Following a difficult but promising maiden season in FRECA with G4 Racing, which saw him score a podium at Paul Ricard, Kanato Le is set to return for a second season of Formula Regional. In 2025, the Japanese racing driver will compete in both the Middle East and European championships with ART Grand Prix.

By Marco Albertini

Born in Tokyo, Kanato Le got his first taste of karting after his mother, a big motorsport fan, took him to an amusement park and later, a proper karting track.

“Honestly I wasn’t really interested in motorsports at first,” Le said. “It was when I went to a go-karting place at an amusement park where I found it fun, but I didn’t think at the time that it was something I wanted to do in the future until my mom took me to a proper place and that’s when I realized that this is what I wanted to do. First years for fun, but after I turned 10 I realized this is what I wanted to do.”

Racing karts in Asia for a few years, Le moved to Europe in 2019 to continue his karting career. In his first years in Europe, he won the 2021 IAME Euro Series in X30 Junior and finished runner-up in the previous year’s edition of it and the 2021 IAME Winter Series, both of them in the same category as the former.

Looking back on his move to Europe, Le said: “I moved to the UK when I was 12, coming from Japan when I was doing karting, I did 2 years of karting in Europe and won the [IAME] Euro Series in my second year in the UK.”

“The level in Europe is much higher than what it is in Japan, so I thought it was better for me as a person and as a driver to go to a different continent to learn how other drivers race and to be in that European paddock.”

Stepping up to car racing with Elite and Hitech

Stepping up to Ginetta Juniors for 2022, Le joined Elite Motorsport for his maiden car racing season. At the second round of the season in Brands Hatch, the Japanese driver went from sixth to second and later earned his first win in Ginettas after Josh Rowledge was given a penalty post-race.

Four rounds later, at Snetterton, Le passed Liam McNeilly and held off the USF2000-bound driver to take his second win of the season. With two wins under his belt, Le scored his maiden pole of the season at Thruxton and ran in the podium positions before falling out of contention on the last lap, finishing 17th.

In the final two rounds of the season, Le bounced back, scoring three podiums and finishing out of the top five only once, ending the season seventh in the standings as the second-best rookie.

Speaking of his time in Ginetta Junior, Le said: “Moving into Ginetta, it was a big step from karting to car racing so [it was] a lot to learn. We achieved a few podiums and a few wins, and it was a really good experience.”

At the end of 2022, Le competed in the Trophy Round of the 2023 Formula 4 UAE Championship with Hitech, where he finished fifth and second in the two races.

Staying with Hitech for the main season, Le finished 17th in the standings with a best result of seventh, achieved twice, in Kuwait and Dubai.

Continuing his partnership with the Silverstone-based team, Le competed in the F4 British Championship alongside James Piszcyk, William Macintyre and Gabriel Stilp.

Despite not qualifying in the top 10 in Donington, Le finished ninth and fourth in the first two races of the season and was running ninth in race three before a spin sent him out of the points.

At Brands Hatch, Le rocketed from third to first in a wet race one to earn his maiden win in single-seaters ahead of William Macintyre. After scoring points in the next three races, Le qualified and finished second at Snetterton to climb up to fifth in the standings.

The following round, in Thruxton, saw Le ran strongly in a highly competitive weekend, taking sixth in race one before gaining 13 places in race two to finish fifth. In race three, Le ran sixth for most of the race, but a puncture in the closing stages sent the Japanese driver out of contention.

Undeterred, Le qualified second at Oulton Park for race one and immediately passed James Higgins to take the lead. Despite a red flag, the Hitech driver remained unchallenged for the rest of the race to take his second win of the season, labeling it as the best race of his career.

“I think my best race was Oulton Park [in British F4],” Le said. “I had a super good start from P2 and managed to build a big gap and win the race and it was really nice.”

Le was fourth in the standings following his second win of the season. However, an inconsistent final six rounds of the season, where he scored a third-place result at Knockhill, saw him drop to seventh in the standings at season’s end.

Rising to Formula Regional with R-ace GP and G4 Racing

In early January 2024, it was announced that Le would join R-ace GP for the final two rounds of that year’s FR Middle East season as he prepared for a full season in the European championship.

At Yas Marina, Le had a rocky round but followed with a promising performance at Dubai, scoring his first points by finishing 10th in race two and finishing no lower than 13th during the weekend.

Joining G4 Racing for the FR European season, Le’s first half of the season saw him scoreless, with a best finish of 12th coming at the Zandvoort. Speaking at Mugello about the season, Le said: “I think it’s been a difficult start to the season, obviously new car coming from F4, new team, new tracks but I think every race we’re moving forward and the experience we get is pretty good, so I think we just need to keep this up.”

Fortunes took a turn at the following round in Paul Ricard, where he started seventh in race two and ran as high as third before finishing fourth on track, later promoted to third after Ugo Ugochukwu was disqualified.

After a tough two rounds at Imola and Red Bull Ring, Le started fifth for race two at Barcelona and was able to hold off Noah Stromsted to take his second points finish of the season.

The final round of the season, in Monza, was headlined by unpredictable weather which led to the cancellation of the first round of qualifying, meaning race one’s grid would be set by practice times. Having set the 15th best time in practice, Le started there and stayed out of trouble in the wet conditions to finish 16th.

In the second round of qualifying, on Sunday, Le set the seventh best time in his group, meaning he would start 13th for race two as Group A set the fastest lap between the two groups. Race two, held in dry conditions, was headlined by three safety cars and the premature end of it after a crash brought out the red flag with two laps to go.

In the chaotic race, Le avoided incidents and ran as high as eighth but would finish ninth after being overtaken by Zachary David in the closing stages. His third points finish of the season enabled him to finish 18th in the standings in his first season at Formula Regional level.

A month later, Le competed in the Macau Grand Prix for ART Grand Prix alongside James Wharton and Evan Giltaire. His weekend was plagued with bad luck, which ended in his race ending after two corners after Wharton triggered a crash that would block the track at the Lisboa Bend, eliminating all three ART cars on the spot.

Last December, it was confirmed that Le would remain with ART Grand Prix for 2025 for his sophomore season in both FR Middle East and European championships.

Header photo credit: FRECA / Dutch Photo Agency