|
I also agree that Kazuyoshi Hoshino should have been chosen instead of Nakajima for the 1987 season to partner Ayrton Senna at Lotus Honda. He was so angry that Honda did not choose him, he did not watch a single Grand Prix even on TV until 1999 when he went to see Eddie Irvine at Belgian Grand Prix at Spa that year.
According to Mr. Matsuhisa Kojima and Mr. Masao Ono, Masahiro Hasemi was a better driver than Hoshino.
One of the reasons why KE009 did not perform was, as I mentioned before, the tyres (Bridgestones) and the first thing that Keke Rosberg told the team to change was the air pressure of the tyres.
The team sent Rosberg out with 1.3 bars of air pressure (same as Japanese GP 1977) first but came straight back into the pits and told the team that it was not sufficient enough. So the team put 1.8 bars and sent him out again and recorded much better lap times. Hoshino could not even suss that out and both Mr. Kojima and Mr. Ono agree that if Hasemi would have pointed it out straight away and rectified it as he also had the experience with Dunlops.
Hasemi even had a firm offer from Theodore Formula One team for 1978. The team offered him a drive with a very reasonable amount of money, probably the same sort of amount as European drivers had to pay to get into Formula One but he could not even secure that sort of backing from Japanese companies at the time. It was't only Theodore who were interested in him. Williams and others were also intersted in running Hasemi for 1978 as well.
I will get back to you with some details of Kojima chassis later. (^^)
|