Satoru Nakajima

Satoru Nakajima

In 2008, as the chairman of Formula Nippon
Born	23 February 1953 (1953-02-23)
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	Japanese
Active years	1987 - 1991
Teams	Lotus, Tyrrell
Races	80 (74 starts)
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	0
Career points	16
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	1
First race	1987 Brazilian Grand Prix
Last race	1991 Australian Grand Prix

Satoru Nakajima (Japanese name: 中嶋 悟 ; born February 23, 1953) is a former racing driver from Japan.

Career

Nakajima was born into a farming family living just outside Okazaki, Japan. He began driving cars in his early teens in the family's garden with his older brother giving him tips, careful that they were not caught by their father. He felt a great deal of exhilaration behind the wheel of a car, and from then on knew what he wanted to do.

He started racing after he finished school and passed his driver's licence. In 1973 he was a rookie in the Suzuka Circuit series, which he won. Five years later, he won his first race in Japanese 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 a Honda V6 engine.

Nakajima participated in 80 Formula One Grands Prix, debuting in the Brazilian Grand Prix on April 12, 1987, bringing Honda engines to the Lotus team . He was 34 years old in his début race, making him one of F1's oldest débutantes of the modern era.^{[citation needed]} He finished 6th, and so scored a point, in only his second race, the 1987 San Marino Grand Prix.

Nakajima demonstrating his Lotus 101 from 1989 at the 2011 Japanese Grand Prix.

Honda left the Lotus garage after the 1988 season, leaving Nakajima and team-mate Nelson Piquet driving the Judd-powered 101. The pair had a very up-and-down season, with both failing to qualify for the 1989 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 4th place and fastest lap in the rain-soaked Australian Grand Prix, scoring his only points of the year and also equalling his best career finish, from the 1987 British Grand Prix.

Nakajima joined the Tyrrell team for the 1990 season, followed by Honda engines the next year. He raced for them for two uneventful years at the back of the pack before ending his career. Honda left F1 a year later to lay the first bricks on a works team, one that they had been working on during the F1 season, and that CEO Nobuhiko 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 FISA crash tests, meaning that the company could enter their team into F1 competition. In an attempt to improve on their previous chassis, Honda built two more, the RC101 and 101B, the latter intended to be used 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 with CART, and later, the IRL.

Nakajima still lives in the family home near Okazaki. He owns the Nakajima Racing entry in Japanese Formula 3000, or Formula Nippon. Nakajima drivers have won the Formula Nippon championship three times, Tom Coronel doing so in 1999, Toranosuke Takagi in 2000, and Ralph Firman in 2002. Nakajima's current drivers are Takashi Kogure and Andre Lotterer, who finished 2nd in the 2004 championship, although he was tied in points with champion Richard Lyons. Nakajima's son, Kazuki raced for the Williams team in Formula One in the 2008 and 2009 seasons Nakajima's younger son, Daisuke, is also a racing driver. He competed in the British Formula Three Championship in 2009 and 2010. Both Kazuki and Daisuke now compete in Formula Nippon, and Daisuke drives for Satoru's team.

Complete Formula One results

(key) (Races in italics 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	Camel Team Lotus Honda	Lotus 99T	Honda V6	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	Camel Team Lotus Honda	Lotus 100T	Honda V6	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	Camel Team Lotus	Lotus 101	Judd V8	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	Tyrrell 018	Cosworth V8	USA 6	BRA 8															15th	3
		Tyrrell 019				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	Braun Tyrrell Honda	Tyrrell 020	Honda V10	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

Helmet

Nakajima's helmet was white with two red lines forming a circular end on the chin area with a wide line on the rear helmet written NAKAJIMA on it. his son Kazuki Nakajima uses a slightly different version of his helmet.

Video games

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.

External links

• Nakajima Racing

References

Sporting positions
Preceded by Masahiro Hasemi	Japanese Formula Two Champion 1981-1982	Succeeded by Geoff Lees
Preceded by Geoff Lees	Japanese Formula Two Champion 1984-1986	Succeeded by Kazuyoshi Hoshino (Japanese Formula 3000)