Ukyo Sasahara
Ukyō Sasahara is a Japanese racing driver for Toyota Gazoo Racing who is currently competing in Super GT and Super Formula for TOM'S. He was previously a factory driver for Honda, and has achieved successes in a wide variety of motorsport disciplines.
Career
Karting
Sasahara began karting aged seven in 2003. He won numerous domestic titles, including becoming JAF All Japan Championship Junior Champion in 2009. In the same year, he beat Matt Parry to win the Rotax Max Challenge Junior Grand Final, a title he went on to win for a second time in 2011. He went on to enjoy further success in the category, winning the Rotax Max Euro Challenge Junior title in 2011, and the Central Eastern European Rotax Max Challenge Senior title in 2012, his final year in karting.European racing career
Sasahara graduated to single-seaters in 2013, racing in the Formula Renault 2.0 Alps championship for Vincenzo Sospiri's Euronova Racing team. He finished in the points on seven occasions, taking a best race result of sixth at Misano to finish 13th in the championship. During the season, he also took part in the Spa-Francorchamps and Barcelona rounds of the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 season with Euronova Racing as a guest driver.For 2014, Sasahara continued with Euronova Racing, switching to the Formula Renault 2.0 NEC championship. He took a single podium position, finishing second to Louis Delétraz in the opening race of the season at Monza, and finished in the points in all the remaining races except one to finish sixth in the championship.
In 2015, Sasahara joined the ART Junior Team to contest both the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 and Formula Renault 2.0 NEC championships. After failing to score points in the opening round of the Eurocup at Motorland Aragón, Sasahara took his first race victory in the following round at Spa-Francorchamps, becoming only the second Japanese driver to win a Eurocup race after Kamui Kobayashi in the 2005 season.
In the NEC championship, Sasahara won the opening race of the season at Monza ahead of Manor MP Motorsport's Ignazio D'Agosto.
In June 2014, Sasahara took part in the opening round of the [2014 2014 Italian F4 Championship season|Italian F4 Championship season|Italian F4 Championship] at Adria International Raceway for Euronova Racing, replacing Italian driver Andrea Fontana who missed the event due to illness. After finishing fifth in the opening race, he won the reversed-grid second race ahead of the Prema Powerteam entry of eventual series champion Lance Stroll.
In 2016, initially Sasahara did not have a full time seat. He competed for 2 rounds at Spa-Francorchamps & Imola with Threebond T-Sport.
Japanese F4 and Japanese F3
Sasahara returned to Japan, where he competed in F4 Japanese Championship in 2017 with Honda backing. He competed with Honda Formula Dream Project, alongside Yuki Tsunoda & Toshiki Oyu as his teammates. He managed to get runners up place beating his teammates, but lost out to the eventual champion Ritomo Miyata. Sasahara made his step up to the Japanese Formula 3 Championship with ThreeBond Racing. He only managed to claim third in the championship standings, with couple of podiums to his name. He lost out to the TOM'S pairing of Sho Tsuboi who was the champion, and the runners up Ritomo Miyata.F3 Asia and Porsche Carera Cup Japan
Unfortunately for Sasahara, he was dropped by Honda for the 2019 season with no drive in Japanese F3 or even Super GT. With that, Sasahara competed in Porsche Carrera Cup Japan. He also competed in the F3 Asian Championship with Hitech Grand Prix that season. Sasahara eventually won both of the series. He made a return in the 2019–20 F3 Asian Championship as a guest with the same team.Super GT
Sasahara made his debut in Super GT GT500 for Honda's Team Mugen, partnered alongside Hideki Mutoh. Sasahara took his maiden podium at Motegi. Sasahara continues to compete at Super GT, Team Mugen retained him, with new teammate Toshiki Oyu. Both pairs claimed their maiden pole in GT500 at Sportsland SUGO.For 2023, Sasahara left Honda, and moved to Toyota. Sasahara competed with Deloitte Team TOM'S, alongside Giuliano Alesi.
Super Formula
Sasahara made his Super Formula debut with Team Mugen, replacing Jüri Vips where initially to compete in this series, but due to COVID-19 border restriction in Japan prevents Vips to entering Japan, and compete for the entire season. Initially Sasahara not compete in Super Formula for 2021, but he competed for the first 2 rounds as he replaces Tadasuke Makino at Dandelion Racing after Makino suffered meningitis. Sasahara claimed his maiden podium in the series on the second round. Sasahara returns to Team Mugen for 2022 season of Super Formula with Team Mugen. Sasahara made his maiden win in Super Formula, as he won at Fuji, and finished 6th in the standings.Sasahara competed in Super Formula as well, after replaces his Super GT Teammate Alesi in the Vantelin Team TOM'S for the last four rounds.
Racing record
Racing career summary
† As Sasahara was a guest driver, he was ineligible for championship points.* Season still in progress.
Complete Formula Renault 2.0 Alps Series results
| Year | Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | Pos | Points |
| 2013 | Euronova Racing | VLL 1 8 | VLL 2 8 | IMO1 1 21 | IMO1 2 18 | SPA 1 7 | SPA 2 16 | MNZ 1 15 | MNZ 2 15 | MIS 1 8 | MIS 2 6 | MUG 1 9 | MUG 2 8 | IMO2 1 23 | IMO2 2 21 | 13th | 32 |
Complete Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 results
† As Sasahara was a guest driver, he was ineligible for pointsComplete Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup results
| Year | Entrant | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | DC | Points |
| 2014 | Euronova Racing | MNZ 1 2 | MNZ 2 Ret | SIL 1 10 | SIL 2 7 | HOC 1 8 | HOC 2 18 | HOC 3 5 | SPA 1 7 | SPA 2 4 | ASS 1 9 | ASS 2 4 | MST 1 8 | MST 2 9 | MST 3 C | NÜR 1 5 | NÜR 2 12 | NÜR 3 C | 6th | 191 |
| 2015 | ART Junior Team | MNZ 1 1 | MNZ 2 2 | SIL 1 2 | SIL 2 4 | RBR 1 10 | RBR 2 18 | RBR 3 6 | SPA 1 5 | SPA 2 5 | ASS 1 2 | ASS 2 3 | NÜR 1 1 | NÜR 2 8 | HOC 1 2 | HOC 2 4 | HOC 3 3 | 3rd | 296 |
Complete Italian F4 Championship results
| Year | Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | DC | Points |
| 2014 | Euronova Racing by Fortec | ADR 1 5 | ADR 2 1 | ADR 3 Ret | IMO1 1 | IMO1 2 | IMO1 3 | MUG 1 | MUG 2 | MUG 3 | MAG 1 | MAG 2 | MAG 3 | VLL 1 | VLL 2 | VLL 3 | MNZ 1 | MNZ 2 | MNZ 3 | IMO2 1 | IMO2 2 | IMO2 3 | 17th | 25 |
Complete FIA Formula 3 European Championship results
| Year | Entrant | Engine | 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 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | DC | Points |
| 2016 | Threebond with T-Sport | Threebond | LEC 1 | LEC 2 | LEC 3 | HUN 1 | HUN 2 | HUN 3 | PAU 1 | PAU 2 | PAU 3 | RBR 1 | RBR 2 | RBR 3 | NOR 1 | NOR 2 | NOR 3 | ZAN 1 | ZAN 2 | ZAN 3 | SPA 1 13 | SPA 2 Ret | SPA 3 19 | NÜR 1 | NÜR 2 | NÜR 3 | IMO 1 Ret | IMO 2 13 | IMO 3 Ret | HOC 1 | HOC 2 | HOC 3 | 26th | 0 |
Complete F4 Japanese Championship results
| Year | Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | DC | Points |
| 2017 | Honda Formula Dream Project | OKA 1 1 | OKA 2 2 | FUJ1 1 3 | FUJ1 2 3 | AUT 1 1 | AUT 2 3 | SUG 1 1 | SUG 2 Ret | FUJ2 1 2 | FUJ2 2 2 | SUZ 1 4 | SUZ 2 2 | MOT 1 5 | MOT 2 5 | 2nd | 224 |
Complete Japanese Formula 3 Championship results
| 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 | ThreeBond Racing | Tomei | SUZ 1 4 | SUZ 2 7 | SUG 1 5 | SUG 2 5 | FUJ 1 3 | FUJ 2 3 | OKA 1 3 | OKA 2 7 | OKA 3 C | MOT 1 Ret | MOT 2 4 | MOT 3 7 | OKA 1 4 | OKA 2 2 | OKA 3 C | SUG 1 3 | SUG 2 3 | SUG 3 2 | SUG 4 3 | FUJ 1 Ret | FUJ 2 2 | 3rd | 65 |
| 2019 | B-Max Racing with Motopark | Volkswagen | SUZ 1 | SUZ 2 | AUT 1 | AUT 2 | AUT 3 | OKA 1 | OKA 2 | OKA 3 | SUG 1 | SUG 2 | FUJ 1 | FUJ 2 | SUG 1 | SUG 2 | SUG 3 | MOT 1 5 | MOT 2 9 | MOT 3 6 | OKA 1 | OKA 2 | 12th | 3 |
Complete F3 Asian Championship results
| Year | Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | DC | Points |
| 2019 | Hitech Grand Prix | SEP 1 1 | SEP 2 1 | SEP 3 2 | CHA 1 1 | CHA 2 2 | CHA 3 1 | SUZ 1 2 | SUZ 2 1 | SUZ 3 9 | SIC1 1 1 | SIC1 2 1 | SIC1 3 1 | SIC2 1 3 | SIC2 2 4 | SIC2 3 2 | 1st | 301 |
| 2019–20 | Abu Dhabi Racing UAE | SEP 1 8 | SEP 2 15† | SEP 3 15† | DUB 1 16† | DUB 2 Ret | DUB 3 2 | ABU 1 1 | ABU 2 2 | ABU 3 4 | SEP 1 9† | SEP 2 3 | SEP 3 12† | CHA 1 13 | CHA 2 1 | CHA 3 1 | NC† | 0 |
† As Sasahara was a guest driver, he was ineligible to score points
Complete Super GT results
| Year | Team | Car | Class | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | DC | Points |
| 2020 | Team Mugen | Honda NSX-GT | GT500 | FUJ 12 | FUJ 10 | SUZ Ret | MOT 3 | FUJ 6 | SUZ 13 | MOT 4 | FUJ 12 | 15th | 25 | |
| 2021 | Team Red Bull Mugen | Honda NSX-GT | GT500 | OKA 11 | FUJ 11 | MOT 4 | SUZ 9 | SUG 9 | AUT Ret | MOT 5 | FUJ 10 | 16th | 20 | |
| 2022 | Team Red Bull Mugen | Honda NSX-GT | GT500 | OKA 12 | FUJ 10‡ | SUZ 13 | FUJ 13 | SUZ 6 | SUG 3 | AUT 12 | MOT 11 | 14th | 16.5 | |
| 2023 | TGR Team Deloitte TOM'S | Toyota GR Supra GT500 | GT500 | OKA 13 | FUJ 6 | SUZ 11 | FUJ 8 | SUZ 11 | SUG 10 | AUT 7 | MOT 9 | 15th | 15 | |
| 2024 | TGR Team Deloitte TOM'S | Toyota GR Supra GT500 | GT500 | OKA 7 | FUJ 11 | SUZ 1 | FUJ 10 | SUG 1 | AUT 8 | MOT Ret | SUZ 11 | 5th | 51 | |
| 2025 | TGR Team Deloitte TOM'S | Toyota GR Supra GT500 | GT500 | OKA 5 | FUJ 7 | SEP 1 | FS1 3 | FS2 | SUZ 12 | SUG 5 | AUT Ret | MOT 5 | 6th | 49.5 |
| 2026 | TGR Team Deloitte TOM'S | Toyota GR Supra GT500 | GT500 | OKA | FUJ | SEP | FUJ | SUZ | SUG | AUT | MOT |
‡ Half points awarded as less than 75% of race distance was completed.
Driver did not take part in this sprint race, points are still awarded for the teammate's result.
* Season still in progress.