Tadasuke Makino Explained

Tadasuke Makino
Nationality: Japanese
Birth Date:28 June 1997
Birth Place:Osaka, Japan
Racing Licence: FIA Gold
Current Series:Super GT
First Year:2016
Current Team:Team Kunimitsu
Car Number:100
Former Teams:Drago Corse, Nakajima Racing
Starts:47
Wins:3
Podiums:13
Poles:3
Fastest Laps:2
Best Finish:1st
Year:2020
Embed:yes
Current Series:Super Formula
First Year:2019
Current Team:Docomo Team Dandelion Racing
Car Number:5
Former Teams:Nakajima Racing
Starts:41
Wins:1
Podiums:7
Poles:2
Fastest Laps:0
Prev Series:FIA Formula 2 Championship
FIA European F3
All-Japan F3 Championship
F4 Japanese Championship
Prev Series Years:2018
2017
2016
2015
Titles:Super GT
Title Years:2020

is a Japanese racing driver.[1] He has competed in a range of motorsport disciplines, including Super GT and European Formula 3. In 2018, Makino raced in the FIA Formula 2 Championship with Russian Time, taking a feature race win.[2] In 2019, he began competing full-time in Super Formula and Super GT in Japan. He won the GT500 championship in Super GT in 2020, driving for Team Kunimitsu alongside Naoki Yamamoto.

Career

Early career

Makino started his motorsport career in karting in 2007 and remained active there until 2013. In 2014 he made the switch to formula racing, where he entered the JAF Japanese Formula 4 Championship. He won one race there.

Formula 4

In 2015, Makino made the move to Japan's new official Formula 4 Championship, and raced for the Rn-sports team. He won four of the championship's first five races at the Okayama International Circuit and Fuji Speedway (both two wins) straight away, but then had to wait until the final race weekend at Twin Ring Motegi to add two more wins to his name. At the end of the season, he finished second with 192 points, just three points fewer than eventual champion Sho Tsuboi.

Formula 3

In 2016, Makino made his Formula 3 debut in the Japanese Formula 3 Championship as a driver from Honda's training program. In this he raced for the TODA Racing team. He took four podiums and was fifth in the championship with 41 points. At the end of the season, he competed in three races of the Super GT for Drago Modulo Honda Racing GT500, taking one podium finish alongside Hideki Mutoh at the Chang International Circuit. He also drove for Toda Racing in the Grand Prix of Macau, in which he finished fourteenth.

In 2017 Makino continued to drive in Formula 3, but made the switch to the European Formula 3 Championship as a driver for Hitech GP. He had a difficult start to the season, scoring only twice in the first half of the year before breaking his wrist and finger in an accident with Harrison Newey at the Norisring. Despite his injury, he only missed the race weekend at Spa-Francorchamps. After his return, he regularly finished in the top 10 with a podium finish at the Red Bull Ring as the highlight. In the end, he finished fifteenth in the final standings with 57 points.

Formula 2

In 2018 Makino made his Formula 2 debut with the Russian Time team. He scored points regularly until he surprisingly won the feature race at the Monza in the second half of the season thanks to good strategy. He finished thirteenth in the standings with 48 points.

Super Formula

In 2019 Makino returned to Japan to participate in the Super Formula for the team Nakajima Racing. In the end of 2020, Makino suffered from meningitis and thus skipped the Super Formula finale, where he was replaced by Hiroki Otsu.[3] For the 2021 season, Makino moved from Nakajima Racing to Dandelion Racing. But he did not enter the first two rounds, due to still being in healing phase, which meant Ukyo Sasahara covered for him in those races. Makino returned at the third round in Autopolis. Makino then stayed with the same team till now and he grabbed couple of podiums every year.

Super GT

In 2019, Makino stepped up to Super GT GT500 along with his Super Formula program. He competed with Nakajima Racing alongside Narain Karthikeyan. The next season he replaced Jenson Button as he competed with Team Kunimitsu alongside former GT500 title winner Naoki Yamamoto. Both Yamamoto and Makino won the Super GT title, beating Ryo Hirakawa in the last race. Makino continued racing with the team for the next couple of seasons, but had to skip one round due to illness in 2021 and was covered by Hideki Mutoh.

Karting record

Karting career summary

SeasonSeriesTeamPosition
2011Rotax Max Euro Challenge — JuniorIntrepid Force Rotax31st
Rotax Max Challenge Grand Finals — Junior29th
WSK Final CupKF3Tony Kart Racing Team14th
2012Rotax International Open — Senior33rd
IAME International Final — X30 Senior18th
Rotax Max Euro Challenge — Senior19th
CIK-FIA Asia Pacific Championship — KF225th
2013Florida Winter Tour — Rotax Senior5th
CIK-FIA Asia Pacific Championship — KF19th

Racing record

Career summary

SeasonSeriesTeamRacesWinsPolesPodiumsPointsPosition
2015F4 Japanese ChampionshipRn-sports14643111922nd
2016Japanese Formula 3 Championshipalign=left rowspan=2Toda Racing170104415th
Macau Grand Prix10000N/A14th
Super GT - GT300Cars Tokai Dream28100000NC
Super GTDrago Modulo Honda Racing300011516th
2017FIA Formula 3 European ChampionshipHitech GP2700015715th
Macau Grand PrixMotopark10000N/A9th
2018FIA Formula 2 ChampionshipRussian Time2410014813th
2019Super GTModulo Nakajima Racing8000123.512th
Super FormulaTCS Nakajima Racing70100616th
Intercontinental GT ChallengeHonda Team Motul100000NC
2020Super GTTeam Kunimitsu81003691st
Super FormulaTCS Nakajima Racing600012012th
2021Super GTTeam Kunimitsu71102574th
Super FormulaDocomo Team Dandelion Racing50001249th
2022Super FormulaDocomo Team Dandelion Racing100002615th
Super GTTeam Kunimitsu81113623rd
2023Super FormulaDocomo Team Dandelion Racing90102436th
Super GTTeam Kunimitsu801113410th
Super Taikyu - ST-ZTechno First2000099‡3rd‡
2024Super GTStanley Team Kunimitsu40002372nd*
Super FormulaDocomo Team Dandelion Racing41001333rd*
Super Taikyu - ST-ZTechno First

‡ Team standings

Complete Japanese Formula 3 Championship results

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

Complete Super GT results

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

YearTeamCarClass12345678DCPoints
2016Cars Tokai Dream28Lotus Evora MCGT300OKAFUJSUGFUJSUZ
NC0
Drago Modulo Honda RacingHonda NSX Concept-GTGT500CHA
MOT
MOT
16th15
2019Modulo Nakajima RacingHonda NSX-GTOKA
FUJ
SUZ
CHA
FUJ
AUT
SUG
MOT
12th23.5
2020Team KunimitsuFUJ
FUJ
SUZ
MOT
FUJ
SUZ
MOT
FUJ
1st69
2021OKAFUJ
MOT
SUZ
SUG
AUT
MOT
FUJ
4th57
2022OKA
FUJ
SUZ
FUJ
SUZ
SUG
AUT
MOT
3rd62
2023OKA
FUJ
SUZ
FUJ
SUZ
SUG
AUT
MOT
10th34
2024Stanley Team KunimitsuHonda Civic Type R-GT GT500OKA
FUJ
SUZ
FUJ
SUZ
SUG
AUT
MOT
2nd*37*
Half points awarded as less than 75% of race distance was completed.

Complete Macau Grand Prix results

YearTeamCarQualifyingQuali RaceMain race
2016 Toda RacingDallara F31222nd19th14th
2017 MotoparkDallara F31712th17th9th

Complete FIA Formula 3 European Championship results

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

Complete FIA Formula 2 Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate points for the fastest lap of top ten finishers)

Driver did not finish the race, but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance.

Complete Super Formula results

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

YearEntrant12345678910DCPoints
2019TCS Nakajima RacingSUZ
AUT
SUG
FUJ
MOT
OKA
SUZ
16th6
2020MOT
OKA
SUG
AUT
SUZ
SUZ
FUJ12th20
2021Docomo Team Dandelion RacingFUJSUZAUT
SUG
MOT
MOT
SUZ
9th24
2022FUJ
FUJ
SUZ
AUT
SUG
FUJ
MOT
MOT
SUZ
SUZ
5th61
2023FUJ
FUJ
SUZ
AUT
SUG
FUJ
MOT
SUZ
SUZ
6th43
2024SUZ
AUT
SUG
FUJ
MOT
FUJ
FUJ
SUZ
SUZ
3rd*33*
Half points awarded as less than 75% of race distance was completed.

Notes and References

  1. News: Tadasuke Makino. DriverDB. 9 December 2016.
  2. News: Allen. Peter. Honda protege Tadasuke Makino steps up to F2 with Russian Time. 9 February 2018. formulascout.com. 9 February 2018.
  3. Web site: 2021-01-16 . Tadasuke Makino discharged from hospital after one month . 2023-09-11 . www.motorsport.com . en.