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Ukyo Katayama | |
|---|---|
片山 右京 | |
 Katayama in 2008 | |
| Born | (1963-05-29)29 May 1963 (age 62) Tokyo, Japan |
| Formula One World Championship career | |
| Nationality |  Japanese |
| Active years | 1992–1997 |
| Teams | Larrousse,Tyrrell,Minardi |
| Entries | 97 (95 starts) |
| Championships | 0 |
| Wins | 0 |
| Podiums | 0 |
| Careerpoints | 5 |
| Pole positions | 0 |
| Fastest laps | 0 |
| First entry | 1992 South African Grand Prix |
| Last entry | 1997 European Grand Prix |
| 24 Hours of Le Mans career | |
| Years | 1988,1992,1998–1999,2002–2003 |
| Teams | Courage,Toyota,Pescarolo,Kondo |
| Best finish | 2nd(1999) |
| Class wins | 1(1999) |
Ukyo Katayama (Japanese:片山 右京,Hepburn:Katayama Ukyō; born 29 May 1963) is a Japanese formerracing driver andmotorsport executive, who competed inFormula One from1992 to1997.
Katayama participated in 97 Grands Prix, debuting at the1992 South African Grand Prix, making him the sport's second most experienced Japanese driver. He scored a total of five championship points, all of them for theTyrrell team in1994. Katayama also competed in the1999 24 Hours of Le Mans, finishing second overall and leading the GTP class. He has managed the Japanese continental cycling teamTeam UKYO since 2012.
Born inTokyo, Katayama spent three years racing inFrance before returning home in 1988 to enter theJapanese F3000. He scored three podiums in 1990, and won the championship in 1991 with two wins and three second places.[citation needed]
His sponsors,Japan Tobacco, arranged aFormula One seat for Katayama in1992 with Cabin brand, with theLarrousse team. The car was unreliable and a distinct midfielder, with team-mateBertrand Gachot getting the lion's share of the team's meagre resources. However, Katayama impressed by running in 5th at theCanadian GP until his engine blew, but was eventually left with a brace of 9th places as his best result.[citation needed]
Japan Tobacco managed to arrange a switch toTyrrell for1993, but the team were at a low, with the interim020C essentially three years old, and the new021 proving uncompetitive. 10th place at theHungarian GP was his best result.[citation needed]
1994 was to see a considerable turnaround forTyrrell and Katayama. He impressed with the new022, with three points-scoring finishes, a number of good qualifying performances, and generally being faster than his more experienced and acclaimed team-mateMark Blundell. He was consistently a top-6 runner, but the car proved to be unreliable, leading him to 12 retirements, including theGerman GP, in which he was running 3rd before his throttle stuck open. However, in the four races that he did finish, he scored two 5th places, one 6th, and one 7th, good enough for 5 World Championship points.[citation needed]
After his 1994 performance, he was allegedly offered a contract with Benetton for the 1995 season[1] alongside World Champion Michael Schumacher, but in Katayama's words, "he couldn't sign it". It would later emerge that in 1994 he had been diagnosed with cancer in his back; while non-threatening, it was painful, and his Grand Prix commitments delayed treatment. Katayama did not announce this until he retired fromFormula One, not wanting anyone's sympathy to make excuses for him.[citation needed]
He stayed on withTyrrell for the next two seasons, but suffered a loss of form, with two 7th places in high-attrition races his best results, thus scoring no points whilst being outpaced by rookie team-mateMika Salo. At the1996 Belgian Grand Prix he finished on the lead lap for the single time in his Formula One career.[2] During these years he was highly disadvantaged by the regulation changes which led to higher cockpit sides,[citation needed] a response to thedeath of Ayrton Senna at the1994 San Marino GP.[citation needed]
After leavingTyrrell, hisMild Seven (another brand ofJapan Tobacco) backing landed him a seat atMinardi, but they too were at a low ebb, and two 10th places were his best result. Athis home Grand Prix, he emotionally announced his retirement fromFormula One.[citation needed]
Still popular in his homeland, Katayama has since dabbled in sportscars and GT racing, as well as his other love ofmountaineering. One of his most notable performances post F1 was at the1999 24 Hours of Le Mans, when during the last hour, as he was lapping traffic and closing up to the leadingBMW in hisToyota GT-One, shared with compatriotsKeiichi Tsuchiya andToshio Suzuki, his car suffered a tyre blowout and, while he managed to keep the car on the track, he was forced to slowly make his way around the track to return to the pits for a new set. In the process the GT-One lost the chance to contend with the BMW. The lone GT-One would come home 2nd overall. Still, the GT-One won the GTP class, although it was the only car in that class to actually finish the race.
In 2008, he was one of several retired F1 drivers to compete in the newSpeedcar Series.
In year 2000, Katayama established Team UKYO motor sport team. The team originally participated inJGTC in 2001–2002 in the GT500 class in a collaboration with Cerumo, competing as the No. 33 team with Katayama and future team ownerMasahiko Kondo as its drivers. The team left the series after the 2002 season before returning in 2011 to leadGoodsmile Racing's GT300 program. Katayama led the team to three GT300 titles in2011,2014, and2017.
The team also took part in theDakar Rally in 2002-2005 and 2007.
Team UKYO is participating in the road bicycle racing as aUCI Continentalcycling team starting from 2012.[3]
Katayama is a lover of mountain climbing. He has often been climbing mountains since his F1 era.
In 2001 he climbed the world's sixth-highest mountain,Cho Oyu. On 1 December 2006, it was reported that he had achieved his lifetime ambition of climbingManaslu, the eighth-highest mountain in the world, after an unsuccessful attempt in 2004.[4]
On 18 December 2009, it was reported that he had been missing whilst climbingMount Fuji with two friends. Upon calling a police search and rescue team, they informed the police that one of their climbing party had died, and another was presumed to be dying. Eventually, Katayama was found alive while two fellow climbers were found dead.[5]
As of the end of 2010, Katayama had summited six of theSeven Summits:Mont Blanc (climbed in 1996),Kilimanjaro (1998),Elbrus (1998),Denali (2008),Aconcagua (2009), andVinson Massif (2010)[6]
He has been participating other sporting events as an official invitee, such asHonolulu Marathon andHonolulu Century Ride.
He is now a commentator of Formula One in Japan, forFuji TV. He also co-hosts the motoring programSamurai Wheels forNHK World. In 1996 he was a guest judge onIron Chef.
Katayama's helmet was blue with a red and white stripe crossing the rear area and going in the sides forming an oblique letter T, and a vertical red and white stripe going across the top (until the visor).[7]
| Year | Team | Co-Drivers | Car | Class | Laps | Pos. | Class Pos. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 |  Courage Compétition | Paul BelmondoFrançois Migault | Courage C22-Porsche | C1 | 66 | DNF | DNF |
| 1992 | Toyota TeamTom's |  Geoff Lees David Brabham | Toyota TS010 | C1 | 192 | DNF | DNF |
| 1998 | Toyota Motorsports Toyota Team Europe | Toshio SuzukiKeiichi Tsuchiya | Toyota GT-One | GT1 | 326 | 9th | 8th |
| 1999 | Toyota MotorsportsToyota Team Europe | Keiichi TsuchiyaToshio Suzuki | Toyota GT-One | LMGTP | 364 | 2nd | 1st |
| 2002 | Pescarolo Sport | Éric HélaryStéphane Ortelli | Courage C60-Peugeot | LMP900 | 144 | DNF | DNF |
| 2003 | Kondo Racing | Masahiko KondoRyo Fukuda | Dome S101-Mugen | LMP900 | 322 | 13th | 8th |
(key)
| Year | Entrant | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | DC | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 | Ba-Tsu Racing Team | SUZ 11 | FUJ Ret | MIN Ret | SUZ 7 | SUG 5 | FUJ 8 | SUZ 12 | SUZ Ret | 11th | 2 | |||
| 1989 | Footwork Formula | SUZ 9 | FUJ Ret | MIN | SUZ Ret | SUG Ret | FUJ 15 | SUZ 18 | SUZ 7 | NC | 0 | |||
| 1990 | Cabin Racing Team with Heroes | SUZ Ret | FUJ 3 | MIN 5 | SUZ Ret | SUG 12 | FUJ 5 | FUJ 2 | SUZ 3 | FUJ Ret | SUZ DSQ | 5th | 18 | |
| 1991 | Cabin Racing Team with Heroes | SUZ 1 | AUT 4 | FUJ 9 | MIN Ret | SUZ 1 | SUG 6 | FUJ 2 | SUZ 2 | FUJ C | SUZ 10 | FUJ 2 | 1st | 40 |
(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position; races initalics indicate fastest lap.)
| Year | Entrant | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | DC | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | Footwork | SIL DNQ | VAL Ret | PAU DNQ | JER 18 | PER | BRH | BIR | SPA | BUG | DIJ | NC | 0 |
(key)
| Year | Team | Chassis | Engine | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | WDC | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | Central Park VenturiLarrousse | VenturiLarrousseLC92 | LamborghiniV12 | RSA 12 | MEX 12 | BRA 9 | ESP DNQ | SMR Ret | MON DNPQ | CAN Ret | FRA Ret | GBR Ret | GER Ret | HUN Ret | BEL 17 | ITA 9 | POR Ret | JPN 11 | AUS Ret | NC | 0 | |
| 1993 | Tyrrell Racing Organisation | Tyrrell020C | YamahaV10 | RSA Ret | BRA Ret | EUR Ret | SMR Ret | ESP Ret | MON Ret | CAN 17 | FRA Ret | GBR 13 | NC | 0 | ||||||||
| Tyrrell021 | YamahaV10 | GER Ret | HUN 10 | BEL 15 | ITA 14 | POR Ret | JPN Ret | AUS Ret | ||||||||||||||
| 1994 | Tyrrell Racing Organisation | Tyrrell022 | YamahaV10 | BRA 5 | PAC Ret | SMR 5 | MON Ret | ESP Ret | CAN Ret | FRA Ret | GBR 6 | GER Ret | HUN Ret | BEL Ret | ITA Ret | POR Ret | EUR 7 | JPN Ret | AUS Ret | 17th | 5 | |
| 1995 | NokiaTyrrellYamaha | Tyrrell023 | YamahaV10 | BRA Ret | ARG 8 | SMR Ret | ESP Ret | MON Ret | CAN Ret | FRA Ret | GBR Ret | GER 7 | HUN Ret | BEL Ret | ITA 10 | POR Ret | EUR | PAC 14 | JPN Ret | AUS Ret | NC | 0 |
| 1996 | TyrrellYamaha | Tyrrell024 | YamahaV10 | AUS 11 | BRA 9 | ARG Ret | EUR DSQ | SMR Ret | MON Ret | ESP Ret | CAN Ret | FRA Ret | GBR Ret | GER Ret | HUN 7 | BEL 8 | ITA 10 | POR 12 | JPN Ret | NC | 0 | |
| 1997 | Minardi Team | MinardiM197 | HartV8 | AUS Ret | BRA 18† | ARG Ret | SMR 11 | MON 10 | ESP Ret | CAN Ret | FRA 11 | GBR Ret | GER Ret | HUN 10 | BEL 14 | ITA Ret | AUT 11 | LUX Ret | JPN Ret | EUR 17 | NC | 0 |
† Katayama did not finish the race, but was classified as he completed more than 90% of the race distance.
(key)
| Year | Team | Car | Class | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | DC | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Toyota Castrol Team Tom's | Toyota Supra | GT500 | SUZ 3 | FUJ | SUG 11 | MIN 2 | FUJ 15 | TAI 15 | MOT 10 | 15th | 28 | |
| 2000 | Nismo | Nissan Skyline GT-R | GT500 | MOT | FUJ 2 | SUG 11 | FUJ 6 | TAI 11 | MIN Ret | SUZ 4 | 11th | 31 | |
| 2001 | Racing Team Cerumo With Ukyo | Toyota Supra | GT500 | TAI 12 | FUJ 14 | SUG 13 | FUJ 14 | MOT | SUZ Ret | MIN 13 | NC | 0 | |
| 2002 | Racing Team Cerumo | Toyota Supra | GT500 | TAI 15 | FUJ | SUG 9 | SEP | FUJ | MOT | MIN | SUZ | 27th | 2 |
{{cite web}}:Missing or empty|title= (help)
| Sporting positions | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Japanese Formula 3000 Champion 1991 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
