Nakajima Admits Toyota Help to F1 Entry

Kazuki Nakajima admitted it was Japanese manufacturer Toyota who paved his way into Formula 1, but insisted it was all him to secure his seat with Williams F1 for a second consecutive season. Although his father Satoru was backed by rivals Honda throughout his entire F1 career, Kazuki managed to attract the support of Toyota in order to make his F1 debut.

After a difficult and chaotic first race for Williams at the end of 2007 – the Brazilian Grand Prix – where he hit a crew member during one of his pit stops, the Japanese driver managed to secure a racing spot with the Grove based team for the following season. While everyone assumed it would be a one year thing for Nakajima, he managed to convince Frank Williams that he is F1 material and (this time) rightfully earned his F1 seat.

“There definitely was help from Toyota for me to find a seat in Williams but after that it's all my job,” said an honest Nakajima in an interview with CNN broadcaster. “Basically when I was a test driver I had to perform in the testing to show the team that I'm good enough to be a race driver. There is no help on the race track so I just perform,” added the Japanese driver.

Kazuki ended his first full-time campaign inside Formula 1 last year with an overall 9 points under his belt, highlighting a 6th place during the season opener in Australia. This season, however, the Japanese sophomore seems unable to keep the pace with teammate Nico Rosberg, despite the (only) 3.5 points separating the two in the overall standings.

Apart from the fact that he's yet to win a point in 2009, Nakajima is also having a hard time scoring some decent times in qualifying. So far, during the first 4 races of this season, the Japanese driver has neither outpaced Rosberg in qualifying nor managed a Q3 entry.