Taito Kato followed in the footsteps of his fellow Honda junior and countryman Ayumu Iwasa by winning the French Formula 4 title after a hard-fought championship battle with Yani Stevenheydens resolved earlier this month. Feeder Series talked to the 17-year-old after his first year racing in Europe.

By Perceval Wolff-Taffus

Two hours after the final French F4 race of the season at Le Castellet in early October, while most drivers mingle with guests or prepare to head home, one driver stays behind. With a rag in one hand and a spray bottle in the other, he cleans the front of his Mygale M21-F4 car, still damp from the rain earlier in the day.

“Since the opening round, I have always cleaned my car after finished sessions. I don’t think it will make my times faster, but it’s important to say thank you to the cars I drive,” he tells Feeder Series. “I love to touch my car and work with the mechanic!”

This driver, Taito Kato, has just provisionally lost the French F4 drivers’ title. After he and his mechanics finish their work, the car will be shipped back to the series’ headquarters in Le Mans. He will likely never race it again.

A few hours later, Kato regained the provisional title win after his chief rival, Yani Stevenheydens, earned a post-race penalty. After investigating a prior appeal from the Belgian motorsport federation on behalf of Stevenheydens for an incident between him and Kato in race one, the French motorsport federation (FFSA) eventually confirmed Kato’s title one month later.

With five wins and 12 total podiums in his first 20 single-seater races, Kato has been a revelation on the international F4 scene. He did not race in any F4 series before the start of the season at Nogaro. The 17-year-old’s prior car racing experience instead came from the Honda Racing School (HRS)’s formula class in his native Japan.

Kato, born 25 November 2007, has no family involvement in motorsport. He fell in love with motorsport after watching the 2010 Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka with his father, an F1 fan.

“From that moment on, I knew I wanted to be like them, to be an F1 driver,” Kato said.

Finding his way into the sport, however, proved challenging.

“My family was not well off, so I was not able to practice much in karting,” Kato said. “It was at that moment that I came across HRS-Kart. There, I was able to drive with professional drivers and directly get advice from them. They also taught me how to maintain, how to understand the car.

“I gained so much experience and knowledge there. My experience at HRS-Kart allowed me to grow as a driver and to win the Exgel OK Champ Series [a major Japanese karting series] in 2022.”

Like many kart racers, Kato knew he would need more money to move into single-seaters. Winning the HRS-F scholarship would have given him the Honda backing he needed, but there was a long road to earn it.

“Before entering HRS-F, there is a selection process with maybe 40–50 drivers, with only eight of them admitted to HRS-F. After six months, we are down to four. The driver with the best rating and results throughout the year in different races gets the scholarship,” Kato explained.

“I learnt so much from HRS-F. The experience of driving with professional drivers was also quite significant. That was the first year I drove formula cars. It was a really tough road, but I eventually won this scholarship.”

The HRS-F scholarship gave Kato a seat in French F4, the only centrally run F4 series in Europe. How did the Japanese driver react to this change of environment?

“I guess the most important thing I learnt in France is that there is a wide variety of breads and they are all delicious!” he said. “There were some fun parts like the different culture, the food, but there were also some hardships of course. Living on my own for the first time in Le Mans, I realised how important my mum is!”

The 2024 French F4 season was not Kato’s first time competing in France. He participated in the final race of the FFSA junior karting championship back in 2022 in Anneville, where he finished second in his first and only appearance in the series.

“HRS-Karting and FFSA Karting had an exchange program in 2022, so I visited FFSA at that moment,” Kato explained. “The mechanics have changed since, but I was able to meet people like Mr. Christophe Lollier [FFSA national technical director]. So, coming this year, I had no problems with communication, et cetera. Everyone at the FFSA was so friendly. I could feel at ease quite quickly.”

Kato was five months old when his mentor, Takuma Sato, took part in his final F1 grand prix, the 2008 Spanish Grand Prix. Since 2019, the two-time Indy 500 winner has served as the principal of the Honda Racing School’s karting and formula racing divisions. Sato won a Japanese F3 scholarship from the Suzuka Racing School, HRS’s predecessor programme, in 1997 but opted to race in Europe instead.

“I have known Mr. Takuma Sato since I was very young and I have a great respect for him,” Kato said. “He was the principal at HRS-Kart and -Formula, that’s how I started talking to him. He was very trustworthy and loyal. There were times when he could not come to my races, but even then he supported me to the utmost.”

Sato was present when Kato finished on the podium in all three races at Spa, the only time any driver did so in French F4 this year.

“He came for the first time at Spa-Francorchamps and I had a good race. Mr. Takuma was happy so I was happy too. He always tells me what it takes to win,” Kato added. “I wish I could be like him.”

Throughout his maiden year in Europe, Kato regularly challenged for top positions in French F4 alongside returning driver Stevenheydens and French rookie Jules Caranta. The three drivers were very close throughout the whole season, and Kato showed steady progress as he got more familiar with the people around him.

“Communication with the engineers and the mechanics was good from the opening round. But compared to the last round, retroactively, I think we could have communicated even better at the start,” Kato said. “One of the key factors of this season was that we were able to work out a good setup with the engineers and mechanics. The last two rounds were a good match between me and the circuit.”

His breakthrough weekend came in the penultimate round at the old-school Dijon-Prenois track, where he took wins in races one and three, both from pole.

“Dijon is a circuit that is very hard on tyres. I have experience as a development driver for Yokohama tyres in 2022. I was able to learn a lot about tyre management there,” Kato explained. “That definitely helped for that meeting.”

Over the last few years, French F4 witnessed some controversial title battles and toxic rivalries such as those between Esteban Masson and Macéo Capietto in 2021 and between Evan Giltaire and Enzo Peugeot in 2023. But such acrimony was not present this year between Kato and Stevenheydens, who showed respect for one another.

“Me and Yani were battling for the championship from the start to the end,” Kato said. “We had good battles in every race and we respected each other. I learnt a lot from him and I believe he learnt from me. I’m a little sad that the final settlement had to come down to this [protest], but it was great to drive with him this year.”

For 2025, Kato is believed to be joining FRegional Europe with ART Grand Prix, for whom he has tested extensively over the past month. He is expected to team up with Giltaire and countryman Kanato Le, both of whom already raced for ART at the FR World Cup in Macau earlier this month.

Header photo credit: Elwynn Staerker