Taki Inoue

The brief Formula 1 career of Taki Inoue was memorable more for the bizarre incidents he was involved in than his performance at the wheel.

Inoue’s route to F1

Inoue did little to set the world alight in a decade of racing prior to his 1994 F1 debut. Ninth place in the 1993 Japanese F3 championship was a career best.

Eventually 1994 saw a move into Formula 3000 with Super Nova Racing alongside Vincenzo Sospiri. While his team mate came within a whisker of winning the title, ninth on the grid at Estoril was Inoue’s best result of the year.

Taki Inoue’s F1 career

By the tail end of 1994 the fledgling Simtek team were already struggling to pay the bills, and Inoue’s wallet saw him in the car for the Japanese Grand Prix. Luckily the non-qualifying Pacifics were even slower than his car, so Inoue found himself 26th and last on the grid. His race lasted three laps before he aquaplaned off in the wet conditions.

For 1995 Inoue managed to buy a seat in the Arrows team for a reputed $4.5million. He was able to pay his way thanks to a series of small sponsorship deals with local companies. Little did he know he was set for one of the most bizarre seasons in F1 history.

Two freakish incidents stand out above the others. While being towed home after his Arrows expired at Monaco his car flipped over.

Then came Hungary, where Inoue was most unfortunately run over by the fire marshal arriving to extinguish his smoking Arrows. Photographs of the poor Inoue sprawled over the bonnet were widely published.

Nonetheless Inoue completed the season, and in the process played a role in the championship fight, as title rivals Damon Hill and Michael Schumacher were lapping him when they tangled at Monza.

The measure of Inoue’s standing in the sport among his peers can be judged by Johnny Herbert’s famed utterance after one poor qualifying session that he was “driving like Taki Inoue.”

Unsurprisingly he was not offered a race seat for 1996, and returned to Japan where he raced, without success, in Japanese GTs for a couple of seasons before calling it quits.

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