He scored his maiden points finish at the following round in San Marino, and achieved a career-best fourth place at the British Grand Prix.

Nakajima moved to Tyrrell in 1990, scoring points finishes in the United States, Italy and his home Grand Prix in Japan.

Nakajima tested the RC100 and related models until 1994, when Honda pulled out of Formula One following the Japanese asset price bubble.

[1] He began driving cars in his early teens in the family's garden with his older brother giving him tips, careful that their father didn't catch them.

[citation needed] He finished sixth, and so scored a point, in only his second race, the 1987 San Marino Grand Prix.

Lotus agreed to take on Nakajima replacing Johnny Dumfries in the second seat as a part of the new engine deal with Honda.

Not normally the best of qualifiers or racers despite having equipment superior to most, including the same all-powerful Honda V6 turbo engine as the McLarens, Nakajima could have easily been excused for performing poorly at the 1988 Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka, if he chose to compete at all.

Nakajima was actually faster than the triple World Champion on the Friday, an effort that won the much-maligned Japanese driver new fans and much praise in the F1 paddock.

Despite most believing he did not truly deserve to be in F1, Lotus showed faith in Nakajima when they re-signed him for 1989, even after Honda announced would not be supplying their engines to the team after the 1988 season.

Nakajima's race in Adelaide, in which he was dead last at the end of the first lap after a spin soon after the start and only finished 4.648 seconds behind the 3rd placed Williams-Renault V10 of Riccardo Patrese, even drew praise from those who had criticised him in the past such as BBC television commentator and 1976 World Champion James Hunt.

Shortly afterwards, it passed the Fédération Internationale du Sport Automobile (FISA) crash tests, meaning that the company could enter their team into F1 competition.

The company decided against entering its own cars in F1 at this time, instead opting to further their engine development in America with CART, and later, the IRL.

Nakajima drivers have won the Formula Nippon championship three times, Tom Coronel doing so in 1999, Toranosuke Takagi in 2000, and Ralph Firman in 2002.