Takachiho “Taki” Inoue (井上 隆智穂 Inoue Takachiho, born 5 September 1963) is a Japanese racing driver. Inoue was born in Kobe.
He competed in the British Formula Ford Championship in 1988, followed by a spell in All-Japan Formula Three from 1989 to 1993 and a season in the International Formula 3000 championship in 1994. Info from Wiki
Bio by Stephen Latham
Born in Kobe, Japan, in 1963, despite reaching Formula 1 Taki Inoue would be involved in two of F1’s most unusual incidents. He would also humorously say he had little business being anywhere near an F1 car and declared himself history’s worst F1 driver!
It was a long-standing ambition to race in F1 and he worked hard to get there, at one time working as a waiter in a restaurant in Japan. He was told by a friend that in order to get to Formula 1 he needed go to the UK, and compete in Formula Ford, 1600. After saving enough money he found himself on his way but this was his first time on a plane and the first trip outside Japan. As he admitted, “I don’t even know how to get into the plane. When they are serving the food, I ask them how much is it; they say, ‘No, you don’t have to pay.’” When he landed in London, he told them at the information desk at Heathrow he wanted to be a racing driver and asked where should he go. Being told of Newmarket’s race course, he set off by coach but on arriving there was informed that there was indeed a course-but it was a horse racing course. As Taki stated “Horse racing! Not car. Very disaster.”
Despite this he stayed on and enrolled at Snetterton’s race school, later graduating to Formula Ford. Team owner David Sears told of him having a major accident at a test session at Snetterton and his heart actually stopped. “They had to kick-start him at the track before taking him to hospital. When he came to and saw me, he burst into tears. He kept saying, ‘My car is broken, my car is broken…’ He was afraid he’d have to go back home, but we struck a deal that he and his girlfriend would come and live in my house and do bits and pieces of work to earn enough to get back on track.” After competing in FF1600, he returned to Japan to race in F3 for several seasons and then returned to race with Super Nova in 1994’s F3000 Championship, with his best result being ninth in Estoril.
Then came a one off deal to race for Simtek in the Japanese GP but he crashed during a heavy downpour in the race. After acquiring sponsorship from Unimat he secured a deal with the Footwork Arrows team though retired from the first four races, due to spins and two engine fires. Taki’s idol was James Hunt and although he didn’t emulate his ‘drink and women’ lifestyle he admitted that “In that time, I’m always drinking, drinking a lot, the following day a massive headache. No problem! …But I was very scared. The car is very fast! Very scary, too fast.”
There was not much preparation for his Formula 1 racing and he did hardly any testing before debuting. “Just drive, no tests. Take it or leave it. I made just eight laps at Silverstone (including out and in laps) until the maximum Hart’s engine mileage, an old one.” At the Brazilian GP he did not know what a pit stop was, merrily admitting “No one told me. But at least the car was not difficult. No paddleshift, once you get used to the carbon brakes, it’s very easy to use.” However, he clarified his comment on it being easy- “This is because I drove very slow…”
He competed in 18 F1 races and with Footwork, after qualifying eighteenth at Spa he drove steadily to finish twelfth while at Monza, he finished eighth.
However, he was involved in two bizarre incidents during the year, the first occurring at Monaco. Taki’s car was stopped on the circuit and a recovery truck arrived to tow the Footwork back to the paddock but rally driver Jean Ragnotti was on the track in a Renault Clio course car and unaware of the rescue operation ahead. When he came upon Taki being towed to the pits the Clio smashed broadside into him and though Taki had the presence of mind to steer away from the truck, the car dug in, flipped and the tow cable sliced clean through the top of the chassis.” Fortunately he was wearing his helmet, which was totally squashed and he was checked over, “Then I see the doctor. Usual procedure – they try to see my dick first, touching my balls. It’s true! I learn that in UK. When balls move, brain is fine. When big crash, scissors, take off the overalls, see the balls, hit the balls, then when balls move, this guy’s fine. If balls don’t move, then there’s a problem with brain damage, I think.”
Later in the year, during the Hungarian GP, his engine caught fire and he stopped at the side of the track. He gestured at the fire marshals to extinguish his car but as they did not respond quickly enough he jumped from his car and ran to seize a fire extinguisher. But, as he turned back to his Footwork, he did not notice the Tatra safety car coming over the grass towards him. He was hit and thrown over the bonnet before getting back on his feet, still holding the extinguisher, though then collapsed. “Bang! Someone hits me very hard. But I landed on my feet, very good, perfect landing, I think nine-point-nine-nine.” Expecting to be taken to hospital by helicopter, he was told that if they used the helicopter the GP would have to be stopped so had to wait until the finish, which was another hour. He was eventually take to hospital, and remembers “I expect immediately they are checking out my bone, that everything is OK. But they say, ‘Taki, we want your credit card.’ I say, ‘What? Credit card? I don’t have it!’ I am still in my race suit! But they want pay first, otherwise they won’t help me. I say, ‘Come on, I’m very painful.’ Another half an hour, big negotiation. I didn’t pay. For two years, they keep sending invoice to me in Monaco.” Thankfully his injury wasn’t bad and he recovered for the following race.
Taki explained the incidents, saying “I just stopped at Mirabeau with a car failure. And after the session I knew that if they put it on a truck then I was probably going to miss the next session. So I asked them that since the car was fine, then all I wanted was to get back (to the pits) with a tow. Well, that was a big mistake! Fortunately, he had his helmet on for for the journey back to the pits; “I thought there were so many people watching, and they would see me being miserable, so I thought it was better to put the helmet back on. It was lucky, because it was a huge impact.”
Concerning Hungary, he told how “my team-mate had destroyed one monocoque so there wasn’t a spare monocoque any more, as we were such a small team. So when I saw the fire I thought, ‘hmmmmm.’ Normally when I parked a car I walked away and never saw it, I said good bye. But this time I saw the smoke coming out and I thought, ‘this is not very good’. It could mean that I couldn’t be at the next race. So that is why I rushed to get the fire extinguisher, and what happened, happened.”
Following this he lobbied Tyrrell for a drive but the seat went to Ukyo Katayama and it seemed certain he would drive with Minardi for 1996 but this fell through at the last minute due to a sponsor pulling out.
Following a brief switch to sportscars, he considered Indy Car but decided against the ovals; “No way in Indy. I just did not have the balls needed. When I participated in private testing for the Indianapolis 500 I basically ‘shit myself’.”
Retired from racing and living in Monaco, he went on to help young Japanese drivers, ran a race team in Italy plus became involved with an African mining compay.
Taki has since earned popularity for making jokes related to Formula One on his Twitter account and poking fun of himself and his driving ability. Concerning sponsorship and finance in F1, he stated that when a driver “brings 35 million (dollars) in sponsors every year, it ****s everything up. 35 million!” As to being labelled a pay driver, he argued that every single driver is a sort of pay driver. Citing Fernando Alonso, he declared he “gets a driving fee, but how much does Santander pay to Ferrari? What I did was the same. The only difference is that I was not good enough to drive in F1…”
In 2014 he was seen on track again when Lotus gave him the chance to drive their E30 F1 car around the Paul Ricard circuit but he doesn’t attend races, “I watch on TV, because I can never get a pass.”
