Ritomo Miyata

Ritomo Miyata (宮田莉朋) is a Japanese racing driver for Toyota Gazoo Racing who is currently competing in the 2024 FIA Formula 2 Championship for Rodin Motorsport and is set to compete in the 2024 European Le Mans Series for Cool Racing.

He is the reigning champion of the Super GT and Super Formula championships, having won both titles in 2023 with TOM'S, and previously won the 2020 Super Formula Lights championship, as well as back-to-back titles in the FIA F4 Japanese Championship.

He is also the fifth driver to win the Super Formula and Super GT titles in the same year, doing so in 2023.

Miyata is a graduate of Yokohama High School.

His name comes from the Fiat Ritmo, named as such by his parents as they were car enthusiasts.

He was diagnosed with autism early in his childhood and was unable to adjust to school life during his kindergarten and elementary schooling years, spending much of his early life receiving counseling at various hospitals; he uses racing as a method of subduing his traits.

Miyata is an avid gamer, bringing his computer and consoles to races.

As of September 2023, Miyata has over 500 race wins from 1,000 starts in iRacing official events and also participates in esports racing events for BS+COMPETITION.

Miyata started his motorsport career in karting in 2004, winning the All-Japan Kart Championship KF class title in 2014.

Miyata and Kunimoto would finish second again in the seventh round at Motegi, ending the season 11th in the drivers' standings.

After two seasons, Miyata transferred to TOM'S for the 2022 season.

He joined the number 37 team, replacing World Endurance Championship-bound Ryō Hirakawa and forming a new partnership with his one-time F3 rival Sacha Fenestraz.

At the end of the year he made his debut in the Macau Grand Prix, finishing 12th.

Miyata continued in All-Japan F3 for a second season with TOM'S. He won his first race at Fuji on 8 July, followed by a second win at Okayama on 28 July.

These two wins propelled him to second in the championship behind his teammate Tsuboi, who won the championship and the other 17 races that year.

Miyata finished 13th in his second Macau Grand Prix start.

In 2015, after his 16th birthday, he made his formula racing debut in the Formula 4 Japanese Championship with the RSS team at the last three race weekends of the season.

Despite his limited experience, he finished in the top ten in three of the six races, including a podium finish at Autopolis.

He finished 15th in the standings with 24 points.

In 2016 he made his full-time Japanese F4 debut with Toyota-backed TOM'S Spirit.

He won two races at Fuji Speedway and took podium finishes in three other races, and won the championship by just four points over Honda-sponsored driver Ukyo Sasahara.

In 2017, Miyata raced a dual program in Japanese F4 and the All-Japan Formula Three Championship, driving in both series with TOM'S (TOM'S Spirit in F4).

He won his second consecutive F4 title with four wins and 11 podiums, including a sweep of the two races at Fuji during the Golden Week holiday.

He defeated Sasahara for the second year, this time by a margin of seven points, while finishing 58 points ahead of third-place driver Yuki Tsunoda.

In his debut Formula 3 season, he achieved ten podium finishes and finished fourth in the championship with 79 points, behind Mitsunori Takaboshi, Sho Tsuboi and Álex Palou.

Miyata made his debut in Super GT in 2018, driving in the GT300 class for Lexus customer team LM Corsa.

At 18 years old, he recorded his first podium finish at Chang International Circuit in Buriram, Thailand, where he and co-driver Hiroki Yoshimoto finished third.

He returned for a third season of All-Japan F3 in 2019.

Miyata won eight races, including five of the last eight, but finished second in the standings again, this time to former Renault Sport Academy driver Sacha Fenestraz of B-Max Racing Team.

2019 was the last season for the All-Japan Formula Three Championship, which was renamed Super Formula Lights in 2020.

Miyata returned for a fourth season in this category.

Beginning with a sweep of the opening round at Twin Ring Motegi, Miyata won 12 out of 17 races and clinched the championship with a win in the penultimate race meeting at Suzuka Circuit.

LM Corsa changed tyre suppliers from Yokohama to Dunlop in 2019, and Miyata returned for his second season.

In the sixth round at Autopolis, Miyata took his first career win after a late-race charge from Yoshimoto to take the lead with four laps to go.

Miyata and Yoshimoto also won both races of the auto sport Web Sprint Cup, a GT3 and GT300-only support race held during the inaugural Super GT x DTM Dream Race weekend at Fuji Speedway.

Earlier that season, Miyata made his one-off GT500 debut at the Fuji GT 500km Race, when he substituted for Kazuki Nakajima at TOM'S, driving the number 36 Lexus LC 500 alongside Yuhi Sekiguchi.

In 2020, Toyota Gazoo Racing confirmed that Miyata would step up to GT500 full-time with TGR Team WedsSport Bandoh, driving the new Toyota GR Supra GT500 alongside Yuji Kunimoto.

Miyata scored five top-ten finishes including a best finish of seventh place in round five at Fuji.

Miyata remained at the WedsSport Bandoh team for a second season in 2021.

He scored his first pole position at the Fuji 500km, and finished second at the following round in Motegi for his first GT500 podium.