Photo: Super Formula
Euroformula race-winner Juju Noda will become the latest woman to race in the top level of single-seaters as she joins the Super Formula grid with TGM Grand Prix.
The 17-year-old, whose father Hideki raced in Formula 1, has taken a somewhat unconventional route up the ladder since starting her car racing career aged 13.
She raced Formula 3 and Formula 4 cars underage for several years, with the latter being her main focus once she left her home country Japan.
In two Danish F4 seasons she took a win and seven other podiums, with her second campaign there coming after she withdrew from United States F4 at the last minute.
In 2022 she raced in Formula Regional, coming 14th in the all-female W Series and making three appearances in the Austrian F3 Cup in a Tatuus T-318 run by her father’s Noda Racing team.
The purchase of a Dallara 320, an F3-level car, meant team and driver then moved into Euroformula for 2023. With the championship’s technical regulations amended for her to run 20 kilograms lighter than the rest of the field, Noda was able to take a win and two third places. Having proven her competitiveness, Noda was then required to run at the same minimum weight as her rivals and so her father withrew their entry with half of the season still to go.
They had also been racing- and winning – with their car in Austrian F3 and F2000 Italian Trophy and continued to do so after leaving Euroformula. Noda ended up winning the F2000 title.
She also made a BOSS GP cameo with the HS Engineering team in a Formula Renault 3.5 car, a second-tier single-seater from 12 years ago, and plans to join them again for several rounds of the 2024 season.
Her first taste of SF came in 2023 post-season testing at Suzuka last month, and when she makes her race debut at the same circuit in March she will become only the fourth woman to compete in Japan’s premier single-seater series.
England’s Divina Galica entered three races in what was then Japanese Formula 2 in 1980, Sarah Kavanagh came from Ireland to do the opening two races of the 1997 season and Colombia’s Tatiana Calderon raced part-time in 2020 and ’21.