Kazuto Kotaka

Kazuto Kotaka
Kazuto Kotaka
	Kotaka at Mobility Resort Motegi in 2024
Nationality	Japanese
Born	17 April 1999 (age 25); Yamato, Kanagawa, Japan
Super Formula Championship career
Debut season	2021
Current team	KDDI TGMGP TGR-DC
Racing licence	FIA Gold
Car number	28
Former teams	carrozzeria Team KCMG, Kondo Racing
Starts	20
Wins	0
Podiums	0
Poles	0
Fastest laps	0
Best finish	15th in 2023
Super GT - GT300 career
Debut season	2019
Current team	apr
Car number	31
Former teams	muta Racing INGING
Starts	11
Wins	0
Podiums	2
Poles	2
Fastest laps	0
Best finish	6th in 2024
Previous series
2020-2022; 2019; 2018-2019; 2015-2018	Super Formula Lights; Toyota Racing Series; Japanese Formula 3 Championship; F4 Japanese Championship
Championship titles
2022	Super 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

Early career

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

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

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

Career summary

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
2018	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
	Super GT - GT300	K-tunes Racing	2	0	0	0	0	3	26th
	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	apr	7	0	0	0	2	83‡	6th‡
2023	Super Formula	Kondo Racing	9	0	0	0	0	10	15th
	Super GT - GT300	apr	7	0	0	0	1	33	11th
	Super Taikyu - ST-X	apr	7	2	2	0	3	118‡	2nd‡
2024	Super Formula	Kondo Racing	9	0	0	0	0	4.5	14th
	Super GT - GT300	apr	8	0	1	2	1	39	6th
	Super Taikyu - ST-X	apr	6	1	1	0	5	116	4th‡
	Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie - SP10	Toyota Gazoo Racing
2025	Super Formula	KDDI TGMGP TGR-DC

‡ Team standings.

Complete F4 Japanese Championship results

(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	DC	Pts
2015	TOM'S Spirit	OKA 1	OKA 2	FUJ1 1 10	FUJ1 2 13	FUJ2 1 6	FUJ2 2 5	SUZ 1 6	SUZ 2 4	SUG 1 6	SUG 2 7	AUT 1 8	AUT 2 6	MOT 1 16	MOT 2 11	6th	50
2016	TOM'S Spirit	OKA 1 10	OKA 2 10	FUJ1 1 1	FUJ1 2 1	SUG 1 DSQ	SUG 2 1	FUJ2 1 2	FUJ2 2 25	FUJ2 3 16	SUZ 1 7	SUZ 2 Ret	MOT 1 24	MOT 2 4	MOT 3 16	5th	113
2018	TOM'S Spirit	OKA 1	OKA 2	FUJ1 1 3	FUJ1 2 2	SUZ 1 2	SUZ 2 2	FUJ2 1 1	FUJ2 2 1	SUG 1 5	SUG 2 6	AUT 1 2	AUT 2 2	MOT 1 21	MOT 2 3	3rd	188

Complete Japanese Formula 3 Championship results

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

Year	Team	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	DC	Pts
2018	Hanashima Racing	Toyota TOM'S	SUZ 1	SUZ 2	SUG1 1	SUG1 2	FUJ1 1	FUJ1 2	OKA1 1	OKA1 2	OKA1 3	MOT 1	MOT 2	MOT 3	OKA2 1	OKA2 2	OKA2 3	SUG2 1 7	SUG2 2 8	SUG2 3 Ret	SUG2 4 6	FUJ2 1	FUJ2 2	13th	1
2019	Corolla Chukyo Kuo TOM'S	Toyota TOM'S	SUZ 1 4	SUZ 2 3	AUT 1 6	AUT 2 6	AUT 3 5	OKA 1	OKA 2	OKA 3	SUG 1 2	SUG 2 4	FUJ 1 4	FUJ 2 5	SUG 1 3	SUG 2 4	SUG 3 3	MOT 1 Ret	MOT 2 3	MOT 3 4	OKA 1	OKA 2		5th	48

Complete Toyota Racing Series results

(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

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

Complete Super GT results

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

Year	Team	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	GT300	FUJ 14	FUJ 9	SUZ 13	MOT 16	FUJ 7	SUZ 2	MOT	FUJ 3	9th	34
2021	muta Racing INGING	Toyota 86 MC GT300	GT300	OKA	FUJ 10	MOT						26th	3
2021	K-tunes Racing	Lexus RC F GT3	GT300				SUZ 17	SUG 8	AUT	MOT	FUJ	26th	3
2022	apr	Toyota GR Sport Prius PHV apr GT	GT300	OKA	FUJ	SUZ	FUJ 11	SUZ 26	SUG	AUT	MOT	NC	0
2023	apr	Lexus LC 500h GT	GT300	OKA 16	FUJ 8	SUZ 13	FUJ 5	SUZ 6	SUG 11	AUT 3	MOT 4	11th	33
2024	apr	Lexus LC 500h GT	GT300	OKA 5	FUJ 5	SUZ 4	FUJ 12	SUG 6	AUT 14	MOT 11¹	SUZ 3	6th	39

^* Season still in progress.

Complete Super Formula Lights results

(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	18	Pos	Points
2020	Corolla Chukyo Kuo 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 Formula results

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

Year	Team	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	DC	Points
2021	carrozzeria KCMG	Toyota	FUJ 15	SUZ 16	AUT 16†	SUG 17	MOT 14	MOT	SUZ 18						25th	0
2023	Kondo Racing	Toyota	FUJ 10	FUJ 14	SUZ 7	AUT 19	SUG 14	FUJ 14	MOT 6	SUZ 15	SUZ 12				15th	10
2024	Kondo Racing	Toyota	SUZ1 Ret	AUT 18	SUG 8	FUJ 17	MOT 8	FUJ 16	FUJ 12	SUZ Ret	SUZ 19				14th	4.5
2025	KDDI TGMGP TGR-DC	Toyota	SUZ	SUZ	MOT	MOT	AUT	FUJ	FUJ	SUG	FUJ	FUJ	SUZ	SUZ

^* Season still in progress.

References

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

External links

Kazuto Kotaka career summary at DriverDB.com

[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".

[12Entries-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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