From the F1 to the Everest

Ukyo Katayama is a Japanese former racing driver born in Tokyo, who competed in Formula 1 from 1992 to 1997 for the Larrousse, Tyrrell and Minardi teams.

Picture above: Ukyo Katayama, Tyrrell-Yamaha 023-1995.

He participated in 97 Formula One Grand Prix and scored a total of five championship points, all of them for the Tyrrell team in 1994.

That year he was consistently a top-6 runner, impressing with good qualifying performances, and generally being faster than his more experienced team mate Blundell, but the car proved to be unreliable, leading him to 12 retirements. However, in the four races that he did finish, he scored two fifth places, one sixth and one seventh, good enough for five championship points.

End 1994, Katayama was diagnosed with cancer in his back, while non life threatening, it was painful and the Japanese driver suffered a loss of form during the 1995 season, with only two seventh places his best results. The Japanese did not announce this until he retired from Formula One in 1997, not wanting anyone’s sympathy to make excuses for him.

Nowadays, Katayama is a lover of mountain climbing. The little Japanese has climbed the Mont Blanc, the Kilimanjaro and the Mount Fuji. When he left Formula 1 at the end of 1997, he said that his ambition was to climb the Mount Everest without oxygen. The 38 year-old nearly achieved that goal when he got up to 7400m before needing help. A brave and nice character.