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Aguri Suzuki 2008 Super GT
Aguri Suzuki
Born 8 1960 (1960-Template:Pad2digit-Template:Pad2digit) (age 64)
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Died {{{death_date}}}
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Formula One career
Nationality 25px Japan Japanese
Years 19881995


Aguri Suzuki (born September 8, 1960 in Tokyo) is a former racing driver from Japan. He participated in 88 Formula One Grands Prix, and his most notable achievement in racing was 3rd place at the 1990 Japanese Grand Prix. Suzuki then became involved in team ownership, with interests firstly in the Japanese Formula Nippon Championship and the IRL in partnership with Mexican racer Adrian Fernandez. Most notably however, he was the owner of the Super Aguri F1 team, which participated in Formula One from 2006 to 2008.

Career[]

Early career[]

Suzuki began racing karts in 1972, at the age of 12. In 1978 he won the Japanese kart championship and in 1979 made his debut in the Japanese Formula Three (All-Japan F3) championship. He continued in karting and in 1981 was again Japanese Kart Champion. In 1983 he finished second in the All-Japan F3 series, driving a Hayashi-Toyota. He then turned to touring car racing and, driving for the Nissan factory team won the Japanese title in 1986. The same year he made his debut in Japanese F2 and drove in the Le Mans 24 Hours. In 1987 he finished runner-up in the Japanese F3000 series, winning one race (Suzuka). In 1988, driving a March-Yamaha he won the title with three wins (Fuji, Nishi-Nippon and Suzuka).

Formula One career[]

In 1988, Suzuki raced in European F3000 with Footwork, before he debuted in Formula One on October 30 at his home race, replacing the ill Yannick Dalmas in the Larrousse-Lola. Zakspeed, who were using Yamaha engines, hired Suzuki for 1989, when he gained the unenviable record of failing to pre-qualify in all 16 races (at that time there were 39 entrants fighting for 26 places on the grid, so 9 uncompetitive cars were removed on Friday morning).

Aguri Suzuki demonstrating Lola LC90 2012 Japan

Suzuki demonstrates his Larrousse-Lola 90 at Suzuka in 2012 - the scene of his podium finish 22 years earlier.

For 1990 and 1991, he drove again for Larrousse. Three sixth-places were dwarfed by 3rd place at Suzuka – the first ever podium for an Asian driver in F1 – which turned him into a local hero. He also set the second fastest lap, and observers began to think seriously about a Japanese contender in the series. The 1990 season would prove the pinnacle of Suzuki's racing career.

In 1992 and 1993, he was at Footwork alongside Michele Alboreto and then Derek Warwick, but both usually outperformed him. He shared a Ligier with Martin Brundle in 1995, but only scored one point in his races, and was criticised by Mika Salo after the two collided in Buenos Aires. Suzuka had been inextricably linked to Suzuki's F1 career and irony played its part in ensuring that was where it ended. A massive crash in practice caused a neck injury which saw him miss the race,[1] and he immediately announced his retirement.

In F1, Suzuki achieved one podium and scored a total of eight championship points. At the time he retired, he was the second most successful Japanese driver ever in F1 after Satoru Nakajima, but Takuma Sato has since passed them both.

After Formula One[]

He later moved on to JGTC and remained involved in Japanese driver development. In 2000, with long term sponsor Autobacs, he would run the ARTA (Autobacs Racing Team Aguri) who despite winning the GT300 title in 2002, would expand to DTM a season later and launched Super Aguri Fernandez Racing with Adrian Fernandez, running cars in the IRL. Aguri still competes in both categories in Super GT, with team director/former driver Keiichi Tsuchiya managing the GT300 class, running the ASL Garaiya, a car his main sponsor helped to fund and develop. They race a Honda HSV-10 GT in the GT500 class.

Takuma Sato 2007 (crop)

Takuma Sato driving for Super Aguri F1 at the 2007 Malaysian Grand Prix.

From 2006 Suzuki ran the Super Aguri F1 Formula One team with the backing of Honda. He managed to put together his new team in just four and half months from his initial announcement on 1 November 2005.[2] The team overcame the hurdle of its initial entry being rejected by the FIA after not securing financial guarantees before the entry deadline, and their acceptance was not formally confirmed until 26 January 2006.[3] The team made its debut at the Bahrain Grand Prix on 12 March 2006. On 6 May 2008, after competing in the opening four races of the season, the team withdrew from Formula One due to financial problems.[4]

Helmet[]

Suzuki's helmet is white with a red line with black sides surrounding the top, a red and black line going from the Rear down the chin (forming an A) and a black circle on the top

Racing record[]

Japanese Top Formula Championship results[]

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year Entrant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 DC Points
1985 ? SUZ FUJ MIN SUZ SUZ FUJ
DNS
SUZ
8
SUZ
10
16th 4
1986 Mooncraft SUZ FUJ MIN SUZ SUZ FUJ SUZ SUZ
6
13th 6
1987 Footwork Sports Racing Team SUZ
2
FUJ
2
MIN
4
SUZ
3
SUZ
2
SUG
Ret
FUJ
Ret
SUZ
1
SUZ
1
2nd 107
1988 Footwork Sports Racing Team SUZ
2
FUJ
1
MIN
1
SUZ
1
SUG
Ret
FUJ
2
SUZ
2
SUZ
Ret
1st 45

Complete Formula One results[]

(key)

Year Entrant Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 WDC Points
1988 Larrousse Calmels Lola LC88 Cosworth V8 BRA
SMR
MON
MEX
CAN
DET
FRA
GBR
GER
HUN
BEL
ITA
POR
ESP
JPN
16
AUS
NC 0
1989 West Zakspeed Racing Zakspeed 891 Yamaha V8 BRA
DNPQ
SMR
DNPQ
MON
DNPQ
MEX
DNPQ
USA
DNPQ
CAN
DNPQ
FRA
DNPQ
GBR
DNPQ
GER
DNPQ
HUN
DNPQ
BEL
DNPQ
ITA
DNPQ
POR
DNPQ
ESP
DNPQ
JPN
DNPQ
AUS
DNPQ
NC 0
1990 Espo Larrousse F1 Lola LC89 Lamborghini V12 USA
Ret
BRA
Ret
12th 6
Lola 90 SMR
Ret
MON
Ret
CAN
12
MEX
Ret
FRA
7
GBR
6
GER
Ret
HUN
Ret
BEL
Ret
ITA
Ret
POR
14
ESP
6
JPN
3
AUS
Ret
1991 Larrousse F1 Larrousse Lola L91 Cosworth V8 USA
6
BRA
DNS
SMR
Ret
MON
Ret
CAN
Ret
MEX
Ret
FRA
Ret
GBR
Ret
GER
Ret
HUN
Ret
BEL
DNQ
ITA
DNQ
POR
Ret
ESP
DNQ
JPN
Ret
AUS
DNQ
22nd 1
1992 Footwork Mugen Honda Footwork FA13 Mugen Honda V10 RSA
8
MEX
DNQ
BRA
Ret
ESP
7
SMR
10
MON
11
CAN
DNQ
FRA
Ret
GBR
12
GER
Ret
HUN
Ret
BEL
9
ITA
Ret
POR
10
JPN
8
AUS
8
NC 0
1993 Footwork Mugen Honda Footwork FA13B Mugen Honda V10 RSA
Ret
BRA
Ret
NC 0
Footwork FA14 EUR
Ret
SMR
9
ESP
10
MON
Ret
CAN
13
FRA
12
GBR
Ret
GER
Ret
HUN
Ret
BEL
Ret
ITA
Ret
POR
Ret
JPN
Ret
AUS
7
1994 Sasol Jordan Jordan 194 Hart V10 BRA
PAC
Ret
SMR
MON
ESP
CAN
FRA
GBR
GER
HUN
BEL
ITA
POR
EUR
JPN
AUS
NC 0
1995 Ligier Gitanes Blondes Ligier JS41 Mugen Honda V10 BRA
8
ARG
Ret
SMR
11
ESP
MON
CAN
FRA
GBR
GER
6
HUN
BEL
ITA
POR
EUR
PAC
Ret
JPN
DNS
AUS
17th 1

See also[]

References[]

  1. Tremayne, David. "Schumacher asserts his authority". The Independent, 30 October 1995. Retrieved on 30 June 2013.
  2. BBC. "New team bidding for F1 status". 1 November 2005. Retrieved on 30 June 2013.
  3. BBC. "Super Aguri handed F1 green light". 26 January 2006. Retrieved on 30 June 2013.
  4. BBC. "Struggling Super Aguri out of F1". 6 May 2008. Retrieved on 30 June 2013.

External links[]

Preceded by:
Naoki Nagasaka
Japanese Touring Car Championship
Champion

1986
Succeeded by:
Naoki Nagasaka
Preceded by:
Kazuyoshi Hoshino
Japanese Formula 3000
Champion

1988
Succeeded by:
Hitoshi Ogawa


image (between 170-190 pixels)
Super Aguri

Founder

Aguri Suzuki


Personnel

Mark Preston · Daniele Audetto

Drivers

25px Japan Takuma Sato · 25px UK Anthony Davidson · 25px Japan Yuji Ide · 25px France Franck Montagny · 25px Japan Sakon Yamamoto

Formula One cars

SA05 · SA06 · SA07 · SA08

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Template:Zakspeed



Smallwikipedialogo.png This page uses some content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Aguri Suzuki. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Autopedia, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.


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