The 2026 Super Formula Lights Championship is the seventh Super Formula Lights Championship season, after the Japanese Formula 3 Championship was rebranded following the end of the 2019 season. It started on 28 March at Fuji Speedway and is scheduled to be run over 18 races across six race weekends.
As the championship is a spec series, all teams compete with an identical Dallara 324 chassis with a Toyota GR Yaris three-cylinder 1.6-litre turbo engine. All teams compete with tyres supplied by Kumho Tire.
Buzz Racing made their full-season debut in the series after entering the last round in 2025, with B-Max Racing Team operating the team.
B-Max Racing Team revived the B-Max Engineering entry after a four-year absence, and rebranded its one-car GNSY Racing offshoot to Art Taste Racing.
Teams' Champion B-Max Racing Team only entered two cars under its main guise, three less than in 2025. The team have an all-new lineup as Kazuhisa Urabe moved to Delightworks Racing, team owner "Dragon" entered the 2026 season under the returning B-Max Engineering banner, reigning Drivers' Champion Yuto Nomura graduated to the team's Super Formula outfit, Kaylen Frederick moved to IMSA SportsCar GTP with JDCâÂÂMiller MotorSports and Zachary David left the championship. B-Max promoted Kotaro Shimbara from their Japanese F4 outfit, where he finished fourth in 2025, and signed 2025 Formula Regional Middle East champion Evan Giltaire, who finished fifth in 2025 Formula Regional Europe with ART Grand Prix.
TOM'S also fully renewed their four-car lineup after Rikuto Kobayashi stepped up to Super Formula with TGMGP, Esteban Masson returned to FIA WEC LMGT3 with Akkodis ASP Team, Yuki Sano moved to Formula Regional Europe with R-ace GP, and Yuga Furutani joined Maple Hiroshima Racing Team in Super Taikyu's ST-5R class. The team signed reigning Formula Regional Japan champion Kiyoshi Umegaki, reigning F4 Japan champion Tokiya Suzuki, 2024 Euro 4 champion Akshay Bohra, who finished sixth in the 2025 Formula Regional European Championship with R-ace GP, and 2024 Formula 4 CEZ champion Oscar Wurz, who finished 18th in the 2025 Eurocup-3 with Drivex.
Delightworks Racing saw none of the three part-time drivers of their No. 2 car return for 2026. The team hired Kazuhisa Urabe, who moved over from B-Max Racing after finishing his debut Super Formula Lights season in tenth.
Reimei Ito left the series to move back to Porsche Carrera Cup Japan with Bingo Racing. To replace him, LM corsa promoted Kenta Kumagai from its outfit in F4 Japan, where he finished ninth in 2025.
Ken Watanabe, who races under the pseudonym "Ken Alex", rejoined new entrant Buzz Racing for his and the team's full-season debut after finishing fifth in F4 Japan's Independent Class in 2025 and already driving for the team in the final round of 2025.
The returning B-Max Engineering outfit entered one full-season car for team owner "Dragon" and one car for the first half of the season, piloted by Rintaro Sato after he came ninth in the 2025 French F4 Championship.
The calendar for the 2026 season was announced on 13 November 2025. It will once again consist of eighteen races held over six weekends at six circuits. Two of the events will support the parent Super Formula Championship.
Points are awarded as follows:
Only a teams' best finishing driver is eligible to score Teams' Championship points.