Nirei Fukuzumi
Fukuzumi at the2025 Super GT Malaysia Festival
Nationality	Japanese
Born	(1997-01-24)24 January 1997 (age 28) Ishii,Tokushima, Japan
Super GT - GT500 career
Debut season	2019
Current team	ROOKIE Racing
Car number	14
Former teams	ARTA
Starts	48
Wins	6
Podiums	13
Poles	8
Fastest laps	3
Best finish	2nd in2021
Super Formula career
Debut season	2018
Current team	KCMG
Car number	8
Former teams	Team Mugen,Dandelion Racing,Drago Corse,ThreeBond Racing
Starts	65
Wins	2
Podiums	8
Poles	3
Fastest laps	2
Best finish	2nd in2021
Previous series
2018 2016-17 2015 2015,2019	FIA Formula 2 Championship GP3 Series All-Japan Formula Three Super GT
Championship titles
2019	Super GT GT300

Nirei Fukuzumi (福住仁嶺,Fukuzumi Nirei; born 24 January 1997) is a Japanese racing driver affiliated withToyota Gazoo Racing who currently competes inSuper GT forROOKIE Racing and inSuper Formula forKCMG. He won the GT300 class championship in Super GT in2019, driving forARTA alongside series veteranShinichi Takagi, and is a race winner in theGP3 Series and Super Formula.

Fukuzumi was previously a factory driver forHonda until 2023, and spent much of his junior racing career as a member of theHonda Formula Dream Project, competing internationally in theGP3 Series andFIA Formula 2 Championship. He is also a former member of theMcLaren Driver Development Programme and theRed Bull Junior Team.

Fukuzumi comes from a rather unusual background for a racing driver; his father Shūhō is the chief priest of Sanbōin, aShingon Buddhist temple in his hometown ofIshii.^[1]

Fukuzumi drove a kart for the first time at the age of 5 and began his karting career in 2006. He remained in karting until 2013, finishing second toUkyo Sasahara in the All-Japan Junior Karting Championship in 2009 and concluding his career by taking the All-Japan Karting Championship title in the top-level KF1 class in 2013.^[2] He also made a handful of appearances internationally, most notably finishing second in the ROK Cup International Final in 2012.

In 2014, he began to compete inopen-wheel racing, moving up toJapanese F3 the next year. He won four races and finished fourth in the standings.

In2016, Nirei débuted in theGP3 Series withART Grand Prix,^[3] scoring three podium finishes and finishing seventh in the championship. Fukuzumi stayed on for another season ofGP3 in 2017.^[4] He racked up two victories, both coming at feature races, and ended up third in the standings, only behind teammatesGeorge Russell andJack Aitken. In 2017, he was part ofMcLaren Young Driver Programme as he's part of Honda Junior Program.

The Japanese driver made hisFormula 2 debut in2018 withBWT Arden,^[5] partneringMaximilian Günther. In that season, he managed to joinRed Bull Junior Team. Fukuzumi scored a total of 17 points, finishing 17th, three positions behind Günther in the championship. After this unfortunate season, Red Bull dropped him from the Academy.

While the main focus was to race in Formula 2 for 2018, Fukuzumi competed inSuper Formula withTeam Mugen for 4 rounds.^[5] After 3 seasons in Europe, Fukuzumi returned to Japan, and competed inSuper Formula withDandelion Racing.^[6] Fukuzumi had his best season by far, managed to claim runners up in the standings forSuper Formula with 2 wins & 1 pole to his name in that season. For 2022, Fukuzumi moves from Front runnerDandelion Racing toDrago Corse for Super Formula, while for Super GT stays with ARTA.^[7] In 2023, Fukuzumi continues to stay atThreeBond Racing. Fukuzumi continues to do well in Threebond where collecting couple of points, and qualiflying to Q2 very often, with 16th place.

Fukuzumi leftHonda after being contracted by the manufacturer since his junior years, to join Toyota and drive the No. 8 entry forKCMG alongsideKamui Kobayashi.^[8]

Fukuzumi make hisSuper GT debut in GT300 Class withARTA asShinichi Takagi's teammate.^[6] In that season, he managed to claim the Super GT GT300 Title, while in Super Formula full debut managed to get 7th place in the standings.

In 2020, he stayed with the same team but promoted to GT500 class inSuper GT withTomoki Nojiri as his teammate. For 2021, He stays with the same team in both series. And in2021 with 1 win both Nojiri Fukuzumi clinched runners up place. Fukuzumi continues to compete in Super GT with ARTA, but this time he moves to the new 16 car after ARTA work together with Mugen Team where he paired withHiroki Otsu.^[9][10] Meanwhile Fukuzumi, and Otsu claimed their car number 16 maiden win, alongside 3 podiums, and a pole position. Both of them initially fight for the title, but fall short where they end up outside the Top 3, and ended up in 4th place.

After left Honda, Fukuzumi will drive forTGR Team Eneos ROOKIE alongside 2019 GT500 champion,Kazuya Oshima.^[8]

^† As Fukuzumi was a guest driver, he was ineligible to score championship points.
** The FC class was a class using modifiedFormula Challenge Japan's FC106 chassis and running with the JAF Formula 4's "C" class, an upper grade class. So, there were neither pole position nor fastest lap.^[11]
* Season still in progress.‡ Team standing.

(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position) (Races initalics indicate fastest lap)

(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position) (Races initalics indicate fastest lap)

(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position) (Races initalics indicate points for the fastest lap of top ten finishers)

^† Driver did not finish the race, but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance.

(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position; races initalics indicate fastest lap)

^† Driver did not finish, but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance.
^†† As Fukuzumi was a guest driver, he was ineligible to score championship points.
^‡ Half points awarded as less than 75% of race distance was completed.
^(Number) Driver did not take part in this sprint race, points are still awarded for the teammate's result.
^* Season still in progress.

(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position) (Races initalics indicate fastest lap)

^‡ Half points awarded as less than 75% of race distance was completed.^* Season still in progress.

• Nirei Fukuzumi career summary at DriverDB.com

• 1997 births
• Living people
• Sportspeople from Tokushima Prefecture
• Japanese racing drivers
• Japanese Formula 3 Championship drivers
• GP3 Series drivers
• FIA Formula 2 Championship drivers
• Super Formula drivers
• 21st-century Japanese sportsmen
• ART Grand Prix drivers
• Super GT drivers
• Arden International drivers
• Mugen Motorsports drivers
• Dandelion Racing drivers
• Karting World Championship drivers
• Team Aguri drivers
• Toyota Gazoo Racing drivers
• KCMG drivers

• CS1 Japanese-language sources (ja)
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Articles containing Japanese-language text
• Use dmy dates from September 2014