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Super Formula could use dropped scores in 2020
Super Formula could implement a system of dropped scores this year in order to help the seven drivers who are set to miss the Motegi opener due to travel restrictions.
Jamie Klein
Published: Aug 12, 2020, 11:30 AM
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Japan’s premier single-seater series is bracing for seven of its 20 regular drivers to be absent for the first round of the delayed 2020 season at the end of this month as a result of measures taken by Japan amid the global coronavirus crisis.
The three Toyota drivers taking part in the Spa round of the FIA World Endurance Championship, Kamui Kobayashi, Kazuki Nakajima and Kenta Yamashita, will not be able to serve their mandatory 14-day quarantine before the Motegi race on August 29-30.
Additionally, Juri Vips, Tatiana Calderon, Sergio Sette Camara and Charles Milesi are all currently in Europe and are set to fall foul of Japan’s immigration rules barring entry for foreign travellers from over 140 countries, although Vips is attempting to travel to Japan anyway.
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Motorsport.com has learned that plans are afoot for drivers to drop their two worst scores of the seven races on the 2020 schedule – giving those drivers unable to get to Japan even more time to enter the country without compromising their title chances.
The third round of the season is scheduled for October 18 at Sugo, so European-based drivers would also be able to skip the Okayama round on September 27 without penalty.
Given the Okayama race follows one week after the Le Mans 24 Hours, it’s likely that Kobayashi, Nakajima and Yamashita would also be forced to miss that event unless the rules on quarantine for returning Japanese nationals are changed in the interim.
Calderon is also scheduled to race at Le Mans for the Richard Mille Racing LMP2 team.
The existing quarantine rules will be in place until at least the end of August.
Did you know?
Dropped scores would be nothing new in Japanese single-seater racing, as Super Formula’s predecessor series Japanese Formula 3000 employed a similar system until the end of the 1995 season, affecting the outcome of the title battle on two occasions.
In 1993, Kazuyoshi Hoshino won his sixth and final top-level title after drawing level on points against future Formula 1 star Eddie Irvine, but Irvine (pictured below) would have won the title by a single point if all his results counted towards the championship.
Hoshino however would have won the 1988 title instead of Aguri Suzuki had the dropped scores system not been in place.
Eddie Irvine
Photo by: Sutton Images
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