Ritomo Miyata: Japanese Champion From Super Formula to Formula 2

Who is Ritomo Miyata?

Ritomo Miyata is a Japanese driver born on 10 August 1999. He drives in Formula 2 for Hitech and serves as a reserve driver for Toyota in the FIA World Endurance Championship. In 2023 he won both the Super Formula and Super GT titles in Japan.

His path has taken him through the TGR Driver Challenge Program, Japanese open-wheel racing, Japanese sports car events, endurance racing and, most recently, the international Formula 2 series. Toyota's development structure supported much of that progress.

He was part of the TGR Driver Challenge Program between 2017 and 2021, and he returned to it in 2025. Along the way he won the 2020 Super Formula Lights championship and two Japanese F4 titles in succession.

Back-to-back Japanese F4 titles, a Super Formula crown and a Super GT title in the same year as the Super Formula title.

How did his karting and early single-seater years go?

Miyata started karting in 2004 and took the KF class crown at the All-Japan Kart Championship in 2014. Once he turned sixteen he made his first formula start in 2015, in Japanese F4 with the RSS team, joining for the final three weekends of the season.

That brief programme still delivered results. He placed inside the top ten in three of his six races, and he finished on the podium at Autopolis. The season ended with him 15th in the standings on 24 points.

How did he win the Japanese F4 titles?

Miyata took the Japanese F4 championship in 2016 and again in 2017, both times with TOM'S. In 2016 he beat Ukyo Sasahara by four points to the title, and in 2017 he finished seven points clear of Sasahara a second time.

The 2016 campaign was his first full season in the series, run by TOM'S Spirit with Toyota backing. Two wins at Fuji Speedway came alongside three further podiums, and that was enough to get ahead of a rival whose team had Honda sponsorship.

The following year he ran two programmes at once, Japanese F4 and All-Japan Formula Three. In F4 he took four victories and 11 podium places, and he swept both Fuji races over the Golden Week holiday. He finished 58 points in front of third-placed Yuki Tsunoda.

What did his Formula 3 years look like?

In his first All-Japan F3 season, in 2017, Miyata recorded ten podium finishes and ended fourth with 79 points. That year also brought his debut at the Macau Grand Prix, where he took 12th place. The rest of his F3 seasons were defined by runner-up finishes.

The 2018 campaign opened with victories at Fuji on 8 July and at Okayama on 28 July. Those wins were not enough for the title, which went to TOM'S teammate Tsuboi, who also added seventeen other victories that season. Macau produced a 13th-place finish on his second visit.

In 2019 he collected eight wins, five of them from the final eight races, yet the championship slipped away again. Sacha Fenestraz of B-Max Racing Team took the crown, and that season closed out the All-Japan F3 name.

How did he win Super Formula Lights in 2020?

The category was rebranded Super Formula Lights for 2020, and Miyata remained in it for a fourth season. He won 12 of the 17 races, and he swept the first round at Twin Ring Motegi before the season was done.

The title was sealed at Suzuka in the penultimate meeting. A full-time Super Formula seat followed the next year, which made that Lights crown the platform for his move to the senior class.

How did his Super Formula career build before 2023?

Miyata made his Super Formula debut in 2020, filling in for Kazuki Nakajima with the Vantelin TOM'S squad across two races. He lined up on the front row at Okayama International Circuit, took ninth in that race and was eighth in his second start at Autopolis.

In 2021 he became a full-time TOM'S driver in place of Nick Cassidy. Six finishes inside the top ten came across seven races, and he ended the year tenth overall, with a best of fourth in a race cut short by rain at Autopolis.

The 2022 season was the final one for the Dallara SF19 chassis. It produced his first Super Formula podium, a third place at Fuji in round two, and a further third at Suzuka to close the year. He finished the season fourth in the final standings.

When did he become a Super GT driver?

Miyata's Super GT career started in 2018 in the GT300 class with the Lexus customer squad LM corsa. Aged 18, he earned his first podium at Chang International Circuit in Buriram, Thailand, sharing the car with Hiroki Yoshimoto for third.

His first career win arrived in 2019 at the sixth round at Autopolis, after Yoshimoto made a late push to hand him the lead with four laps left. The same pair also won both races of the Web Sprint Cup, a GT300 support event held at Fuji.

Later that season he made a one-off GT500 start at the Fuji GT 500 km, deputising for Kazuki Nakajima at TOM'S and sharing the number 36 Lexus LC 500 with Yuhi Sekiguchi.

How did his GT500 career develop from 2020 to 2023?

From 2020 Miyata raced full-time in GT500 with the TGR Team WedsSport Bandoh outfit, in the Toyota GR Supra GT500 and partnered by Yuji Kunimoto. That first season brought five finishes in the top ten, with a best of seventh at Fuji, and his results were steady rather than spectacular.

In 2021 he took his first GT500 pole at the Fuji 500 km and his first GT500 podium at Motegi. He finished the year 11th in the drivers' standings alongside Kunimoto.

In 2022 he moved to TOM'S in the number 37 car, replacing Ryo Hirakawa, and formed a new partnership with Sacha Fenestraz. The pair scored their first GT500 wins at the Fuji GT 450 km in August and finished sixth in the drivers' championship.

For 2023 he switched permanently to the number 36 car with Sho Tsuboi. The duo won the Golden Week 450 km at Fuji in only their second outing together, and they arrived at the final round at Motegi holding a seven-point advantage.

How did he win the Super GT and Super Formula titles in 2023?

Late in the Motegi finale, Mitsunori Takaboshi spun while leading. Miyata moved ahead with five laps left, and he and Tsuboi clinched the GT500 title with their third win of the year. That result made him the fifth driver to win both Super GT GT500 and Super Formula in one season.

Earlier holders of the double were Pedro de la Rosa in 1997, Satoshi Motoyama in 2003, Richard Lyons in 2004 and Naoki Yamamoto, who managed it in 2018 and again in 2020.

The Super Formula crown came in the first season of the new Dallara SF23. Miyata won in round three at Suzuka and again in round five at Sugo, beating two-time champion Tomoki Nojiri in the process.

Third place at the JAF Grand Prix, the season finale at Suzuka, was enough to secure the Super Formula title ahead of Red Bull Racing reserve Liam Lawson and Nojiri. Across the year he added six podiums and finished inside the top five in all nine races.

What has his Formula 2 career looked like so far?

On 14 November 2023 Toyota said Miyata would contest the 2024 Formula 2 season. Fourteen days on, Rodin Motorsport, formerly Rodin Carlin, confirmed him beside Zane Maloney, and his first points-paying finish came at Bahrain. That step took him from Japan's championships into the international feeder series.

He moved to ART Grand Prix for 2025 and then joined Hitech for a third season in 2026, partnering Colton Herta. At the new Madring circuit in Spain he took the Sprint Race victory, his first in the series.

What did his Formula One testing involve?

Toyota Gazoo Racing and Haas F1 Team agreed a technical partnership in October 2024. Under that deal Miyata ran a Haas VF-23 in private tests at Jerez in January 2025, sharing track time with Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman, the team's official drivers.

During 2025 he also tested for Alpine, first at Zandvoort in May and then at Monza in June.

How has his endurance racing gone?

Toyota Gazoo Racing named Miyata a WEC Challenge programme driver on 30 May 2023, with the goal of building towards the top class of the FIA World Endurance Championship. That year he took a non-driving role at Le Mans and at the six-hour round in Monza.

His WEC race debut came at the 6 Hours of Fuji, in the LMGTE Am class, where his mount was a Ferrari 488 GTE Evo entered by Kessel Racing. He lost second place to a post-race penalty for not slowing in time under a Full Course Yellow, and finished third in class.

He was back in the WEC for the 2024 Spa six-hour race, deputising for Kelvin van der Linde in a Lexus RC F LMGT3 run by Akkodis ASP Team under car No. 78. In the European Le Mans Series he joined Cool Racing for the LMP2 class in 2024, sharing with Malthe Jakobsen and Lorenzo Fluxa, and won on his first start at the 4 Hours of Barcelona.

His IMSA debut came at the 2024 24 Hours of Daytona with Vasser Sullivan Racing. Frankie Montecalvo, Parker Thompson and Aaron Telitz were his co-drivers, and the Lexus started from pole in the GTD class, but it caught fire after a pit stop and retired in the final hour.

How do his results compare across series?

What is his legacy in Japanese motorsport?

Miyata's legacy so far rests on a run of titles across three categories in Japan. He has two Japanese F4 championships, a Super Formula Lights title, a Super Formula title and a Super GT GT500 title, and he is one of only five drivers to have won both of the top Japanese titles in one year.

Those results sit beside a move into the international field, where he has taken a Formula 2 Sprint Race win and tested with Formula One teams. His record reflects steady progress up a ladder of categories that was built around the TGR programme.