Ukyo Sasahara

Sasahara began karting aged seven in 2003. He won numerous domestic titles, including becoming JAF All Japan Championship Junior Champion in 2009.^[2] In the same year, he beat Matt Parry to win the Rotax Max Challenge Junior Grand Final,^[3] a title he went on to win for a second time in 2011.^[4] He went on to enjoy further success in the category, winning the Rotax Max Euro Challenge Junior title in 2011,^[2] and the Central Eastern European Rotax Max Challenge Senior title in 2012, his final year in karting.^[2]

Sasahara graduated to single-seaters in 2013, racing in the Formula Renault 2.0 Alps championship for Vincenzo Sospiri's Euronova Racing team.^[5] He finished in the points on seven occasions, taking a best race result of sixth at Misano to finish 13th in the championship.^[6] 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.^{[citation needed]}

For 2014, Sasahara continued with Euronova Racing, switching to the Formula Renault 2.0 NEC championship.^[7] 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.^[8]

In June 2014, Sasahara took part in the opening round of the Italian F4 Championship at Adria International Raceway for Euronova Racing, replacing Italian driver Andrea Fontana who missed the event due to illness.^[9] 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.^[10]

In 2015, Sasahara joined the ART Junior Team to contest both the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 and Formula Renault 2.0 NEC championships.^[11] 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.^[12]

In the NEC championship, Sasahara won the opening race of the season at Monza ahead of Manor MP Motorsport's Ignazio D'Agosto.^[13]

In 2016, initially Sasahara did not have a full time seat. He competed for 2 rounds at Spa-Francorchamps & Imola with Threebond T-Sport.^[14]

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.^[15] 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.

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.

Sasahara made his debut in Super GT GT500 for Honda's Team Mugen, partnered alongside Hideki Mutoh.^[16] Sasahara took his maiden podium at Motegi. Sasahara continues to compete at Super GT, Team Mugen retained him, with new teammate Toshiki Oyu.^[17] Both pairs claimed their maiden pole in GT500 at Sportsland SUGO.^[18][19]

For 2023, Sasahara left Honda, and moved to Toyota. Sasahara competed with Deloitte Team TOM'S, alongside Giuliano Alesi.^[20]

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 prevented Vips to entering Japan, and compete for the entire season.^[21][22][23] Sasahara was originally not scheduled to compete in Super Formula for 2021, but he competed for the first two rounds as he replaced Tadasuke Makino at Dandelion Racing after Makino suffered meningitis.^[24] Sasahara claimed his maiden podium in the series on the second round. Sasahara returned to Team Mugen for 2022 season of Super Formula with Team Mugen.^[25] Sasahara made his maiden win in Super Formula, as he won at Fuji, and finished sixth 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.^[26]