Juju Noda is a Japanese single-seater driver who earned huge media attention as the youngest person to drive a Formula 3 car, aged 11, in 2017.
The daughter of former Formula 1, Indycar and Super GT racer, Hideki Noda, Juju was introduced to motorsport at a very early age and was karting at three, winning her first race at four. She first tested a full-size car in 2015, driving a Formula 4 which she then drove in public the following year, still aged only nine. Two years later, she was doing speed trials and track days at the Okiyama circuit in an F3 car.
By the time of her F3 test, she had already beaten a lap record for Formula 4 Okiyama in 2016, although it did not stand as it was set during an unofficial track appearance at a Super GT meeting.
Due to her age, she was unable to compete in her home country, which requires racing drivers to be at least 16, although she raced a little in the USA at the tender age of 13. She took part in the Lucas Oil Winter Race Series meeting at Laguna Seca in early 2019, in a Ray single-seater. Her best result was a fourth place, alongside two eighth places.
This led to a drive in the 2020 Danish F4 championship, one of the few series to allow drivers of Juju's age (14 at the time) to compete. She won her first race at Jyllandsringen and earned three more podiums, two thirds and a second, on her way to sixth in the championship.
In 2020, she also took part in assessments held by the FIA Women in Motorsport Commission in order to find a junior driver for the Ferrari Academy. Juju was not among the finalists.
Her 2021 season was meant to be spent in the US F4 championship, driving for Jay Howard Driver Development. She practiced for the first round at Road Atlanta and ran fastest, but she did not qualify and withdrew from the championship due to “various recent issues”. Her team did not specify what these issues were, only that they were not related to racism and were “external”.
She returned to the Danish championship just in time for the start of the season. Her Noda Racing-run car was the first F4 car over the line at Padborg, the first of two wins from pole position. She did not finish the third race.
(Image copyright The Drive)