This is not a reflection of Kobayashi's ability, which I think he amply demonstrated was worthy of a full-time chance in Formula 1 in his two races last season. Some rumours, indeed, put him in the frame at Lotus for 2010. It's more of a reflection on the nature of Japanese Grand Prix drivers in the sport thus far - i.e. they are normally chosen as a means to an end, rather than on merit alone. This is not to say that Japan doesn't produce Formula 1-standard racing drivers: Japan is, after all, home to the Formula Nippon and the All-Japan Formula 3 championships, two of the most respected junior formulae on the rungs below Grand Prix motor racing. However, many of them will be passed over for a compatriot with better sponsorship or engineering ties. I think that this approach to hiring Japanese drivers has become endemic in the sport, to the point where a Japanese pilot has to be quite outstanding, perhaps much more so than a rival from a European country. Their language is too much of a barrier, goes the old theory. Formula 1's community is too alien to allow them to blossom.
There have been 18 Japanese Grand Prix drivers, 17 of whom have started Formula 1 World Championship events. The first of these did not take to the grid until 1976, the year of the first Japanese Grand Prix. Since then, due to meagre opportunities or the very best drivers being passed over in favour of less able but better-connected countrymen, it's been slim pickings. Japanese drivers are by no means the only sufferers of this curse - to get to the top in Formula 1 requires a lot of luck and good judgement on top of driving ability. However, they have been pretty badly served by the situation: Japan's F1 drivers have racked up 472 starts but scored just 87 points, with a best race finish of two 3rd places. Today's post, then, looks at these drivers and selects the five best of the crop.
Firstly, the raw stats: here are Japan's 18 GP drivers, listed in order of their points-per-starts ratio. Also shown are their number of starts, points scored and their best ever race finish:
The pick of the crop - Japan's five best Grand Prix drivers:
5. Aguri Suzuki (1988-1995)
Suzuki was Japan's second-ever full-time Formula 1 racing driver. After an average lower formula career, Suzuki blossomed in 1988, winning the Formula Nippon (Japanese Formula 3000) championship, making his debut in Formula 1 in a one-off drive for Lola at that year's Japanese Grand Prix, finishing 11th. Moving to Zakspeed for 1989, he endured a torrid season, failing to pre-qualify for all of that season's 16 Grands Prix. In 1990 he was back at Lola, and acquitting himself well, scoring points on three occasions, including a 3rd place at Suzuka, becoming the first Japanese ever to stand on a Formula 1 podium. A second season with Lola in 1991 yielded one more point, before his final two full seasons in the sport in 1992 and 1993 were spent at Footwork Mugen-Honda, the latter year spent being respectably close to teammate Derek Warwick, often beating him on race day, although he failed to score any more points. A one-off drive at Jordan - filling in for the suspended Eddie Irvine at Aida - followed in 1994, before his Mugen-Honda connections saw him share the second Ligier seat with Martin Brundle for 1995, adding his eighth and final career point in that season's German Grand Prix.
Suzuki was never destined to be a star of Grand Prix racing. However, he was part of the vanguard of drivers who helped prove that Japanese drivers were good for more than securing sponsorship or engine deals: they could be respectably solid performers. Suzuki went on to be the team principal for the Super Aguri team who entered Formula 1 between 2006 and 2008.
4. Ukyo Katayama (1992-1997)
The man who has started more Grands Prix than any other Japanese started off as a bit of a joke. In spite of winning the 1991 Formula Nippon title, Katayama was short of stature, and of such a cheerfully amiable disposition that, combined with his rather stuttering start in the sport and his neat line in witty self-depreciation, could easily have been mistaken for gormlessness. Yes, Katayama had a tendency to make mistakes, but he was by no means alone in that regard. And yes, he had a distinctive style of nodding his head as he raced his car. However, after two sighters, full seasons with Larrousse and Tyrrell in 1992 and 1993, people were forced to stop laughing and take notice in 1994. In the neat Tyrrell 022-Yamaha car, Katayama finished 5th in the season's opening race, going on to secure a further fifth and sixth placed finish during the season. It would have been more, too, had the Tyrrell been a match for its midfield rivals in reliability or horsepower. Particularly notable was his run in Germany, where in a crash-decimated field he ran a merited 3rd until his throttle stuck open and he spun out.
So impressive was he, in fact, that he was approached at the end of the season by a top team - probably Benetton, at the time sponsored, like Katayama and Tyrrell, by Mild Seven cigarettes - with a view to driving for them in 1995. He declined due to being diagnosed with a cancer on his back, although it was very much the mark of the man that this fact did not emerge until long after his career was over and that he never tried to use it as an excuse. Katayama, perhaps slowed by this medical issue, failed to score another point in Grand Prix, either with Tyrrell in 1995 (a season in which he survived a frightening roll at the start of the Portuguese Grand Prix) and 1996, or at Minardi in 1997. By then, he was a solid performer, his old tendency towards mistakes seemingly ironed out. When he retired at the end of the season, it was marked by genuine sadness in the paddock at the loss of a universally popular character. He went on to sate his competitive instincts by climbing mountains and racing sportscars, winning the GTP class at Le Mans (finishing 2nd overall) in 1999.
3. Satoru Nakajima (1987-1991)
Nakajima was a pioneer, the first ever full-time Formula 1 driver from Japan. He was, let's face it, the price to Lotus for Honda engines in 1987. However, he was also a 5-time Japanese Formula 2 champion so it was no surprise that he acquitted himself well at the top level, although he wasn't able to match the performances of his teammate Ayrton Senna. In his debut year he finished in the points 5 times, including being the final part of a Honda-powered 1-2-3-4 at that year's British Grand Prix. More importantly still, he only failed to make the finish on 5 occasions, showing a speed allied to a solid consistency which became his trademark.
He remained at Lotus for 1988 and 1989, now alongside Nelson Piquet, but the car was growing less and less competitive and as such, his results tailed off, failing to qualify 5 times in 32 attempts. However, another of Nakajima's notable characteristics - his excellence in wet conditions - was also being brought to bear. In the 1989 Australian Grand Prix at a saturated Adelaide, Nakajima matched his best ever finish in 4th, also turning the race's fastest lap. Nakajima moved to Tyrrell in 1990 for two final seasons, scoring 5 more points in the process.
Satoru Nakajima's role in Formula 1 for Japanese drivers cannot be understated. Not only did he prove quick and consistent in his position as his country's first ever full-time pilot, but after his retirement he has worked tirelessly - through both driver and single-seater racing team management - to find and nurture his countrymen to the top of their sport. As well as his son Kazuki, Nakajima has also had a hand in the Formula 1 career of the quick-but-erratic Tora Takagi.
2. Takuma Sato (2002-2008)
Sato was one of that rare breed, a Japanese driver whose achievements on the track made him irresistible, even without any ulterior motives. Initially a little unpredictable but undeniably fast, Sato managed to harness his ability in time for the 2001 British Formula 3 season, blitzing his way to the title and also winning the Macau GP for the bargain. Hardened Formula 3 hacks at the time compared him with the young Mika Häkkinen, a fellow British F3 champion. Sato made his debut for Jordan-Honda in 2002, enduring a trying season in a difficult car. However, he delighted everyone with a fine 5th place in Suzuka. 2003 was spent as a test driver for BAR Honda, but found himself back in the race team when Jacques Villeneuve walked away from the team a race early. Sato again distinguished himself in his home race, this time finishing 6th and battling with Michael Schumacher along the way.
For 2004, Sato was a full-time BAR driver, and enjoyed one of the season's most complete packages. Though never really able to match Jenson Button's overall performance, Sato showed flashes of his speed. In Europe, he qualified in 2nd place, an all-time best for a Japanese Formula 1 driver. In the United States, he finally became the first Japanese in 14 years to match Aguri Suzuki and stand on an F1 podium. By the end of a good season, Sato had accrued 34 points, over twice as many as the career-best total of his nearest rival. 2005 at BAR was less successful with just a single point scored, the team not finding any real competitiveness until mid-season, Sato also missing 4 events due to ill-health, suspension and the Indianapolis tyre farrago.
His last seasons in the sport were spent with Super Aguri-Honda. 2006 was a glum year, driving a hopelessly outclassed car. However, 2007 was a different matter and Sato often shocked some big names, qualifying in the top ten at the season's opening race and scoring points twice, including a characteristically combative drive to 6th in Canada. 2008 finished early as the team ran out of funds, but it is the mark of the esteem in which Sato is held in the sport that his name is frequently mentioned in connection with available seats. He may well find himself on the grid again in 2010, even though his old patrons at Honda have now left the sport.
1. Kazuyoshi Hoshino (1976-1977)
"The Fastest Man in Japan" only ever started 2 Formula 1 races, at Fuji in 1976 and 1977. However, even in those he made his mark. Outside of the rarified confines of the Grand Prix bubble, he was utterly formidable, a driver who exercised a measure of dominance over his country's excellent racing structure for more than 3 decades.
His country's 1975 Formula 2000 champion, Hoshino entered the first ever World Championship Japanese Grand Prix in 1976 in a privateer Tyrrell run by Heroes Racing. Qualifying 21st, using his local knowledge and excellent Bridgestone tyres - the company's first ever foray into Grand Prix racing - he drove a magnificent race in the torrential downpour, running as high as 4th before his team literally ran out of usable rubber and he had to retire. Returning in 1977, off the back of his second F2000 success that year, he finished 11th in a year-old Kojima racing car, no mean achievement. However, that year at Fuji an accident between Ronnie Peterson and Gilles Villeneuve accounted for the lives of some spectators and a marshal and the Grand Prix circus would not return to Japan for a decade.
Hoshino went on to win the Japanese Formula 2 championship in 1978, adding 3 more titles in the series (now renamed Formula Nippon) in 1987, 1990 and 1993. By 1993, Hoshino was already 46-years old, not just competing in an arena typically given over to hungry young drivers but also excelling in it. For his 1993 success, he beat future Formula 1 drivers Eddie Irvine, Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Roland Ratzenberger and Mika Salo, whilst his 1990 title (aged a mere 43) came at the expense of Ukyo Katayama. Hoshino was also dominant in sportscars, enjoying a spirited rivalry with fellow 1970s F1-refugee Masahiro Hasemi (who set fastest lap in his sole Grand Prix start in 1976) on his way to titles in Japanese Touring Cars (1990) and Japanese Sports Prototypes (1991 and 1992).
A remarkable talent, Hoshino did not retire from racing until 2002. One can only imagine what he might have been able to achieve if he'd been given the same chance to run a full campaign in Formula 1 as Satoru Nakajima was a decade later.
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