Shinji
Nakano

Shinji Nakano was born on 1 April 1971 in Takatsuki, Japan. His father, Tsuneharu, was also a racing driver and competed in the All-Japan Formula Three Championship.

Nakano made his Formula One debut at the 1997 Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, driving for Prost. He scored two points that year with a pair of sixth places and finished eighteenth in the championship. When Prost switched to Peugeot engines, the team replaced him with Jarno Trulli. Nakano moved to Minardi for 1998, partnering Esteban Tuero, but did not score. His final Formula One race was his home Grand Prix at Suzuka, bringing his career total to 33 starts. In 1999 he worked as an occasional test driver for Jordan.

After leaving Formula One, Nakano raced in CART from 2000 to 2002 with Walker Racing and Fernandez Racing, making 56 starts. His best CART result was fourth at Toronto in 2002. In 2003 he started the Indianapolis 500 from fifteenth place for Beck Motorsports and finished fourteenth. He also took part in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2006 and 2008, then in 2011 with OAK Racing and in 2012 with Boutsen Ginon. From 2016 he also began commentating on Formula One races for DAZN Japan.

Source: Wikipedia, “Shinji Nakano”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.