Nirei Fukuzumi

Nirei Fukuzumi
Nationality	Japanese
Born	(1997-01-24) 24 January 1997 Tokushima, Japan
FIA Formula 2 Championship career
Debut season	2018
Car number	15
Former teams	BWT Arden
Starts	23
Wins	0
Poles	0
Fastest laps	0
Best finish	17th in 2018
Previous series
2018 2016-17 2015 2015,2019	FIA Formula 2 Championship GP3 Series All-Japan Formula Three Super GT

Nirei Fukuzumi (福住仁嶺, Fukuzumi Nirei, born 24 January 1997) is a Japanese racing driver currently competing in Super Formula for Dandelion Racing.

Career

Karting

In 2010, Fukuzumi began karting, starting his racing career. He remained in karting until 2013, with his best achievement being second place in the ROK Cup International Final in the Super ROK category

Lower formulae

In 2014, he began to compete in open-wheel racing, moving up to Japanese F3 the next year. He won four races and finished fourth in the standings.

GP3 Series

In 2016, Nirei débuted in the GP3 Series with ART Grand Prix, scoring three podium finishes and finishing seventh in the championship. Fukuzumi stayed on for another season of GP3 in 2017. He racked up two victories, both coming at feature races, and ended up third in the standings, only behind teammates George Russell and Jack Aitken. In 2017, he was part of McLaren Young Driver Programme as he's part of Honda Junior Program.

FIA Formula 2 Championship

The Japanese driver made his Formula 2 debut in 2018 with BWT Arden, partnering Maximilian Günther. In that season, he managed to joined Red Bull Junior Team. Fukuzumi scored a total of 17 points, finishing 17th, three positions behind Günther in the championship. After this unfortunate season, Red Bull dropped him from the Academy.

Super Formula & Super GT

While the main focus was to race in Formula 2 for 2018, Fukuzumi competed in Super Formula with Team Mugen for 4 rounds. After 3 seasons in Europe, Fukuzumi returned to Japan, and compete in Super Formula with Dandelion Racing & Super GT GT300 with ARTA as Shinichi Takagi's teammate. In that season, he managed to claimed the Super GT GT300 Title, while in Super Formula full debut managed to get 7th place in the standings. In 2020, he stayed with the same team in both series but promoted to GT500 class in Super GT with Tomoki Nojiri as his teammate. For 2021, He stays with the same team in both series. Fukuzumi had his best season by far, managed to claimed runners up in the standings for Super Formula with 2 wins & 1 pole to his name in that season, and Super GT with 1 win. For 2022, Fukuzumi moves from Front runner Dandelion Racing to Drago Corse for Super Formula, while for Super GT stays with ARTA.

Karting record

Karting career summary

Season	Series	Team	Position
2010	Rotax Max Challenge Grand Finals — Junior		30th
2011	ROK Cup International Final — Junior ROK		5th
	Rotax Max Challenge Grand Finals — Junior	Eiko Japan	5th
2012	ROK Cup International Final — Junior ROK		2nd
	CIK-FIA European Championship — KF2	Kosmic Racing Dept	16th
	CIK-FIA World Cup — KF2		21st
	CIK-FIA Asia Pacific Championship — KF2		5th
2013	CIK-FIA World Championship — KF2		33rd

Racing record

Career summary

Season	Series	Team	Races	Wins	Poles	F/Laps	Podiums	Points	Position
2014	JAF Formula 4 (FC class) East	HFDP Racing	5	1	–**	–**	4	72	1st
	JAF Formula 4 (FC class) West		6	3	–**	–**	5	100	1st
	JAF Formula 4 (FC class) Overall		–	–	–	–	–	172	1st
2015	Japanese Formula 3 Championship	HFDP Racing	17	2	3	3	6	72	4th
	Super GT - GT300	Autobacs Racing Team Aguri	1	0	0	0	0	0	NC†
2016	GP3 Series	ART Grand Prix	18	0	0	0	3	91	7th
2017	GP3 Series		14	2	2	0	6	134	3rd
2018	FIA Formula 2 Championship	BWT Arden	23	0	0	0	0	17	17th
	Super Formula	Team Mugen	4	0	0	1	0	0	20th
2019	Super GT - GT300	ARTA	8	1	1	0	3	69.5	1st
	Super Formula	Docomo Team Dandelion Racing	7	0	0	0	1	18	7th
2020	Super GT	ARTA	8	1	3	1	3	54	5th
	Super Formula	Docomo Team Dandelion Racing	7	0	0	2	1	29	8th
2021	Super GT	ARTA	8	2	1	0	2	60	2nd
	Super Formula	Docomo Team Dandelion Racing	7	1	1	0	3	55	2nd
2022	Super Formula	ThreeBond Drago Corse	10	0	0	0	0	3	19th
	Super GT	ARTA	7	1	0	0	1	21*	12th*

^† As Fukuzumi was a guest driver, he was ineligible to score championship points.
** The FC class was a class using modified Formula Challenge Japan's FC106 chassis and running with the JAF Formula 4's "C" class, an upper grade class. So, there were neither pole position nor fastest lap.
^* Season still in progress.

Complete Japanese Formula 3 Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	Pos	Points
2015	HFDP Racing	SUZ 1 5	SUZ 2 7	MOT1 1 4	MOT1 2 4	MOT1 3 2	OKA1 1 7	OKA1 1 5	FUJ1 1 5	FUJ1 2 4	OKA2 1 4	OKA2 2 5	FUJ2 1 2	FUJ2 2 3	MOT2 1 1	MOT2 2 1	SUG 1 3	SUG 2 5	4th	72

Complete GP3 Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	Pos	Points
2016	ART Grand Prix	CAT FEA 3	CAT SPR 13	RBR FEA 7	RBR SPR Ret	SIL FEA 11	SIL SPR 7	HUN FEA 4	HUN SPR 4	HOC FEA Ret	HOC SPR 11	SPA FEA Ret	SPA SPR 15	MNZ FEA 5	MNZ SPR Ret	SEP FEA 7	SEP SPR 2	YMC FEA 5	YMC SPR 3	7th	91
2017	ART Grand Prix	CAT FEA 1	CAT SPR 6	RBR FEA 3	RBR SPR 3	SIL FEA Ret	SIL SPR 16	HUN FEA 2	HUN SPR Ret	SPA FEA 3	SPA SPR 4	MNZ FEA DNS	MNZ SPR C	JER FEA 1	JER SPR 5	YMC FEA 15	YMC SPR 14			3rd	134

Complete FIA Formula 2 Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate points for the fastest lap of top ten finishers)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	DC	Points
2018	BWT Arden	BHR FEA 18	BHR SPR 8	BAK FEA 13	BAK SPR 12	CAT FEA 11	CAT SPR Ret	MON FEA 10	MON SPR 11†	LEC FEA 9	LEC SPR 12	RBR FEA 9	RBR SPR 9	SIL FEA Ret	SIL SPR DNS	HUN FEA 10	HUN SPR 6	SPA FEA Ret	SPA SPR 17	MNZ FEA 14	MNZ SPR 13	SOC FEA 8	SOC SPR 7	YMC FEA Ret	YMC SPR 12	17th	17

^† Driver did not finish the race, but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance.

Complete Super GT results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	Car	Class	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	DC	Points
2015	Autobacs Racing Team Aguri	Honda CR-Z	GT300	OKA	FUJ	CHA	FUJ	SUZ 12	SUG	AUT	MOT	NC†	0†
2019	ARTA	Honda NSX GT3 Evo	GT300	OKA 2‡	FUJ 2	SUZ 6	CHA 9	FUJ 6	AUT 6	SUG 1	MOT 4	1st	69.5
2020	ARTA	Honda NSX-GT	GT500	FUJ 8	FUJ 14	SUZ 13	MOT Ret	FUJ 3	SUZ 3	MOT 1	FUJ 5	5th	54
2021	ARTA	Honda NSX-GT	GT500	OKA 7	FUJ 8	MOT 5	SUZ 11	SUG 10	AUT 1	MOT 1	FUJ 6	2nd	60
2022	ARTA	Honda NSX-GT	GT500	OKA 10	FUJ 1‡	SUZ 7	FUJ 5	SUZ 13	SUG 13	AUT 11	MOT	12th*	21*

^† As Fukuzumi was a guest driver, he was ineligible to score championship points.
^‡ Half points awarded as less than 75% of race distance was completed.
^* Season still in progress.

Complete Super Formula results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	DC	Points
2018	Team Mugen	SUZ Ret	AUT	SUG	FUJ	MOT 17	OKA 18	SUZ 12				20th	0
2019	Docomo Team Dandelion Racing	SUZ 11	AUT 5	SUG 5	FUJ 9	MOT 5	OKA Ret	SUZ 3				7th	18
2020	Docomo Team Dandelion Racing	MOT 5	OKA 8	SUG 10	AUT 9	SUZ Ret	SUZ 2	FUJ 16				8th	29
2021	Docomo Team Dandelion Racing	FUJ 3	SUZ Ret	AUT 13	SUG 1	MOT Ret	MOT 12	SUZ 1				2nd	55
2022	ThreeBond Drago Corse	FUJ Ret	FUJ 16	SUZ 17	AUT DSQ	SUG 8	FUJ 11	MOT Ret	MOT Ret	SUZ 15	SUZ Ret	19th	3

External links

• Nirei Fukuzumi career summary at DriverDB.com