After winning the All-Japan F2 Championship for three consecutive years from 1984, Satoru Nakajima made his Formula 1 debut in 1987, becoming the first Japanese full-time driver in the category. Nakajima joined Lotus, and his teammate was Ayrton Senna. In his fourth season in F1, Senna had won four races for Lotus, which he had been with since 1985, and was an up-and-coming young driver considered to be the next generation of world champion.

“I knew of his achievements, so I wondered what it would be like to race with him. I had, however, no desire to challenge him. I went into F1 to challenge myself to see how well I could do.”

Nakajima had dreamed of racing in Europe since he was young.

“I felt that even if I won first prize in Japan, it was not first prize in the world. It’s only logical, considering the difference in the number of competitors. I became a champion many times in Japan, but there are more people in the world. F1 is where the top people from each country gather to compete for the world’s first prize. It is the same as the Olympics. I wanted to race there.”

At the time, there was no established pathway for racing drivers in Japan to move up to overseas races, and Nakajima faced difficulties in gaining access to European categories. Although he raced in the British F3 Championship on a wildcard basis, his first real opportunity in Europe came with his entry in the 1986 International F3000 Championship, backed by Honda.

Honda had highly valued Nakajima’s abilities, and selected him as a test driver, tasking him to test Honda F1 engines in Japan. In 1987, at the age of 34, Nakajima had enough experience driving F1 cars, and made his long-awaited F1 debut as Senna’s teammate.

“In my first year in F1, Senna, who turned out to be a superman, was ahead of me. He was really fast. In racing, it’s all about results, and I couldn’t match him in lap times, but there were times when I was faster than him, and I think in some ways I was stronger with my feelings. Of course, as a racing driver, I am not happy that I could not match him. But there is no point in comparison. I just continued to challenge myself in my own way in F1, one step at a time, and he just happened to be my teammate. The following year Senna moved to McLaren and became world champion, and that was an answer for me, and later I felt a little relieved that the man I could not catch was the man at the top of F1.”

According to Nakajima, Senna was a very caring person, who gave advice to the Japanese rookie F1 driver.

“Every circuit we went to was new to me, so he advised me on what to look out for, during team meetings and even in private conversations. Not only that, when we were in Brazil, he advised me on which water I could and couldn’t drink in daily life, and how to drive on the Brazilian roads. In Monaco, he even taped up my hands so I wouldn’t injure my fingers.”

On the other hand, Senna did not treat Nakajima as a mere rookie, but rather objectively recognized his teammate’s capabilities and even asked for advice on occasion. Senna knew that Nakajima had been trusted by Honda to test its F1 engines since 1984, and that Nakajima had been driving F1 cars in Japan and had accumulated experience.

“He would often ask me if the tingling vibration he felt in the Honda engine, compared to the Renault engines he was accustomed to until the previous year, was normal. I would tell him it was.”

Nakajima retired from F1 racing in 1991, to manage his own team and work as an F1 TV commentator.

“The last time I met Senna was the year after I quit F1, when he came to the Japanese GP in a McLaren. I was doing TV work at the time, so I met him when I was walking down pit road to cover the race. We only greeted each other briefly. When he passed away, all I could do was grieve because I knew Senna.”