The fly away races are now in full swing, and after the blip in Singapore I think we can probably expect Max and Red Bull to reimpose themselves on the 2023 F1 season. You will know that the Japanese love motor racing. They produced engines which have changed the sport. Their huge motor industry has dabbled in making cars, with variable levels of success, and there have been a number of Japanese F1 drivers, none of which has ever won an F1 race.
For something a bit different, here's a story about a Japanese F1 team I suspect many of you will have not heard of, Kojima Engineering.
Matsuhisa Kojima was a motocross rider in Japan. As well as being involved with motor sport he also imported bananas, from which he amassed a sizeable fortune which he used to fund a small engineering business building single seater race cars. This was at the height of the garagiste era in F1, when you could buy a competitive engine from Cosworth, bolt it to a chassis, and go motor racing.
At the Japanses GP in 1976 Kojima unveiled the KE007 (interesting car Mr Bond), driven by Masahiro Hasemi. In the first qualifying session he was 4th fastest (they had two sessions on a Friday and Saturday back then) before he binned it in the second session and the car had to be rebuilt. Hasemi eventually started 10th. You will know that this was a very wet race, won by Mario Andretti. The Kojima car finished 11th and was initially credited with fastest lap. Ther were problems with the timing system and this was eventually awarded to Jacques Laffite in the Ligier.
At the Japanese race in 1977 two Kojima KE009's were entered, one by Kojima Engineering the other by Hero's racing. The Kojima car was retired after running over debris whilst the Hero car went on to finish 11th.
Kojima never entered another international race, concentrating on making F2 cars for the Japanese series. Can you imagine in modern F1 a team being allowed to build a car to only enter one round of the championship? Sadly I doubt this will ever happen again.
This is the timing for Sky's coverage in the UK. It's an early start if you want to watch it live. I'd wait and see what happens in practice myself, as another Red Bull walk over isn't really worth setting an early alarm for now is it?
For something a bit different, here's a story about a Japanese F1 team I suspect many of you will have not heard of, Kojima Engineering.
Matsuhisa Kojima was a motocross rider in Japan. As well as being involved with motor sport he also imported bananas, from which he amassed a sizeable fortune which he used to fund a small engineering business building single seater race cars. This was at the height of the garagiste era in F1, when you could buy a competitive engine from Cosworth, bolt it to a chassis, and go motor racing.
At the Japanses GP in 1976 Kojima unveiled the KE007 (interesting car Mr Bond), driven by Masahiro Hasemi. In the first qualifying session he was 4th fastest (they had two sessions on a Friday and Saturday back then) before he binned it in the second session and the car had to be rebuilt. Hasemi eventually started 10th. You will know that this was a very wet race, won by Mario Andretti. The Kojima car finished 11th and was initially credited with fastest lap. Ther were problems with the timing system and this was eventually awarded to Jacques Laffite in the Ligier.
At the Japanese race in 1977 two Kojima KE009's were entered, one by Kojima Engineering the other by Hero's racing. The Kojima car was retired after running over debris whilst the Hero car went on to finish 11th.
Kojima never entered another international race, concentrating on making F2 cars for the Japanese series. Can you imagine in modern F1 a team being allowed to build a car to only enter one round of the championship? Sadly I doubt this will ever happen again.
This is the timing for Sky's coverage in the UK. It's an early start if you want to watch it live. I'd wait and see what happens in practice myself, as another Red Bull walk over isn't really worth setting an early alarm for now is it?
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