37 Facts About Kazuki Nakajima

Kazuki Nakajima is a retired Japanese professional racing driver who drove in Formula One for the Williams-Toyota team from 2007 to 2009.

Kazuki Nakajima is the second FIA world champion from Japan after Toshi Arai.

Kazuki Nakajima started his career in racing in 1996, when he started karting.

Kazuki Nakajima's father had been backed by Toyota's arch-rivals Honda through his career.

Kazuki Nakajima hoped that by joining Toyota he would shield himself against any accusations that his father had promoted his career.

In 2002, Kazuki Nakajima won a scholarship in Formula Toyota, which he became champion in a year later.

Kazuki Nakajima progressed onto Japanese Formula Three in 2004, winning two of the 20 races and finishing fifth in the Drivers' Championship.

Kazuki Nakajima stayed in Japanese Formula Three for 2005, finishing second.

Kazuki Nakajima dovetailed that championship with appearances in the Japanese GT300 sports car series, where he ended the year eighth.

Kazuki Nakajima moved to the Formula Three Euroseries in 2006 and competed against the likes of Sebastian Vettel and Paul di Resta.

In November 2006, Kazuki 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.

Kazuki 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.

Kazuki Nakajima 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.

Kazuki Nakajima then finished seventh in the Spanish Grand Prix, having outqualified his teammate.

Kazuki 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 Nakajima scored another point at the 2008 British Grand Prix, after losing seventh place on the last lap.

In Singapore, Kazuki Nakajima made it to the third qualifying round for the first time qualifying 10th on the grid.

Kazuki Nakajima went on to finish eighth and scored a point.

Kazuki Nakajima was the only driver to retire at Bahrain, stopping five laps before the end with overheated oil.

Kazuki Nakajima crashed on the penultimate lap of the Monaco Grand Prix whilst running in 10th place.

Kazuki Nakajima 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, Kazuki Nakajima secured his highest ever Formula One grid slot, qualifying in an impressive fifth place ahead of world championship leader Jenson Button.

Kazuki Nakajima nearly scored at the Hungarian Grand Prix, finishing just 0.7 seconds behind eighth place Jarno Trulli.

At Brazil Kazuki Nakajima was in contention for points until being taken out by rookie and fellow countryman Kamui Kobayashi.

Kazuki Nakajima finished the season having scored no points, with his teammate Nico Rosberg being single-handedly responsible for every championship point scored by the Williams team, with Kazuki Nakajima being the only non points scorer out of the drivers who took part in each race in 2009.

Stefan duly confirmed on 19 February 2010 that Kazuki 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 Kazuki Nakajima was left with no drive in Formula One for 2010.

Kazuki Nakajima continued in the series for the 2012 season winning the title.

Kazuki Nakajima first competed in the Japanese Super GT series in 2005, driving a Toyota MR-S in the GT300 class with Minoru Tanaka.

Kazuki Nakajima returned to the category in 2011, driving a Lexus SC430 in the GT500 class with Formula Nippon rival Lotterer.

In 2012, Kazuki Nakajima was selected by Toyota to be one of the drivers for its assault on the 24 Hours of Le Mans race and the FIA World Endurance Championship, driving the prototype Toyota TS030 Hybrid.

Kazuki Nakajima finished runner-up at the 2012 6 Hours of Silverstone.

At the 2012 6 Hours of Fuji, Kazuki Nakajima took pole position for Toyota before triple stinting in the race to bring home the TS030's second win in competition and Kazuki Nakajima's first with the team.

Kazuki Nakajima continued as Toyota LMP1 part-time driver the next two seasons.

Kazuki Nakajima won the 2013 6 Hours of Fuji, a race cancelled with no laps under green flag.

Kazuki Nakajima began the 2017 season with two wins at Silverstone and Spa.

Kazuki Nakajima retired from racing after the 2021 FIA World Endurance Championship to take on the role of vice-chairman at Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe, with Ryo Hirakawa taking over his seat.