In the early 1990s there seemed to be two countries with countless drivers ready to race in the Formula One. At that time in France, the government was heavily involved with supporting French drivers. In Japan at that time, there was the highly competitive Japanese F3000 championship, which later better known as the Formula Nippon. It was also the era that there were more drivers then seats available on the grid. At that time, if you had the money to race you could just buy your seat if needed. There was only one thing the super license. It seemed, like today with the penalties in the Formula One, they were giving randomly. Because bas on the Akihiko Nakaya his results he did a decent job.
The problem was, he did not have his super license to race in the Formula One. Akihiko Nakaya made a deal with the ill-fated Brabham team to race for them in 1992. Instead, Giovanni Amati was granted a super license while her results were poorly, especially compared to Nakaya. I never understood the move besides the publicity it would bring the Formula One and the Brabham Team.
Akihiko Nakaya came in contact with Braham in the autumn of 1991. At that time Brabham was not the team under the lead of Bernie Ecclestone, saw in-between several team owners passing by, and were mostly looking for drivers that could bring a bunch of money. Like Giovanni Amati, who was rumoured to bring 3million pounds to the team. At that time, she was also speaking the March F1 Team. However, it seems that already in December the deal was signed between Nakaya and Brabham. He would become Eric van de Poele his teammate at Brabham.
Things went different from there on. Seat fitting happened; it seems there was also at least once a test with the Brabham BT60. However, the FISA refused his super licence based on his results. Obviously, Akihiko did not agree on the matter. With the help of the Japanese Automobile Federation, he pledged an appeal. The FISA stood firm and refused his super licence again. The reason, his results! Winning the Japanese Formula 3 Championship in 1988 and winning a race in 1991 in the highly competitive Japanese Formula 3000 were not enough. The FISA simply stated that these series were no steppingstone to reach the Formula One.
After he lost his seat to Giovanni Amati, Akihiko Nakaya returned to Japan. Where he would appear in his old Lola T91/50 during a huge Japanese F3000 test session at Suzuka. Which happened in mid-February that year. He would race that season in the Japanese F3000. In 1993, he returned to the Japanese Touring Car Championship where he won the championship with Auto Tech Racing. From thereon he kept on racing in the Japanese Touring Car Championship and the All-Japan GT championship.
©Morio
