is a

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

racing driver currently competing in

Super GT Super GT (stylized as SUPER GT) is a grand touring car racing series that began in 1993. Launched as the , generally referred to as either the JGTC or the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship, the series was renamed to Super GT in 2005. It is ...

and

Super Formula The Japanese Super Formula Championship is a formula racing series. It is considered as being the top level of single-seater racing in Japan and regional motorsports in Asia. The series is sanctioned by the Japan Automobile Federation (JAF) an ...

. He formerly competed in the

2020 FIA Formula 2 Championship The 2020 FIA Formula 2 Championship was a motor racing championship for Formula 2 cars, sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The championship was the fifty-fourth season of Formula 2 racing and the fourth seas ...

for

MP Motorsport MP Motorsport (previously Marcel Peters Motorsport) is a Dutch auto racing team currently competing in the FIA Formula 2 Championship. The team has also participated in Auto GP, Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 and Formula Renault 2.0 Northern Europea ...

before being replaced by current

driver

Giuliano Alesi Giuliano Ryu Alesi (born 20 September 1999) is a French-Japanese racing driver. He is the son of Japanese former actress Kumiko Goto and former Formula One driver Jean Alesi. Career Karting Born in Avignon, Alesi began karting in 2013 before ...

Early career

Karting

Born in Saitama, Matsushita began his racing career in

karting Kart racing or karting is a road racing variant of motorsport with open-wheel, four-wheeled vehicles known as go-karts or shifter karts. They are usually raced on scaled-down circuits, although some professional kart races are also held on f ...

in 2005, competing the All-Japan Junior Kart Championship. In 2008, he clinched the championship title in the Open Masters Kart ARTA Challenge. He ended his karting participations in 2010, finishing third in the

KF1 KF1 is the top level of karting. It is open to drivers aged 15 and up. This class used to be called Formula A and has changed since January 2007 when CIK-FIA decided to replace the 100 cc water-cooled two-stroke engines with 125 cc Touch-an ...

category of the All Japan Kart Championship.

Formula Pilota China and Formula Challenge Japan

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

, Matsushita graduated to single–seaters into the

Formula Pilota China Formula Masters China, FMCS () (previously known as Formula Pilota China), was a single-seater racing series based in Asia. The series was created in 2011 after the success of the Formula Abarth championship that was created a year before. Event ...

with the Super License team. He missed the

Ordos Ordos may refer to: Inner Mongolia *Ordos City, Inner Mongolia, China ** Ordos Ejin Horo Airport * Ordos Loop of the Yellow River, a region of China **Ordos Plateau or "the Ordos", land enclosed by Ordos Loop *Ordos Desert, in Inner Mongolia *Ordos ...

round, but after his returning he showed better performance than in the first part of the season. He won the final race of the season at

Sepang Pekan Sepang is a small border town and also a mukim in Sepang District, Selangor, Malaysia. The Sepang International Circuit in the western part of the town, where the Malaysian F1 Grand Prix was and Malaysian MotoGP Grand Prix is held. Mal ...

and finished the season fourth. For 2012, he switched to the

Formula Challenge Japan Formula Challenge Japan was an open wheel racing series based in Japan. The first season was in 2006 and carried on from the defunct Formula Dream series. It is promoted as a young driver development project jointly by Honda, Toyota and Nissan a ...

mono-series. He scored ten podiums in twelve races, including five wins and took the championship title.

All-Japan Formula Three

2013

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

, Matsushita stepped up to the

All-Japan Formula Three Championship was a national motor racing championship that takes place in Japan. It is a junior-level feeder formula that uses small single seater Formula Three chassis. As a result of Formula 3 naming regulations by the FIA, on 13 August 2019, series prom ...

with the HFDP Racing. He collected five podiums and another seven point-scoring finishes, to end the season fifth in the series standings, it was the best result for the

Honda is a Japanese public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles, and power equipment, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, reaching a product ...

driver.

2014

For the next season he decided to stay in the series with the same team. He was victorious at Motegi,

Fuji Fuji may refer to: Places China * Fuji, Xiangcheng City (付集镇), town in Xiangcheng City, Henan Japan * Mount Fuji, the tallest mountain in Japan * Fuji River * Fuji, Saga, town in Saga Prefecture * Fuji, Shizuoka, city in Shizuoka Prefectur ...

and

Sugo ''Sugo'' (International title: ''The Chosen One'' / ) is a Philippine television drama action series broadcast by GMA Network. Directed by Dominic Zapata and Lore Reyes, it stars Richard Gutierrez in the title role. It premiered on July 4, 200 ...

, grabbing the championship title from Kenta Yamashita with a twelve-point gap.

GP2 Series and FIA Formula 2

2015

Matsushita made his début in the

GP2 Series The GP2 Series was a form of open wheel motor racing introduced in 2005 following the discontinuation of the long-term Formula One feeder series, Formula 3000. The GP2 format was conceived by Bernie Ecclestone and Flavio Briatore, while Eccle ...

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

with

ART Grand Prix ART Grand Prix is a French motor racing team that competes in formula single-seaters in Europe. In 2012, it competed in the GP2 Series and GP3 Series as Lotus GP to reflect sponsorship from British sports and racing car manufacturer Lotus. The ...

. In the first race at

Bahrain Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and an ...

, he qualified second on the grid opposite teammate

Stoffel Vandoorne Stoffel Vandoorne (born 26 March 1992) is a Belgian professional racing driver who is currently racing for Dragon Racing in Formula E. He had previously competed in Formula One for McLaren from 2016 to 2018. He is currently a test driver of M ...

and finished in the points in both races, setting the fastest lap in the sprint race. At the

Red Bull Ring The Red Bull Ring is a motorsport race track in Spielberg, Styria, Austria. The race circuit was founded as Österreichring (translation: Austrian Circuit) and hosted the Austrian Grand Prix for 18 consecutive years, from to . It was later sh ...

, Matsushita took his first GP2 podium by finishing third in the sprint race. He took his first victory in the sport in the sprint race at the

Hungaroring The Hungaroring is a motorsport racetrack in Mogyoród, Pest County, Hungary where the Formula One Hungarian Grand Prix is held. In 1986, it became the location of the first Formula One Grand Prix behind the Iron Curtain. Bernie Ecclestone wan ...

as part of an ART 1-2. He finished 9th in the overall standings.

2016

In February 2016, it was announced Matsushita would reunite with ART for a second season, alongside fellow 2015 rookie Sergey Sirotkin. Matsushita was suspended for the 4th round of the season in Austria due to erratic driving at the previous event in Baku.

2017

In 2017, Matsushita competed in the inaugural Formula 2 championship, driving for

alongside

Alexander Albon Alexander Albon Ansusinha ( th, อเล็กซานเดอร์ อัลบอน อังศุสิงห์; , , born 23 March 1996) is a Thai-British racing driver currently competing in Formula One for Williams Racing, under th ...

. He scored his first win in the sprint race in Spain, and his second one during the sprint race in Hungary. He scored two more podiums, in Monaco and in Monza and finished sixth in the final standings, beating Albon by 45 points.

2019

Matsushita returned to Formula 2 in with the Carlin team, partnering

Louis Delétraz Louis Delétraz (born 22 April 1997) is a Swiss racing driver currently competing in the FIA World Endurance Championship and European Le Mans Series for Prema Orlen Team and in the IMSA SportsCar Championship for Tower Motorsport. He is the 201 ...

. He won the feature races at the

and in

Monza Monza (, ; lmo, label=Lombard language, Lombard, Monça, locally ; lat, Modoetia) is a city and ''comune'' on the River Lambro, a tributary of the Po River, Po in the Lombardy region of Italy, about north-northeast of Milan. It is the capit ...

. He, again, finished 6th in the championship, two positions above his teammate.

2020

He was announced to drive for MP Motorsport in the

together with

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

ian

Felipe Drugovich Felipe Drugovich Roncato (born 23 May 2000) is a Brazilian-Italian racing driver of Austrian descent who last competed in FIA Formula 2 Championship with MP Motorsport. He is the 2018 Euroformula Open champion and the 2022 Formula 2 champion. ...

. Matsushita announced that he would be leaving the F2 Championship with immediate effect on 22 September 2020.

Formula One

On 20 February 2016, Matsushita was signed as a

development driver A driver development program (or driver development team) is a system or structure designed for young kart and race car drivers to learn and perfect their racing skills. These programmes are devised by racing teams, external companies and funded ...

for

McLaren McLaren Racing Limited is a British motor racing team based at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, Surrey, England. McLaren is best known as a Formula One constructor, the second oldest active team, and the second most successful Formul ...

Super Formula and Super GT career

Super Formula

In 2018, Matsushita returned to Japan to compete in

for Honda team

Dandelion ''Taraxacum'' () is a large genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae, which consists of species commonly known as dandelions. The scientific and hobby study of the genus is known as taraxacology. The genus is native to Eurasia and Nor ...

Super GT

2020

Matsushita made his debut in the Japanese

Super GT Series Super GT (stylized as SUPER GT) is a grand touring car racing series that began in 1993. Launched as the , generally referred to as either the JGTC or the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship, the series was renamed to Super GT in 2005. It is ...

in the last two rounds of the 2020 season, replacing

Shinichi Takagi is a Japanese professional racing driver. He won the GT300 class Super GT championship in 2002 and 2019. Career Takagi made his debut in the All-Japan GT Championship (JGTC) in 1998, driving for in the GT500 class. For the 1999 season, he ...

– who had sustained injuries from a crash in a

Super Taikyu Super Taikyu (スーパー耐久, ''Super Endurance''), formerly known as the Super N1 Taikyu Series prior to 2005 and N1 Endurance Series prior to 1995, and currently named the Eneos Super Taikyu Series Powered by Hankook for sponsorship reasons, ...

race – in the

Honda NSX GT3 Evo is a Japanese public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles, and power equipment, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, reaching a product ...

ARTA Arta, ARTA, or Artà may refer to: Places Djibouti * Arta, Djibouti, a regional capital city in southeastern Djibouti * Arta Mountains, a mountain range in Djibouti * Arta Region, Djibouti Greece * Arta, Greece, a regional capital city in northwes ...

in the GT300 class. Driving alongside co-driver

Toshiki Oyu (born August 4, 1998) is a Japanese racing driver. He currently competes in Super GT for Team Mugen and in Super Formula for TCS Nakajima Racing. Career Early career Oyu made his motorsport debut in karting in 2007. He raced mainly in Japan a ...

, the pair finished the races at Motegi and

Fuji Speedway is a motorsport race track standing in the foothills of Mount Fuji, in Oyama, Suntō District, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. It was built in the early 1960s. In the 1980s, Fuji Speedway was used for the FIA World Sportscar Championship and nati ...

eighth and seventh, respectively.

2021

For the 2021 season, Matsushita decided to join

Nissan , trade name, trading as Nissan Motor Corporation and often shortened to Nissan, is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer headquartered in Nishi-ku, Yokohama, Japan. The company sells ...

in the GT500 class, despite having been a Honda junior throughout his career. He was placed at

Team Impul Hoshino Impul Co., Ltd., (known as Impul) is a Japanese automotive aftermarket company based in Setagaya-ku, Tokyo. Founded by Nissan's factory driver, Kazuyoshi Hoshino, the company exclusively produces aftermarket parts for Nissans, such as bodyk ...

alongside

Kazuki Hiramine is a Japanese racing driver, currently racing in the Super GT Series as a Nissan factory driver with Team Impul. He won the Super GT GT500 Championship in 2022, alongside co-driver Bertrand Baguette. Racing career Early career Hiramine made t ...

. The duo won the fifth round at Sportsland Sugo, ending a five year win drought for the Impul team. They nearly also won round seven at Motegi, but Hiramine ran out of fuel on the final lap while leading, although he was able to coast to the finish in third. They finished the season eighth in the championship, the best result for Nissan drivers that year.

Racing record

Career summary

Complete GP2 Series results

(

key Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (map ...

) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

Complete FIA Formula 2 Championship results

(

) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate points for the fastest lap of top ten finishers)

Complete Super Formula results

(

) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap) ^‡ Half points awarded as less than 75% of race distance was completed.

Complete Super GT results

(

) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap) ^‡ Half points awarded as less than 75% of race distance was completed.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Matsushita, Nobuharu 1993 births Living people Sportspeople from Saitama (city) Japanese racing drivers Formula Masters China drivers Japanese Formula 3 Championship drivers Formula Challenge Japan drivers GP2 Series drivers MRF Challenge Formula 2000 Championship drivers FIA Formula 2 Championship drivers Super Formula drivers Carlin racing drivers MP Motorsport drivers Super GT drivers Euroformula Open Championship drivers ART Grand Prix drivers Dandelion Racing drivers Team Aguri drivers Motopark Academy drivers