Michael Krumm (born 19 March 1970) is a German former professional racing driver and current team manager at TOM'S in Super GT.[1] Krumm is best-known for his successes in the All-Japan GT Championship, where he triumphed in the GT500 class in 1997 and 2003 for TOM'S and Nismo, respectively. He also won the FIA GT1 World Championship in 2011.
Having begun his career in German lower formulae, Krumm went to Japan in 1994 after attaining numerous wins in German Formula Three. That year, he would win the Japanese Formula Three title and moved into Japanese F3000, where he remained intermittently for the next eight years. Krumm won races in JTCC but it was the All-Japan GT Championship, later known as Super GT, where the German would find his calling: after winning a race in his debut season, Krumm won the GT500 class title driving a Toyota Supra alongside Pedro de la Rosa in 1997.[2] Following a year in the Super Tourenwagen Cup, the German became a Nissan factory driver, for whom he raced for ten successive seasons, winning the 2003 title together with Satoshi Motoyama.
At the start of the 2010s, Krumm spent two seasons in the FIA GT1 World Championship, where he and Lucas Luhr won the 2011 title driving for JR Motorsports.[3] Krumm returned to Super GT in 2012, remaining until 2015, when he won his final race at Fuji for Kondo Racing before retiring from full-time competition.[4]
Krumm has attained minor success at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, being part of the third-placed Audi R8 lineup in a podium lockout for the German brand at the 2002 race, before finishing on the LMP2 podium in 2013.[5] [6]
Born in Reutlingen, Krumm married Japanese tennis player Kimiko Date on 1 December 2001 at St. Mary's Cathedral, Tokyo.[7] [8] Kimiko Date announced their divorce on Twitter on September 26, 2016.[9]
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
| Year | Entrant | Engine | Class | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | DC | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | G+M Escom Motorsport | Opel | A | ZOL 1 | ZOL 2 | NÜR 1 | NÜR 2 | WUN 1 | WUN 2 | AVU 1 | AVU 2 | NÜR 1 | NÜR 2 | HOC 1 | HOC 2 | NOR 1 | NOR 2 | BRN 1 | BRN 2 | DIE 1 | DIE 2 | NÜR 1 | NÜR 2 | ALE 1 | ALE 2 | NÜR 1 | NÜR 2 | HOC 1 | HOC 2 | 6th | 158 | |
| 1993 | G+M Escom Motorsport | Opel | A | ZOL 1 | ZOL 2 | HOC 1 | HOC 2 | NÜR 1 | NÜR 2 | WUN 1 | WUN 2 | NOR 1 | NOR 2 | DIE 1 | DIE 2 | NÜR 1 | NÜR 2 | ALE 1 | ALE 2 | AVU 1 | AVU 2 | HOC 1 | HOC 2 | 4th | 198 |
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
| Year | Entrant | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | DC | Points | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Dome | SUZ | FUJ | MIN | SUZ | SUG | FUJ | SUZ | FUJ | FUJ | SUZ | 11th | 3 | |
| 1995 | Stellar International | SUZ | FUJ | MIN | SUZ | SUG | FUJ | TOK | FUJ | SUZ | NC | 0 | ||
| 1996 | Stellar | SUZ | MIN | FUJ | TOK | SUZ | SUG | FUJ | MIN | SUZ | FUJ | 15th | 4 | |
| 1997 | Stellar | SUZ | MIN | FUJ | SUZ | SUG | FUJ | MIN | 17th | 1 | ||||
| Team LeMans | MOT | FUJ | ||||||||||||
| Team Cerumo | SUZ | |||||||||||||
| 1999 | Team 5ZIGEN | SUZ | MOT | MIN | FUJ | SUZ | SUG | FUJ | MIN | MOT | SUZ | 5th | 19 | |
| 2000 | Team 5ZIGEN | SUZ | MOT | MIN | FUJ | SUZ | SUG | MOT | FUJ | MIN | SUZ | 2nd | 35 | |
| 2001 | Team 5ZIGEN | SUZ | MOT | MIN | FUJ | SUZ | SUG | FUJ | MIN | MOT | SUZ | 7th | 20 | |
| 2002 | Team Impul | SUZ | FUJ | MIN | SUZ | MOT | SUG | FUJ | MIN | MOT | SUZ | NC | 0 | |
| 2007 | Team Impul | FUJ | SUZ | MOT | OKA | SUZ | FUJ | SUG | MOT | SUZ | 10th | 12 |
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
| Year | Team | Co-Drivers | Car | Class | Laps | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 |  Nissan Motorsports TWR |  John Nielsen Franck Lagorce | Nissan R390 GT1 | GT1 | 342 | 5th | 5th | |
| 1999 | Nissan Motorsports | Satoshi Motoyama Érik Comas | Nissan R391 | LMP | 110 | DNF | DNF | |
| 2002 |  Audi Sport Team Joest | Marco Werner Philipp Peter | Audi R8 | LMP900 | 372 | 3rd | 3rd | |
| 2005 | Rollcentre Racing | Bobby Verdon-Roe Harold Primat | Dallara SP1-Nissan | LMP1 | 133 | DNF | DNF | |
| 2012 |  Highcroft Racing | Marino Franchitti Satoshi Motoyama | DeltaWing-Nissan | UNC | 75 | DNF | DNF | |
| 2013 | Greaves Motorsport | Jann Mardenborough Lucas Ordóñez | Zytek Z11SN - Nissan | LMP2 | 327 | 9th | 3rd | |
| 2015 | Nissan Motorsports | Harry Tincknell Alex Buncombe | Nissan GT-R LM Nismo | LMP1 | 242 | NC | NC |
(key)
| Year | Team | Car | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | Pos | Points | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Sumo Power GT | Nissan | ABU QR 11 | ABU CR 16 | SIL QR 8 | SIL CR Ret | BRN QR 3 | BRN CR 3 | PRI QR 9 | PRI CR 2 | SPA QR 8 | SPA CR Ret | NÜR QR Ret | NÜR CR 15 | ALG QR 1 | ALG CR 4 | NAV QR 16 | NAV CR Ret | INT QR 2 | INT CR 6 | SAN QR 6 | SAN CR Ret | 9th | 71 | |
| 2011 | JR Motorsports | Nissan | ABU QR 3 | ABU CR 14 | ZOL QR 7 | ZOL CR 9 | ALG QR 2 | ALG CR 1 | SAC QR 11 | SAC CR 9 | SIL QR 2 | SIL CR 1 | NAV QR 9 | NAV CR 6 | PRI QR 1 | PRI CR 1 | ORD QR 11 | ORD CR 9 | BEI QR 4 | BEI CR 3 | SAN QR 2 | SAN CR Ret | 1st | 137 |