Aguri Suzuki

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Aguri Suzuki

Nationality Flag of Japan Japanese
World Championship Career
Active years 1988 - 1995
Team(s) Lola, Zakspeed, Footwork, Jordan, Ligier
Races 88
Championships 0
Wins 0
Podium finishes    1
Pole positions 0
Fastest laps 0
First race 1988 Japanese Grand Prix
First win n/a
Last win n/a
Last race 1995 Japanese Grand Prix

Aguri Suzuki (鈴木 亜久里 Suzuki Aguri?, born September 8, 1960 in Tokyo) is a former Formula One driver from Japan. He participated in 88 grands prix, and most notable achievement in racing was 3rd place at 1990 Japanese Grand Prix. Aguri is now the owner of Super Aguri F1 team, which has been participating in F1 since 2006.

Contents

[edit] Career

[edit] 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 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).

[edit] Formula One Career

In 1988 Suzuki raced in European F3000 with the Footwork team, but he finally debuted in Formula One on October 30, 1988 for his home race, replacing the ill Yannick Dalmas in Larrousse team, which then ran Lola cars. As the Zakspeed team was running Yamaha engines in 1989, they hired Aguri, but he gained the unwanted record of failing to pre-qualify in all 16 races (at that time there were 38 entrants fighting for 26 places on the grid, so 8 uncompetitive cars were removed on Friday morning).

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. But the 1990 season would prove to be the pinnacle of Aguri'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 Aguri'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, 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 most successful Japanese driver ever in F1, besting Satoru Nakajima, but Takuma Sato has since improved on this record.

[edit] 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 NSX in the GT500 class.

From 2006 Suzuki is running 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[1]. The team overcame the hurdle of his initial entry being rejected by the FIA after not securing financial guarantees in time for regular entry bid and was not formally confirmed until January 26, 2006. Suzuki was able to see his team make its debut at the Bahrain Grand Prix on 15 March 2006.

[edit] Complete F1 Results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

Yr Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Team WDC Points
1988 Lola BRA
SMR
MON
MEX
CAN
USA
FRA
GBR
GER
HUN
BEL
ITA
POR
ESP
JPN
16
AUS
Lola NA 0
1989 Zakspeed 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
Zakspeed NA 0
1990 Lola USA
ret
BRA
ret
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
Lola 12th 6
1991 Lola USA
6
BRA
ret
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
Lola 22nd 1
1992 Footwork 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
Footwork NA 0
1993 Footwork RSA
ret
BRA
ret
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
Footwork NA 0
1994 Jordan BRA
PAC
ret
SMR
MON
ESP
CAN
FRA
GBR
GER
HUN
BEL
ITA
POR
EUR
JPN
AUS
Jordan NA 0
1995 Ligier BRA
8
ARG
ret
SMR
11
ESP
MON
CAN
FRA
GBR
GER
6
HUN
BEL
ITA
POR
EUR
PAC
ret
JPN
DNS
AUS
Ligier 17th 1

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Flag of Japan Super Aguri F1

Personnel: Flag of Japan Aguri Suzuki | Flag of United Kingdom Mark Preston | Flag of Italy Daniele Audetto

Current drivers: Flag of Japan Takuma Sato | Flag of United Kingdom Anthony Davidson | Flag of Japan Sakon Yamamoto

Formula One cars: SA05 | SA06 | SA07