Naoki Yamamoto

Naoki Yamamoto (山本尚貴) is a Japanese racing driver for Honda Racing Corporation, currently driving in the Autobacs Super GT Series with Team Kunimitsu, and the Japanese Super Formula Championship with Nakajima Racing.

He is a three-time champion in Super Formula, and a two-time champion in the GT500 class of Super GT.

Yamamoto started karting in 1994, and won the All-Japan Kart Championship FA class title in 2002.

In 2006, he graduated from the Suzuka Circuit Racing School Formula (SRS-F) with a scholarship to compete in Formula Challenge Japan (FCJ).

In 2007, he joined the Honda Formula Dream Project (HFDP) academy, and finished second in the Formula Challenge Japan championship with two wins in his first season in single-seaters.

He moved up to the Japanese Formula 3 Championship with Honda Team Real in 2008, finishing fifth in the championship class with one win.

In 2009, he moved to the National Class with HFDP Racing (also managed by Real Racing), and won the class title with eight wins in sixteen races.

Yamamoto debuted in the Super GT Series in 2010, driving a Honda HSV-010 GT for Team Kunimitsu alongside co-driver Takuya Izawa.

He scored a podium on his debut at Suzuka, and took another third place at the Suzuka endurance round.

During the following two seasons, he scored three more podium finishes.

Yamamoto entered the Super Formula Championship (then known as Formula Nippon) in 2010, driving a Honda-powered car for Nakajima Racing.

He scored seven top-seven finishes in the eight races of 2010, finishing seventh in the standings in his first year.

He moved to Team Mugen in 2011 and took pole position at Suzuka in his first race with the team, but did not finish after being involved in a first lap incident.

Yamamoto was fifth in the drivers' standings in 2012, the best result for a Honda driver that season.

In 2013, Yamamoto transferred to the Weider Modulo Dome Racing team, and took his first Super GT victory at the Suzuka 1000km endurance race.

He and co-driver Frédéric Makowiecki finished fourth in the championship, a career best for Yamamoto.

The 2013 season saw him score five podiums and a maiden series victory.

In 2014 he won the summer race at Fuji to take the first win for the new Honda NSX Concept-GT car.

Yamamoto, who shared the car with Makowiecki, Izawa, and Jean-Karl Vernay during the season, finished fourth in the drivers' championship for the second consecutive season.

Yamamoto returned to Team Kunimitsu in 2015, reuniting with Izawa.

He won at Sugo that season, and finished a career-best third in the championship.

Over the following two seasons, Yamamoto would score three more podium finishes, including a third place in the 2017 Suzuka 1000km.

Yamamoto is also the only driver to have won both the Super Formula and GT500 championships in the same season multiple times, a feat which he accomplished in 2018 and 2020.

Ahead of the 2018 season, 2009 Formula One world champion Jenson Button joined Team Kunimitsu as Yamamoto's co-driver.

In their first race together at Okayama, Yamamoto and Button finished second.

They finished second again at Suzuka in May, then won at Sportsland Sugo and finished third at Motegi to clinch the GT500 Drivers' and Teams' Championships.

It was the first JGTC/Super GT title for Team Kunimitsu, and having won Super Formula earlier that year, Yamamoto became the first driver to win both titles in the same year in fourteen years.

Yamamoto and Button finished the 2019 season in eighth with two podiums.

After the season, Button left Super GT, and Yamamoto was joined by Tadasuke Makino for the 2020 season.

Yamamoto scored seven top-six finishes in eight races in 2020, including three podium finishes.

In the final round at Fuji, Yamamoto was running in second place on the final lap, until race leader Ryo Hirakawa of TGR Team KeePer TOM's ran out of fuel coming out of the final corner.

Yamamoto was able to overtake Hirakawa to take the victory and clinch his and Team Kunimitsu's second set of GT500 titles in three years.

In 2021, after winning the third race of the year at Motegi with Makino, Yamamoto established a points lead as high as 16 points before the penultimate round.

He was in position to win his third GT500 title in four years at the final race at Fuji, but was taken out of contention after being hit by GT300 class Honda driver Ren Sato.

Yamamoto finished the year third in the championship.

In the first race for Team Kunimitsu since the death of founder Kunimitsu Takahashi, Yamamoto and Makino finished second at Okayama.

They ended the year with a win at Motegi from pole position, as Yamamoto finished third in the championship for the second consecutive season.

After the race, Yamamoto, Makino, and team principal Kazuhiro Kojima carried a portrait of Takahashi with them to the post-race interviews.

Yamamoto suffered a violent crash during the sixth round of the 2023 season at Sugo, when his car hit the guardrail and flipped over after colliding with a GT300 car along the frontstretch.

He was diagnosed with a neck injury which forced him to miss the rest of the Super GT and Super Formula seasons.