The Williams Formula One team has hired Japan’s Kazuki Nakajima as a test driver to work alongside race drivers Nico Rosberg and Alex Wurz.
Nakajima, who is currently racing in the Formula 3 Euro Series, joins India’s Narain Karthikeyan as a Williams test driver in preparation for the 2007 season that starts in Melbourne in March.
He becomes only the fourth Asian currently in Formula One — Japanese pair Takuma Sato and Sakon Yamamoto are at the Super Aguri F1 team.
Nakajima (21) is the son of former Formula One driver Satoru Nakajima, who raced for Lotus and Tyrrell in the mid-1980s and early 1990s.
”Kazuki has consistently demonstrated his potential through karting and other junior formulae,” team boss Frank Williams said in a statement. ”Having assessed both his potential in the car and his aptitude out of it, we believe he has the necessary ingredients to graduate to Formula One in a testing role.”
Nakajima, who started his racing career under his father’s tutelage at the age of 11, said it was a dream come true.
”For anyone with an interest in motor racing, Formula One is the ultimate objective and I am delighted that Williams, one of the senior names in the sport and a team that exists solely to race, has given me this great chance,” he said. ”I look forward to helping as much as I can with the team’s transition to Toyota power for 2007.”
Nakajima graduated to Formula One after proving himself first in karts, then Japanese Formula Three and finally the Formula Three Euro Series.
In its 30 years of existence, Williams have won seven drivers’ titles and nine constructors’ championships with star drivers such as Nigel Mansell, Damon Hill, Keke Rosberg, Nelson Piquet, Alain Prost and Jacques Villeneuve.
But in recent years they have struggled to be competitive.
Villeneuve was the last to win a title in 1997 and the team have not won a race since the 2004 Brazilian Grand Prix. — Sapa-AFP