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. After three seasons in Europe, Fukuzumi returned to Japan, and competed in Super Formula with Dandelion Racing. 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. In that season, he managed to claim the Super GT GT300 Title, while in Super Formula full debut managed to get seventh place in the standings.
GT500 In 2020, Fukuzumi stayed with the same team but promoted to GT500 class in Super GT with Tomoki Nojiri as his teammate. For 2021, he stayed with the same team in both series. And in 2021 with one win and he and Nojiri Fukuzumi finished second in the points. Fukuzumi continued to compete in Super GT with ARTA, but this time he moved to the new 16 car after ARTA work together with Mugen Team, where he was paired with Hiroki Otsu. 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.
Karting record
Karting career summary SeasonSeriesTeamPosition2010Rotax Max Challenge Grand Finals — Junior30th2011ROK Cup International Final — Junior ROK5thRotax Max Challenge Grand Finals — JuniorEiko Japan5th2012ROK Cup International Final — Junior ROK2ndCIK-FIA European Championship — KF2Kosmic Racing Dept16thCIK-FIA World Cup — KF221stCIK-FIA Asia Pacific Championship — KF25th2013CIK-FIA World Championship — KF233rd
Racing record
Career summary Season Series Team Races Wins Poles F/Laps Podiums Points Position2014 JAF Formula 4 East - FC HFDP Racing 5 1 –** –** 4 72 1st JAF Formula 4 West - FC 6 3 –** –** 5 100 1st JAF Formula 4 Overall - FC 11 4 –** –** 9 172 1st 2015 Japanese Formula 3 Championship HFDP Racing 17 2 3 3 6 72 4th Super GT - GT300 Autobacs Racing Team Aguri 1 0 0 0 0 0 NC† 2016 GP3 Series ART Grand Prix 18 0 0 0 3 91 7th 2017 GP3 Series ART Grand Prix 14 2 2 0 6 134 3rd 2018 FIA Formula 2 Championship BWT Arden 23 0 0 0 0 17 17th Super Formula Team Mugen 4 0 0 1 0 0 20th 2019 Super GT - GT300 ARTA 8 1 1 0 3 69.5 1st Super Formula Docomo Team Dandelion Racing 7 0 0 0 1 18 7th 2020 Super GT - GT500 ARTA 8 1 3 1 3 54 5th Super Formula Docomo Team Dandelion Racing 7 0 0 2 1 29 8th 2021 Super GT - GT500 ARTA 8 2 1 0 2 60 2nd Super Formula Docomo Team Dandelion Racing 7 1 1 0 3 55 2nd 2022 Super GT - GT500 ARTA 8 1 0 0 1 24 12th Super Formula ThreeBond Drago Corse 10 0 0 0 0 3 19th 2023 Super GT - GT500 ARTA 8 1 2 1 3 53 4th Super Formula ThreeBond Racing 9 0 0 0 0 9 16th 2024 Super Formula Kids com Team KCMG 9 0 2 0 2 62 6th Super GT - GT500 TGR Team ENEOS ROOKIE 8 0 0 0 1 38 11th Super Taikyu - ST-Q ORC ROOKIE Racing10000N/ANC‡ 2025 Super GT - GT500 TGR Team ENEOS ROOKIE8121354.54th Super Formula Kids com Team KCMG120001399th SRO Japan Cup - GT3 K-tunes Racing80000389thSuper Taikyu - ST-QToyota Gazoo Rookie Racing21001N/A‡NC‡Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie - SP8TKCMG 2026 Super GT - GT500 TGR Team ENEOS ROOKIE 5 0 1 1 1 31 6th* Super Formula NTT Docomo Business Rookie 8 2 1 0 3 58 3rd* 24 Hours of Nürburgring - SP9 Pro KCMG 1 0 0 0 0 N/A DNF Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie - SP9SRO Japan Cup - GT3K-tunes Racing411012611thSuper Taikyu - ST-QToyota Gazoo Rookie Racing ** The FC class was a class using modified Formula Challenge Japan's FC106 chassis and running with the JAF Formula 4's "C" class, an upper-grade class. So, there were neither pole position nor fastest lap. † 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 6th* 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) Year Team Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 DC Points 2018 Team Mugen Honda SUZ AUT SUG FUJ MOT OKA SUZ 20th 0 2019 Docomo Team Dandelion Racing Honda SUZ AUT SUG FUJ MOT OKA SUZ 7th 18 2020 Docomo Team Dandelion Racing Honda MOT OKA SUG AUT SUZ SUZ FUJ 8th 29 2021 Docomo Team Dandelion Racing Honda FUJ SUZ AUT SUG MOT MOT SUZ 2nd 55 2022 ThreeBond Drago Corse Honda FUJ FUJ SUZ AUT SUG FUJ MOT MOT SUZ SUZ 19th 3 2023 ThreeBond Racing Honda FUJ FUJ SUZ AUT SUG FUJ MOT SUZ SUZ 16th 9 2024 Kids Com Team KCMG Toyota SUZ AUT SUG FUJ MOT FUJ FUJ SUZ SUZ 6th 62 2025Kids com Team KCMG Toyota SUZ SUZ MOT MOT AUT FUJ FUJ SUG FUJ SUZ SUZ SUZ9th39 2026 NTT Docomo Business Rookie Toyota MOT MOT SUZ SUZ FUJ FUJ FUJ SUG FUJ FUJ SUZ SUZ 3rd* 58* ‡ Half points awarded as less than 75% of race distance was completed. * Season still in progress.
References
External links