Toyota Gazoo Racing has announced the completion of their 2023 driver line-ups in the Autobacs SUPER GT Series, by signing Ukyo Sasahara as their newest factory GT500 driver.
Sasahara’s move to Toyota was made official today, weeks after he first tested a Toyota-powered Super Formula Championship car at Suzuka Circuit before Christmas. Sasahara will join forces with second-generation driver Giuliano Alesi as drivers of the #37 TGR Team Deloitte TOM’s entry for 2023.
The 26-year-old driver made his formal single-seater debut in Europe in 2013, then returned to Japan in 2016 as a top graduate of the Suzuka Racing School Formula (SRS-F) academy. This began a partnership with Honda, where Sasahara finished second in the FIA F4 Japanese Championship in 2017, and third in the All-Japan Formula 3 Championship in 2018.
He then went on a successful “excursion year” in 2019, winning the FIA F3 (Regional) Asian Championship and Porsche Carrera Cup Japan titles, and the Gold Medal in the FIA Motorsport Games GT Cup for Japan. That same year, he made his SUPER GT debut at the non-championship GT300 Sprint Cup at Fuji Speedway.
These accomplishments led him to join Honda as a full factory driver in GT500 and Super Formula in 2020. Over the past three seasons at Team Mugen, Sasahara has recorded two podiums and 12 top-ten finishes in 24 starts, and a maiden pole position at Autopolis in 2021. This past season in Super Formula, he recorded his first two career victories and finished sixth in the Drivers’ Championship.
Sasahara and Alesi will form a new line-up in the number 37 entry, replacing Ritomo Miyata, who will move to the #36 au TOM’s entry, and Sacha Fenestraz, who has moved to the FIA Formula E World Championship with Nissan. Professional services firm Deloitte, who have backed Alesi since his move to Japan in 2021, have also stepped up to replace car care company KeePer as the #37 Toyota GR Supra’s title sponsor.
Alesi finished tenth in his first season as a GT500 driver, partnering 2021 champion Sho Tsuboi – but the French-Japanese driver’s on-track impact was quite limited in his first year in the premier class, relative to his strong form in GT300 with perennial minnows Toyota Team Thailand.
The two GT500 team mates were also vying for TOM’s final available Super Formula seat – which has been retained by Alesi, despite Sasahara’s recent form and a strong impression in the winter test.
Sasahara’s transfer to Toyota is one of only a very small handful of moves from one manufacturer to another: Last season, Bertrand Baguette and Nobuharu Matsushita traded places, with Matsushita returning to Honda in exchange for Baguette signing with Nissan. And in 2019, Kohei Hirate, a two-time GT500 champion with Toyota, signed with Nissan after being dropped from Toyota’s GT500 fleet after 2017.
Feature image © Japan Race Promotion (JRP)
