Ranked! The Japanese drivers to compete in Formula 1

AlphaTauri launch the AT02 — Photo: © LAT Images

Formula 1

Ranked! The Japanese drivers to compete in Formula 1

Yuki Tsunoda will become the 10th Japanese driver to race full-time in F1

Sam Hall

Saturday 27 February 2021 12:32

5 - Ukyo Katayama

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If you start enough races, you will eventually score points. From his 97 race entries, Katayama retired 65 times, failed to qualify twice and was disqualified once.

He raced in F1 for six years between 1992-'97 with Larrousse, Tyrrell and Minardi but finds himself this high up the list thanks almost entirely to the 1994 campaign.

Katayama finished only four of the 16 races that season but was inside the points on three of these occasions with fifth-place results in Brazil and San Marino and a sixth position in the British GP.

A regular inside the top 10 when he did finish a race, Katayama was hurt by the points system of the day with the '94 season providing all five of his career points tally. Today, he would have walked away with 65 points.

4 - Aguri Suzuki

Perhaps more famous with younger fans for creating the Super Aguri F1 Team in 2006, Suzuki made 65 F1 starts between 1988-'95 although was a full-time driver for only five years in this period.

Suzuki made his debut in the '88 Japanese Gand Prix with Larrousse and finished 16th, three laps down and ahead of only René Arnoux's Ligier.

He was then hired by ZakSpeed but would not feature in a grand prix again until 1990 when he returned to Larrousse after failing to qualify for any of the 16 races in '89.

But Suzuki does hold a historic milestone, becoming the first Japanese driver to stand on an F1 podium with third at the Japanese Grand Prix of 1990, undoubtedly the highpoint of his career.

In the years that followed, Suzuki drove for Footwork, Jordan and Ligier, with only two points finishes to add to his tally.

But the legacy of his podium could never be taken away and was no doubt a huge motivating factor for the following driver on the list.

In the modern conversion, Suzuki amassed 88 points, his podium setting him apart from the previous entries.

3 - Takuma Sato

Two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Takuma Sato's speed was unquestioned but, for one reason or another, none of the perceived 'big teams' at the time were willing to take a risk with him.

Sato made his debut with Jordan in 2002 before assuming a reserve driver role with BAR Honda the following year, making a single appearance in 2003 at his home race at Suzuka.

Sato returned to the cockpit full-time in 2004, however, and became the second Japanese driver to claim a podium when finishing third behind Ferrari drivers Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello at the USA GP. Clearly, Sato and Indianapolis had a strong bond from an early stage.

Sato finished eighth in the standings that year but sadly dropped off the pace in 2005, as he rarely matched team-mate Jenson Button's form.

In 2006 he joined Super Aguri and continued with the team until it folded four races into the 2008 season, with the standout drive of his stint at the team coming at the 2007 Canadian GP where he finished sixth after overtaking both Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari and Fernando Alonso's McLaren.

Across his career, Sato scored 44 points, although this is boosted to 130 today.

2 - Kamui Kobayashi

The third and most recent Japanese driver to stand on an F1 podium, Kamui Kobayashi, like several others, has gone on to achieve bigger and better things after leaving the F1 paddock.

Kobayashi drove the final two races of the 2009 season with Toyota but signed a deal with Sauber to drive for the Swiss team the following year.

Retiring from five of the opening six races made for a bleak start to his full-time F1 career, but a run of eight points finishes from the remaining 13 races certainly silenced his critics.

Kobayashi continued his points-scoring form across the following two years, scoring his only F1 podium - somewhat gloriously - in front of his home crowd in 2012 and often outperforming the machinery he had been given, becoming notorious for his daring late-braking manoeuvres.

Unable to attract the attention of those at the front of the order, Kobayashi moved to Caterham for 2014 and called time on his F1 career at the end of the season.

Due to the modern points system being in place for the majority of his career, Kobayashi's numbers are boosted only slightly from 125 points to 134.

1 - Satoru Nakajima

Through incredible levels of consistency across his five-years in the sport, Satoru Nakajima ranks at the top of our list.

Father of Kazuki, Nakajima entered 80 races, started 74 and finished 36 - an impressive conversion rate given the reliability of cars in his era from 1987-'91.

Of those 36 finished, Nakajima finished inside the top 10 on 27 occasions and inside the top six - the points positions of the time - a further 10 times.

His tally of 16 points would have been an incredible 154 if he had raced under the modern scoring system.

All that was missing from his career was a podium, an achievement he came closest to at the 1989 Australian GP in Adelaide where he finished fourth.