Having tested the powerful Dallara SF23 at the post-season test in Suzuka, Juju Noda is set to join the Super Formula grid in a full time seat at TGM Grand Prix in 2024, becoming the youngest driver ever and the first Japanese woman in the series.
Following the post-season test at Suzuka on 6-8 December, Juju Noda has secured a Super Formula seat with TGM Grand Prix and will contest the full Super Formula campaign in 2024.
Juju, daughter of former F1 and Indycar driver Hideki, will turn 18 next month and will therefore become the youngest driver ever in Japan's premier single seater championship.
Noda will therefore contest her first racing season on home soil, having moved to Europe aged 14 to make her competitive debut in Formula 4, before moving up the formula ladder.
Having spent two years in Danish F4 with three wins to her name, she was selected for the W Series championship in 2022, which represented her move to Formula Regional machinery. Noda collected a ninth place as her best result and finished the season as the top rookie.
She would then continue in Europe in 2023 – and was among the protagonists of the first half of the Euroformula season, where she scored her first overall podium in Budapest and then claimed a historic outright victory at Circuit Paul Ricard. She then continued in the Zinox F2000 Trophy – where she claimed the title with six victories and 11 podiums – as well as in the Drexler-Automotive Formula Cup, where she was runner up, always at the helm of the Noda Racing Dallara 320 machine. She also made appearances in the BOSS GP championship, where she collected experience in the fast, high-downforce Dallara World Series Renault car.
Earlier this week, Noda confirmed that she will be returning to BOSS GP in 2024, again at the wheel of the World Series Renault Dallara operated by HS Engineering, which features a 3.4 V8 engine which produces 530 hp.
Towards the end of the year, though, Noda had the chance to taste the fastest single seater in Japan – and one of the fastest in the world – at the Super Formula post-season test in Suzuka; in what was her biggest challenge to date, the teenager performed well and was convincing enough to secure the seat for the full 2024 campaign.
Her first outing in the Dallara SF23 was a promising one and she consistently shortened the gaps. She lapped just over 2 seconds from the top, improving significantly from the first day. TGM Grand Prix also lined up Indy NXT racer Rasmus Lindh, and Noda finished ahead in three out of four sessions.
Juju will be the first Japanese woman to enter Super Formula – and will be the first woman since Tatiana Calderon, who raced in 2020 and 2021. She is the first driver to be signed at TGM Grand Prix for the 2024 season, which starts at Suzuka on 8-10 March.