As the youngest ever pilot in the series and the first Japanese-born woman, Juju Noda has competed in the Japanese SUPER FORMULA championship this year. At Suzuka we talked with the 18-year old racing sensation about her life as a race car driver, how she wants to give young women confidence and the challenges of competing in the fastest single-seater series next to Formula 1.
Most race car drivers wouldn’t look quite so happy after finishing 12th, but for Juju Noda, who is the first driver after the late privateer legend OSAMU (Nakajima) who is competing by only using her first name, it was the best result of the season. Even a day later, when she finished the second race of the weekend on P20, the TGM Grand Prix pilot couldn’t stop smiling. Here’s a driver who was clearly enjoying herself – no matter the results. And who can blame her? After all, the Dallara-built SF23 is the second-fastest formula car worldwide with cornering speeds that even rival Formula 1.
When Juju tested the car at last year’s rookie test in Suzuka, many questioned whether the back then 17-year old female racer would be ready for such a machine with high g-forces. And truth be told, she and her father, the ex-Formula 1 and IndyCar driver Hideki Noda, made no heel about it. After all, the fastest machine she has driven until that point was a Formula Regional car. But against all odds, Juju wasn’t just within the required 107%, she also beat her teammate for the test, fellow rookie Rasmus Lindh. The contract signage with TGM Grand Prix, the previous Team Goh outfit operated by Servus Japan, wasn’t an “if” but a “when” at that point. A month later, the team announced Juju Noda as their new driver and the first Japanese woman to ever compete in the series. There have only been three woman prior to Juju competing in Japanese top formula: Divinia Galica (one race in 1980), Sarah Kavanagh (two races in 1997) and Tatiana Calderon, who competed in a total of nine races from 2020-2021.
The challenges Juju were facing in SUPER FORMUAL are probably comparable to climbing Mt. Fuji without the proper equipment outside the climbing season. Because unlike many of other young drivers, Juju took on the task to not compete in her home country for the first years in her career. Instead, she moved to Europe at the young age of only 14 to make her debut in the Danish Formula 4 Championship with her family’s team Noda Racing. The move was partially motivated by the rules in Japan requiring a minimum age of 16 to compete in either the FIA-certified Japanese F4 Championship or the previously JAF-organized series now known as Formula Beat. The move to Denmark couldn’t have come at a worse time, as the COVID-19 pandemic was about to hit Europe with all its power. Locksdowns and more forced many sports competitions to go into hiatus.
When the season did go underway in June of 2020, Juju won her debut from pole position. Because of another surge of COVID-19 cases, the final rounds of the year had to get cancelled, ending the season abruptly with Juju finishing sixth in the standings – significantly limiting her seat time. The 2021 campaign, while going the full distance with Juju finishing seventh at the end of the tally, was also full of the typical junior category challenges like faulty or late delivered equipment. Due to a tiny hole in one of Juju’s gloves, she got disqualified from the fourth race of the season – a penalty the organizers later deemed too harsh and apologized personally to Noda Racing.
Outside the achievements and struggles on the race track, Juju had to deal with the challenges of being a teenager far away from home. Time zones permitting, she was only able to see her friends – something that shouldn’t be underestimated at such a young age – during video chats, which is something that got popular in Japan during the pandemic, despite the island nation not having any strict lockdown rules compared to many European countries. Instead, the government just asked people to not participate in large gatherings, which is why “drinking parties over the internet” like the year-end parties (bonenkai) got popular. But Juju had the full support of her family, with her father and mother and brother travelling with her.
The following years, Juju competed in multiple championships, including the all-female W Series, which went bankrupt before the conclusion of the 2022 season as well as the F4 United States Championship in 2021. Juju set the fastest time in free practice for the opening round on the Road Atlanta, but got removed from the entry list prior to qualifying following a dispute with partner Jay Howard Driver Development. In 2023, Juju would go on to compete in the F2000 Italian Formula Trophy as well as the Austrian Drexler-Automotive Formula Cup, in which she both won the title. Prior to this, Juju would do a private test with one of the TOM’S Super Formula Lights machines in Motegi, hinting at potentially competing in her home country for the first time. Also in 2023, the now 17-year old would join the Euroformula Open Championship, taking a sole victory at Circuit Paul Ricard in France, before withdrawing from the series following a sudden controversial rule change which didn’t allow female drivers to have a lighter car anymore, something the Noda Racing manegement didn’t agree with.
Given her prior experience, it’s no surprise that joining SUPER FORMULA was seen as an interesting choice by many – including some media representatives. When Juju tested a Formula 3 car as part of her father’s Noda Racing Academy at Okayama in February 2018 (Link: see our article introducing her) when she was only 12 years old, both veteran drivers and journalists already saw her as the next Max Verstappen – a “wunderkind” who would cruise on her way to Formula 1. It also put the pressure on her at already a very young age, with some eyes following every step she did.
Returning to Japan to race at home for the first time gave Juju some stability. At the same time, the move came with a whole new set of challenges: “Since I’ve been in Europe for such a long time, being in Japan is actually very different for me. I can’t really explain why, but I’m more used to Europe than Japan. Even the approach to racing is different compared to Europe. It was quite challenging actually”, the 18-year old told us at Suzuka. While Juju had to learn to adapt, she got vitalized by the fans, which helped her greatly. “Every round they come to cheer for me. While I was in Europe, I had many fans cheer for me on SNS of course. But I never had the experience to see them. Now, I have the actual experience to see them all. It such a great feeling to be racing in my own country and see my fans and receive a lot of energy from them.”
Perhaps it was said energy that gave Juju enough tailwind on her impressive debut back in March, when she even finished ahead of reigning Formula 2 champion Théo Pourchaire. At that point, Juju had already accumulated a bunch of experience at Suzuka, a track where she tested when she was still a young child and where the post- as well as pre-season tests took place. The real challenges followed afterwards, with circuits like Autopolis and Fuji, where Juju has never driven before. Since testing in SUPER FORMULA is limited to one official in-season test next to the two before mentioned opportunities, the Noda family and TGM Grand Prix had to come up with a different approach: “I used the simulator a lot. In addition, I used a Formula 3 car to do some testing on different tracks. But it’s not the SF23, so the power is completely different. For me, this first year was really tough, because I didn’t get to practice the tracks a lot.”
When asking how how she would decribe the 2024 season with one or two words, Juju quickly knew her answer: Tough, but exciting. “It’s really been a tough year sometimes, but also a very exciting experience. From the start I knew how high the level in SUPER FORMULA is. Next to learning the car, I also had to learn the tracks. But at the same time, it was very exciting to learn these new things.” One of these things is setting up the car, which opened up a whole new set of challenges for the teams following the switch to common dampers by Öhlins: “Over the course of the year I learned a lot how to set up the car and how to communicate with the engineers. But compared to other veteran drivers, I don’t know enough yet to give enough advice to the engineers.”
One of the challenges every SUPER FORMULA rookie is facing, no matter their experience, is the one-shot qualifying. Despite using the well established knock-out format, the time in both Q1 and Q2 is so short, that the drivers only have one legit shot for the so-called push lap. Afterwards, the control Yokohama Advan tyres already reached their peak. “The qualifying is something I could do better. If I could do better in it, I think I could keep my position better. I’m having a good pace in the race, but getting better at the one-shot qualifying is something I’m aiming for.”
In a year of many firsts for young Juju Noda, she also started studying at one of the most prestigious universities in all of Japan, the Nihon University in Tokyo Prefecture’s Chiyoda City. Not unlike Kenta Yamashita, who picked up engineering as his major, when he was making his top Japanese formula debut to learn and understand cars better, Juju is studying sports philosophy and science. “Motorsports is still very focused on men and with the male and female body having physical differences, many people keep asking me why I even race. At university, I’m for example learning how to do proper analysis. By doing a lot of research, I also want to learn how to improve physically to race as a lady driver.”
Asked if her studies perhaps had an impact on how she prepares for the races, maybe just with a special routine or ritual before getting ready to climb into the cockpit, Juju just laughed: “Oh no, I don’t have a particular routine. I know some other drivers have one to get ready, but I don’t do anything special. I would find it strange and actually get nervous if I would have to do something in particular. I’m just keeping it natural, that’s when I’m feeling relaxed. For me, it’s like doing other daily things.”
With 2024 being a learning year, Juju got to show at the 23rd JAF Grand Prix Suzuka how much she has picked up over the course of it. P12 on Saturday matched the best result of the previous female driver in the series Tatiana Calderon; on Sunday her fastest lap in the race was only 0.4 seconds slower than the one of winning-driver Kakunoshin Ohta. “I’m really happy with how these races went. From the start I could control the pace and have a really stable pace. The fights with Taira (Hibiki), Kimura (Iori), Iwasa (Ayumu) and Kobayashi (Kamui) were fun. I used OTS (overtake system) at the right moments and it was very exciting to fight with them all”, recalls Juju while smiling from ear to ear.
Perhaps the biggest talking point was her duel with Kamui Kobayashi over multiple laps that saw both drivers going wide through the Hitachi Astemo Chicane, for which Kobayashi got penalized as race control deemed he was pushing another driver off the track. “I’m happy that he was very serious and fought against me like everyone else. However, twice it got really close, which I think was maybe a bit too much. After the race I reviewed the video footage and it looked like he was a bit overspeeding, leading him to overshoot the corner. It felt like ‚If I can’t overtake you, I will just hit you.‘ I was a bit scared, because it didn’t feel safe from my point.” After the race, Juju tried talking about the situation with Kobayashi: “I went to him, but it felt like we couldn’t have a proper conversation. That made me feel a bit sad, because he’s a driver I really respect a lot. Still, he’s a former Formula 1 driver and he approached me as any regular driver, so that was pretty cool.”
Will we see Juju return to SUPER FORMULA in 2025? Unfortunately, that has yet to be decided, as the 18-year old revealed quite openly that she doesn’t have a ride secured for next year: “Nothing has been officially decided yet. I’ve heard that TGM Grand Prix is leaving SUPER FORMULA, so I don’t have a cockpit yet.” In the wake of the team announcing to participate in the autonomous A2RL championship, which uses the SF23 as its vehicle, rumors were floating around the paddock that the team is facing some financial troubles, although team owner Kazuhiro Ikeda insisted that a final decision hasn’t been made yet. A rumor, first reported by British journalist Jamie Klein, mentions that Juju could be aiming for the second B-Max Racing cockpit, which could be entered under the Noda Racing banner even, as TGM Grand Prix is set to operate the new TGR-DC junior team for Toyota in the series.
No matter what’s next for Juju Noda’s career – the impact she had on the fans should not be underestimated. A group who gave back to by voting, as Juju won the “Most Popular Driver of the Year award”. While pretty much every age group was gathering behind her garage at Suzuka, the increase of young girls waving Juju-themed towels and wearing her merchandise definitely increased. Just like last year’s champion Ritomo Miyata connected with a lot of new fans, so did Juju this year. “In Japan, motorsports isn’t as popular as it is overseas, especially among women in their teens. Often, when I mention SUPER FORMULA, many don’t know what I’m talking about. Sadly, this is still the reality in Japan. But if I can help to promote motorsports through my activity to women, I’m very happy. There are many young girls who want to become racers, so maybe when they see me, they go ‚She’s a girl like me. I can race too!‘ But it isn’t just about race car drivers. Whatever dream they have. If I can give them some confidence, then I think I’m doing a good job.”
Copyright Photos: Japan Race Promotion (JRP)