Kazuto Kotaka

is a Japanese racing driver for Toyota Gazoo Racing who currently competes in the Super GT for apr. He won the Super Formula Lights championship in 2022, and is a part of the TGR Driver Challenge Program. Kotaka has previously raced in the Super Formula Championship for Kondo Racing in 2023 and 2024, and for team TGR-DC in 2025.

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-ten, 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. 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, 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 two podiums. For 2022, Kotaka stayed with TOM'S. He then won the title with eight wins and eleven podiums, as he beat Kakunoshin Ohta and Iori Kimura.

Super GT GT300 Kotaka made his 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. 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 three 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. Kotaka continues with the same team, and paired with debutant Jin Nakamura.

During the 2025 season, he ran with Toyota Gazoo Racing in all races as the reserve driver for the GT500 class. He was registered as the third driver for TGR TEAM WedsSport Bandoh in the second round at Fuji and would also compete in the GT500 class.

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. 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.

Kotaka then switch to rebranded TGMGP TGR-DC with Hibiki Taira as his team mate.

Racing record

Career summary

Season still in progress. ‡ 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 OKA1 OKA2 FUJ11 FUJ12 FUJ21 FUJ22 SUZ1 SUZ2 SUG1 SUG2 AUT1 AUT2 MOT1 MOT2 6th 50 2016 TOM'S Spirit OKA1 OKA2 FUJ11 FUJ12 SUG1 SUG2 FUJ21 FUJ22 FUJ23 SUZ1 SUZ2 MOT1 MOT2 MOT3 5th 113 2018 TOM'S Spirit OKA1 OKA2 FUJ11 FUJ12 SUZ1 SUZ2 FUJ21 FUJ22 SUG1 SUG2 AUT1 AUT2 MOT1 MOT2 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 SUZ1 SUZ2 SUG11 SUG12 FUJ11 FUJ12 OKA11 OKA12 OKA13 MOT1 MOT2 MOT3 OKA21 OKA22 OKA23 SUG21 SUG22 SUG23 SUG24 FUJ21 FUJ22 13th 1 2019 Corolla Chukyo Kuo TOM'S Toyota TOM'S SUZ1 SUZ2 AUT1 AUT2 AUT3 OKA1 OKA2 OKA3 SUG1 SUG2 FUJ1 FUJ2 SUG1 SUG2 SUG3 MOT1 MOT2 MOT3 OKA1 OKA2 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 HIG1 HIG2 HIG3 TER1 TER2 TER3 HMP1 HMP2 HMP3 HMP4 TAU1 TAU2 TAU3 TAU4 MAN1 MAN2 MAN3 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) † did not run during the race as a third driver and was ineligible for championship points. ‡ Half points awarded as less than 75% of race distance was completed. (Number) Driver did not take part in this sprint race, points are still awarded for the teammate's result.

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 MOT1 MOT2 MOT3 OKA1 OKA2 SUG1 SUG2 SUG3 AUT1 AUT2 AUT3 SUZ1 SUZ2 SUZ3 FUJ1 FUJ2 FUJ3 3rd 2021 TOM'S FUJ1 FUJ2 FUJ3 SUZ1 SUZ2 SUZ3 AUT1 AUT2 AUT3 SUG1 SUG2 SUG3 MOT11 MOT12 MOT13 MOT21 MOT22 MOT23 8th 14 2022 TOM'S FUJ1 FUJ2 FUJ3 SUZ1 SUZ2 SUZ3 AUT1 AUT2 AUT3 SUG1 SUG2 SUG3 MOT1 MOT2 MOT3 OKA1 OKA2 OKA3 1st

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 Team KCMG Toyota FUJ SUZ AUT SUG MOT MOT SUZ 25th 0 2023 Kondo Racing Toyota FUJ FUJ SUZ AUT SUG FUJ MOT SUZ SUZ 15th 10 2024 Kondo Racing Toyota SUZAUTSUGFUJMOTFUJFUJSUZSUZ 14th 4.5 2025 KDDI TGMGP TGR-DC Toyota SUZ SUZ MOT MOT AUT FUJ FUJ SUG FUJ SUZ SUZ SUZ 20th 0 Season still in progress.