Shinobu Katayama
Shinobu Katayama (born 7th April 1990, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan) is a female Japanese racing driver, currently driving for the Venturi team in the AutoReject World Series' 2018 season. Behind 2012 champion Pippa Mann, Katayama is the most successful female driver in the history of the F1RWRS and ARWS.
Early Career
Living close to the Tsukuba circuit, Shinobu at a young age wanted to be a racing driver and having a racing father in Kenji Katayama helped no end. She won several karting championships before she was 12 and won the Japanese Karting Championship at 15. During high school she flirted with Formula Suzuki and came 3rd despite only completing in half the races and won 75% of the races she entered. She was signed by Nissan as part of their young driver program. The Japanese F3 championship was won when she was 18, Formula Nippon at 20 and the inaugural F1RLFS Cup at 21 with just one last-minute race victory. By the time the series was taken over by Finnish NVRT Holdings under the guise of Rejects of LFS, the driver's championship trophy (won by Cave Johnson and Marcel Agyemang-Badu in 2014 and 2015 respectively) is named after her.
She has two sisters and a brother, all of which have been involved in racing in some form or another.
Career in the F1RWRS
Australian Minardi (2012)
Katayama made her first appearance in the F1RWRS mid-way through the 2012 season, driving a second car for Australian Minardi. This came about following the takeover of the team by Nissan's motorsport arm Nismo, who desired a Japanese presence in the team. Katayama was guaranteed a place at the team for 2013 anyway, but was given the last six races of 2012 to get herself accustomed to the series. Following her debut at the Tasman GP, Katayama generally struggled for performance, however she was able to finish a strong fourth at the Australian Grand Prix, her first ever points finish, and Australian Minardi's last before the full takeover by Nissan took effect.
Sunshine Infiniti (2013-2014)
At the end of 2012, the Australian Minardi team was re-branded as Sunshine Infiniti and used Nissan engines badged as Infinitis, the name of the manufacturer's luxury vehicle arm. Katayama was thus retained in the new team, and was partnered by fellow countryman Hagane Shizuka. The Sunshine SN-1 suffered greatly with unreliability over the course of the 2013 season however, and consequently Katayama only finished three races over the whole year, though she was classified as completing over 90% of the race distance in a further two. In all three races she scored points though, starting with fifth at the US Grand Prix, followed by her first podium with second place at Portugal, where she also took fastest lap, a feat she achieved on three other occasions during the year. Her final finish was also her best, at her home race, the Japanese Grand Prix, she took pole position, and went on to win in front of a jubilant Japanese crowd. With a total of 18 points over the year, it was enough to give Katayama joint 8th place in the drivers' championship by the end of the season, tied with Daniel Melrose.
For 2014, Katayama remained with Sunshine, and reaped the benefit of a more reliable car. Whilst teammate Kay Lon struggled greatly with accidents and mechanical issues, Katayama was able to consistently finish and pick up a number of good results. By half distance she had scored all of the team's 15 points, with a best result of two second places at Australia and France. A third place at the ninth race of the year, the German GP, meant she had beaten her score from 2013 with another seven races left to go.
Sunshine Daihatsu (2015)
Arrowtech Renault (2015)
Revolution Honda / Revolution Renault (2015-2016)
Rob Lomas Racing Audi (2017)
Nurminen Holden (2017)
Venturi Yamaha (2018)
Racing record
Career summary
Year | Series | Team | Position |
2006 | Formula Suzuki | ?? | 3rd |
2007 | Japanese F3 | ?? | ?? |
2008 | Japanese F3 | ?? | 1st |
2009 | Formula Nippon | ?? | ?? |
2010 | Formula Nippon | ?? | 1st |
2011 | LFS Cup | Sunshine Infiniti | 1st |
2011 | Formula One | Stefan Grand Prix | 9th |
2012 | Formula One | Stefan Grand Prix | 21st |
2012 | F1RWRS | Australian Minardi | 25th |
2013 | F1RWRS | Sunshine Infiniti | 8th |
2014 | F1RWRS | Sunshine Infiniti | 3rd |
2015 | F1RWRS | Sunshine Daihatsu | 18th |
2016 | F1RWRS | Revolution Engineering | 43rd |
2017 | F1RWRS | Rob Lomas Racing | 26th |
BASF Nurminen Grand Prix | |||
2017 | Formula One | ING WilliamsF1 | 24th |
2018 | ARWS | Venturi Formula | 22nd |
2019 | ARWS | Union Saver Developments | 11th |
Complete LFS Cup results
(Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)
Complete F1RWRS and ARWS results
(Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)
Year | Entrant | Chassis | Engine | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | DC | Pts |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2012 | Australian Minardi | Minardi PS10 | BMW P86/12 | BAV | SAX | GER | LUX | BEL | NED | GBR | KEN | ENG | TAS 10 |
SUR Ret |
NSW 12 |
AUS 4 |
CHN 22 |
USA 14 |
500 15 |
25th | 5 | ||
2013 | Sunshine Infiniti | Sunshine SN-1 | Infiniti GLX13T | TAS Ret |
AUS Ret |
MEX Ret |
USA 5 |
MON Ret |
FRA 11† |
GBR 11† |
GER Ret |
NED Ret |
BEL Ret |
POR 2 |
MED Ret |
MAC Ret |
CHN Ret |
JPN 1 |
BRA Ret |
8th | 18 | ||
2014 | Sunshine Infiniti | Sunshine SN-2 | Infiniti GLX14T | TAS 4 |
AUS 2 |
BRA 12 |
MEX 8 |
USA Ret |
MON Ret |
FRA 2 |
GBR 12 |
GER 3 |
BEL 6 |
ITA 3 |
MED Ret |
NED 9 |
MAC 1 |
CHN 3 |
JPN 10 |
3rd | 38 | ||
2015 | Sunshine Daihatsu | Sunshine SD-01 | Daihatsu Zeetec-R1 | TAS Ret |
AUS | MED | MON Ret |
MEX | USA | CAN | GBR | 18th | 6 | ||||||||||
ArrowTech-Acuri Autosport | Arrowtech AT-05 | Renault RS1 | GER 4 |
BEL 15 |
AUT 4 |
ITA Ret |
|||||||||||||||||
Revolution Engineering DMS | Revolution HS-15 | Honda RA101E | NED DNQ |
CHN DNPQ |
JPN Ret |
BRA DNPQ |
|||||||||||||||||
2016 | Revolution Engineering DMS | Revolution HS-16 | Renault RSXXI-16 | AUS DNPQ |
NSW DNPQ |
GBR DNPQ |
ITA Ret |
AUT DNPQ |
CAN DNPQ |
SUS DNPQ |
NUS DNPQ |
GER DNPQ |
NED DNPQ |
MON DNPQ |
BEL DNPQ |
MEX | ARG | CHN DNPQ |
JPN DNPQ |
43rd | 0 | ||
2017 | Rob Lomas Racing | Lomas RLR-P01 | Audi AF1-4 | AUS | NSW | GBR Ret |
ITA DNPQ |
AUT DNPQ |
CAN 6 |
SUS Ret |
NUS DNPQ |
GER DNPQ |
NED DNPQ |
MON DNPQ |
BEL DNPQ |
26th | 1 | ||||||
BASF Nurminen Grand Prix | Nurminen NRE Type 01 | Holden LSF1-17 | MOR DNQ |
ARG 12† |
JPN Ret |
CHN Ret |
|||||||||||||||||
2018 | Venturi Formula | Venturi V2-001 | Yamaha OX64 | AUS 14† |
NSW DNPQ |
ITA Ret |
MAR Ret |
CAL Ret |
USA 11 |
CAN Ret |
GBR 10 |
AUT Ret |
GER 7 |
SCA 9 |
BEL Ret |
MON Ret |
RSA 11† |
BRA Ret |
ARG Ret |
JPN 5 |
CHN Ret |
22nd | 2 |
2019 | Union Saver Developments | USD KS-02 | Daihatsu Zeetec-R2/19 | AUS Ret |
NSW 11 |
KIN Ret |
ITA Ret |
MAR Ret |
CAN 7 |
500 5 |
GBR Ret |
AUT 14 |
GER Ret |
SCA 2 |
BEL 7 |
MON Ret |
RSA 10 |
BRA 16 |
ARG 8 |
JPN 14 |
CHN Ret |
11th | 9 |
* Season still in progress.
† Did not finish, but was classified as she had completed more than 90% of the race distance.
Sporting Accolades | ||
---|---|---|
Preceded by: None |
LFS Cup Champion 2011 |
Succeeded by: Cave Johnson 2014 |