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Kazuto Kotaka

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Kazuto Kotaka
Kotaka at Mobility Resort Motegi in 2024
NationalityJapan Japanese
Born (1999-04-17) 17 April 1999 (age 25)
Yamato, Kanagawa, Japan
Super Formula Championship career
Debut season2021
Current teamKondo Racing
Racing licence FIA Gold
Car number4
Former teamscarrozzeria Team KCMG
Starts20
Wins0
Podiums0
Poles0
Fastest laps0
Best finish15th in 2023
Super GT - GT300 career
Debut season2019
Current teamapr [ja]
Car number31
Former teamsmuta Racing INGING
Starts11
Wins0
Podiums2
Poles2
Fastest laps0
Best finish9th in 2020
Previous series
2020-2022
2019
2018-2019
2015-2018		Super Formula Lights
Toyota Racing Series
Japanese Formula 3 Championship
F4 Japanese Championship
Championship titles
2022Super Formula Lights

Kazuto Kotaka (小高一斗, Kotaka Kazuto, born 17 April 1999) is a Japanese racing driver for Toyota Gazoo Racing who currently competes in Super Formula for Kondo Racing and Super GT for apr [ja]. He won the Super Formula Lights championship in 2022.

Career

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Early Career

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Kotaka made his debut in formula racing in 2015, racing for TOM'S from the second race weekend in the F4 Japanese Championship. He regularly finished in the top 10, with a fourth place finish at the Suzuka International Racing Course as his best result. He finished sixth in the championship with 50 points.

In 2016, Kotaka remained active in Japanese Formula 4 with TOM'S. He won two races at Fuji Speedway and another at Sportsland SUGO. He later took another podium finish at Fuji, but achieved erratic results for the remainder of the season. He finished fifth overall with 113 points.

In 2017, Kotaka did not race, but in 2018 he returned to Japanese Formula 4 at TOM's. He missed the first race weekend, but nevertheless he won two races at Fuji and was on the podium in seven other races. With 188 points, he finished third in the standings behind Yuki Tsunoda and Teppei Natori. At the end of the season, he made his Japanese Formula 3 Championship debut with Hanashima Racing over the weekend at SUGO. He scored a point with sixth in the final race and was classified thirteenth in the final standings.

In 2019, Kotaka started the year in the New Zealand racing in the Toyota Racing Series with the team MTEC Motorsport.[1] He took a podium finish in the season finale at the Manfeild: Circuit Chris Amon, finishing the season in tenth place with 176 points. He then made his debut as a full-time driver in Japanese Formula 3 with the Corolla Chukyo Kuo TOM'S team. He took five podiums: one at Suzuka, three at SUGO and one at the Twin Ring Motegi, but he also had to miss two race weekends. He finished fifth in the final standings with 48 points.

In 2020, Kotaka remained active in Japanese Formula 3, which had changed its name to Super Formula Lights,[2] with the TOM'S team. He won one race in the final race weekend at Fuji and was on the podium in ten other races. With 73 points, he finished third in the final standings behind Ritomo Miyata and Sena Sakaguchi.

Kotaka still raced in Super Formula Lights in 2021, albeit only for one round, where he managed to get 2 podiums. For 2022, Kotaka stays with TOM'S. He then won the title with eight wins and eleven podiums, as he beats Kakunoshin Ohta and Iori Kimura.[3]

Super GT

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Kotaka made debut in GT300 class for apr in Super GT for two races at Fuji Sweedway, sharing a Toyota GR Sport Prius PHV apr GT with Hiroaki Nagai and Manabu Orido, but scored no points. He also appeared in Non Championship round in Fuji Speedway, where he raced with McLaren 720S GT3 with Hanashima Racing alongside Katsuaki Kubota.[4] Kotaka also competed full-time in the GT300 class of the Super GT with the team Advics muta Racing INGING, sharing a Toyota 86 MC GT300 with Ryohei Sakaguchi. The two took two pole positions at Fuji and two podiums at Suzuka and Fuji. They finished ninth in the championship with 34 points. For 2021 and 2022, he only appeared for 3 rounds with INGING and K-Tunes Racing for 2 races each respectively, and 2022 for apr with Koki Saga and Yuhki Nakayama.

Kotaka made his full season debut with apr number 31 new Lexus LC 500h GT alongside Saga and Yuki Nemoto where both claimed one podium.[5] Kotaka continues with the same team, and paired with debutant Jin Nakamura.[6]

Super Formula

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In 2021 Kotaka would continue to drive in the 2021 Super Formula Lights at TOM'S. However, he missed the first two race weekends as he made his Super Formula debut that year with the carrozzeria Team KCMG as a replacement for Kamui Kobayashi, who was unable to fly to Japan due to travel restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[7] He ended up competing in all but one round of the series, but didn't manage to score a single point.

After He won the Super Formula Lights title, he returns to the series in 2023 with Kondo Racing.[8]

Racing record

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Career summary

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Season Series Team Races Wins Poles FLaps Podiums Points Position
2015 F4 Japanese Championship TOM'S Spirit 12 0 0 1 0 50 6th
2016 F4 Japanese Championship TOM'S Spirit 14 3 2 1 4 113 5th
2018 F4 Japanese Championship TOM'S Spirit 12 2 0 3 9 188 3rd
Japanese Formula 3 Championship Hanashima Racing 4 0 0 0 0 1 13th
2019 Japanese Formula 3 Championship Corolla Chukyo Kuo TOM'S 15 0 0 0 5 48 5th
Super GT - GT300 apr [ja] 2 0 0 0 0 0 NC
FIA Motorsport Games Formula 4 Cup Team Japan 1 0 0 0 0 N/A 16th
Toyota Racing Series MTEC Motorsport 15 0 0 0 1 176 10th
Super Taikyu - ST-4 T’s Concept 5 0 0 0 0 46.5‡ 8th‡
2020 Super Formula Lights TOM'S 17 1 0 0 11 73 3rd
Super GT - GT300 muta Racing INGING 7 0 2 0 2 34 9th
Super Taikyu - ST-X apr 5 0 0 0 1 79‡ 5th‡
2021 Super Formula carrozzeria Team KCMG 6 0 0 0 0 0 25th
Super Formula Lights TOM'S 3 0 0 0 2 14 8th
Super GT - GT300 muta Racing INGING 1 0 0 0 0 3 26th
K-Tunes Racing 2 0 0 0 0
Super Taikyu - ST-X apr 6 0 1 2 2 64‡ 5th‡
2022 Super Formula Lights TOM'S 18 8 3 3 11 114 1st
Super GT - GT300 apr 2 0 0 0 0 0 NC
Super Taikyu - ST-X 7 0 0 0 2 83‡ 6th‡
2023 Super Formula Kondō Racing 9 0 0 0 0 10 15th
Super GT - GT300 apr 7 0 0 0 1 33 11th
Super Taikyu - ST-X 7 2 2 0 3 118‡ 2nd‡
2024 Super Formula Kondō Racing 5 0 0 0 0 4.5 13th
Super GT - GT300 apr
Super Taikyu - ST-X
Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie - SP10 Toyota Gazoo Racing

‡ Team standings.

Complete Toyota Racing Series results

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(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 DC Points
2019 MTEC Motorsport HIG
1
8 		HIG
2
Ret 		HIG
3
6 		TER
1
10 		TER
2
C 		TER
3
C 		HMP
1
11 		HMP
2
9 		HMP
3
6 		HMP
4
6 		TAU
1
9 		TAU
2
15 		TAU
3
10 		TAU
4
6 		MAN
1
Ret 		MAN
2
10 		MAN
3
3 		10th 176

Complete FIA Motorsport Games results

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Year Entrant Cup Qualifying Quali Race Main race
2019 Japan Team Japan Formula 4 7th DNF 16th

Complete Super Formula Lights results

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(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 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Pos Points
2020 TOM'S MOT
1
4 		MOT
2
2 		MOT
3
3 		OKA
1
7 		OKA
2
3 		SUG
1
3 		SUG
2
5 		SUG
3
3 		AUT
1
Ret 		AUT
2
4 		AUT
3
4 		SUZ
1
3 		SUZ
2
2 		SUZ
3
3 		FUJ
1
3 		FUJ
2
1 		FUJ
3
3 		3rd 73
2021 TOM'S FUJ
1 		FUJ
2 		FUJ
3 		SUZ
1 		SUZ
2 		SUZ
3 		AUT
1 		AUT
2 		AUT
3 		SUG
1 		SUG
2 		SUG
3 		MOT1
1 		MOT1
2 		MOT1
3 		MOT2
1
5 		MOT2
2
2 		MOT2
3
3 		8th 14
2022 TOM'S FUJ
1
4 		FUJ
2
1 		FUJ
3
7 		SUZ
1
1 		SUZ
2
2 		SUZ
3
1 		AUT
1
6 		AUT
2
6 		AUT
3
6 		SUG
1
1 		SUG
2
1 		SUG
3
1 		MOT
1
1 		MOT
2
4 		MOT
3
2 		OKA
1
3 		OKA
2
1 		OKA
3
4 		1st 114

Complete Super GT results

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(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year Entrant Vehicle Class 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 DC Points
2019 apr Toyota GR Sport Prius PHV apr GT GT300 OKA FUJ
21 		SUZ CHA FUJ
25 		AUT SUG MOT NC 0
2020 Advics muta Racing INGING Toyota 86 MC GT300 FUJ
14 		FUJ
9 		SUZ
13 		MOT
16 		FUJ
7 		SUZ
2 		MOT FUJ
3 		9th 34
2021 muta Racing INGING OKA FUJ
10 		MOT 26th 3
K-Tunes Racing Lexus RC F GT3 SUZ
17 		SUG
8 		AUT MOT FUJ
2022 apr Toyota GR Sport Prius PHV apr GT OKA FUJ SUZ FUJ
11 		SUZ
26 		SUG AUT MOT NC 0
2023 Lexus LC 500h GT OKA
16 		FUJ
8 		SUZ
13 		FUJ
5 		SUZ
6 		SUG
11 		AUT
3 		MOT
4 		11th 33
2024 OKA
 FUJ
 SUZ
 FUJ
 SUZ
 SUG
 AUT
 MOT

* Season still in progress.

Complete Super Formula results

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(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year Entrant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 DC Points
2021 carrozzeria KCMG FUJ
15 		SUZ
16 		AUT
16† 		SUG
17 		MOT
14 		MOT SUZ
18 		25th 0
2023 Kondō Racing FUJ
10 		FUJ
14 		SUZ
7 		AUT
19 		SUG
14 		FUJ
14 		MOT
6 		SUZ
15 		SUZ
12 		15th 10
2024 SUZ1
Ret 		AUT
18 		SUG
8 		FUJ
17 		MOT
8 		FUJ
 FUJ
 SUZ
 SUZ
 13* 4.5*

* Season still in progress.

References

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  1. ^ "Brendon Leitch returns to TRS for title challenge". www.formulascout.com. 21 December 2018. Retrieved 21 December 2018.
  2. ^ "Kazuto Kotaka returns to Super Formula Lights with TOM'S". www.formulascout.com. 7 February 2020. Retrieved 7 February 2020.
  3. ^ "TOYOTA GAZOO Racing、2022年のドライバー育成計画を発表".
  4. ^ "12-Car Field For Sprint Cup GT Races At Fuji". dailysportscar.com. 13 November 2019. Retrieved 13 November 2019.
  5. ^ "New Lexus LC500h revealed for 2023 SUPER GT debut". motorsport.com. 13 January 2023. Retrieved 13 January 2023.
  6. ^ "Saitama Toyopet Gets New Lineup Amid Toyota Reshuffle". sportscar365.com. 10 January 2024. Retrieved 10 January 2024.
  7. ^ "Toyota junior Kazuto Kotaka gets Super Formula debut as Kobayashi sub". www.formulascout.com. Retrieved 21 March 2020.
  8. ^ "TOYOTA GAZOO Racing Presents its 2024 motorsport team setups in Japan". Toyota Gazoo Racing. 12 December 2023. Retrieved 12 December 2023.
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