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INTRODUCING
Nobuharu
Matsushita
110
ISHIHARA/LAT
Born October 13 1993
From Tokyo, Japan
2015 GP2 Series with
ART Grand Prix
2014 Wins the Japanese
F3 Championship for
HFDP Racing (6 wins),
makes GP2 test debut
in Abu Dhabi in late
November
2013 Finishes fifth in
first Japanese F3
season, with five
podiums but no wins
2012 Wins the Formula
Challenge Japan
single-seater title
(5 wins), beating
now-Super Formula
racer Ryo Hirakawa
to the crown
2011 Finishes second
in Formula Challenge
Japan with one win
2010 First season in car
racing, finishing sixth in
Formula Challenge
Japan as well as
starting three races in
Formula BMW Asia
ince it made its second Formula 1 coming in the
1980s, Honda has always been keen to develop
Japanese drivers. Even when outside F1, the company
has invested heavily in driver development, with plenty of
home-based drivers carving themselves successful careers
both nationally and internationally off the back of its
support. Honda’s return to grand prix racing with McLaren
was always likely to fire further interest in junior drivers,
hence the arrival of Nobuharu Matsushita at ART Grand
Prix for this year’s GP2 Series.
The 21-year-old’s dream of F1 was fired by a trip to the
Japanese Grand Prix with his father at the age of four. “Even
now I remember clearly,” he says. “The moment you enter
the circuit and the unique, sweet smell of fuel, and the
tremendous roar of the F1 machines going past in a flash.
After that I never went on rollercoasters or to amusement
parks – I would just put 100-yen coins into car-arcade
games. So my father took me to the local kart track, and
that was the beginning of my racing life.”
Eighteen years later Matsushita replaces Takuya Izawa
in an ART squad that has become effectively a McLarenHonda junior team. Izawa, now 30, was never likely to
emerge as the driver for Honda to take into grand prix
racing, but Matsushita has a much greater chance of doing
so having won last year’s Japanese F3 Championship.
Traditionally, most domestic drivers would then switch to
Super Formula and/or the thriving Super GT series. But, off
S
DUNBAR/GP2
MATSUSHITA CV
Move to GP2 comes
with top team ART
NEXT WEEK
110 AUTOSPORT.COM MARCH 5 2015
ISHIHARA/LAT
The Honda protege and Japanese F3
champ heads to GP2 with ART in 2015
the back of a promising GP2 test in Abu Dhabi late last year,
Honda has opted to dispatch ‘Nobu’ to Europe.
After a quiet first morning of running, ending the session
slowest, Matsushita made a significant step the following
afternoon, ending up 11th fastest, 1.3s off the pace. While it
was not a dramatic start, he outpaced drivers with more
experience both of the track and this kind of car.
“Nobuharu quickly integrated himself into the team at the
Abu Dhabi test,” said ART team manager Sebastien Philippe.
“He will have many new things to discover and the start of
the season will be marked by a learning phase for him, but
ART has full confidence in his qualities and in the team’s
experience to help Nobuharu integrate very quickly.”
HIGH-PRESSURE COMPARISONS
What this means is that team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne, who
finished second last year, is the team’s title shot and that
Matsushita will be given time to adapt. Realistically, it’s
going to be very difficult for him to make a big impression
in 2015, even driving for a formidable team such as ART.
Matsushita is doing his best to settle in. “To win in F1 is the
biggest goal,” he says. “So far I have been running [through
the sport], but now I have a further steep thorny path. Living
alone in France I may struggle to get accustomed, but I’m
always happy to have the challenge of new things.”
If Matsushita can emerge as a consistent points threat
in the season’s second half, that would represent a good
foundation for 2016.
Inevitably, expectations
will be high, as they always
are for an ART driver, but
with a sensible progression
in year one, then a big step
in the second season,
Matsushita could be in with
a chance of becoming the
first Japanese driver to race
in F1 with Honda propulsion
since Takuma Sato at Super
Aguri in 2008.
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