Nissan and NISMO announced their GT500 class driver lineups for the upcoming 2022 Autobacs Super GT Series on Tuesday, confirming the eight drivers of their new Nissan Z GT500 race car.
“This season, we have assembled a driver lineup that can win at any time,” remarked NISMO President and CEO Takao Katagiri.
The lineup of the flagship number 23 NISMO team remains unchanged, as two-time GT500 champion and all-time GT500 wins leader Tsugio Matsuda will once again join forces with four-time GT500 champion Ronnie Quintarelli.
But there are significant changes throughout the rest of the Nissan fleet, beginning with the addition of Bertrand Baguette as a factory driver.
The eight-year GT500 veteran from Belgium will join Team Impul, alongside the returning Kazuki Hiramine. Baguette is coming of a successful three seasons at Real Racing, where he won three races over the last two seasons, and finished a career-best third in the GT500 Drivers’ Championship in 2020.
“We expect Bertrand Baguette, who joined Team Impul this season, to drive passionately – to the team,” said Katagiri.
It was a move that had been anticipated in the Super GT paddock since Baguette announced his departure from Honda in the off-season.
Another anticipated move was the reorganisation of the number 3 NDDP Racing team, which will now be operated by NISMO as former partners B-Max Racing will focus exclusively on Super Formula in 2022.
NDDP Racing, fittingly, will feature two graduates of the Nissan Driver Development Program that inspired the team’s name. Katsumasa Chiyo stays with the team for his third season, and will be joined by Mitsunori Takaboshi, who has spent the last four seasons at Kondo Racing.
That means two-time GT500 champion Kohei Hirate – who had been with NDDP Racing since joining Nissan in 2019 – will move over to Kondo Racing, where he’ll be joined by Daiki Sasaki.
- #3 – NDDP Racing – Katsumasa Chiyo / Mitsunori Takaboshi
- #12 – Team Impul – Kazuki Hiramine / Bertrand Baguette
- #23 – NISMO – Tsugio Matsuda / Ronnie Quintarelli
- #24 – Kondo Racing – Daiki Sasaki / Kohei Hirate
Also announced were the managers of each team. NISMO have appointed Takeshi Nakajima, the chief engineer of the number 23 car, to succeed the late Yutaka Suzuki as their team manager. Nakajima had worked with Suzuki, Matsuda, and Quintarelli, since 2014 – winning back-to-back GT500 titles in 2014 and 2015.
Jiro Shimada – who has had a lengthy career as a top engineer working with NISMO and Team Impul – will replace Toshikazu Tanaka as the director of the restructured NDDP Racing.
“Although new to their positions, we have full confidence in them due to their deep knowledge of and experience in racing,” said Katagiri of the new managerial appointments.
All four of Nissan’s teams have been testing at Suzuka Circuit this week, confirming their unchanged tyre suppliers in 2022: NISMO and NDDP Racing with Michelin, Team Impul with Bridgestone, and Kondo Racing with Yokohama/Advan.
“The debut season for the Nissan Z GT500 is about to start and development of the new vehicle for the opening round is reaching its final stages,” said Katagiri. “Under the new team structures, we will unite our efforts and do our best in every race, always aiming for victory. We thank all our fans and partners for their continued support.”
Images courtesy of Nissan
