This MedLibrary.org supplementary page on Satoru Nakajima is provided directly from the open source Wikipedia as a service to our readers. Please see the note below on authorship of this content, as well as the Wikipedia usage guidelines. To search for other content from our encyclopedia supplement, please use the form below:
Related Sponsors
 |
This article or section resembles a fansite. Please help improve this article by removing excessive trivia and irrelevant praise, criticism, lists and collections of links. (December 2007) |
 |
This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. (May 2007) |
 In 2008, as the chairman of Formula Nippon |
|
Nationality  Japanese |
|
| Formula One World Championship career | |
|---|---|
| Active years | 1987 - 1991 |
| Teams | Lotus, Tyrrell |
| Races | 80 (74 starts) |
| Championships | 0 |
| Wins | 0 |
| Podium finishes | 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, 19531) is a former racing driver from Japan. He 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 got a 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 2. 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 using a Honda V6.
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 Nakajima finishing 6th and so scoring points in only his second race, the 1987 San Marino 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. These days, though, he owns a team: the Nakajima Racing entry in Japanese Formula 3000, also known as 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, currently races for the Williams Formula One team, having joined the team in 2006 as a test driver2 Kazuki Nakajima made his F1 début at the 2007 Brazilian Grand Prix following the retirement of regular driver Alexander Wurz.3.
Contents |
Related video games
Sponsored
- F1 Grand Prix: Nakajima Satoru (Sega Mega Drive - 1991)
- F1 Super License: Nakajima Satoru (Sega Mega Drive - 1992)
- Nakajima Satoru Super F-1 Hero (Super Famicom - 1992)
Appeared in
- Formula One: Built to Win (Nintendo Entertainment System) as S.Nakazima
- Human Grand Prix II (Super Famicom)
- Human Grand Prix III: F1 Triple Battle (Super Famicom)
- Human Grand Prix IV: F1 Dream Battle (Super Famicom)
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 |
External links
References
- ^ Jenkins, Richard. "The World Championship drivers - Where are they now?". OldRacingCars.com. Retrieved on 2007-07-29.
- ^ "Nakajima lands Williams test role", ITV-F1.com (2006-11-08). Retrieved on 8 November 2006.
- ^ "Williams confirm Nakajima for Brazil", autosport.com (2007-10-09). Retrieved on 9 October 2007.
| 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) |
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 15 November 2008, at 18:38.
Wikipedia Authorship and Review
Wikipedia content provided here is not reviewed directly by MedLibrary.org. Wikipedia content is authored by an open community of volunteers and is not produced by or in any way affiliated with MedLibrary.org.
Wikipedia Usage Guidelines
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article on "Satoru Nakajima".
The URL for this specific entry is:
All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details). Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.