Takamoto Katsuta

Takamoto Katsuta
	Katsuta at the 2023 Central European Rally
Personal information
Nationality	Japanese
Born	17 March 1993 (age 31); Nagoya, Aichi, Japan
World Rally Championship record
Active years	2016–present
Co-driver	Aaron Johnston
Teams	Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT
Rallies	74
Championships	0
Rally wins	0
Podiums	5
Stage wins	41
Total points	391
First rally	2016 Rally Finland
Last rally	2024 Rally Japan

Takamoto Katsuta (勝田貴元, Katsuta Takamoto, born 17 March 1993) is a Japanese rally driver who currently competes in the World Rally Championship for Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT. Katsuta rose to prominence after taking a surprise victory in the WRC-2 class at the 2018 Rally Sweden. He achieved his first World Rally Championship podium in the 2021 Safari Rally, finishing in second place.

Early career

Katsuta was born in Nagoya. He began karting at the age of 12.^[1] Following intermediate success in this category, he began racing in the Formula Challenge Japan series in 2010, and eventually became champion in 2011, aged 18.^[2]

2012–2014: Years in Formula 3

Seeing the successes Katsuta had in Formula Challenge Japan, the TOM'S team hired him to be one of their drivers for the Japanese Formula 3 Championship in 2012, racing in the National class.^[3] He finished third in this category overall, and was eventually promoted to full championship driver for 2013. Katsuta experienced great success in 2013, winning two races and finishing second in the overall championship, beating drivers from the likes of Katsumasa Chiyo and future member of the McLaren Young Driver Programme, Nobuharu Matsushita. The following season, 2014, would be Katsuta's last in Formula 3. He ended up under-performing, finishing 4th in the standings with another two victories.^{[citation needed]}

Taking an interest in rallying

During his final year of Japanese Formula 3, Katsuta began rallying at the local level. He began with a Toyota GT86 in the JN-5 class of the Japan Rally Championship (a series his father, Norihiko, has won eight times). In his second event, the Rally Highland Masters, Katsuta won his class, finishing 10th overall. His eventual goal was to be picked up by Toyota's development driver program.^[1] His performances in Japan attracted the attention of four-time World Rally Champion and future Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT team boss Tommi Mäkinen, who signed him onto Toyota's program alongside Hiroki Arai.^[2]

Rallying career

2015–2016: early years with Mäkinen

At the start of his campaign with Mäkinen and Toyota, Katsuta would participate in selected rallies while practicing full-time in Finland, under Mäkinen's supervision. Katsuta's first rallies with Tommi Mäkinen Racing were in local Finnish and Latvian events, driving a Subaru Impreza WRX. Beginning in 2016, Katsuta would be rallying with a very experienced co-driver, Daniel Barritt. Katsuta experienced intermediate success in local Finnish rallies, before being supplied with a Ford Fiesta R5 for the Rally Estonia, his first major long-distance rally in FIA-homologated 4-wheel drive machinery. This was also his first start in the European Rally Championship. He failed to finish the event after crashing in the second leg. Despite this, Mäkinen promoted Katsuta and Hiroki Arai to their first World Rally Championship start at Finland, rallying in the WRC-2 Class.^[4] Katsuta would finish 12th in class, sixteen minutes behind the class winner.

2017: full-time WRC program

Beginning in 2017, Katsuta would be participating in a full-season World Rally Championship program in the WRC-2 category, alongside Hiroki Arai. Katsuta would also be rallying in local rallies outside of Finland. He partnered Marko Salminen for this season. Successes for the two drivers were few and far between, but Katsuta would make a name for himself upon taking a class podium at the Rally Italia Sardegna.^[5]

2018: victory and increased support from Toyota

After his breakout onto the international scene in 2017, Katsuta would begin to enjoy more successes in 2018. He began with a 3rd-place overall finish at the Arctic Lapland Rally, one of the biggest local rallies in Finland. Then at the Rally Sweden, after winning 10 of the 19 special stages, Katsuta won the World Rally Championship-2 class, finishing 11th overall.^[6] He won by just 4.5 seconds from Škoda factory driver and then-reigning WRC-2 champion Pontus Tidemand.^[1] After this surprise success, Katsuta and team-mate Hiroki Arai continued to rally in the European WRC events, albeit without reaching the level of success achieved at Sweden.

2019: World Rally Car debut

Towards the end of the 2018 season, Toyota announced their intentions to eventually run Katsuta in a World Rally Car potentially by 2020. He spent 2019 competing in the WRC-2 class with Tommi Mäkinen Racing.^[7] After two seasons with Elfyn Evans, Daniel Barritt returned to be Katsuta's co-driver.^[8] Katsuta's first outing with a Toyota Yaris WRC was at the SM-Itäralli, a round of the Finnish championship, in which he would impress with a victory.

Racing record

Circuit racing career summary

Season	Series	Team	Races	Wins	Poles	F/Laps	Podiums	Points	Position
2010	Formula Challenge Japan	Luck	11	0	0	0	1	8	8th
2011	Formula Challenge Japan	LUCK FTRS	13	5	0	5	9	78	1st
2012	Japanese Formula 3 Championship	Petronas Team TOM'S	15	0	0	0	0	3	9th
2013	Japanese Formula 3 Championship	Petronas Team TOM'S	14	2	1	2	10	80	2nd
2014	Japanese Formula 3 Championship	Petronas Team TOM'S	15	2	1	3	10	80	4th

Complete World Rally Championship Results

Year	Entrant	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	Pos.	Points
2016	Tommi Mäkinen Racing	Ford Fiesta R5	MON	SWE	MEX	ARG	POR	ITA	POL	FIN 27	GER	CHN C	FRA	ESP	GBR	AUS	NC	0
2017	Tommi Mäkinen Racing	Ford Fiesta R5	MON	SWE 22	MEX	FRA	ARG	POR 36	ITA 14	POL	FIN Ret	GER	ESP 51	GBR	AUS		NC	0
2018	Tommi Mäkinen Racing	Ford Fiesta R5	MON	SWE 11	MEX	FRA 35	ARG	POR 26	ITA Ret	FIN Ret	GER	TUR	GBR	ESP 24	AUS		NC	0
2019	Tommi Mäkinen Racing	Ford Fiesta R5	MON 13	SWE Ret	MEX	FRA 14	ARG 16	CHL 14	POR 21	ITA Ret							25th	1
		Ford Fiesta R5 Mk. II									FIN Ret		TUR	GBR 14		AUS C
		Toyota Yaris WRC										GER 10			ESP 39
2020	Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT	Toyota Yaris WRC	MON 7	SWE 9	MEX	EST Ret	TUR	ITA Ret	MNZ 20								13th	13
2021	Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT	Toyota Yaris WRC	MON 6	ARC 6	CRO 6	POR 4	ITA 4	KEN 2	EST Ret	BEL Ret	GRE WD	FIN 37	ESP 40	MNZ 7			7th	78
2022	Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT NG	Toyota GR Yaris Rally1	MON 8	SWE 4	CRO 6	POR 4	ITA 6	KEN 3	EST 5	FIN 6	BEL 5	GRE 6	NZL Ret	ESP 7	JPN 3		5th	122
2023	Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT	Toyota GR Yaris Rally1	MON 6	SWE Ret	MEX 23	CRO 6	POR 33	ITA 40	KEN 4	EST 7	FIN 3	GRE 6	CHL 5	EUR 5	JPN 5		7th	101
2024	Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT	Toyota GR Yaris Rally1	MON 7	SWE 45	KEN 2	CRO 5	POR 29	ITA 35	POL 8	LAT 6	FIN 41	GRE 30	CHL WD	EUR 4	JPN 4		6th	116

* Season still in progress.

Complete World Rally Championship-2 Results

Year	Entrant	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	Pos.	Points
2016	Tommi Mäkinen Racing	Ford Fiesta R5	MON	SWE	MEX	ARG	POR	ITA	POL	FIN 12	GER	CHN C	FRA	ESP	GBR	AUS	NC	0
2017	Tommi Mäkinen Racing	Ford Fiesta R5	MON	SWE 9	MEX	FRA	ARG	POR 14	ITA 3	POL	FIN Ret	GER	ESP 14	GBR	AUS		21st	17
2018	Tommi Mäkinen Racing	Ford Fiesta R5	MON	SWE 1	MEX	FRA 8	ARG	POR 13	ITA Ret	FIN Ret	GER	TUR	GBR	ESP 12	AUS		14th	29
2019	Tommi Mäkinen Racing	Ford Fiesta R5	MON	SWE Ret	MEX	FRA 4	ARG 5	CHL 1	POR 13	ITA Ret							8th	47
2019	Tommi Mäkinen Racing	Ford Fiesta R5 Mk. II									FIN Ret	GER	TUR	GBR	ESP	AUS C	8th	47