Ukyo Katayama

The native form of this personal name is Katayama Ukyō. This article uses Western name order when mentioning individuals.

Ukyo Katayama
片山 右京
Katayama in 2008
Born	(1963-05-29) 29 May 1963 Tokyo, Japan
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	Japanese
Active years	1992–1997
Teams	Larrousse, Tyrrell, Minardi
Entries	97 (95 starts)
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	0
Career points	5
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First entry	1992 South African Grand Prix
Last entry	1997 European Grand Prix
24 Hours of Le Mans career
Years	1988, 1992, 1998–1999, 2002–2003
Teams	Courage, Toyota, Pescarolo, Kondo
Best finish	2nd (1999)
Class wins	1 (1999)

Ukyo Katayama (Japanese: 片山 右京, Hepburn: Katayama Ukyō, born 29 May 1963) is a Japanese former racing driver and motorsport executive, who competed in Formula One from 1992 to 1997.

Katayama participated in 97 Grands Prix, debuting at the 1992 South African Grand Prix, making him the sport's most experienced Japanese driver. He scored a total of five championship points, all of them for the Tyrrell team in 1994. He also competed in the 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans, finishing second overall and leading the GTP class. He has managed the Japanese continental cycling team Team UKYO since 2012.

Biography

Born in Tokyo, Katayama spent three years racing in France before returning home in 1988 to enter the Japanese F3000. He scored three podiums in 1990, and won the championship in 1991 with two wins and three second places.

Formula One

His sponsors, Japan Tobacco, arranged a Formula One seat for Katayama in 1992 with Cabin brand, with the Larrousse team. The car was unreliable and a distinct midfielder, with team-mate Bertrand Gachot getting the lion's share of the team's meagre resources. However, Katayama impressed by running in 5th at the Canadian GP until his engine blew, but was eventually left with a brace of 9th places as his best result.

Japan Tobacco managed to arrange a switch to Tyrrell for 1993, but the team were at a low, with the interim 020C essentially three years old, and the new 021 proving uncompetitive. 10th place at the Hungarian GP was his best result.

1994 was to see a considerable turnaround for Tyrrell and Katayama. He impressed with the new 022, with three points-scoring finishes, a number of good qualifying performances, and generally being faster than his more experienced and acclaimed team-mate Mark Blundell. He was consistently a top-6 runner, but the car proved to be unreliable, leading him to 12 retirements, including the German GP, in which he was running 3rd before his throttle stuck open. However, in the four races that he did finish, he scored two 5th places, one 6th, and one 7th, good enough for 5 World Championship points.

Katayama driving for Tyrrell at the 1995 British Grand Prix.

After his 1994 performance, he was allegedly offered a contract with a top team for the 1995 season, but in Katayama's words, "he couldn't sign it". It would later emerge that in 1994 he had been diagnosed with cancer in his back; while non-threatening, it was painful, and his Grand Prix commitments delayed treatment. Katayama did not announce this until he retired from Formula One, not wanting anyone's sympathy to make excuses for him.

He stayed on with Tyrrell for the next two seasons, but suffered a loss of form, with two 7th places in high-attrition races his best results, thus scoring no points whilst being outpaced by rookie team-mate Mika Salo. At the 1996 Belgian Grand Prix he finished on the lead lap for the single time in his Formula One career. During these years he was highly disadvantaged by the regulation changes which led to higher cockpit sides, a response to the death of Ayrton Senna at the 1994 San Marino GP.

After leaving Tyrrell, his Mild Seven (another brand of Japan Tobacco) backing landed him a seat at Minardi, but they too were at a low ebb, and two 10th places were his best result. At his home Grand Prix, he emotionally announced his retirement from Formula One.

After Formula One

As a racing driver

Katayama's Toyota GT-One for the 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Still popular in his homeland, Katayama has since dabbled in sportscars and GT racing, as well as his other love of mountaineering. One of his most notable performances post F1 was at the 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans, when during the last hour, as he was lapping traffic and closing up to the leading BMW in his Toyota GT-One, shared with compatriots Keiichi Tsuchiya and Toshio Suzuki, his car suffered a tyre blowout and, while he managed to keep the car on the track, he was forced to slowly make his way around the track to return to the pits for a new set. In the process the GT-One lost the chance to contend with the BMW. The lone GT-One would come home 2nd overall. Still, the GT-One won the GTP class, although it was the only car in that class to actually finish the race.

In 2008, he was one of several retired F1 drivers to compete in the new Speedcar Series.

As a team manager

In year 2000, Katayama established Team UKYO motor sport team. The team originally participated in JGTC in 2001-2002 in the GT500 class in a collaboration with Cerumo, competing as the No. 33 team with Katayama and future team owner Masahiko Kondo as its drivers. The team left the series after the 2002 season before returning in 2011 to lead Goodsmile Racing's GT300 program. Katayama led the team to three GT300 titles in 2011, 2014, and 2017.

The team also took part in the Dakar Rally in 2002-2005 and 2007.

Team UKYO is participating in the road bicycle racing as a UCI Continental cycling team starting from 2012.

As a mountain climber

Katayama is a lover of mountain climbing. He has often been climbing mountains since his F1 era.

In 2001 he climbed the world's sixth-highest mountain, Cho Oyu. On December 1, 2006, it was reported that he had achieved his lifetime ambition of climbing Manaslu, the eighth-highest mountain in the world, after an unsuccessful attempt in 2004.

On December 18, 2009, it was reported that he had been missing whilst climbing Mount Fuji with two friends. Upon calling a police search and rescue team, they informed the police that one of their climbing party had died, and another was presumed to be dying. Eventually, Katayama was found alive while two fellow climbers were found dead.

As of the end of 2010, Katayama had summited six of the Seven Summits: Mont Blanc (climbed in 1996), Kilimanjaro (1998), Elbrus (1998), Denali (2008), Aconcagua (2009), and Vinson Massif (2010)

Other sports

He has been participating other sporting events as an official invitee, such as Honolulu Marathon and Honolulu Century Ride.

Media appearances

He is now a commentator of Formula One in Japan, for Fuji TV. He also co-hosts the motoring program Samurai Wheels for NHK World. In 1996 he was a guest judge on Iron Chef.

Helmet

Katayama's helmet was blue with a red and white stripe crossing the rear area and going in the sides forming an oblique letter T, and a vertical red and white stripe going across the top (until the visor).

Racing record

Career summary

Season	Series	Team	Races	Wins	Poles	F/Laps	Podiums	Points	Position
1985	Japanese Formula Three	Hasemi Motorsports	7	0	0	?	0	38	6th
1986	Championnat de France Formule Renault Turbo	Autolook Racing	6	0	1	0	1	23	11th
	French Formula Three		5	0	0	0	0	0	NC
1987	French Formula Three	Autolook RG Project	4	0	0	0	0	0	NC
1988	Japanese Formula 3000	Ba-Tsu Racing Team	8	0	0	0	0	2	11th
	24 Hours of Le Mans	Courage Compétition	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	DNF
1989	Japanese Formula 3000	Footwork Formula	7	0	0	0	0	0	NC
	International Formula 3000	Footwork	2	0	0	0	0	0	NC
1990	Japanese Formula 3000	Cabin Racing Team with Heroes	10	0	0	1	3	18	5th
1991	Japanese Formula 3000	Cabin Racing Team with Heroes	10	2	3	2	5	40	1st
1992	Formula One	Central Park Venturi Larrousse	14	0	0	0	0	0	NC
	24 Hours of Le Mans	Toyota Team Tom's	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	DNF
1993	Formula One	Tyrrell Racing Organisation	16	0	0	0	0	0	NC
1994	Formula One	Tyrrell Racing Organisation	16	0	0	0	0	5	17th
1995	Formula One	Nokia Tyrrell Yamaha	16	0	0	0	0	0	NC
1996	Formula One	Tyrrell Yamaha	16	0	0	0	0	0	NC
1997	Formula One	Minardi Team	17	0	0	0	0	0	NC
1998	24 Hours of Le Mans	Toyota Motorsport	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	9th
1999	All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship	Toyota Castrol Team Tom's	6	0	1	0	2	28	15th
	24 Hours of Le Mans	Toyota Motorsport	1	0	0	0	1	N/A	2nd
2000	All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship	Nismo	6	0	0	0	1	31	11th
2001	All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship	Racing Team Cerumo With Ukyo	6	0	1	0	0	0	NC
2002	All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship	Racing Team Cerumo	2	0	0	0	0	2	27th
	24 Hours of Le Mans	Pescarolo Sport	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	DNF
2003	24 Hours of Le Mans	Kondo Racing	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	13th
2008	Speedcar Series	Speedcar Team	10	0	0	0	0	2	15th

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
1988	Courage Compétition	Paul Belmondo François Migault	Courage C22-Porsche	C1	66	DNF	DNF
1992	Toyota Team Tom's	Geoff Lees David Brabham	Toyota TS010	C1	192	DNF	DNF
1998	Toyota Motorsports Toyota Team Europe	Toshio Suzuki Keiichi Tsuchiya	Toyota GT-One	GT1	326	9th	8th
1999	Toyota Motorsports Toyota Team Europe	Keiichi Tsuchiya Toshio Suzuki	Toyota GT-One	LMGTP	364	2nd	1st
2002	Pescarolo Sport	Éric Hélary Stéphane Ortelli	Courage C60-Peugeot	LMP900	144	DNF	DNF
2003	Kondo Racing	Masahiko Kondo Ryo Fukuda	Dome S101-Mugen	LMP900	322	13th	8th

Complete Japanese Formula 3000 results

(key)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	DC	Points
1988	Ba-Tsu Racing Team	SUZ 11	FUJ Ret	MIN Ret	SUZ 7	SUG 5	FUJ 8	SUZ 12	SUZ Ret				11th	2
1989	Footwork Formula	SUZ 9	FUJ Ret	MIN	SUZ Ret	SUG Ret	FUJ 15	SUZ 18	SUZ 7				NC	0
1990	Cabin Racing Team with Heroes	SUZ Ret	FUJ 3	MIN 5	SUZ Ret	SUG 12	FUJ 5	FUJ 2	SUZ 3	FUJ Ret	SUZ DSQ		5th	18
1991	Cabin Racing Team with Heroes	SUZ 1	AUT 4	FUJ 9	MIN Ret	SUZ 1	SUG 6	FUJ 2	SUZ 2	FUJ C	SUZ 10	FUJ 2	1st	40

Complete International Formula 3000 results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap.)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	DC	Points
1989	Footwork	SIL DNQ	VAL Ret	PAU DNQ	JER 18	PER	BRH	BIR	SPA	BUG	DIJ	NC	0

Complete Formula One results

(key)

Year	Team	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	WDC	Points
1992	Central Park Venturi Larrousse	Venturi Larrousse LC92	Lamborghini V12	RSA 12	MEX 12	BRA 9	ESP DNQ	SMR Ret	MON DNPQ	CAN Ret	FRA Ret	GBR Ret	GER Ret	HUN Ret	BEL 17	ITA 9	POR Ret	JPN 11	AUS Ret		NC	0
1993	Tyrrell Racing Organisation	Tyrrell 020C	Yamaha V10	RSA Ret	BRA Ret	EUR Ret	SMR Ret	ESP Ret	MON Ret	CAN 17	FRA Ret	GBR 13									NC	0
		Tyrrell 021	Yamaha V10										GER Ret	HUN 10	BEL 15	ITA 14	POR Ret	JPN Ret	AUS Ret
1994	Tyrrell Racing Organisation	Tyrrell 022	Yamaha V10	BRA 5	PAC Ret	SMR 5	MON Ret	ESP Ret	CAN Ret	FRA Ret	GBR 6	GER Ret	HUN Ret	BEL Ret	ITA Ret	POR Ret	EUR 7	JPN Ret	AUS Ret		17th	5
1995	Nokia Tyrrell Yamaha	Tyrrell 023	Yamaha V10	BRA Ret	ARG 8	SMR Ret	ESP Ret	MON Ret	CAN Ret	FRA Ret	GBR Ret	GER 7	HUN Ret	BEL Ret	ITA 10	POR Ret	EUR	PAC 14	JPN Ret	AUS Ret	NC	0
1996	Tyrrell Yamaha	Tyrrell 024	Yamaha V10	AUS 11	BRA 9	ARG Ret	EUR DSQ	SMR Ret	MON Ret	ESP Ret	CAN Ret	FRA Ret	GBR Ret	GER Ret	HUN 7	BEL 8	ITA 10	POR 12	JPN Ret		NC	0
1997	Minardi Team	Minardi M197	Hart V8	AUS Ret	BRA 18†	ARG Ret	SMR 11	MON 10	ESP Ret	CAN Ret	FRA 11	GBR Ret	GER Ret	HUN 10	BEL 14	ITA Ret	AUT 11	LUX Ret	JPN Ret	EUR 17	NC	0

† Katayama did not finish the race, but was classified as he completed more than 90% of the race distance.

Complete JGTC results

(key)

Year	Team	Car	Class	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	DC	Pts
1999	Toyota Castrol Team Tom's	Toyota Supra	GT500	SUZ 3	FUJ	SUG 11	MIN 2	FUJ 15	TAI 15	MOT 10		15th	28
2000	Nismo	Nissan Skyline GT-R	GT500	MOT	FUJ 2	SUG 11	FUJ 6	TAI 11	MIN Ret	SUZ 4		11th	31
2001	Racing Team Cerumo With Ukyo	Toyota Supra	GT500	TAI 12	FUJ 14	SUG 13	FUJ 14	MOT	SUZ Ret	MIN 13		NC	0
2002	Racing Team Cerumo	Toyota Supra	GT500	TAI 15	FUJ	SUG 9	SEP	FUJ	MOT	MIN	SUZ	27th	2

External links

• Team UKYO Official website
• Ukyo Katayama career summary at DriverDB.com