Naoki
Yamamoto

Naoki Yamamoto was born on 11 July 1988 in Utsunomiya, Japan. He began karting in 1994 and won the FA class of the All-Japan Kart Championship in 2002. In 2006 he graduated from the Suzuka Circuit Racing School Formula with a scholarship to Formula Challenge Japan. A year later he joined the Honda Formula Dream Project academy and finished runner-up in the championship in his first season of single-seaters. In 2008 he raced for Honda Team Real in Japanese Formula 3, finishing fifth in the championship class, and in 2009 he won the National Class title with eight victories in sixteen races.

He made his Super GT debut in 2010 with Team Kunimitsu in a Honda HSV-010 GT and finished on the podium on his debut at Suzuka. That same year he entered what was then Formula Nippon with Nakajima Racing, finishing seventh overall and winning Rookie of the Year. In 2013 he took his first Super Formula victory and won the title on a tiebreak ahead of André Lotterer, who finished level on points. In 2018 he won his second Super Formula title and, alongside Jenson Button, the GT500 championship in Super GT. In 2020 came a third Super Formula title by two points from Ryo Hirakawa, plus a second GT500 title with Tadasuke Makino. Yamamoto is the only driver to have won both championships in the same season more than once. He announced his retirement from Super Formula for the end of 2024.

His 2018 titles gave him enough points for a Super Licence. At the 2019 Japanese Grand Prix he drove for Toro Rosso-Honda in the first free practice session, completing the most laps and setting a fastest lap about a tenth of a second off regular driver Daniil Kvyat. He was the first Japanese driver to take part in a Grand Prix session since Kamui Kobayashi in 2014. He was not given a race seat in Formula One for 2020 and never started a World Championship race.

Source: Wikipedia, “Naoki Yamamoto (racing driver)”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.