Nakajima was born on 23 February 1953 to a farming family living just outside Okazaki, Aichi, Japan. He began driving cars in his early teens, practising in the family garden with guidance from his older brother while careful to avoid his father's notice. He began racing after finishing school and obtaining his driver's licence.
In 1973 Nakajima competed as a rookie in a series at the Suzuka Circuit, which he won. Five years later he achieved his first Japanese Formula Two victory. In 1981 he won his first championship, launching a period of dominance: he won five of the next six Formula Two titles, all with a Honda V6 engine, accumulating 21 victories across ten seasons — a record at the time.
In 1984 Nakajima founded Nakajima Racing, which he entered in the Japanese Formula Two Championship with March chassis, winning three consecutive titles until 1986.
Honda originally pushed to place Nakajima at Williams for 1986, where Honda supplied engines exclusively from 1984 to 1986, but Williams owner Frank Williams declined to replace Nigel Mansell, who had just won his first two races. When Renault withdrew from Formula One at the end of 1986, Lotus agreed to take Honda engines for 1987 with Nakajima replacing Johnny Dumfries as part of the deal.
Nakajima debuted at the 1987 Brazilian Grand Prix on 12 April 1987, aged 34 — one of the oldest debutants of the modern era. At the following round, the 1987 San Marino Grand Prix, he scored his maiden points finish in sixth. His career-best result of fourth came at the 1987 British Grand Prix. He was outclassed by teammate Senna throughout, and finished the season having drawn questions about whether his seat was earned on merit or through Honda's support.
In the final turbo season, Nakajima again drove for Lotus with Nelson Piquet replacing Senna. Sharing the same Honda V6 turbo that powered the dominant McLarens, Nakajima scored only a single point — sixth in the opening race in Brazil. He failed to qualify the Lotus 100T at Monaco and Detroit, the only instances a Honda V6 turbo failed to start a Grand Prix it had entered since the engine's introduction in 1983.
At the 1988 Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka, Nakajima learned of his mother's death only 30 minutes before Friday morning practice. He went on to equal Piquet's qualifying time to the thousandth of a second; the two qualified fifth and sixth, with Piquet ahead only for having set his time earlier in the session. Nakajima had been faster than Piquet on the Friday, and the performance earned him praise across the paddock.
Lotus retained Nakajima for 1989 even after Honda confirmed it would not continue supplying engines. He and Piquet drove the Judd V8-powered Lotus 101; both failed to qualify for the 1989 Belgian Grand Prix, the first non-qualification in Lotus's then-30-year history. Nakajima's season highlight came at the rain-soaked 1989 Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide, where he spun to last on the opening lap, recovered, set the fastest lap, and finished fourth — equalling his career best — only 4.648 seconds behind the third-placed Williams-Renault of Riccardo Patrese. The drive drew praise from critics including BBC commentator and 1976 World Champion James Hunt.
Nakajima joined Tyrrell for 1990 alongside young Frenchman Jean Alesi. Alesi scored 13 points including two second places; Nakajima scored three, with points finishes in the United States, Italy, and Japan. In 1991, with Tyrrell running the Honda engines previously used by McLaren in 1990 and serviced by Mugen Motorsports, Nakajima was partnered by Stefano Modena. Modena scored ten points to Nakajima's two, the latter coming from fifth in the season-opening United States Grand Prix in Phoenix.
Nakajima left Tyrrell at the end of 1991 to join Honda's works team project. He drove the Honda RC100 when it was unveiled to the media in February 1993 and conducted the first public test of the RC101B at Suzuka in January 1994. Honda ultimately chose not to enter its own cars in Formula One, instead redirecting engine development efforts toward CART and later the IRL.
Nakajima Racing grew beyond Formula Two, winning four Formula Nippon Teams' Championship titles between 1999 and 2009. Drivers who won the Formula Nippon championship with the team include Tom Coronel (1999), Toranosuke Takagi (2000), and Ralph Firman (2002). The team continued competing in the Super Formula Championship and the Super GT Series.
Nakajima's son Kazuki raced in Formula One for Williams in the 2008 and 2009 seasons and later competed in the FIA World Endurance Championship with Toyota Gazoo Racing, retiring after the 2021 season to take a managerial role at the team. Younger son Daisuke competed in the British Formula 3 Championship in 2009 and 2010 and later in Super GT, retiring at the end of the 2019 season.
Between 1988 and 1994 Nakajima endorsed numerous Formula One video games for platforms including the Family Computer, Sega Mega Drive, Game Boy, and Super Famicom. He appeared as a playable driver in his Lotus 100T in Codemasters' F1 2013.
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.
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