OBSCURE F1 A-Z: AGURI SUZUKI

In this 26 part series of posts I will be going through the alphabet and for each letter, a profile piece on an obscure driver - some you may have heard of before some you may never knew even sat in an F1 car let alone raced one. I have chosen a driver for each letter choosing them based on their surnames.

In 1988 when Suzuki made his Formula One debut he was the eight driver from Japan to make it too F1. Suzuki raced from his debut in 1988 up until 1995 before going on to forming the Super Aguri F1 Team that raced from 2006 - 2008, then moving over to Formula E with Team Aguri which raced in the electric series from 2014 - 2016.

During his time in F1 Suzuki raced for Larrousse, Zakspeed, Footwork, Jordan and Ligier. The Japanese driver entered 88 races starting 65.

Suzuki made his debut at this home race at the Japanese Grand Prix where he finished in 16th place three laps down to race winner Ayrton Senna. Just two years after his debut - Suzuki achieved his one and only F1 podium at the 1990 Japanese Grand Prix finishing third behind the two Benetton cars of Nelson Piquet and Roberto Moreno. He finished 22 seconds behind the race winner and scored four points. Suzuki's final F1 appearance came at the 1995 Japanese Grand Prix where he finished in 13th - one place in front of fellow countryman Ukyo Katayama.

In his F1 career Suzuki achieved;

0 Fastest Laps

0 Pole Positions

8 Career Points

1 Podium &

0 Wins

When Suzuki retired from Formula One in 1995 he was at the time the most successful Japanese F1 driver since then Salo and Kobayashi have surpassed him.