Kazuki Nakajima

Kazuki Nakajima

Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	Japanese
Active years	2007－2009
Teams	Williams
Entries	36
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	0
Career points	9
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First entry	2007 Brazilian Grand Prix
Last entry	2009 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
2009 position	20th (0 pts)

Kazuki Nakajima (中嶋 一貴, Nakajima Kazuki, born January 11, 1985 in Okazaki, Aichi, Japan) is a Formula One driver from Japan who drove for the Williams-Toyota team from 2007 to 2009. Prior to that he had been their test driver, as well as a competitor in the GP2 Series for the DAMS team.

Nakajima is the son of the retired Formula One driver Satoru Nakajima. His younger brother, Daisuke, is also a racing driver. Nakajima was signed to drive for Stefan GP in 2010, but the team was not accepted as an entrant in the Formula One world championship.

Racing career

Pre-Formula One

Nakajima started his career in racing in 1996, when he started karting. Three years later, he was crowned the Suzuka Formula ICA karting champion. After some impressive performances, Nakajima was picked up by Japanese car manufacturer Toyota as part of the corporation's Young Drivers Program.

His father had been backed by Toyota's arch-rivals Honda through his career. Nakajima hoped that by joining Toyota he would shield himself against any accusations that his father had promoted his career.

In 2002, Nakajima won a scholarship in Formula Toyota, which he became champion in a year later. He progressed onto Japanese Formula Three in 2004, winning two of the 20 races and finishing fifth in the Drivers' Championship.

Nakajima stayed in Japanese Formula Three for 2005, finishing second. He dovetailed that championship with appearances in the Japanese GT300 sports car series, where he ended the year eighth.

Nakajima moved to the Formula Three Euroseries in 2006 and competed against the likes of Sebastian Vettel and Paul di Resta. After starting the year strongly with second place in the first race and a win in round four, Nakajima finished seventh with 36 points, behind his Manor Motorsport team-mates Kohei Hirate (third) and Esteban Guerrieri (fourth). The championship was won by di Resta with 86 points.

Nakajima driving the Williams FW29 at the 2007 Goodwood Festival of Speed.

In November 2006, Nakajima was named a Williams test driver for the 2007 season, alongside fellow test driver Narain Karthikeyan and race drivers Nico Rosberg and Alexander Wurz, targeting a race seat in 2008. Nakajima's debut in a Formula One car came at Fuji Speedway during November 2006, where he completed four demonstration laps in wet conditions.

Nakajima raced in the GP2 series in 2007 for the DAMS team alongside French 2005–06 A1 Grand Prix winner Nicolas Lapierre. Nakajima also served as Williams' test driver, completing 7,000 km of testing for the team.

Nakajima's first year in GP2 finished with no wins, but five consecutive podiums and ended the year as top rookie. Nakajima's fifth in the championship put him comfortably ahead of Lapierre. Nakajima was found to have caused a collision in Istanbul, when he hit leader Karun Chandhok during the sprint race, and was given a drive-through penalty.

Formula One

Nakajima driving in the rainy first free practice session during the 2007 Brazilian GP. His father Satoru also made his Formula One debut at the Brazilian GP in 1987.

It was announced on 9 October 2007 that following the retirement of Alexander Wurz, Nakajima would race for Williams in the season finale in Brazil. Nakajima finished tenth in the race, setting the fifth fastest lap – quicker than his team-mate Nico Rosberg, who finished fourth.

Nakajima driving for Williams at the 2008 British Grand Prix.

At his first pit stop, Nakajima overshot his box and hit two of his mechanics. The mechanics were taken to hospital for precautionary checks. Nakajima apologised for the error: "First of all I would say I'm really sorry that some of my mechanics were injured during my pitstop and that I hope they're OK. It was a good first race for me but it was slightly overshadowed."

Patrick Head commented: "Kazuki drove well on his debut. His lap times were impressive and he's set a marker for a future in Formula One. Some of our mechanics were injured today, they're having some checks done now and we send our best wishes to them."

On 7 November it was confirmed by Williams that Nakajima would partner Rosberg at the Williams team for the 2008 season. He had a successful start to 2008 at the Australian Grand Prix, finishing seventh but promoted to sixth after Rubens Barrichello was disqualified, even whilst knocking Robert Kubica out of the race and being penalised. He then finished seventh in the Spanish Grand Prix, having outqualified his teammate. A first-corner incident with Giancarlo Fisichella at Istanbul forced him to retire. Nakajima scored two points at Monaco where no Japanese Formula One driver had previously scored a point, and retired from the 2008 Canadian Grand Prix after hitting the pit wall when pitting for a new front wing. Nakajima scored another point at the 2008 British Grand Prix, after losing seventh place on the last lap. In Singapore, Nakajima made it to the third qualifying round for the first time qualifying 10th on the grid. He went on to finish eighth and scored a point.

Nakajima driving for Williams at the 2009 Belgian Grand Prix.

Nakajima was retained by Williams for the 2009 season. At the 2009 Australian Grand Prix he crashed into the wall at turn six, putting him out of the race. Nakajima was the only driver to retire at Bahrain, stopping five laps before the end with overheated oil. He also crashed on the penultimate lap of the Monaco Grand Prix whilst running in 10th place. He came close to scoring at several Grands Prix, including losing a points finish after being delayed in the pit lane at the Turkish Grand Prix. At the British Grand Prix, Nakajima secured his highest ever Formula One grid slot, qualifying in an impressive fifth place ahead of world championship leader Jenson Button. However, his race was compromised by poor pit strategy, and he eventually finished outside the points. Nakajima once again nearly scored at the Hungarian Grand Prix, finishing just 0.7 seconds behind eighth place Jarno Trulli. He finished ninth again in Singapore. At Brazil Nakajima was once again in contention for points until being taken out by rookie and fellow countrymen Kamui Kobayashi. Nakajima finished the season having scored no points, with his team-mate Nico Rosberg being single-handedly responsible for every championship point scored by the Williams team.

Williams signed Rubens Barrichello and Nico Hülkenberg for 2010, leaving Nakajima without a seat. However, in January, reports tied Nakajima to team Stefan GP, which had consolidated remnants of the Toyota F1 team after the Japanese manufacturer's withdrawal from the sport in late 2009. Stefan duly confirmed on 19 February 2010 that Nakajima was one of the team's drivers, although the team did not have an entry to the 2010 Formula One season. The FIA subsequently ruled that Stefan GP could not be entered for the season at such a late stage, so Nakajima was left with no drive in Formula One for 2010.

Racing record

Career summary

Season	Series	Team Name	Races	Poles	Wins	Points	Final Placing
2003	Formula Toyota	?	10	3	3	134	1st
2004	All-Japan Formula Three	TOM'S	20	2	2	138	5th
	Macau Grand Prix	TOM'S	1	0	0	N/A	13th
	Bahrain F3 Superprix	TOM'S	1	0	0	N/A	7th
2005	All-Japan Formula Three	TOM'S	20	3	2	209	2nd
	Macau Grand Prix	TOM'S	1	0	0	0	5th
	Super GT (GT300)	Kicchouhouzan with apr	7	0	1	52	8th
2006	Formula Three Euroseries	Manor Motorsport	20	0	1	36	7th
	Macau Grand Prix	Manor Motorsport	1	0	0	N/A	NC
	Masters of Formula Three	Manor Motorsport	1	0	0	N/A	26th
2007	Formula One	Williams	1	0	0	0	22nd
	GP2 Series	DAMS	21	1	0	44	6th
2008	Formula One	Williams	18	0	0	9	15th
2009	Formula One	Williams	17	0	0	0	20th

Complete GP2 Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	DC	Points
2007	DAMS	BHR FEA 17	BHR SPR 6	ESP FEA 15	ESP SPR 7	MON FEA 10	FRA FEA 17	FRA SPR 6	GBR FEA 3	GBR SPR 3	EUR FEA 3	EUR SPR 3	HUN FEA 2	HUN SPR Ret	TUR FEA 6	TUR SPR Ret	ITA FEA DSQ	ITA SPR 18	BEL FEA Ret	BEL SPR 9	VAL FEA 3	VAL SPR 7	6th	42

Complete Formula One World Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	WDC	Points
2007	AT&T Williams	Williams FW29	Toyota RVX-07 2.4 V8	AUS TD	MAL TD	BHR	ESP	MON	CAN TD	USA TD	FRA	GBR	EUR	HUN	TUR	ITA	BEL	JPN	CHN TD	BRA 10		22nd	0
2008	AT&T Williams	Williams FW30	Toyota RVX-08 2.4 V8	AUS 6	MAL 17	BHR 14	ESP 7	TUR Ret	MON 7	CAN Ret	FRA 15	GBR 8	GER 14	HUN 13	EUR 15	BEL 14	ITA 12	SIN 8	JPN 15	CHN 12	BRA 17	15th	9
2009	AT&T Williams	Williams FW31	Toyota RVX-09 2.4 V8	AUS Ret	MAL 12	CHN Ret	BHR Ret	ESP 13	MON 15	TUR 12	GBR 11	GER 12	HUN 9	EUR 18	BEL 13	ITA 10	SIN 9	JPN 15	BRA Ret	ABU 13		20th	0

External links

• Official Website
• Career statistics
• Official F1 website interview