NireiFukuzumi

Nirei Fukuzumi (born 24 January 1997 in Tokushima, Japan) is a Japanese racing driver who reached the FIA Formula 2 Championship as a Honda-backed prospect before forging a successful career back home in Super Formula. He began in open-wheel racing in 2014 and moved up to Japanese F3 the following year, winning four races and finishing fourth in the standings.

GP3 Series

Fukuzumi made his European breakthrough in the GP3 Series with ART Grand Prix in 2016, scoring three podiums and finishing seventh. He improved sharply in 2017 with two feature-race wins, ending the year third in the championship behind ART team-mates George Russell and Jack Aitken.

Formula 2

For 2018 Fukuzumi graduated to the FIA Formula 2 Championship with BWT Arden, partnering Maximilian Günther, with Honda securing the deal and additional Red Bull backing. It was a tough rookie campaign on the European side: he scored 17 points and finished 17th, three places behind Günther, and Red Bull dropped him from its programme at the end of the year.

After F2

Fukuzumi returned to Japan, where he had already begun racing in Super Formula in 2018 with Team Mugen alongside his European commitments. He went on to become a Super Formula front-runner with Dandelion Racing, taking multiple wins and a pole and finishing runner-up in the standings in one of his strongest seasons.