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Satoru Nakajima | |
|---|---|
中嶋 悟 | |
.jpg) Nakajima in 2008 | |
| Born | (1953-02-23)23 February 1953 (age 72) Okazaki, Aichi, Japan |
| Children | |
| Formula One World Championship career | |
| Nationality |  Japanese |
| Active years | 1987–1991 |
| Teams | Lotus,Tyrrell |
| Entries | 80 (74 starts) |
| Championships | 0 |
| Wins | 0 |
| Podiums | 0 |
| Careerpoints | 16 |
| Pole positions | 0 |
| Fastest laps | 1 |
| First entry | 1987 Brazilian Grand Prix |
| Last entry | 1991 Australian Grand Prix |
| Previous series | |
| Championship titles | |
| 1981–1982, 1984–1986 | Japanese Formula Two |
Satoru Nakajima (Japanese:中嶋 悟,Hepburn:Nakajima Satoru; born 23 February 1953) is a Japanese formerracing driver andmotorsport executive, who competed inFormula One from1987 to1991.
Born and raised inOkazaki, Aichi, Nakajima began his racing career at theSuzuka Circuit in 1973. He progressed toJapanese Formula Two in1977, winning a then-record five titles between1981 and1986, with 21 victories across 10 seasons. After several appearances insportscar racing via theWorld Sportscar Championship and theAll Japan Endurance Championship—as well as a season inInternational Formula 3000—Nakajima signed forLotus in1987 to partnerAyrton Senna, becoming thefirst Japanese driver to compete full-time in Formula One at theBrazilian Grand Prix. He scored his maiden points finish at the following round inSan Marino, and achieved a career-best fourth place at theBritish Grand Prix.
Across his remaining two seasons at Lotus, Nakajima scored points finishes at the1988 Brazilian and1989 Australian Grands Prix, setting thefastest lap and finishing fourth at the latter. Nakajima moved toTyrrell in1990, scoring points finishes in theUnited States,Italy andhis home Grand Prix in Japan. Retaining his seat for his1991 campaign at Tyrrellunder Honda power, Nakajima scored his final points at the season-openingUnited States Grand Prix, leaving at the end of the season to join Honda'sworks team project. Nakajima tested theRC100 and related models until 1994, when Honda pulled out of Formula One following theJapanese asset price bubble.
Upon retiring from motor racing, Nakajima focused on hisNakajima Racing team, which he had founded in 1984 toprivately enterMarch chassis into theJapanese Formula Two Championship, winning three consecutive titles until1986. Nakajima won fourFormula Nippon Teams' Championship titles between1999 and2009, still competing in the newly-formedSuper Formula Championship, as well as theSuper GT Series. Nakajima's sonsKazuki andDaisuke both became racing drivers, the former also competing in Formula One forWilliams from2007 to2009.
Satoru Nakajima was born on 23 February 1953 to a farming family living just outsideOkazaki,Japan.[1] He began driving cars in his early teens in the family's garden with his older brother giving him tips, careful that their father didn't catch them. He felt exhilaration behind the wheel of a car, and from then on knew what he wanted to do.
Nakajima started racing after he finished school and passed his driver's licence. In 1973 he was a rookie in theSuzuka Circuit series, which he won. Five years later, he won his first race inJapanese Formula Two. In 1981 he won his first championship, thus beginning a period of domination in the series. He won five of the next six championships, all of them equipped with aHondaV6 engine.
Nakajima participated in 80Formula One Grands Prix, debuting in theBrazilian Grand Prix on 12 April 1987, bringingHonda engines to theLotus team. He was 34 years old in his debut race, making him one of Formula One's oldest debutants of the modern era.[citation needed] He finished sixth, and so scored a point, in only his second race, the1987 San Marino Grand Prix. During his debut season, Nakajima was outclassed by his teammateAyrton Senna, and many questioned Nakajima's place in F1, stating that if not for Honda he would not have been there on merit.
Honda had originally pushed for Nakajima to replaceNigel Mansell atWilliams for the1986 season (the Japanese company supplied their engines exclusively to Williams from 1984 to 1986). However, Williams ownerFrank Williams refused to dump Mansell, who despite scoring only 7 points in the first 12 rounds, had finally won his first two races towards the end of the1985 season. Frank Williams, who was always more interested in the Constructors' rather than the Drivers' Championship, reasoned that having race winner Mansell, and then dual World ChampionNelson Piquet, would give the team its best shot at the Constructors' title, and that the unproven (in F1) Nakajima would struggle (Williams was to be proven correct on this). Lotus were looking for a new engine partner for 1987 asRenault were pulling out of the sport at the end of 1986. Lotus agreed to take on Nakajima replacingJohnny Dumfries in the second seat as a part of the new engine deal with Honda.
1988 was another miserable year in F1 for both Nakajima and Lotus. In the final season for turbos and using the same V6 engines that propelled McLaren drivers Senna andAlain Prost to win 15 of the season's 16 races, Nakajima scored only a single point during the season finishing sixth in the opening race inBrazil. He also failed to qualify theLotus 100T at bothMonaco andDetroit, the only times between its first race in1983 and the end of the turbo era in 1988 that a Honda V6 turbo failed to qualify for any Grands Prix entered. Despite this, on occasions Nakajima was able to push his teammate, reigning World Champion Nelson Piquet who had replaced Senna.
Not normally the best of qualifiers or racers despite having equipment superior to most, including the same all-powerful Honda V6 turbo engine as the McLarens, Nakajima could have easily been excused for performing poorly at the1988 Japanese Grand Prix atSuzuka, if he chose to compete at all. Only 30 minutes before the start of the Friday morning's practice session he was informed that his mother had died that morning (28 October). In the circumstances his effort in Saturday qualifying to equal his more illustrious teammate's time right down to the thousandth of a second was exceptional. Piquet and Nakajima qualified 5th and 6th respectively, Piquet in front only for having set his time earlier in the last qualifying session. Nakajima was actually faster than the triple World Champion on the Friday, an effort that won the much-maligned Japanese driver new fans and much praise in the F1 paddock.
Despite most believing he did not truly deserve to be in F1, Lotus showed faith in Nakajima when they re-signed him for1989, even after Honda announced would not be supplying their engines to the team after the 1988 season. This left Nakajima and team-mate Piquet driving theJuddV8 poweredLotus 101 (Nakajima continued to wear Honda patches on his racing suit during the years he did not drive for a Honda-powered team). The pair had a very up-and-down season, with both failing to qualify for the1989 Belgian Grand Prix, the first time in their 30-year history that Lotus had failed to make the grid, symbolically heralding the beginning of the end for the British team. A great upside to Nakajima's 1989 was a fourth place andfastest lap in the rain-soakedAustralian Grand Prix, scoring his only points of the year and also equaling his best career finish, from the1987 British Grand Prix. Nakajima's race inAdelaide, in which he was dead last at the end of the first lap after a spin soon after the start and only finished 4.648 seconds behind the 3rd placedWilliams-RenaultV10 ofRiccardo Patrese, even drew praise from those who had criticised him in the past such asBBC television commentator and1976 World ChampionJames Hunt.
Nakajima joinedTyrrell for the1990 season (along with the promise of the team using the Honda V10 engine in1991). He raced for them for two uneventful years at the back of the pack before ending his career. In 1990 he was teammate to young FrenchmanJean Alesi, who scored 13 points (including two second places) to Nakajima's three. In 1991 with the Honda engines used by McLaren in 1990 (and serviced byMugen Motorsports), he was joined by ItalianStefano Modena. Nakajima was again outscored by his teammate, with Modena scoring 10 points and Nakajima's two points coming from finishing 5th in the opening race of the season inPhoenix.
Honda left Formula One a year later to lay the first bricks on a works team, one that they had been working on during the Formula One season, and that CEONobuhiko Kawamoto finally admitted to in October. The car, the Honda RC100 was unveiled to the media in February 1993, driven by Nakajima. Shortly afterwards, it passed theFédération Internationale du Sport Automobile (FISA) crash tests, meaning that the company could enter their team into F1 competition. In an attempt to improve on their previouschassis, Honda built two more, the RC101 and 101B, the latter intended for racing purposes, the former for crash testing. Nakajima had the first public testing of the 101B in Suzuka in January 1994. The company decided against entering its own cars in F1 at this time, instead opting to further their engine development in America withCART, and later, theIRL.
Nakajima still lives in the family home near Okazaki. He owns theNakajima Racing entry in JapaneseFormula 3000 /Formula Nippon / Super Formula. Nakajima drivers have won theFormula Nippon championship three times,Tom Coronel doing so in 1999,Toranosuke Takagi in 2000, andRalph Firman in 2002.
Nakajima's son,Kazuki raced for theWilliams team in Formula One in the2008 and2009 seasons.[2] Nakajima's younger son,Daisuke, is also a racing driver. He competed in theBritish Formula 3 Championship in2009 and2010.[2] After their careers in open-wheel racing, both turned to sports car racing; Kazuki raced in theFIA World Endurance Championship withToyota Gazoo Racing while Daisuke raced inSuper GT; both have since retired from racing. Kazuki retired after the2021 FIA World Endurance Championship to take up a managerial role with Toyota Gazoo Racing,[3] while Daisuke retired at the end of the2019 Super GT Series and has since maintained a low profile.[4]
(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position) (Races initalics indicate fastest lap)
| Year | Entrant | Chassis | Engine | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | DC | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1977 | Heros Racing Corporation | Nova | BMW | SUZ 4 | SUZ Ret | MIN | SUZ 10 | FUJ 5 | FUJ 2 | SUZ 3 | SUZ 5 | 3rd | 52 (53) |
| 1978 | Heros Racing Corporation | Nova Martini | BMW Renault | SUZ 3 | FUJ 2 | SUZ 1 | SUZ 2 | SUZ 2 | MIN | SUZ 2 | 3rd | 67 | |
| 1979 | i&i Racing Development | March | BMW | SUZ 12 | MIN | SUZ 11 | FUJ 4 | SUZ 9 | SUZ Ret | SUZ 2 | 7th | 28 | |
| 1980 | i&i Racing Development | March | BMW | SUZ 1 | MIN | SUZ 1 | SUZ 3 | SUZ 6 | SUZ 6 | 3rd | 59 | ||
| 1981 | i&i Racing Development | Ralt March | Honda | SUZ 3 | SUZ 2 | SUZ 3 | SUZ 1 | SUZ 1 | 1st | 79 | |||
| 1982 | John Player Special Team Ikuzawa | March | Honda | SUZ 1 | FUJ 6 | SUZ 1 | SUZ 3 | SUZ 1 | SUZ 1 | 1st | 80 (98) | ||
| 1983 | Harada Racing Company | March | Honda | SUZ 1 | FUJ DSQ | MIN Ret | SUZ 4 | SUZ Ret | FUJ 13 | SUZ 1 | SUZ 2 | 4th | 65 |
| 1984 | Heros Racing Corporation | March | Honda | SUZ 1 | FUJ 3 | MIN Ret | SUZ 9 | SUZ 1 | FUJ 2 | SUZ 1 | SUZ 1 | 1st | 107 (109) |
| 1985 | Heros Racing withNakajima | March | Honda | SUZ 2 | FUJ 1 | MIN 1 | SUZ 1 | SUZ 2 | FUJ 2 | SUZ 1 | SUZ 1 | 1st | 115 (145) |
| 1986 | Heros Racing withNakajima | March | Honda | SUZ 2 | FUJ 2 | MIN 4 | SUZ 1 | SUZ 2 | FUJ 3 | SUZ 2 | SUZ 4 | 1st | 92 (112) |
(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position; races initalics indicate fastest lap.)
| Year | Entrant | Chassis | Engine | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | DC | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1986 | Team Ralt | Ralt RT20 | HondaV8[5] | SIL Ret | VAL 5 | PAU | SPA | IMO 8 | MUG 5 | PER Ret | ÖST 4 | BIR 8 | BUG | JAR | 11th | 7 |
(key) (Races initalics indicate fastest lap)
| Year | Entrant | Chassis | Engine | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | WDC | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1987 | CamelTeam Lotus Honda | Lotus99T | Honda RA166E 1.5V6t | BRA 7 | SMR 6 | BEL 5 | MON 10 | DET Ret | FRA NC | GBR 4 | GER Ret | HUN Ret | AUT 13 | ITA 11 | POR 8 | ESP 9 | MEX Ret | JPN 6 | AUS Ret | 12th | 7 |
| 1988 | CamelTeam Lotus Honda | Lotus100T | Honda RA168E 1.5V6t | BRA 6 | SMR 8 | MON DNQ | MEX Ret | CAN 11 | DET DNQ | FRA 7 | GBR 10 | GER 9 | HUN 7 | BEL Ret | ITA Ret | POR Ret | ESP Ret | JPN 7 | AUS Ret | 16th | 1 |
| 1989 | CamelTeam Lotus | Lotus101 | Judd CV 3.5V8 | BRA 8 | SMR NC | MON DNQ | MEX Ret | USA Ret | CAN DNQ | FRA Ret | GBR 8 | GER Ret | HUN Ret | BEL DNQ | ITA 10 | POR 7 | ESP Ret | JPN Ret | AUS 4 | 21st | 3 |
| 1990 | Tyrrell Racing Organisation | Tyrrell018 | Ford Cosworth DFR 3.5V8 | USA 6 | BRA 8 | 15th | 3 | ||||||||||||||
| Tyrrell019 | SMR Ret | MON Ret | CAN 11 | MEX Ret | FRA Ret | GBR Ret | GER Ret | HUN Ret | BEL Ret | ITA 6 | POR DNS | ESP Ret | JPN 6 | AUS Ret | |||||||
| 1991 | BraunTyrrell Honda | Tyrrell020 | Honda RA101E 3.5V10 | USA 5 | BRA Ret | SMR Ret | MON Ret | CAN 10 | MEX 12 | FRA Ret | GBR 8 | GER Ret | HUN 15 | BEL Ret | ITA Ret | POR 13 | ESP 17 | JPN Ret | AUS Ret | 15th | 2 |
Nakajima's helmet was white with two red lines forming a circular end on the chin area, with a wide line on the rear of the helmet with written NAKAJIMA on it. His sonKazuki Nakajima uses a slightly different version of this helmet.
Between 1988 and 1994, Nakajima endorsed many Formula One video games for various consoles like Family Computer, Sega Mega Drive, Game Boy and Super Famicom. While most of these games (released byVarie) were only released in Japan, one of the games Nakajima had endorsed for the Mega Drive was released internationally asFerrari Grand Prix Challenge. He also appeared as a playable driver in his Lotus 100T in Codemasters'F1 2013.
| Sporting positions | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Japanese Formula Two Champion 1981-1982 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Japanese Formula Two Champion 1984-1986 | Succeeded by Kazuyoshi Hoshino (Japanese Formula 3000) |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
