Aguri Suzuki: Encyclopedia - Aguri Suzuki

Aguri Suzuki

Aguri Suzuki (鈴木 亜久里) (b. September 8, 1960) is a former Formula One driver from Japan. He participated in 88 grands prix, and most notable achivement in racing was 3rd place at 1990 Suzuka Grand Prix. Also is the owner of Super Aguri F1 team, with hopes of participating in Forumula 1 championship in 2006.

Aguri Suzuki - Career

Aguri Suzuki - 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).

Aguri Suzuki - Formula 1 Career

In 1988 Suzuka raced in European F3000 with the Footwork team, but he finally debuted in Formula 1 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 Formula 1 – 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 Formula 1. 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 1 point in his races, and was criticised by Mika Salo after the two collided in Aida. Suzuka had been inextricably linked to Aguri's F1 career and irony played it's part in ensuring that's where it ended. A massive crash in practice and a subsequent neck injury saw him miss the race, and he immediately announced his retirement.

In Formula 1 he achieved 1 podium, and scored a total of 8 championship points.

Aguri Suzuki - After Formula 1

He remained involved in Japanese driver development, and in 2003 launched Super Aguri Fernandez Racing with Adrian Fernandez, running cars in the IRL.

He now also intends to run a Formula 1 team, called Super Aguri F1, with the backing of Honda. He hopes that the first season of the team will be 2006, but has had to overcome the hurdle of his initial entry being rejected by the FIA. However, it was announced on December 21, 2005 that Super Aguri had secured the support of all the Formula One teams for their late entry bid, which should mean that registering for the 2006 championship will become a formality.

Aguri Suzuki - Complete Formula One results

(Note: grands prix in bold denote points scoring races.)

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Aguri Suzuki", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki