The Japanese are com... er.. leaving.

[SuperAguri]

Apart from the Suzuka race track (and even that doesn't look that secure past 2010), in 2010 (unless Kamui Kobayashi gets a drive or Kazuki Nakajima bribes a team) there will be no Japanese involvement in F1 for the first time since 1983 when Honda came back to F1 supplying Engines to Spirit and Williams.

So to mark the 26 years of Japanese involvement of F1, I thought I would list the teams, engines and drivers that were in F1 from 1983 to 2009.

Constructors

Leyton House 90-91 (March) - Real Estate company Leyton House who had bought into F3000 teams, sponsored March from 1987 and bought the team in 1989.

High Point : Ivan Capelli's 2nd at the 1990 French GP after both cars DNQed in Mexico
Low Point : Ivan Capelli's car running in 1st but was losing oil pressure so was passed by Prost 3 laps before the end, Gugelmin retiring in the same race running 2nd.

Footwork 91-96 (Arrows) - Logistic company Footwork then owned by Wataru Ohashi had been successful in lower formula and bought into the Arrows team in 1991.

High point : Gianni Morbidelli getting a podium at the 1995 Australian Grand Prix (although was lapped twice by Damon Hill the winner, then again so was everyone...).
Low Point : The debut season of 1991 running a heavy, Porsche V6x2.. er I mean V12 that meant Alex Caffi, went from DNQ land to DNPQ land. The car with the engine never finished a race and only once (at Canada) did both cars managed to qualify (Stefan Johhanson was driving in place of Alex Caffi...).

Subaru 90 (Coloni) - Subaru commissioned Motori Moderni to build an Flat 12 Boxer engine as used in Subaru's sports cars. Minardi (who used Motori Moderni V6 Turbo engines) tested it and found it was slow and heavy. Subaru bought into Coloni.

High Point : Er.. Bertrand Gachot setting faster times in Pre Qualifying then Claudio Lange's Euro Brun or Gary Brabhams and Bruno Giacomelli's Life most of the time.
Low Point : Subaru calling it a day after 8 races, they had commissioned and then cancelled a planned Motori Moderni V12 engine.

Middlebridge 90-^92
Middlebridge had run in lower formula including Japanese F3000 and F3000, they had not been to succesful but tried to enter F1 twice and managed to do so once... First was in 1987 where they bought a Benetton chassis, before being told that Customer cars were not allowed... Then in 1989 they purchased the Brabham team but unlike Footwork or Leyton House they did not rename the team.

High points - Stefano Modena getting a 5th in the 1990 USA GP, the first race of the season. Giovanna Amati debut in 1992 and setting a faster time then the talented Robeto Moreno in the 1992 Brazilain GP, Eric Van de Poole qualifying the 1992 Brabham once.
Low point - Giovanna Amati not qualifying for a race, coming bottom of the time sheets, Middlebridge being shut down by the serious fraud squad.

Honda 06-08 - Honda had tested F1 cars before buying BAR completely. In 1993 they tested the RC100 which had passed the F1 crash test and in 1999 when the RA99 was tested before Harvey Postlewaite died and the project was scrapped. Bought into BAR in 2004 before buying them outright at the end of 2005.

High Point : Jenson Buttons first win in the Hungarian GP in 2006
Low Point : Killing the Super Aguri team, pulling out and selling the team to Brawn...

Toyota 02-09 - Had intended to enter in 2001 using a V12 engine but the rules changed so they delayed for a year. Spent more money then any other team.

High Point : Mika Salo scoring a point on Toyota's debut. Jarno Trulli scoring 2 2nd places at the start of the 2005 season. Kamui Kaboyashi's impressive debut.
Low Point : Ralf Schumacher (need I say more?), 2005 US GP tyre debacle, failing to built on 2005 momentum.

Super Aguri 06-08 - Founded by Aguri Suzuki (coming the first and only Japanese driver to date to found a team) with a pot of money and engines from Honda, this plucky little team became everyones favourite underdog team.

High point - Sato's drive in the 2006 Canadian GP where he made up 5 places and passed Kimi Raikonnen in the Ferrari and Fernado Alonso in the Mclaren. Yuji Ide placing higher (13th) then Sakon Yamamoto and Franck Montagny (both 16th).
Low point - Turning up at the turkish GP in 2008 and not being allowed to race with Nick Fry saying that they wouldn't be there...

Honorable mentions

TOM'S Toyota Engine tuners and junior formula race team penned a F1 car back in 1993. Never got past being a drawing.

Ikuzawa Japanese driver Testu Ikuzawa (who was a good Japanese sports car drive in Japan in the 60's and 70's and was the first Japanese driver to win a F3 race in the UK back in 1967, even appeared in a Playstation game) who had success in the early 80s with his Japanese F2 team (Satoru Nakajima and Geoff Lees won titles) founded the basis of a team in 1994 and despite Peter Windsor being involved it never got off the ground. Enrique Scalabroni (who had helped design the championship winning FW11) penned a chassis.

Dome Japanese racing car builder Dome, had intended to build a F1 car since the late 80s, first serious car was teh F105 which featured a Minardi parts, but the first serious test was the F106 car back in 1996. At the end of the Japanese GP, F1 Reject Naoki Hattori took the car for a spin and was slightly faster then the DNQ time of Giovanni Lavaggi's Minardi and no he wouldn't have qualified as Hattori was still half a second off the pace. The car was updated and worked on for 3 more years before Dome finally pulled the plug.

Asiatech Bought the Peugeot F1 engines and rebranded and tuned them, had plans to build an F1 car for the 2004 in hopes to sell it. However went bust before that could happen. Car was penned by Enrique Scalabroni...


Engines

Since 1983 Japanese funded or built engines had powered (or underpowered) F1 cars... here is the list of them, including the ones that weren't to be...

Honda V6 Turbo, V12, V10, V8 (Spirit, Williams, Lotus, McLaren, Tyrrell, BAR, Jordan, Honda, Super Aguri)
Yamaha V8, V10 (Zakspeed, Brabham, Reynard (Tested), Jordan, Tyrrell, Arrows)
Subaru Flat 12 (Minardi (Tested), Subaru)
Mugen Honda V10 (Footwork, Lotus, Ligier, Prost, Jordan
Asiatech V10 (Arrows, Minardi)
Toyota V10, V8 (Toyota, Jordan, Williams)

And the following two engines that were built but never raced...

Isuzu V12 (Lotus (tested))
HKS V12 (Lola (tested))

Drivers

What would F1 be without drivers, so here is a list of every Japanese F1 driver since 1983 including teams and best result.

Satoru Nakajima (Lotus 87-89, Tyrrell 90-91)
4th 1987 British GP, 1989 Australian GP. 1 fastest lap 1989 Australian GP
5 DNQ. 37 Retire
Aguri Suzuki (Larrousse 88 & 90-91, Zakspeed 89, Footwork 92-93, Jordan 94, Ligier 95)
3rd 1990 Japanese GP
16 DNPQ. 6 DNQ. 39 Retire
Naoki Hattori (Coloni 91, Dome 96 (Test Driver))
2 DNPQ
Ukyou Katayama (Larrousse 92, Tyrrell 93-96, Minardi 97)
5th 1994 Brazilian GP, San Marino GP
1 DNPQ. 1 DNQ. 60 Retire. 1 DSQ
Toshio Suzuki (Larrousse 93)
12th 1993 Japanese GP
0 Retire (Zero)
Hideki Noda (Larrousse 94, Simtek 95 (Test Driver))
Retired (23rd) 1994 Australian GP
3 Retire
Taki Inoue (Simtek 94, Footwork 95)
8th 1995 Italian GP
13 Retire
Shinji Nakano (Dome 96 (Test Driver), Prost 97, Minardi 98, Jordan 99 (Test Driver))
6th 1997 Canadian GP, Hungerian GP
15 Retire
Toranosuke Takagi (Tyrrell 97 (Test Driver) & 98, Arrows 99)
7th 1999 Australian GP
19 Retire. 1 DSQ
Hidetoshi Mitsusada (Benetton 00 (Test Driver))
Never set a laptime in the Benetton...
Takuma Sato (BAR 01 (Test Driver), Jordan 02, BAR 03-05, Super Aguri 06-08)
3rd 2004 US GP
26 Retire. 3 DSQ
Ryo Fukuda (BAR 02 (Test Driver))
Was 1.09 seconds faster then Anthony Davidson at a test in Valencia.
Satoshi Motoyama (Jordan 03 (3rd Driver))
8th 2003 Japanese GP Friday Test Session (faster then all 3 Minardis)
Sakon Yamamoto (Jordan 05 (3rd Driver), Super Aguri 06, Spyker 07, Renault 08 (Demo Driver)
12th 2007 Japanese GP
6 Retire
Yuji Ide (Super Aguri 06)
13th 2006 Australian GP
3 Retire
Kohei Hirate (Toyota 07 (Test Driver)
0.4 seconds off Franck Montagny time at a test in Jerez.
Kamui Kobayashi (Toyota 07-08 (Test Driver), Toyota 09)
6th 2009 Abu Dhabi GP
0 Retire
Kazuki Nakajima (Williams 07-09)
6th 2008 Australian GP
6 Retire



I hope that it's not the end...

[CarlosFerreira]

That was quite an impressive amount of work there. Can I add Bridgestone?

[Mister Fungus]

Great post!

However along with Kobayashi, there are chances for Takuma Sato returning to F1 with one of the new teams, so we might not yet have a Japan-less year.

[howardmb]

NICE post! Very informative.

I sure wish Honda had hung around. Their engineers always publish papers in the SAE talking about their race engines and how they were made. Even though the information is a year or two old by the time the publishing is done, it makes for great reading. Now, there is no one who will talk technical details. It's all considered secret.

[RejectSteve]

Engines

And the following two engines that were built but never raced...

Isuzu V12 (Lotus (tested))
HKS V12 (Lola (tested))

It has to be clarified that the Lola-HKS package had no connection with Lola. HKS merely used this Lola F3000 chassis: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3s8NSY06SA

What a scream she produced, sadly masked by music that's even worse than anything played on the podcast.

[Phoenix]

Engines

And the following two engines that were built but never raced...

Isuzu V12 (Lotus (tested))
HKS V12 (Lola (tested))

It has to be clarified that the Lola-HKS package had no connection with Lola. HKS merely used this Lola F3000 chassis: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3s8NSY06SA

What a scream she produced, sadly masked by music that's even worse than anything played on the podcast.

That really flabbergasted me...HKS developing a F1 engine...the sound is bathplug beautiful, reminds me the sound of the Ferrari F1 flat-12 engine.

And that was typical 80s-90s ambiance music, my friends, which was bearable in these days.

[Klon]

Low Point : Ralf Schumacher (need I say more?)

Yes, you do. At least for as long as you don't put Trulli in the flop-list as well, for he had been beaten twice by Ralf and only managed to top him in 2007, where virtually everyone could have done so. It really wasn't a good year for him...

[Stramala]

Low Point : Ralf Schumacher (need I say more?)

Yes, you do. At least for as long as you don't put Trulli in the flop-list as well, for he had been beaten twice by Ralf and only managed to top him in 2007, where virtually everyone could have done so. It really wasn't a good year for him...

Its like the Webber/Heidfeld theory in 2005.
Webber was clearly faster. He qualified better. Yet Heidfeld only came 8 points behind despite missing 5 races (he was 4 points ahead before his injury).

[watka]

Engines

And the following two engines that were built but never raced...

Isuzu V12 (Lotus (tested))
HKS V12 (Lola (tested))

It has to be clarified that the Lola-HKS package had no connection with Lola. HKS merely used this Lola F3000 chassis: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3s8NSY06SA

What a scream she produced, sadly masked by music that's even worse than anything played on the podcast.

That really flabbergasted me...HKS developing a F1 engine...the sound is bathplug beautiful, reminds me the sound of the Ferrari F1 flat-12 engine.

And that was typical 80s-90s ambiance music, my friends, which was bearable in these days.

Both the car and the music sound great. It sounds like something out of the video game Everybody's Golf. The music, not the car.

[SuperAguri]

Low Point : Ralf Schumacher (need I say more?)

Yes, you do. At least for as long as you don't put Trulli in the flop-list as well, for he had been beaten twice by Ralf and only managed to top him in 2007, where virtually everyone could have done so. It really wasn't a good year for him...

Trulli managed to get to the 2nd step of the podium twice where as Ralf could only managed the 3rd step. If we used the F1 Rejects point system (10,6,4,3,2,1) then it make's it more interesting as the 2005 season would have meant that Ralfs 7th and 8ths would have meant diddily squat. Trulli getting 26 points to Ralfs 20. The 2006 is Ralf 8, Trulli 5 and 2007 is a point a piece. Trulli also scored more poles then Ralf. :p

Anyway I was taking a lead from Enoch and Jamie when they did their Toyota piece on the podcast. :p

[WeirdKerr]

Ryo Fukuda (BAR 02 (Test Driver))
Was 1.09 seconds faster then Anthony Davidson at a test in Valencia

Had this guy ever got a racing seat just imagine the complaints over his 3 letter abreviation on the timing screens

[CarlosFerreira]

:lol:

Ryo Fukuda (BAR 02 (Test Driver))
Was 1.09 seconds faster then Anthony Davidson at a test in Valencia

Had this guy ever got a racing seat just imagine the complaints over his 3 letter abreviation on the timing screens

... like the two Japanese twins in the third instalment of the Austin Power series: "Can you kiss your mother with that mouth?"

[Waris]

Super Aguri, I'm curious. Are you actually Japanese, or are you a gaikokujin who lives in that wonderful country?

[LucaPacchiarini]

Slightly off-topic...

Talking about motorcycle racing, I've always found quite remarkable that all the dozens of japanese wild cards of the 90's had the same haircut... mid-long hair pulled back with what I can only describe as weird aereodinamical appendices on the temples... that seemed to be favourite haircut of many japanese F1 drivers too

It's the same haircut I get when I get out of the shower... the last time I told my mother that I had a "early 90's japanese wild card haircut" she was quite

I might start a fashion trend

[Stramala]

Epic off-topic bumping.

[SuperAguri]

Super Aguri, I'm curious. Are you actually Japanese, or are you a gaikokujin who lives in that wonderful country?

I am an English guy that tends to live in random places in the world due to work, but I like to live in Japan when i am not working.

[Waris]

Super Aguri, I'm curious. Are you actually Japanese, or are you a gaikokujin who lives in that wonderful country?

I am an English guy that tends to live in random places in the world due to work, but I like to live in Japan when i am not working.

Damn, I knew it. Your English was too good to be true.

[CarlosFerreira]

Epic off-topic bumping.

It just was...

I remember fondly that spat of Japanese wild cards in 250 and 500cc, and their haircuts. Ialways supposed that was them trying to come through as sort of Manga characters.