Nirei Fukuzumi

**Nirei Fukuzumi** (born 24 January 1997 in Tokushima, Japan), **福住仁嶺** in Japanese, is a Japanese racing driver, whom competes in the 2019 Super Formula Championship for DoCoMo Team Dandelion Racing. A long term member of the Honda Formula Dream project, **Fukuzumi** moved to Super Formula full-time in 2019, after competing in several races in 2018.

## Background

After a brief career in karting, Fukuzumi graduated to car racing in 2014, taking part in the F4 Japanese Championship. An impressive rookie campaign saw Fukuzumi, already a member of the Honda Formula Dream Project, win the junior class, resulting in a promotion to the All-Japan Formula 3 Championship for 2015. Another excellent debut season would see Fukuzumi end the year in fourth, with two wins and six podium finishes.

### Honda Dreams

Fukuzumi was rapidly promoted to the GP3 Series for 2016, with Honda arranging for the Japanese youngster to join ART Grand Prix. Another strong maiden campaign saw Fukuzumi pick up a handful of podium finishes, and earn another year in GP3 with ART. His second GP3 season would go even better, with Fukuzumi briefly entertaining hopes of the Championship before ending the season third behind teammates George Russell and Jack Aitken.

### Formula Fantasy

For 2018 Honda secured a deal for Fukuzumi to join the FIA Formula Two Championship, with additional backing from Red Bull. He joined Mercedes backed racer Maximilian Günther at BWT Arden, although both struggled to claim regular points across the campaign. Fukuzumi was also given the option to take part in the Super Formula series in his native Japan, with the Japanese racer duly taking up that option when he could.

## Super Formula History

Fukuzumi made his Super Formula Championship debut at the opening round of the 2018 season in Suzuka, joining Team Mugen. A quiet debut saw Fukuzumi retire from the back of the field, before the Japanese races skipped the following three rounds. It was only when the series headed to Twin Ring Motegi that Fukuzumi was able to re-take his seat, taking it back from Red Bull Junior Team member Dan Ticktum.

## Full Super Formula Record

Shown below are a series of tables outlining Nirei Fukuzumi's career in Super Formula in statistical form.

### Super Formula Entries

The list below includes all of the teams and cars, as well as overall finishing positions for Nirei Fukuzumi during their SF career:

 2019 | DoCoMo Team Dandelion Racing | 5

### Career Results

Below is a table showing Nirei Fukuzumi's full Super Formula record.

 11th

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Kunihiko Akai; Jamie Klein, 'Honda to switch F2 racers Fukuzumi, Makino to Super Formula in 2019', *autosport.com*, (Motorsport Network, 19/11/2018), https://www.autosport.com/f2/news/140184/honda-will-switch-f2-juniors-to-super-formula, (Accessed 25/04/2019)
2. ↑ Phillip Horton, 'Feature: Keeping an eye on Honda-backed F2 rookie Nirei Fukuzumi', *motorsportweek.com*, (Motorsport Week, 12/01/2018), https://www.motorsportweek.com/news/id/16623, (Accessed 03/09/2018)
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `FIA`
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Rachit Thukral, 'Fukuzumi announces joint F2, Super Formula programme', *motorsport.com*, (Motorsport Network, 12/01/2018), https://www.motorsport.com/fia-f2/news/fukuzumi-f2-super-formula-programme-994945/?s=1, (Accessed 13/06/2018)
5. ↑ Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `TRM18R`

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