Isabella Noriko

Isabella Noriko (born 4/8/1964) is a Singaporean driver who would be the first driver in F1 to compete from Singapore as she competed for Larrousse Calmels in the 1988 Formula One season.

Noriko at the 1988 San Marino Grand Prix.

Early life

Born to a Japanese bussinessman who emigrated in the late 1950s to Singapore, and to a Italian mother, Noriko's early life was mostly spent in Japan, where she had a high class education and was known for acting in a strict manner, having no sense of humour, being stubborn and always aiming at being the best. She learned Japanese, German, Spanish, Italian, Mandarin and English. She later became a Engineering graduate at the Tokyo University of Science.

Japanese racing (1984-86)

Her father later invited her and her mother to a racing event at Suzuka, the 1000km of 1984, due to a sponsor meeting. She was taken away by the racing, and asked her father to fund a few sportscar events, which while initially relunctant to, he accepted. Despite her inexperience with the machinery, he won some of these events, and eventually started to rise up in the Japanese racing scene.

In 1985, after she finished her graduate, she started to become interested in open-wheeler racing, and decided to give the Japanese Formula 2 a go. She in her first year was seen as a mediocre driver, but she did shine a few times, most notably, when she won the RRC Fuji F2 Champions race after a heated battle between Kenneth Acheson, Masahiro Hasemi, Keinji Takahashi and herself. In 1986 however, she improved this further. She challenged the title after some setbacks (most notably, a rather hard crash caused by Hideshi Matsuda which forced her to stay out a round). She then went onto score three grand chelems, and in the finale, was close to winning the title, if it wasn't for a faulty tyre in the pitlane. Even though she had the same points as Satoru Nakajima, Nakajima won on counter of having more points without the dropped ones. Despite this, she wasn't moved by this one bit and continued on.

CART (1987)

After her 1986 season, she took a trip back to Singapore. With the growing economy, many state companies supported her, in no small part thanks to conviction of his father of course. She then managed to land a seat at Galles Racing. In her CART stint, she surprised everyone by being Rookie of the Year in the Indy 500, and then in the championship, by finishing 7th overall. Her driving style, very safe on her tyres, was key in CART, and she was able to score some amazing points, which included that 5th place in the Indy 500. She amazed even more by scoring two 2nd places and a 3rd place in the finale.

Larrousse (1988-1992)

Noriko (background) retires from the 1989 Portuguese Grand Prix as eventual race winner Frédéric-Maxime Voeckler (foreground) goes past.

After racing

After racing, Noriko returned to Singapore and became a very sucessful bussinesswoman, and was one of the main investors in the Singaporean Grand Prix.

Personal Life

Noriko's father, Ichirō (born 1912, died 2004), came from a very sucessful merchant family, and fervently supported the Japanese war effort. Her mother, Ilse Ciampac (born 1925), was an Austrian-Italian who her family emigrated during WW1.

She practices Shintoism.

She has residences in Singapore, Japan, and Hong Kong.

Results

Complete Japanese Formula Two results

(Races in bold indicate pole position)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	DC	Points
1985	Advan Team Nova	SUZ 4	FUJ 4	MIN 4	SUZ 4	SUZ Ret	FUJ 1	SUZ 7	SUZ 6	4th	64 (70)
1986	Marlboro Team Nova	SUZ 4	FUJ 3	MIN Ret	SUZ INJ	SUZ 1	FUJ 1	SUZ 1	SUZ 4	2nd	92

American Open-Wheel racing results

CART

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	Rank	Points
1987	Galles Sport	PHX 16	LBH 8	INDY 5	MIL 12	POR 9	MEA 4	CLE 22	TOR DNS	MIC 8	POC 2	ROA 2	MDO 7	NAZ 12	LAG 5	MIA 3	7th	100

Formula One

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	WDC	Points
1988	Larrousse Calmels	Larrousse LC88	Ford Cosworth DFZ 3.5 V8	BRA Ret	SMR Ret	MON 10	MEX 11	CAN Ret	DET 17	FRA Ret	GBR Ret	GER Ret	HUN Ret	YUG DNQ	SOV 16	ITA 17	BEL 17	JAP 17	AUS 16	NC	0