Ukyō Katayama

Ukyō Katayama

Nation:	Japan
Formula 1 world championship
First start:	1992 South African Grand Prix
Last start:	1997 European Grand Prix
Constructors
1992 Larrousse 1993-1996 Tyrrell 1997 Minardi
statistics
World Cup balance:	WM-17. ( 1994 )
Starts Victories Poles SR 95 - - -
World Cup points :	5
Podiums :	-
Leadership laps :	-

Ukyō Katayama ( Japanese 片 山 右 京 , Katayama Ukyō ; born May 29, 1963 in Tokyo ) is a former Japanese Formula 1 driver and manager of the motor and cycling team, Team Ukyo, founded in 2001 .

Career

Katayama made his debut with the Venturi Larrousse racing team in 1992 before moving to Tyrrell for four seasons in 1993 , where he stayed until the end of 1996. Katayama ended his Formula 1 career in 1997 at Minardi- Hart, where he announced his resignation in the middle of the season in order to forestall an impending end of his career due to a lack of interest in himself.

The high point of Katayama's driving career was the 1994 season : although he was only able to achieve 5 championship points here, he impressed with consistent performance in the qualifications and was in promising positions in other races before he was eliminated due to defects or mostly accidents through no fault of his own. The Australian Formula 1 website f1rejects.com , which deals with the biographies of "failed" drivers and teams, summed up in an article about Katayama this year that he had a good chance, 25 driver points and thus the 5th place among drivers -World Cup. British TV commentator Murray Walker even called Katayama the best driver Formula 1 has ever produced at the end of the season.

In the following year Katayama could not build on these achievements, both for technical and health reasons: At the end of 1994 he was diagnosed with a tumor in his back that was benign but caused severe pain. Finally Katayama had a serious accident in a Tyrrell at the Portuguese Grand Prix in Estoril and had to cancel the following race.

Ukyō Katayama also used an atypical driving style. He turned several times while driving through bends, so that he had to deal with several bends in one. This unorthodox driving style often caused unbelieving laughter in driver circles, as the remaining super license holders could not imagine that you can drive fast lap times with such a driving style.

Katayama stood out because of his extreme neck muscles , which meant he always had to wear custom-made T-shirts.

One of the Japanese’s goals has always been to win a single Grand Prix. Since he could never achieve this goal, he set himself a new one after his career, namely the ascent of Mount Everest , without oxygen equipment.

He took part in the 2007/08 Speedcar Series season .

In December 2009 Katayama got into a heavy snow storm while climbing Mount Fuji . At an altitude of 2200 meters, he was rescued by a rescue helicopter, while his two companions could only be rescued dead.

statistics

formula 1

• Finish (best): 5.
• Finish finish (worst): 18.
• Starting position (best): 5.
• Starting position (worst): 26.

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1988	Courage Compétition	Cougar C22	François Migault	Paul Belmondo	failure	accident
1992	Toyota Team Tom's	Toyota TS010	Geoff Lees	David Brabham	failure	Engine failure
1998	Toyota Motorsports	Toyota GT-One	Toshio Suzuki	Keiichi Tsuchiya	Rank 9
1999	Toyota Motorsports	Toyota GT-One	Toshio Suzuki	Keiichi Tsuchiya	Rank 2 and class win
2002	Pescarolo sport	Courage C60	Stéphane Ortelli	Eric Helary	failure	Engine failure
2003	Kondō Racing	Dome S101	Masahiko Kondo	Ryō Fukuda	Rank 13

Web links

Commons : Ukyō Katayama  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Ukyō Katayama at Racing Sports Cars

Individual evidence

1. ↑ f1rejects.com: The Rising Son - Ukyo Katayama's 1994 ( Memento of 21 January 2013, Internet Archive ) , accessed on January 21, 2013