The 2021 Formula D season (officially titled Formula Drift Pro Championship) was the eighteenth season of the Formula D series. The season began on May 8 at Road Atlanta and concluded on October 23 at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale after eight events.

Toward the end of the season, three of Formula Drift's longest-serving members announced a departure from the series, all of whom had been part of Formula Drift since is inaugural season in 2004. Co-founder and series President Jim Liaw left to take up a new position at Performance Racing Industry, but retained a role in the series; his place was taken by Vice President and fellow co-founder Ryan Sage.^[1][2] 2011 champion Daijiro Yoshihara announced his retirement from the series ahead of the finale.^[3] 2010 and 2020 champion Vaughn Gittin, Jr. announced that he would step back from the series to give attention to other interests, including his participation in the ULTRA4 Racing Series, but he intended to participate again in the future.^[4] His seat at RTR Motorsports was filled by Adam LZ in 2022.^[5]

Team	No.	Car	Tires	Driver	Round(s)
Alec Robbins Racing	35	Nissan 350Z	Federal Tires[a]	Alec Robbins[6]	All
Asphalt Anarchy	82	Cadillac ATS-V	Nexen	Taylor Hull[7]	All
Bakchis Motorsports	723	Nissan Silvia S15	Falken	Aurimas Bakchis[8]	All
Beechum Racing	999	Ford Mustang	Nexen	Trenton Beechum[9]  R	1–3, 5–8
BUY NOW JAPAN	530	Nissan Silvia S15	Nexen	Wataru Masuyama[10]	1–4, 6–8
Cash Racing	16	Infiniti G37	Nexen	Jonathan Hurst[11]  R	All
Drift Cave Motorsports	777	Chevrolet Corvette C6	Falken	Matt Field[12]	All
Drift Force	33	BMW F22	Nexen	Joshua Correa Reynolds[13]  R	1–6
	91	BMW F22	Nexen	Yves Meyer[14]	1–7
Dylan Hughes Racing	129	BMW M3 E46	GT Radial	Dylan Hughes[15]	All
Essa Autosport	101	BMW M3 E46	GT Radial	Michael Essa[16]	All
FFF Drifting Department	117	Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano	Nexen	Federico Sceriffo[17]	1–3, 5–8
Forsberg Racing	64	Nissan 370Z	GT Radial	Chris Forsberg[18]	All
Garagistic	171	BMW M3 E36	Federal Tires	Rome Charpentier[19]	All
Gas Factory	9	Subaru BRZ	Falken	Daijiro Yoshihara[20]	All
Jeff Jones Racing	818	Nissan 370Z	GT Radial	Jeff Jones[21]	All
Jhonnattan Castro	17	Toyota GT86	Federal Tires Nexen[b]	Jhonnattan Castro[22]	1–7
Jonathan Nerren Racing	23	Nissan Silvia S14	Federal Tires	Jonathan Nerren[23]	1–7
KGMS Greddy Toyota Gazoo Racing	21	Toyota GR Supra	Nexen	Ken Gushi[24]	1–5, 7–8
Kyle Mohan Racing	99	Mazda RX-8	Federal Tires	Kyle Mohan[25]	All
LZMFG	5	Nissan Silvia S15	Nitto	Adam LZ[26]	All
Papadakis Racing	151	Toyota GR Supra	Nitto	Fredric Aasbø[27]	All
	411	Toyota Corolla (E210)	Nitto	Ryan Tuerck[28]	All
Pawlak Racing	13	Ford Mustang	Falken	Justin Pawlak[29]	1–3, 5–8
RAD Industries	34	Toyota Supra A80	GT Radial	Dan Burkett[30]	All
RTR Motorsports	25	Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5-D	Nitto	Vaughn Gittin, Jr.[31]	All
	88	Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5-D	Nitto	Chelsea DeNofa[32]	All
Ryan Litteral Racing	909	Nissan Silvia S15	GT Radial	Ryan Litteral[33]	1, 3, 5–8
Simen Olsen Drifting	707	Toyota GR Supra	Federal Tires[c]	Simen Olsen  R [34]	All
Sorensen Motorsports	513	BMW M4 F82	Nexen	Branden Sorensen  R [35]	All
Team Karnage	43	Dodge Viper ZB II	Nexen	Dean Kearney[36]	All
Travis Reeder Motorsports	77	BMW M3 E46	GT Radial	Travis Reeder[37]	All
Upgarage ISR Performance GT Radial Jerry Yang Racing	123	Nissan Silvia S15	GT Radial	Kazuya Taguchi[38]	All

Round	Title	Circuit	Location	Date	Winner	Car
1	Royal Purple Road to the Championship Presented by O'Reilly Auto Parts	Road Atlanta	Braselton, Georgia	May 8	Aurimas Bakchis	Nissan Silvia S15
2	Scorched	Orlando Speed World	Orlando, Florida	May 22	Chelsea DeNofa	Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5-D
3	The AutoZone Gauntlet Presented by TYPE S	Englishtown Raceway Park	Englishtown, New Jersey	June 19	Matt Field	Chevrolet Corvette C6
4	Borderlands	Lake Erie Speedway	Erie, Pennsylvania	July 10	Chelsea DeNofa	Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5-D
5	Throwdown	Evergreen Speedway	Monroe, Washington	July 31	Chelsea DeNofa	Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5-D
6	Crossroads	World Wide Technology Raceway	Madison, Illinois	August 28	Fredric Aasbø	Toyota Supra
7	AutoZone Streets of Long Beach Presented by TYPE S	Streets of Long Beach	Long Beach, California	September 18	Aurimas Bakchis	Nissan Silvia S15
8	TYPE S Title Fight	Irwindale Speedway	Irwindale, California	October 23	Aurimas Bakchis	Nissan Silvia S15
Sources:[39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47]

The championship points system was altered for 2021, with points no longer awarded for qualifying positions. Points are awarded to the top 32 qualifiers for each event. The qualifiers proceed through a series of competition heats, with those eliminated in the first round (Top 32) receiving 35 points and classifying 17th through 32nd, the second round (Sweet 16) receiving 52 points and classifying 9th through 16th, the third round (Great 8) receiving 67 points and classifying 5th through 8th, and the fourth round (Final Four) receiving 80 points and classifying 3rd and 4th. In the Final, the runner-up receives 91 points and the winner 100 points. Final classification within each round is then determined by highest qualifying position; for example, of the two drivers eliminated in the Final Four, the driver who qualified higher is awarded 3rd position and the final place on the podium.

If 22 or fewer drivers are present, an alternative qualifying format is used in which a Last Chance Bracket (LCB) is populated by the drivers who qualify from 15th down. The top two LCB qualifiers enter the competition heats as normal, while the remaining LCB qualifiers (3rd down to a maximum of 8th if 22 drivers are present) receive 35 points, equivalent to the 17th–32nd positions at a regular event.

In the event of a tie on points at the end of the season, the driver who classified higher in the most recent round will be awarded the higher position.^[48][49]

Pos Driver ATL ORL ENG LES EVS WWT LBH IRW Pts 1 Fredric Aasbø 9 2 3 2 12 1 2 2 648 2 Matt Field 2 5 1 3 4 6 11 4 617 3 Aurimas Bakchis 1 4 9 6 18 8 1 1 614[d] 4 Chelsea DeNofa 14 1 5 1 1 12 5 7 605 5 Vaughn Gittin, Jr. 3 6 25 4 15 4 3 3 554 6 Ryan Tuerck 10 9 4 13 2 2 12 8 537 7 Chris Forsberg 18 10 2 27 6 13 4 6 479 8 Dylan Hughes 15 22 11 5 3 3 13 12 470 9 Kazuya Taguchi 16 7 7 8 23 14 27 5 442 10 Michael Essa 21 20 12 10 5 7 6 9 427 11 Jeff Jones 4 11 18 17 8 19 15 14 408 12 Travis Reeder 13 12 6 16 7 20 18 19 395 13 Dean Kearney 7 8 8 20 16 26 26 23 393 14 Justin Pawlak 6 3 17 11 9 9 11 390 15 Simen Olsen  RY  31 15 15 25 10 22 25 16 348 16 Alec Robbins 23 14 16 18 27 5 32 29 346 17 Daijiro Yoshihara 20 26 10 29 29 10 10 17 331[e] 18 Jonathan Hurst  R  30 21 24 21 9 21 14 15 331 19 Branden Sorensen  R  11 17 13 22 17 11 21 25 331 20 Dan Burkett 17 13 26 15 19 16 24 26 331 21 Adam LZ 8 24 32 9 21 29 22 24 329 22 Yves Meyer 5 16 28 7 22 25 30 326 23 Rome Charpentier 22 19 22 12 20 23 23 10 314 24 Kyle Mohan 28 31 30 26 31 30 16 13 314 25 Taylor Hull 24 27 27 11 24 18 17 18 297 26 Wataru Masuyama 25 29 21 24 15 8 21 294 27 Jhonnattan Castro 12 18 20 23 28 17 7 294 28 Ken Gushi 19 23 19 28 13 28 20 262 29 Trenton Beechum  R  27 28 29 14 31 31 28 262 30 Jonathan Nerren 32 30 23 14 25 24 19 262 31 Federico Sceriffo 29 25 14 30 DNQ 29 27 227 32 Joshua Correa Reynolds  R  26 32 31 19 26 28 210 33 Ryan Litteral NC DNQ 32 27 20 22 140 Sources:[51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72][2][73]

In-line notation Bold Top qualifier  RY  Rookie of the Year  R  Rookie

Auto Cup points are awarded each round to the two drivers with the highest classified finish for each manufacturer. To be eligible, both the chassis and engine must have been constructed by that manufacturer.

Pos	Manufacturer	ATL	ORL	ENG	LES	EVS	WWT	LBH	IRW	Pts
1	Toyota	9	2	3	2	2	1	2	2	1200
		10	9	4	13	12	2	7	5
2	Ford	3	1	5	1	1	4	3	3	1187
		6	3	17	4	11	9	5	7
3	Nissan	18	10	2	27	6	13	4	6	619
		NC				32	27	20	22
4	Chevrolet	2	5	1	3	4	6	11	4	617
5	BMW	21	20	12	10	5	7	6	9	427
6	Dodge	7	8	8	20	16	26	26	23	393
7	Mazda	28	31	30	26	31	30	16	13	314
8	Cadillac	24	27	27	11	24	18	17	18	297
9	Ferrari	29	25	14		30	DNQ	29	27	227
Source:[74]

Tire Cup points are awarded each round to the two drivers with the highest classified finish for each tire manufacturer.