Nobuharu Matsushita

Summarize Timeline Fact Check

Born in Saitama, Matsushita began his racing career in karting 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 category of the All Japan Kart Championship.^[1]

In 2011, Matsushita graduated to single–seaters into the Formula Pilota China with the Super License team.^[2] He missed the 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 and finished the season fourth.^[3]

For 2012, Matsushita switched to the Formula Challenge Japan mono-series. He scored ten podiums in twelve races, including five wins and took the championship title.^[4]

In 2013, Matsushita stepped up to the All-Japan Formula Three Championship with the HFDP Racing.^[5] 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 driver.^[6]

For the next season, Matsushita decided to stay in the series with the same team.^[7] He was victorious at Motegi, Fuji and Sugo, grabbing the championship title from Kenta Yamashita with a twelve-point gap.^[8]

Matsushita made his début in the GP2 Series in 2015 with ART Grand Prix.^[9] In the first race at Bahrain, he qualified second on the grid opposite teammate Stoffel Vandoorne and finished in the points in both races, setting the fastest lap in the sprint race. At the Red Bull Ring, 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 as part of an ART 1–2. He finished ninth in the overall standings.

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 fourth round of the season in Austria due to erratic driving at the previous event in Baku.^[10]

In 2017, Matsushita competed in the inaugural Formula 2 championship, driving for ART Grand Prix alongside Alexander Albon. 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.

Matsushita returned to Formula 2 in 2019 with the Carlin team, partnering Louis Delétraz. He won the feature races at the Red Bull Ring and in Monza. He, again, finished sixth in the championship, two positions above his teammate.

Matsushita was announced to drive for MP Motorsport in the 2020 FIA Formula 2 Championship together with Brazilian Felipe Drugovich. Matsushita announced that he would be leaving the F2 Championship with immediate effect on 22 September 2020.^[11]

On 20 February 2016, Matsushita was signed as a development driver for McLaren.^[12]

In 2018, Matsushita returned to Japan to compete in Super Formula for Honda team Dandelion. He returned to the series in 2020 racing with B-Max Racing, where he replaced Sérgio Sette Câmara who moved to Formula E. He continuesdracing with B-Max once again, competed from the second round. For 2022, he stayed again with the same team. Matsushita clinched his first win of the series in Suzuka. For 2023, Matsushita continued racing with B-Max once again. Matsushita ended his association with B-Max as he moved to TGM Grand Prix last minute.^[13]

Matsushita made his debut in the Japanese Super GT Series in the last two rounds of the 2020 season, replacing Shinichi Takagi – who had sustained injuries from a crash in a Super Taikyu race – in the Honda NSX GT3 Evo of ARTA in the GT300 class.^[14] Driving alongside co-driver Toshiki Oyu, the pair finished the races at Motegi and Fuji Speedway eighth and seventh, respectively. After he left Honda, Matsushita moved to their manufacturer's rival Nissan where he stepped up to GT500 racing with Team Impul alongside Kazuki Hiramine. Both pairs won their first GT500 race, and clinched eighth in the standings. Matsushita returned to Honda, and moved to Real Racing to partner up with Koudai Tsukakoshi, switching with Bertrand Baguette who moved to the other team.

For the 2021 season, Matsushita decided to join Nissan in the GT500 class, despite having been a Honda junior throughout his career. He was placed at Team Impul alongside Kazuki Hiramine. The duo won the fifth round at Sportsland Sugo, ending a five year win drought for the Impul team.^[15] 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.^[16] They finished the season eighth in the championship, the best result for Nissan drivers that year.

Matsushita rejoined Honda as a factory driver and signed with Astemo Real Racing to race with Koudai Tsukakoshi. Matsushita replaced Bertrand Baguette, who went to Team Impul.^[17][18] For two seasons, he won only one race in Autopolis 2022.

Matsushita then returned to ARTA to race with Tomoki Nojiri.^[19]