Apr.19.2002　「The Last Door to F1」
The bankruptcy of Reynard has made many people worried about the future of Formula Nippon (FN). Though I am very concerned about the stream of Japanese big races, I have a very different point of view from people who are currently involved in this race so it is always the case things go in the different direction against my thoughts. I cannot say which direction is better or not but it is getting far from the image I have about motor racing world in my mind and it sometimes makes me feel as if I was watching an auto race in Hamamatsu.
At the time of such an important turning point, I want to express my opinions on FN and the opinion comes purely out of humanity as a race lover and I do hope things will go better in the future.

Although it seems that various information is flying about in public, I think the most important thing is we should have a clear vision of what we want to create for FN's future.
Currently there are SRS-F and FJ as a step board to Formula series, FD and F・TOYOTA for F3, and F3 for FN in this country.
For what purpose does FN exist for the young men who have climbed up these stairs? If FN is the top of all, what will they get in return? If it is only a passing point, where can they go from there? If you agree with sweeping generalization like this, your view is basically different from mine. It is very jug-handled to think about this matter from the points of view as said, the deep roots of the matter need to be argued thoroughly.

I have always said that motor racing is "competition of vehicle". As nothing left to be said, I won't mention in details here, but the current basic idea in Japan is "game by vehicle". Since the racing world is driver-oriented, racing car industry is just a supporting player. That means there isn't much hope for cash flowing in from the car race industry. The key to success is how much value we can add to the race as an entertainment.
I am very skeptical whether it is interesting to see drivers compete each other in an unappealing race such as one-make race. If it even went well, I don't think it could hardly have power to maintain as a top category from economical point of view.
On the contrary, if it is purely a competition of vehicles, it will structurally be a competition of racing car industry. Team operation costs will be increased and the overall cost for racing car industry will be increased accordingly but I believe that will benefit the whole industry.
This is how the motor racing should be and this is why motor racing requires more money than other sports.
People should realize as soon as possible that motor sports should not be discussed on the same viewpoints as other general sports with rackets or clubs etc.
What is better to do is to add entertainment elements on top of this basic structure and the basic problem is not what we can choose one from another.
Though all people involved in racing industry say that one-make racing is not preferable but they are the people who also restrict regulations or chassis choices and create the situation where we only could have one-make cars. Under the circumstances where FN has failed as an entertainment, the feeling of people who are involved in the industry has shrunk too much and they have developed an illusion; low cost = one-make. Has this idea become a positive logic?
However, what happens if all cars in JGTC, which is far more popular than FN, were NSX? How many people do actually know why their shape is like that or they are far away from advanced technology because driving a FN car requires much higher skills than driving a GT car? Has anyone thought that the whole racing technology and industry will decline by using foreign one-make chassis? Can you imagine F1 or Le Mans with one-make chassis?

I am going to raise the question here once again. What purpose should FN exist for?
Of course, the ideal image of FN as the top category race in Japan must be a place where automobile related companies can improve their skills and it should be a good PR place for them. The technology and expertise, which are cultivated here, will serve as participating qualification of F1 in a true meaning. It will be the same for drivers as well as engineers. It is highly unlikely that young drivers are satisfied with being the top driver of FN in Japan, and it is clear that FN is just a passing point to the last goal. If that's the case, the concept, "the Last Door to F1 (or American Dream)" should be applied to FN.
Currently an official route to F1 is a jump-up from F3 for drivers in Europe as well and it is no use copying International F3000 class as the race is in the crisis of continuation. Cars may be bigger than F3 but the reason isn't good enough to become a worldwide race, what can be achieved is only to become king of the castle in a very small world such as Japan. The race will not be able to became more than a local race, it will be meaningless from a world scale.
The task imposed on JRP now is how they can create an attractive and significant race which ex-F3 drivers can aim at as their next goal and it seems to be a good opportunity to change the situation now. I hope the people who are still insisting on having an existing one-make chassis for the sake of low cost would stop having a narrow outlook on things at this significant turning point and concentrate on how they can improve FN as a worldwide big car race.
However, it is also a fact that money issue always comes between dream and reality and becomes obstacle, which we cannot go further without passing it. To make the dream into a reality, the know-how, expertise and information analysis of specialists are required.
Especially it is essential for chassis, engine and tires development. Take a monocoque for CFRP as example, the price varies; formula monocoque for admission is over million yen and some for F1 are 10 times more expensive than that.
You may say it's bound to be expensive as it's for F1, but the driver who goes into the monocoque is a human being and the size of FD and F1 monocoque won't be different from each other that much. The price differs because of the quality. People go such extent to find parts to build a car and there could be a big price difference per car, sometimes a few million yen or more than 100 million yen as the result.
Development cost is more complicated. We are talking about software here and that could be hypethral. In a word, it depends on how competitive it is. One-make race has advantage cost-wise as it can cut down parts cost by mass production but the real merit it has is to cut down the development cost.
Correlative elements such as cost / performance / durability are added to it. But there is a good case of Honda: they sacrificed initial development cost for SRS-F and FD to improve safety and the quality. Though initial development cost was high, good quality doubled the durability and it led to cost cut down as the result.
Several engineering elements are intricately intertwined with others and the relationship of "what to make" and "how much" is still there but I believe it is nonsense to try to create FN's future without much expertise about hardware.
Chassis price depends on the quality. Everybody should know the fact that a cheap chassis means a poor quality and you cannot expect high quality race using cheap chassis. I hope people don't use a gimmick for racing- it is as if pretending to be a very expensive restaurant but very cheap materials is actually used -- the truth will be given away.

Moreover, at the turning point to FN, one-make chassis used for International F3000 is useless for FN and FN chassis cannot be used for International F3000 race vice versa as it is a one-make chassis race. It is clear that there is no contact between these two categories but the International F3000 regulations were carried over for FN without careful consideration. Though FN chassis is purely original, it is usually positioned as an epigone of International F3000. The balance of chassis development cost and sales proceeds is ignored and several constructors were supposed to compete each other (there were some cases for F2 and F3000 in the past but it was only possible as the cars were sold worldwide then), but people miscalculated as they only created the most expensive one-make chassis in the world in the end. If we look back and verify thoroughly how HONDA's offer to supply ML chassis or long life engines was turned away at the door, the merits and demerits of FN after introducing one-make system for tires, or the meaningless tire exchange and the sensibility of mechanics who do not think it is conventional, -- the "broken" parts, in a part of JRP thought process or CPU, could be identified.
We need to decide something now after Reynard went bankrupt. I truly believe they will pursue a hopeful direction to create a bright future for FN, not end up finding something looks decent enough quickly just because there is no money.


I won't explain much in details here, but what could do for FN, which lost chassis supply? I have listed up options I can think of apart from the fact that they suite FN's fundamental principles or not.
① Find another one-make chassis supply. （all teams have to change it on top of that any modification isn't allowed as all team are supposed to have the same standard chassis. The engineering level for FN will decline further）
② Modify Lola chassis of International F3000 in addition to the current Reynard and if necessary, load the dice against Reynard so that both chassis could compete in the same race. （this would be the cheapest way. As the current Lola has been improved than before, it is easy to adjust the performance difference up to Reynard's）
③ Buy IRL second hand 2002 chassis as a package deal -- the IRL regulation changes in 2003. (Engine issue to be discussed separately.
Modification to use gasoline instead of methanol is required. The race
can be held at Motegi)
④ Introduce the new IRL chassis used from 2003. (If we use the same engine, it will enable us to have contact with American top races in the future though the chassis is as expensive as 40 million yen because the cassis specification is for oval course)
⑤ Set up a brand new category using new chassis with Mugen, Judd or other 4liter engine as a standard engine. (The cost is slightly up as chassis is approx. 35 million yen and engine is approx. 25 million yen but this category will definitely be right under F1) 　
⑥ You may be familiar with Dome's suggestion as we say every single time: introducing semi-original chassis using one-make monocoque and gearbox. （Since we proposed this idea several years ago, this idea has been adopted by DTM and IRL and has become a common system nowadays.
This could cut down the cost as well as improving the engineering aspect at the same time and will contribute to promotion of a race related industries. If we limit to use only 25% wind tunnels during development period, the facilities of companies such as Moon Craft, Tokyo R&D and Yajima Kogyo could be utilized. Naturally Dome will weep the board so we won't participate）		 　
⑦ As a life-prolonging measure though it is as if pulling a heart of the candle while its dying, produce Reynard parts in Japan as it is easy to do so and continue to use Reynard.
8. Upgrade F3 to FN by changing tune-ups drastically such as taking off restrictor or changing tire size. F3 race with the current regulations will be continued. (Though the speed can be changed, it will be difficult to combine the two as the shape is the same)
⑧ Upgrade F3 to FN by changing tune-ups drastically such as taking off restrictor or changing tire size. F3 race with the current regulations will be continued. (Though the speed can be changed, it will be difficult to combine the two as the shape is the same)

There are some options as I mentioned above. Having said that, there is only one choice FN can choose from if we think about the current situation let the dream be a dream. As some teams have already bought new Reynard this year and the new chassis is still up and running, it will be impossible to change all chassis at this timing. But we cannot continue to use Reynard, which has become fake reproduction products, to achieve the top category in Japan. That means we have no alternative but to introduce International F3000 Lola as said in #2.
Lola car was useless in the past and they have poor reputation in Japan but the current Lola's performance seems to be much better and the exterior looks much nicer than before.
I cannot guarantee as I haven't examined the car in details but we will be able to raise its performance up to Reynard's, and if we cannot, we could give Reynard 10 to 20 kg as handicap weight to match the performance of both cars.
If teams are allowed to modify their car freely after adjusting the basic performance to complete equal standard, performance difference will be created by team refinement. Competition of chassis will also add coloring to the element as a race someday.
My opinion is just for temporarily solution and I cannot foresee the future clearly myself but this option will be a safe one so far. Anyhow, before we explore the future of FN, JRP have to alter their way of thinking beforehand. I do hope they will show us the right polestar for this matter.

Minoru Hayashi