Takuma Sato

Takuma Sato was born on January 28, 1977 in Tokyo and grew up there as well. Relatively late, at the age of nineteen, he began karting in Japan in 1996. Just a year later, he secured the title of the Japanese karting championship at the Suzuka Circuit Racing School, which allowed him to move to Europe in 1999 with support from Honda to start his formula racing career.

In England, Sato quickly found his way into Formula 3. After initial class appearances and a third-place finish in the British Championship in 2000 with Carlin Motorsport, he had a dominant season in 2001: with twelve victories from 26 races, he won the British Formula 3 Championship title and additionally won the Macau Grand Prix and the Masters of Formula 3 in Zandvoort. He skipped Formula 2 entirely and moved directly to Formula 1, where he debuted in 2002 for Jordan and subsequently competed for BAR-Honda and Super Aguri until 2008, completing a total of seven seasons, with a podium at the 2004 US Grand Prix being his personal highlight.

After a break, Sato returned to open-wheel racing in 2010 and switched to the IndyCar Series with KV Racing. In 2013, he achieved his first IndyCar victory with AJ Foyt Racing at the Long Beach Grand Prix, making him the first Japanese race winner in the series. However, his greatest career success came at the Indianapolis 500: in 2017, he won the race for the first time with Andretti Autosport, and in 2020 he repeated this triumph with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, becoming the only Asian driver to date with two victories in this legendary race. Overall, his IndyCar record includes six race victories and numerous podium finishes.

In the 2026 season, Takuma Sato continues to drive for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, the team with which he already achieved his second Indy 500 victory. As an experienced full-time driver, he brings his IndyCar expertise accumulated over more than a decade and a half and remains true to his driving philosophy, which he describes with the motto No Attack, No Chance. For his fans, the question remains exciting whether the now almost fifty-year-old Japanese driver can achieve another major success on the Indianapolis oval with RLL.