14-year old daughter of ex-F1 driver wins on European race debut
The Danish Formula 4 Championship may not be a series that would normally warrant international attention but not only was this weekend’s season opener the first single-seater race to take place on European soil since lockdown, it also saw a significant race winner.
Taking the spoils was one Juju Noda, the teenage daughter of Hideki Noda, who started three F1 races with Larrousse in 1994 before going on to carve out a solid racing career both domestically and the United States.
A bit of research reveals she has been accumulating an increasing amount of interest from those in the know, not only because of who she is but because of her rapid ascent driving increasingly powerful machinery at extraordinarily young ages.
She got behind the wheel of a Formula 4 car at for the first time aged just 9-years old and is reported to have broken the category lap record around the Okayama Circuit at 11-years old, almost a second quicker than the existing record held by Shintaro Kawabata, a driver twice her age and already competing in Super GT
She has since gone on to test Formula 3 machinery and has raced them in a category named Formula U17.
Now Noda has set off for Europe to compete in the Danish F4 Championship for 2020 under the Noda Racing banner, which got underway this weekend with the teenager winning on her debut at the Jyllandsringen from pole position by a comfortable margin.
Though excluded from race two with a tyre issue, Noda battled back to third from 12th on the grid in race three.
Her success has drawn some broad attention in the F1 world, with a number of notable commentators imploring her as ‘one to watch’ for the future…
Today has been a very special day for all of us at NODA Racing. Juju drove flawlessly and earned herself a fantastic victory.
— NODA Racing (@NODA_Racing) June 20, 2020
NODAレーシングルの皆さんについて、今日は素晴らしかったです。Jujuちゃんは完璧でした、優勝になりました。おめでとう！#NODARacing #JujuNoda #Juju10 #JN10 pic.twitter.com/cC2Ugz907T
