Japanese F1 drivers?

[Claw]

Japan has produced many F1 driver. Some are an unknown qantity. And to be honest none of them did that well.

So which one do you reckon was the best?

I personally think Katayama was the best, he deserved more than his 5 points. Close behind are Nakajima, Nakano and Sato.

But Takagi, Noda, and Inoue were rubbish.

[John]

Voted for Katayama but there's not much in it really is there? Dont know why the Japanese have never really had a top driver, would have thought Honda or one of the other car compamies would have tried to find a star.

Talking of Katayama reminds me of this quote by Murray Walker 'Ukyo Katayama is undoubtedly the best formula 1 driver that grand prix racing has ever produced'

I assume he meant to say 'Japanese driver' or 'that Japan has produced' :) :D :)

[Claw]

Honda have had influence before. They forced Lotus Honda to get Nakajima in the driver line-up in 1987.
He scored 5 points in the Lotus, while team mate Senna scored 2 wins and alot of points!

[Amanda]

Katayama gets my vote too.

[John]

Originally posted by Claw
Honda have had influence before. They forced Lotus Honda to get Nakajima in the driver line-up in 1987.
He scored 5 points in the Lotus, while team mate Senna scored 2 wins and alot of points!

I was meaning to start a scholorship or something to find a good Japanese driver, rather than use their influence/power to get a mediocre driver a seat in F1.

[Mocko]

Surely Macau GP winner and Brit F3 champ Sato deserves more than what he got.

[The Stig]

Sato is the best of those mentioned. Aren't the Japanese very influential at situating drivers with teams for the PR value ? What I mean is loads of less than proficient Japanese drivers get drives their "talent" doesn't warrant because of the political, (engine supply), considerations. Sato maybe has broken the mould in that regard, in that his talent was obvious for all to see the year before last. He might have prospered though spending a year testing as part of his contract with Jordan F1 to get some miles under his belt.

[tvgod]

Sato is incredibly over-rated and showed he was way out of his depth in F1.

Ukyo Katayama is by far the best F1 driver Japan has produced, with Aguri Suzuki a distant second. (I assume that the Suzuki option above is for Aguri and not Toshio...)

[Claw]

Yup, that's Aguri Suzuki.

[cos]

Katayama definitely deserved more; he kept Mark Blundell honest during 1994 but often had most of the team's bad luck.

I almost voted for Taki Inoue for comic value: the only driver ever to have been run over by the safety car!:p

[Reynard]

Actually, I think that Sato is seriously overrated as a driver.

He got his berth at Carlin - effectively the "works" Mugen team in BF3 - because of his links with Mugen rather than any real merit. OK, he's probably about average in terms of talent, but Anthony Davidson (his team mate at Carlin) was always up there with him, and had it not been for a run of bad luck, it would have been Anthony who would have taken the F3 crown instead.

Don't forget that Matt Davies (Avanti), Andy Priaulx (ADR) and Derek Hayes (Manor) were also up there disputing the races with the Carlin squad throughout the 2001 season.

I'd say that any of those four British drivers have more ability than Sato - who also benefitted from having the team built around him, since he was the one bringing in the finance. It were Sato's links with Mugen that also got him the Jordan drive, but as we saw throughout last year, he turned out to be a considerable liability. He wasn't entirely innocent during his time in F3 either.

I'm not anti-Sato per se - I have met him on several occasions during the course of the 2001 BF3 series and he's a really sweet little chap - but he's certainly the next in line of over-promoted and essentially mediocre Japanese drivers. Don't get me wrong, most of them have been capable journeyman drivers, but nothing particularly special.

The only two that stand out are Katayama (never really got the opportunities he deserved) and Takagi (flashes of brilliance but far too many red mists and broken cars).