Ritomo Miyata

Miyata started his motorsport career in karting in 2004, winning the All-Japan Kart Championship KF class title in 2014. In 2015, after his 16th birthday, he made his formula racing debut in the Japanese Formula 4 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 All-Japan Formula Three, 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. 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.

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.[5]

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.

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.[6] 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.[7]

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.

Miyata made his full-time Super GT GT500 debut in 2020 with Racing Project Bandoh.

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

Miyata drove for TOM's in the 2022 Super GT Series GT500 class.

After two seasons, Miyata transferred to TOM's for the 2022 season. He joined the number 37 team, replacing World Endurance Championship-bound Ryo Hirakawa and forming a new partnership with his one-time F3 rival Sacha Fenestraz. The combination of Miyata and Fenestraz had an impressive season highlighted by both drivers' first career GT500 wins, during the Fuji GT 450km Race in August. Miyata and Fenestraz finished sixth in the drivers' championship with six top-ten finishes and two podiums.

In 2023, Miyata moved over to the number 36 car, this time on a permanent basis with Sho Tsuboi as his co-driver. Miyata and Tsuboi won the Golden Week 450km race at Fuji in only their second race together.

Due to Kazuki Nakajima's commitments in the WEC and the travel restrictions mandated during the COVID-19 pandemic, Miyata made his Super Formula championship debut in 2020, replacing Nakajima at Vantelin Team TOM's for two races. He qualified on the front row for his series debut at Okayama International Circuit, finished ninth in the race, then finished eighth in his second start at Autopolis.

After winning the Super Formula Lights championship and the departure of Nick Cassidy, Miyata earned a full-time Super Formula drive with TOM's in 2021. Miyata had six top-ten finishes in seven races, and finished tenth in the championship with a best finish of fourth in a rain-shortened race at Autopolis.

Miyata took another step forward in 2022, the last season for the Dallara SF19 chassis. He got his first podium finish, a third place, in the second round at Fuji. He finished the season with another third place in the final round at Suzuka, and was fourth in the final championship standings.

The new Dallara SF23 made its debut in 2023. In the third round of the season at Suzuka, Miyata finally won for the first time in Super Formula. He got his second career win and second win of the season in round five at Sugo, ahead of two-time series champion Tomoki Nojiri.

On 30 May, 2023, Toyota Gazoo Racing announced that Miyata was selected as a WEC Challenge programme driver, with the goal of developing a career path towards the top category of the FIA World Endurance Championship.[8] Miyata joined Toyota Gazoo Racing in a non-driving role at the 2023 24 Hours of Le Mans and the 6 Hours of Monza later that season.

At the 6 Hours of Fuji, Miyata made his WEC race debut in the LMGTE Am class, driving a Ferrari 488 GTE Evo for Kessel Racing with the blessing of Toyota.[9] Miyata finished third in class, after he was demoted from second place following a post-race time penalty for not reducing his speed in time during a Full Course Yellow.[10]

^† As Miyata was a guest driver, he was ineligible to score points. ‡ Team standings.
^* Season still in progress.

^* Season still in progress.

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

^‡ Half points awarded as less than 75% of race distance was completed.
^* Season still in progress.

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

^* Season still in progress.