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.
Formula One . Inoue participated in 18
Formula One Grand Prix races. His first appearance was a one-off race for
Simtek at the
1994 Japanese Grand Prix, from which he retired. For the next year he moved to
Footwork Arrows. Over the course of his career he scored no championship points. He is perhaps best remembered for two bizarre incidents while driving for
Footwork in 1995. The first occurred after a practice session at Monaco, when his stalled car was being towed back to the pits when it was hit by a course car, driven by
Jean Ragnotti, causing it to roll into the barriers, although Inoue was fit to race the next day. The second happened on
Hungarian GP on live TV worldwide – attempting to assist the marshals in putting out the engine fire which had forced him out of the race, a safety car
Tatra 623 driven to the scene by a marshal hit him, injuring his leg, although he recovered for the next race. Instead, he was announced in January to drive for the
Minardi team. Fisichella, the team's test driver in 1995, had backing from
Marlboro Italy. With his sponsorship reduced, Inoue was out of a drive in Formula One. After a brief switch to sportscars, he retired from racing at the end of 1999 and now manages drivers in his own country. He is also known for his self-deprecating humour, as Inoue publicly proclaimed himself as the "worst driver in Formula One", admitted that he initially had no idea what a
pit stop was, and in an interview with the
Top Gear magazine in 2015 stated that he was "not good enough to drive in F1". In another instance, after
Nico Rosberg's retirement at the end of
2016, Inoue put out a tongue-in-cheek advertisement as a replacement driver on Twitter detailing his F1 antics which gained notable traction on social media, as have other tweets since. ==Racing record==