Dictionary Thesaurus Word Dynamo Quotes Reference Translator Spanish

Kazuki Nakajima

is a Formula One driver from Japan for the Williams-Toyota team. 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.

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.

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 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 7,000km 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

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.

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 7th but promoted to 6th after Rubens Barrichello was disqualified. He then finished 7th 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. Kazuki scored another point at the 2008 British Grand Prix. In Singapore, Kazuki made it to the 3rd qualifying round for the first time qualifying 10th on the grid. He went on the finish 8th and score a point.

Racing record

Career summary

Season	Series	Team Name	Races	Poles	Wins	Points	Final Placing
2003	Formula Toyota	?	?	?	?	?	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
2007	GP2 Series	DAMS	21	1	0	44	6th
2008	Formula One	Williams	15	0	0	9*	15th*

* Season in progress.

Complete GP2 Series results

(F1 driver results legend 2) (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

(F1 driver results legend 2) (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	CHN	JPN	BRA	15th*	9*