Nobuharu Matsushita

is a Japanese racing driver currently competing in Super GT for ARTA and Super Formula for TGM Grand Prix.

Early career

Karting Born in Saitama, Matsushita began his racing career in karting in 2005, competing the All-Japan Junior Kart Championship. In 2008, he clinched the championship title in the Open Masters Kart ARTA Challenge. He ended his karting participations in 2010, finishing third in the KF1 category of the All Japan Kart Championship.

Formula Pilota China and Formula Challenge Japan In 2011, Matsushita graduated to single–seaters into the Formula Pilota China with the Super License team. He missed the Ordos round, but after his returning he showed better performance than in the first part of the season. He won the final race of the season at Sepang and finished the season fourth.

For 2012, Matsushita switched to the Formula Challenge Japan mono-series. He scored ten podiums in twelve races, including five wins and took the championship title.

All-Japan Formula Three 2013 In 2013, Matsushita stepped up to the All-Japan Formula Three Championship with the HFDP Racing. He collected five podiums and another seven point-scoring finishes, to end the season fifth in the series standings, it was the best result for the Honda driver.

2014 For the next season, Matsushita decided to stay in the series with the same team. He was victorious at Motegi, Fuji and Sugo, grabbing the championship title from Kenta Yamashita with a twelve-point gap.

GP2 Series and FIA Formula 2 2015

Matsushita made his début in the GP2 Series in 2015 with ART Grand Prix. In the first race at Bahrain, he qualified second on the grid opposite teammate Stoffel Vandoorne and finished in the points in both races, setting the fastest lap in the sprint race. At the Red Bull Ring, Matsushita took his first GP2 podium by finishing third in the sprint race. He took his first victory in the sport in the sprint race at the Hungaroring as part of an ART 1–2. He finished ninth in the overall standings.

2016 In February 2016, it was announced Matsushita would reunite with ART for a second season, alongside fellow 2015 rookie Sergey Sirotkin. Matsushita was suspended for the fourth round of the season in Austria due to erratic driving at the previous event in Baku.

2017 In 2017, Matsushita competed in the inaugural Formula 2 championship, driving for ART Grand Prix alongside Alex Albon. He scored his first win in the sprint race in Spain, and his second one during the sprint race in Hungary. He scored two more podiums, in Monaco and in Monza and finished sixth in the final standings, beating Albon by 45 points.

2019 Matsushita returned to Formula 2 in with the Carlin team, partnering Louis Delétraz. He won the feature races at the Red Bull Ring and in Monza. He, again, finished sixth in the championship, two positions above his teammate.

2020 Matsushita was announced to drive for MP Motorsport in the 2020 FIA Formula 2 Championship together with Brazilian Felipe Drugovich. Matsushita announced that he would be leaving the F2 Championship with immediate effect on 22 September 2020.

Formula One On 20 February 2016, Matsushita was signed as a development driver for McLaren.

Super Formula and Super GT career Super Formula

In 2018, Matsushita returned to Japan to compete in Super Formula for Honda team Dandelion. He returned to the series in 2020 racing with B-Max Racing, where he replaced Sérgio Sette Câmara who moved to Formula E. He continued racing with B-Max once again, and competed from the second round onwards. For 2022, he stayed again with the same team. Matsushita clinched his first win of the series in Suzuka. For 2023, Matsushita continued racing with B-Max once again. Matsushita ended his association with B-Max as he moved to TGM Grand Prix last minute.

Super GT GT300 Matsushita made his debut in the Japanese Super GT Series in the last two rounds of the 2020 season, replacing Shinichi Takagi – who had sustained injuries from a crash in a Super Taikyu race – in the Honda NSX GT3 Evo of ARTA in the GT300 class. Driving alongside co-driver Toshiki Oyu, the pair finished the races at Motegi and Fuji Speedway eighth and seventh, respectively. After he left Honda, Matsushita moved to their manufacturer's rival Nissan where he stepped up to GT500 racing with Team Impul alongside Kazuki Hiramine. Both pairs won their first GT500 race, and clinched eighth in the standings. Matsushita returned to Honda, and moved to Real Racing to partner up with Koudai Tsukakoshi, switching with Bertrand Baguette who moved to the other team.

GT500 For the 2021 season, Matsushita decided to join Nissan in the GT500 class, despite having been a Honda junior throughout his career. He was placed at Team Impul alongside Kazuki Hiramine. The duo won the fifth round at Sportsland Sugo, ending a five year win drought for the Impul team. They nearly also won round seven at Motegi, but Hiramine ran out of fuel on the final lap while leading, although he was able to coast to the finish in third. They finished the season eighth in the championship, the best result for Nissan drivers that year.

Matsushita rejoined Honda as a factory driver and signed with Astemo Real Racing to race with Koudai Tsukakoshi. Matsushita replaced Bertrand Baguette, who went to Team Impul. For two seasons, he won only one race in Autopolis 2022.

Matsushita then returned to ARTA to race with Tomoki Nojiri.

Racing record

Career summary Season Series Team Races Wins Poles FLaps Podiums Points Position 2011 Formula Pilota China Super License 10 1 1 2 4 89 4th 2012 Formula Challenge Japan HFDP with ARTA 12 5 1 5 10 91 1st 2013 Japanese Formula 3 Championship HFDP Racing 15 0 0 0 5 43 5th 2014 Japanese Formula 3 Championship HFDP Racing 15 6 5 5 9 102 1st 2015 GP2 Series ART Grand Prix 22 1 0 1 3 68.5 9th 2015–16 MRF Challenge Formula 2000 MRF Racing 4 2 1 3 2 80 6th 2016 GP2 Series ART Grand Prix 20 1 0 4 2 92 11th Formula One McLaren Honda Formula 1 TeamDevelopment driver 2017 FIA Formula 2 Championship ART Grand Prix 22 2 1 2 4 131 6th Formula One Sauber F1 TeamDevelopment driver 2018 Super Formula Docomo Team Dandelion Racing 6 0 0 0 0 7 11th 2019 FIA Formula 2 Championship Carlin 22 2 1 4 5 144 6th Euroformula Open Championship 2 0 1 1 1 20 18th Euroformula Open Winter Series 2 1 1 1 1 27 4th 2020 FIA Formula 2 Championship MP Motorsport 17 1 0 1 1 42 15th Super GT - GT300 ARTA 2 0 0 0 0 7 23rd Super Formula Buzz Racing with B-Max 4 0 0 0 1 16 15th 2021 Super GT - GT500 Team Impul 8 1 0 0 2 45 8th Super Formula B-Max Racing 6 0 1 0 2 33.5 8th 2022 Super Formula B-Max Racing 10 1 0 0 1 21 13th Super GT - GT500 Astemo Real Racing 8 1 0 0 3 60 4th 2023 Super Formula B-Max Racing 9 0 0 0 0 4 19th Super GT - GT500 Astemo Real Racing 8 0 0 0 1 45 6th 2024 Super GT - GT500 ARTA 8 1 1 0 2 43 9th Super Formula TGM Grand Prix 3 0 0 0 0 3 15th 2025 Super GT - GT500 ARTA 8 0 0 0 1 30.5 9th 2026Super FormulaDelightworks Racing 8 0 0 0 1 16 13th* Season still in progress.

Complete Formula Pilota China results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete Formula Challenge Japan results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

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 DC Points 2013 HFDP Racing SUZ1 SUZ2 MOT11 MOT12 MOT13 OKA1 OKA2 FUJ11 FUJ12 MOT21 MOT22 SUG1 SUG2 FUJ21 FUJ22 5th 43 2014 HFDP Racing SUZ1 SUZ2 MOT11 MOT12 MOT13 OKA1 OKA2 FUJ11 FUJ12 MOT21 MOT22 SUG1 SUG2 FUJ21 FUJ22 1st 102

Complete GP2 Series/FIA Formula 2 Championship results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete MRF Challenge Formula 2000 Championship results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete Euroformula Open Championship results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete Super Formula results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Team Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 DC Points 2018 Docomo Team Dandelion RacingHonda SUZ AUT SUG FUJ MOT OKA SUZ 11th 7 2020 Buzz Racing with B-MaxHonda MOT OKASUG AUT SUZ SUZ FUJ 15th 16 2021 B-Max RacingHonda FUJ SUZ AUT SUG MOT MOT SUZ 8th 33.5 2022 B-Max RacingHonda FUJ FUJ SUZ AUT SUG FUJ MOT MOT SUZ SUZ 13th 21 2023 B-Max RacingHonda FUJ FUJ SUZ AUT SUG FUJ MOT SUZ SUZ 19th 4 2024 TGM Grand PrixHonda SUZ AUT SUG FUJ MOT FUJ FUJ SUZ SUZ 15th 3 2026 Delightworks Racing Honda MOT MOT SUZ SUZ FUJ FUJ FUJ SUG FUJ FUJ SUZ SUZ 13th* 16* ‡ Half points awarded as less than 75% of race distance was completed. Season still in progress.

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 2020 ARTA Honda NSX GT3 Evo GT300 FUJ FUJ SUZ MOT FUJ SUZ MOT FUJ 23rd 7 2021 Team Impul Nissan GT-R Nismo GT500 GT500 OKA FUJ MOT SUZ SUG AUT MOT FUJ 8th 45 2022 Astemo Real Racing Honda NSX-Type S GT500 GT500 OKA FUJ SUZ FUJ SUZ SUG AUT MOT 4th 60 2023 Astemo Real Racing Honda NSX-Type S GT500 GT500 OKA FUJ SUZ FUJ SUZ SUG AUT MOT 6th 45 2024 ARTA Honda Civic Type R-GT GT500 GT500 OKA FUJ SUZ FUJ SUG AUT MOT SUZ 9th 43 2025 ARTA Honda Civic Type R-GT GT500 GT500 OKA FUJ SEP FS1 FS2 SUZ SUG AUT MOT 9th 30.5 ‡ 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.