Nirei Fukuzumi

is a Japanese racing driver affiliated with Toyota Gazoo Racing who currently competes in Super GT for ROOKIE Racing and in Super Formula for KCMG. He won the GT300 class championship in Super GT in 2019, driving for ARTA alongside series veteran Shinichi Takagi, and is a race winner in the GP3 Series and Super Formula.

Fukuzumi was previously a factory driver for Honda until 2023, and spent much of his junior racing career as a member of the Honda Formula Dream Project, competing internationally in the GP3 Series and FIA Formula 2 Championship. He is also a former member of the McLaren Driver Development Programme and the Red Bull Junior Team.

Early and personal life Fukuzumi comes from a rather unusual background for a racing driver; his father Shūhō is the chief priest of Sanbōin, a Shingon Buddhist temple in his hometown of Ishii.

Career

Karting Fukuzumi drove a kart for the first time at the age of five and began his karting career in 2006. He remained in karting until 2013, finishing second to Ukyo Sasahara in the All-Japan Junior Karting Championship in 2009 and concluding his career by taking the All-Japan Karting Championship title in the top-level KF1 class in 2013. He also made a handful of appearances internationally, most notably finishing second in the ROK Cup International Final in 2012.

Lower formulae In 2014, Fukuzumi 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

Fukuzumi made his Formula 2 debut in 2018 with BWT Arden, partnering Maximilian Günther. In that season, he managed to join 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

Honda While the main focus was to race in Formula 2 for 2018, Fukuzumi competed in Super Formula with Team Mugen for four rounds. Fukuzumi had his best season by far, managed to claim runners up in the standings for Super Formula with two wins & one pole to his name in that season. For 2022, Fukuzumi moves from Front runner Dandelion Racing to Drago Corse for Super Formula, while for Super GT stays with ARTA. In 2023, Fukuzumi continues to stay at ThreeBond Racing. Fukuzumi continues to do well in Threebond where collecting couple of points, and qualiflying to Q2 very often, with 16th place.

Toyota

Fukuzumi left Honda after being contracted by the manufacturer since his junior years, to join Toyota and drive the No. 8 entry for KCMG alongside Kamui Kobayashi.

In 2026, Fukuzumi joined Rookie Racing and quickly made history for the team, scoring their first ever podium at Mobility Resort Motegi, and the following round scoring the team's first ever win at Suzuka Circuit.

Super GT GT300 Fukuzumi make his Super GT debut in GT300 Class with ARTA as Shinichi Takagi's teammate. Meanwhile Fukuzumi, and Otsu claimed their car number 16 its maiden win, alongside three podiums, and a pole position. Both of them initially fought for the title, but fell short where they finished outside the top-three, and ended up in fourth place.

After he left Honda, Fukuzumi would drive for TGR Team Eneos ROOKIE alongside 2019 GT500 champion, Kazuya Oshima. † As Fukuzumi was a guest driver, he was ineligible to score championship points. ‡ Team standings. 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 SUZ1 SUZ2 MOT11 MOT12 MOT13 OKA11 OKA11 FUJ11 FUJ12 OKA21 OKA22 FUJ21 FUJ22 MOT21 MOT22 SUG1 SUG2 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 CATFEA CATSPR RBRFEA RBRSPR SILFEA SILSPR HUNFEA HUNSPR HOCFEA HOCSPR SPAFEA SPASPR MNZFEA MNZSPR SEPFEA SEPSPR YMCFEA YMCSPR 7th 91 2017 ART Grand Prix CATFEA CATSPR RBRFEA RBRSPR SILFEA SILSPR HUNFEA HUNSPR SPAFEA SPASPR MNZFEA MNZSPR JERFEA JERSPR YMCFEA YMCSPR 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 BWT Arden BHRFEA BHRSPR BAKFEA BAKSPR CATFEA CATSPR MONFEA MONSPR LECFEA LECSPR RBRFEA RBRSPR SILFEA SILSPR HUNFEA HUNSPR SPAFEA SPASPR MNZFEA MNZSPR SOCFEA SOCSPR YMCFEA YMCSPR 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 9 DC Points 2015 Autobacs Racing Team Aguri Honda CR-Z GT300 OKA FUJ CHA FUJ SUZ SUG AUT MOT NC†† 0†† 2019 ARTA Honda NSX GT3 Evo GT300 OKA FUJ SUZ CHA FUJ AUT SUG MOT 1st 69.5 2020 ARTA Honda NSX-GT GT500 FUJ FUJ SUZ MOT FUJ SUZ MOT FUJ 5th 54 2021 ARTA Honda NSX-GT GT500 OKA FUJ MOT SUZ SUG AUT MOT FUJ 2nd 60 2022 ARTA Honda NSX-GT GT500 OKA FUJ SUZ FUJ SUZ SUG AUT MOT 12th 24 2023 ARTA Honda NSX-GT GT500 OKA FUJ SUZ FUJ SUZ SUG AUT MOT 4th 53 2024 TGR Team ENEOS ROOKIE Toyota GR Supra GT500 GT500 OKA FUJ SUZ FUJ SUG AUT MOT SUZ 11th 38 2025 TGR Team ENEOS ROOKIE Toyota GR Supra GT500 GT500 OKA FUJ SEP FS1 FS2 SUZ SUG AUT MOT 4th 54.5 2026 TGR Team ENEOS ROOKIE Toyota GR Supra GT500 GT500 OKA FUJ FUJ SUZ SUG AUT MOT 3rd* 31* † Driver did not finish, but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance. †† 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. (Number) Driver did not take part in this sprint race, points are still awarded for the teammate's result. Season still in progress.

Complete Super Formula results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) ‡ Half points awarded as less than 75% of race distance was completed. Season still in progress.