima Racing
10	Suzuka Circuit	18 November	Japan Tsugio Matsuda	Germany Michael Krumm	Republic of Ireland Ralph Firman Jr.	PIAA Nakajima Racing

Note:

Juichi Wakisaka set the fastest lap in Round 8 but was later disqualified.

Championship standings

Drivers' Championship

Scoring system

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

Rank	Name	SUZ	MOT	MIN	FUJ	SUZ	SGO	FUJ	MIN	MOT	SUZ	Points
1	Japan Satoshi Motoyama	Ret	9	1	Ret	1	1	4	1	2	Ret	49
2	Japan Naoki Hattori	1	1	5	1	8	7	12	6	Ret	10	33
3	Japan Yuji Tachikawa	13	2	11	Ret	4	4	2	3	5	2	30
4	Republic of Ireland Ralph Firman Jr.	5	Ret	2	6	Ret	Ret	7	Ret	1	1	29
5	Japan Juichi Wakisaka	2	10	12	Ret	6	2	1	DSQ	Ret	Ret	23
6	Japan Ryō Michigami		Ret	10	3	2	3	Ret	Ret	3	3	22
7	Germany Michael Krumm	Ret	4	4	2	Ret	6	3	Ret	7	4	20
8	Japan Takeshi Tsuchiya	10	Ret	3	Ret	3	Ret	14	2	6	5	17
9	Japan Masami Kageyama	4	5	6	5	Ret	11	6	4	8	7	12
10	Japan Tsugio Matsuda	Ret	3	8	Ret	5	5	Ret	Ret	9	9	8
11	Portugal André Couto	Ret	Ret	Ret	12	Ret	Ret	5	Ret	4	14	5
12	Japan Seiji Ara	3	Ret	Ret	Ret	9	10	8	Ret	12	Ret	4
13	Japan Katsutomo Kaneishi	7	6	Ret	4	Ret	9	11	Ret	11	13	4
14	Japan Koji Yamanishi							10	5	10	Ret	2
15	India Narain Karthikeyan	6	7	9	Ret	Ret	Ret	9	Ret	Ret	6	2
16	Malaysia Alex Yoong	11	Ret	7	7	10	Ret					0
17	Japan Yudai Igarashi	9	Ret	Ret	11	7	8	Ret	Ret	Ret	8	0
18	Japan Tetsuji Tamanaka	15	Ret	14	8	Ret	15	15	7	15	Ret	0
19	United Kingdom Richard Lyons	8	8	Ret	9	11	12	Ret	Ret	13	12	0
20	Japan Masahiko Kageyama	12	Ret	Ret	10	DNS	14	16	Ret	Ret	Ret	0
21	Japan Hideki Noda	Ret	Ret	Ret	13	12	Ret	13	Ret	Ret	11	0
22	Poland Jaroslaw Wierczuk	14	Ret	13	DNS							0
23	Japan Hidetoshi Mitsusada					13						0

Teams' Championship