Kazuki Nakajima: Another rising son

Without a doubt the Japanese Grand Prix will be the biggest weekend of Kazuki Nakajima's career so far. Not only will it be the Williams man's first time in front of his public as an F1 driver, but he's also the only local hero in the race, following the demise of Super Aguri earlier this season.

For six seasons, from 2002 to 2007, Takuma Sato was the darling of the crowd, firing up his countrymen to an extent that had never been seen before. Had Sato still been in the entry list, Kazuki would very much have been the second attraction. But now he has the chance to win the hearts and minds of the public.

The timing couldn't be better. Last week Williams announced that Nakajima would be staying on alongside Nico Rosberg in 2009, underlining the respect with which he is now held within his team. The decision came hot on the heels of a good performance in Singapore, where he qualified in the top 10 for the first time, and returned to the points after a recent spell of misfortune.

In reality he was always going to get a second year. Williams has a deal with Toyota that does not specify Nakajima by name, but all of the company's proteges are theoretically in the frame. And his only serious rival for the job - GP2 racer Kamui Kobayashi - has done little to suggest that he would be a better bet.

Singapore was Kazuki's fifth score of a season during which he has shown an uncanny ability to bring the car home in difficult circumstances. He survived the wet races in Monaco and Britain to scoop valuable points, and a similar performance if it rains at Fuji will go some way to raising his profile at home.

He certainly needs to do that, because it seems that the public has been slow to respond to Nakajima, which is odd bearing in mind that his father Satoru attained legendary status as the first regular Japanese F1 driver. It certainly helped that Nakajima Sr was associated with Honda, a company that most fans still hold in high affection, whereas thus far Toyota's F1 efforts have not captured the imagination in quite the same romantic way.

Satoru and Kazuki Nakajima © LAT

The Honda connection has also been the key to Sato's popularity. It's also said that, while Sato won the 2001 British F3 Championship and therefore marked himself out as a properly qualified future star, the public is well aware that Nakajima does not have such an impressive CV, and to some degree has been fast-tracked through the ranks by mentor Toyota. In their eyes, he still has something to prove.

Fuji will certainly be a novel experience for Kazuki. Of course he knows the place well - he virtually grew up there as his dad's team is based down the road - but last year he wasn't even present in a third-driver role, since he was back in Europe on GP2 duty.

"Fuji will be very special for me," he says. "I will be very interested to drive that track with an F1 car. I only drove that circuit with a road car last year! I did F3 and GTs and touring cars at Fuji in 2005. I raced quite a lot that year. Fuji is like my home circuit, because I used to live there for one year when I was doing F3, so I know the place very well. It's going to be very nice for me."

While he's obviously come across a few Japanese fans on his travels this year, he doesn't know quite what to expect at Fuji.

"I haven't been to an F1 track in Japan since I became a race driver. I'm sure it's going to be very exciting, but hopefully the people will not be too excited! I think there's going to be good support for me. It's always good to be out on the track during the parade and see the Japanese flags, so I'm sure I will see it full of Japanese flags, which will give me a bit more support for the race."

He's certainly done enough to justify the respect of the fans. The first race in Australia was somehow typical of his fortunes this year. He was unable to avoid the first-corner confusion and smashed his front wing, and then did it again later on when he hit Robert Kubica behind the safety car. And yet despite those dramas he earned himself a sixth place, albeit in a race where just seeing the flag guaranteed points. What impressed the team most was that he never gave up, a character trait that has served him well.

"Generally I'm quite happy with the results through the season. So far, five times in the points, which is probably more than I expected. But it was already four times until Silverstone, so it's been a little bit difficult after that, probably I would say similar to what I expected.

"Initially I struggled in some areas, like qualifying, or sometimes in the race. My feeling was the performance was not ideal. But still I managed to get some points. Australia was a little bit lucky, but some other races were quite good, I think. I just had a good consistency in difficult conditions, and that was the key to score points.

Kazuki Nakajima at speed in the Williams in Singapore © LAT

"In the second half of the season I think I improved quite a lot, not only for the qualifying but for the races, especially the consistency. It's much better now. But unfortunately as a team we've struggled a little bit. We had quite a lot of difficult races. But for me the important thing is to keep myself improving all the time. In that point I'm quite happy with this season."

The erratic speed of the Williams has made it hard to judge the true form of either Nakajima or his teammate, and it has disguised his improved qualifying performance. When both drivers are around 12th-15th, few pay much attention to the margins. While he has got better, next year there will be no excuses: he'll have to consistently give Rosberg a hard time.

"Recently it's been much better compared to the beginning of the season. Obviously it's not easy to see on the results, because sometimes we were having a very difficult race. But comparing to Nico the gap in qualifying is much smaller, and sometimes we could get really close, or sometimes ahead of him.

"I think the biggest thing is the race consistency. Recently my race pace is quite close to Nico overall, especially compared to the beginning of the year. I can feel I'm making less mistakes as well. So for the races I have a good feeling at the moment. Firstly I need a competitive car, and if I can put everything together I'm sure we can come back to the points."

The key has been to score on those days when rain levels the playing field. The FW30 has also been much stronger on temporary tracks than on those with fast, flowing corners. Kazuki was particularly impressive at Monaco, a race he acknowledges as his best.

"It's difficult to choose one, because every time when I scored points there were some bad moments in that race! But I would say Monaco was probably the highlight of this year. Monaco is a very difficult place, and it was raining. So it was probably one of the most difficult races ever. I managed to finish the race and the race pace was pretty good. If we didn't have a problem with the pitstop I think I could finish even further up.

"Actually I liked Valencia quite a lot, just for driving. I think we were quite competitive as a team after some difficult races. It was a shame I had a bad start and an incident on the first lap. I just couldn't get a result. But from my point of view, as a performance, that was one of my best races."

In that particular event he didn't make himself popular with the locals by taking out Fernando Alonso. First laps haven't been too lucky for the new boy. He was assaulted by Giancarlo Fisichella in Turkey and again at Spa, although on the latter occasion he'd started to spin, and the nudge from the Force India actually put him straight.

"I had to avoid somebody in the outside, and I lost the car," he explains. "I was spinning, and Fisichella helped me! I was very lucky. I think my tyre or something was hit by his nose, so I didn't have damage on the car.

Giancarlo Fisichella and Kazuki Nakajima collide at the start of the Grand Prix of Turkey © XPB

"Recently somehow it's been happening a bit too much for me! Probably we are now in a difficult time at the moment, not only with the performance, but sometimes it's just luck as well. I just need to keep my head up and look for the next event."

Accidents like that are all part of his steep learning curve. He admits that, while a year of testing was good preparation, nothing quite readies you for a full-time race seat, and all the pressures that brings.

"The biggest things are experience of the tracks, and the conditions," says Nakajima. "That's the two big, big things. Even though I had a test drive and I got some experience of the tracks last year, the race weekend is very different. And usually the pressure is very big as well. Now I've got used to all of the things, and I think it's helping me to perform normally.

"With more experience I am sure I can do better next year. I mean next year is totally different because everything will change. I think it's going to be good chance for me as well."

Williams has certainly put a lot of faith in its KERS project, given that it does not enjoy the backing of a manufacturer. Inevitably resources have been diverted from the 2008 car so, like several other drivers in the pit lane, Nakajima has had to take a hit now and trust that technical chief Sam Michael and the rest of the guys have got their sums right.

"I hope so," he says. "Williams is one of the teams which decided to move onto next year earlier, so hopefully it's going to pay for us. At the moment it's very difficult to predict what will happen, but for sure the car will be very different with the KERS system. We've already started to work on the KERS system on the track, so maybe it's going to be a good chance for Williams as well. But it's like starting from zero for all the teams. As a fan it's going to be a very interesting year!"