Sakon Yamamoto had a tricky driving career, but he believes some of the lessons he learned are helping him in his quest to improve lives in Japan
ADAM COOPER
INTERVIEW
One of the most satisfied spectators at last weekend’s Formula E race in Tokyo was the man who first drove an electric racing car on the streets of Japan’s capital. Back in 2015, former F1 driver Sakon Yamamoto, who made his only Formula E race start in London that year, conducted a street demo in the Roppongi district.
It took almost a decade – and a location switch from the heart of the city to a more remote exhibition centre area – for the category to finally run a race in Tokyo. And Yamamoto played a role by encouraging the local authorities to allow it to happen. That’s because after his racing career ended, he followed in the footsteps of the likes of Carlos Reutemann and Patrick Tambay in moving from F1 to politics, taking up public office as a member of Japan’s house of representatives.
Now 41, Yamamoto had an unusual career. He started 21 grands prix spread across three bursts of seven in 2006, 2007 and 2010, always starting in the second half of the season as a replacement for someone who had fallen out of favour, or run out of budget. As such he never raced in places like Melbourne or Monaco. The history books suggest that he didn’t achieve very much in terms of hard results, but he realised his childhood ambition and sat on grids with drivers of the calibre of Michael Schumacher, Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton. It was a dream that was set in place in 1988.
“My mother loves motorsport, she was keen on Ayrton Senna with McLaren-Honda,” he recalls. “So when I was six years old my mum took me to Suzuka for the Japanese GP. It was the first time I saw F1. I was amazed by the sound, the speed, the atmosphere, everything was like a big shock. Then after that I became a big fan of motorsport, but I didn’t know how to be an F1 driver, or how to start.”
A few years later he discovered from magazines that racing drivers were in karting aged four or five, and he realised that it might already be too late: “I was surprised that after 12 years old the guys who started motorsport or kart racing didn’t get to F1, it was like a 0.1% chance. So again I was shocked. Only one year left!”
Showing considerable initiative, he wrote to the Suzuka Racing School asking to enrol in the karting
