Satoru Nakajima

This biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentially libelous. Find sources: "Satoru Nakajima" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (April 2009) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Satoru Nakajima
中嶋 悟
Nakajima in 2008
Born	(1953-02-23) 23 February 1953 (age 71) Okazaki, Aichi, Japan
Children	Kazuki Nakajima Daisuke Nakajima
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	Japanese
Active years	1987–1991
Teams	Lotus, Tyrrell
Engines	Honda, Judd, Ford
Entries	80 (74 starts)
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	0
Career points	16
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	1
First entry	1987 Brazilian Grand Prix
Last entry	1991 Australian Grand Prix
Previous series
1986 1984–1986 1984–1986 1977–1986 1982 1979–1981 1978	International F3000 World Sportscar All Japan Endurance Japanese Formula Two European Formula Two Formula Pacific Japan British F3
Championship titles
1981–1982, 1984–1986	Japanese Formula Two

Satoru Nakajima (Japanese: 中嶋 悟, Hepburn: Nakajima Satoru, born 23 February 1953) is a Japanese former racing driver and motorsport executive, who competed in Formula One from 1987 to 1991.

Born and raised in Okazaki, Aichi, Nakajima began his racing career at the Suzuka Circuit in 1973. He progressed to Japanese Formula Two in 1977, winning a then-record five titles between 1981 and 1986, with 21 victories across 10 seasons. After several appearances in sportscar racing via the World Sportscar Championship and the All Japan Endurance Championship—as well as a season in International Formula 3000—Nakajima signed for Lotus in 1987 to partner Ayrton Senna, becoming the first Japanese driver to compete full-time in Formula One at the Brazilian Grand Prix. He scored his maiden points finish at the following round in San Marino, and achieved a career-best fourth place at the British Grand Prix.

Across his remaining two seasons at Lotus, Nakajima scored points finishes at the 1988 Brazilian and 1989 Australian Grands Prix, setting the fastest lap and finishing fourth at the latter. Nakajima moved to Tyrrell in 1990, scoring points finishes in the United States, Italy and his home Grand Prix in Japan. Retaining his seat for his 1991 campaign at Tyrrell under Honda power, Nakajima scored his final points at the season-opening United States Grand Prix, leaving at the end of the season to join Honda's works team project. Nakajima tested the RC100 and related models until 1994, when Honda pulled out of Formula One following the Japanese asset price bubble.

Upon retiring from motor racing, Nakajima focused on his Nakajima Racing team, which he had founded in 1984 to privately enter March chassis into the Japanese Formula Two Championship, winning three consecutive titles until 1986. Nakajima won four Formula Nippon Teams' Championship titles between 1999 and 2009, still competing in the newly-formed Super Formula Championship, as well as the Super GT Series. Nakajima's sons Kazuki and Daisuke both became racing drivers, the former also competing in Formula One for Williams from 2007 to 2009.