Takamoto "Taka" Katsuta (勝田貴元, Katsuta Takamoto, born 17 March 1993) is a Japanese rally driver who currently competes in the World Rally Championship for Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT with co-driver Aaron Johnston. Katsuta rose to prominence after taking a surprise victory in the WRC-2 class at the 2018 Rally Sweden. He achieved his first World Rally Championship podium in the 2021 Safari Rally, finishing in second place. He scored his first World Rally Championship rally win in the 2026 Safari Rally.

Early career Born and raised in Nagakute, Katsuta began karting at the age of 12. Following intermediate success in this category, he began racing in the Formula Challenge Japan series in 2010, and eventually claimed the championship title over Ryō Hirakawa in 2011, aged 18.

2012–2014: Years in Formula 3 Seeing the successes Katsuta had in Formula Challenge Japan, the TOM'S team hired him to be one of their drivers for the Japanese Formula 3 Championship in 2012, racing in the National class. He finished third in this category overall, and was eventually promoted to full championship driver for 2013. Katsuta experienced great success in 2013, winning two races and finishing second in the overall championship, beating drivers from the likes of Katsumasa Chiyo and future member of the McLaren Young Driver Programme, Nobuharu Matsushita. The following season, 2014, would be Katsuta's last in Formula 3. He ended up under-performing, finishing fourth in the standings with another two victories.

Taking an interest in rallying During his final year of Japanese Formula 3, Katsuta began rallying at the local level. He began with a Toyota GT86 in the JN-5 class of the Japan Rally Championship (a series his father, Norihiko, has won eight times). In his second event, the Rally Highland Masters, Katsuta won his class, finishing tenth overall. His eventual goal was to be picked up by Toyota's development driver program. His performances in Japan attracted the attention of four-time World Rally Champion and future Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT team boss Tommi Mäkinen, who signed him onto Toyota's program alongside Hiroki Arai.

Rallying career

2015–2016: Early years with Mäkinen At the start of his campaign with Mäkinen and Toyota, Katsuta would participate in selected rallies while practicing full-time in Finland, under Mäkinen's supervision. Katsuta's first rallies with Tommi Mäkinen Racing were in local Finnish and Latvian events, driving a Subaru Impreza WRX. Beginning in 2016, Katsuta would be rallying with a very experienced co-driver, Daniel Barritt. Katsuta experienced intermediate success in local Finnish rallies, before being supplied with a Ford Fiesta R5 for the Rally Estonia, his first major long-distance rally in FIA-homologated four-wheel drive machinery. This was also his first start in the European Rally Championship. He failed to finish the event after crashing in the second leg. Despite this, Mäkinen promoted Katsuta and Hiroki Arai to their first World Rally Championship start at Finland, rallying in the WRC-2 Class. Katsuta would finish 12th in class, sixteen minutes behind the class winner.

2017: Full-time WRC program Beginning in 2017, Katsuta would be participating in a full-season World Rally Championship program in the WRC-2 category, alongside Hiroki Arai. He would also be rallying in local rallies outside of Finland. He partnered Marko Salminen for this season. Successes for the two drivers were few and far between, but Katsuta would make a name for himself upon taking a class podium at the Rally Italia Sardegna.

2018: Victory and increased support from Toyota

After his breakout onto the international scene in 2017, Katsuta would begin to enjoy more successes in 2018. He began with a third-place overall finish at the Arctic Lapland Rally, one of the biggest local rallies in Finland. Then at the Rally Sweden, after winning 10 of the 19 special stages, Katsuta won the World Rally Championship-2 class, finishing 11th overall. He won by just 4.5 seconds from Škoda factory driver and then-reigning WRC-2 champion Pontus Tidemand. After this surprise success, Katsuta and team-mate Hiroki Arai continued to rally in the European WRC events, albeit without reaching the level of success achieved at Sweden.

2019: World Rally Car debut Towards the end of the 2018 season, Toyota announced their intentions to eventually run Katsuta in a World Rally Car potentially by 2020. He spent 2019 competing in the WRC-2 class with Tommi Mäkinen Racing. After two seasons with Elfyn Evans, Daniel Barritt returned to be Katsuta's co-driver. Katsuta's first outing with a Toyota Yaris WRC was at the SM-Itäralli, a round of the Finnish championship, in which he would impress with a victory. Katsuta managed to win WRC-2 in Chile, but he also did not finish three rallies in his campaign and eventually finished the season in eighth. His first WRC outing with the Yaris WRC was at Rallye Deutschland, where he enjoyed a trouble-free drive to finish tenth. He got another top class chance in Catalunya, but suffered a transmission problem on Saturday, which resulted in over 50 minutes loss in stage times and penalty for late start.

2020: Part-time WRC campaign In 2020, Katsuta stepped up to WRC to contest all European rounds of the season. He started the season with ninth in Monte Carlo and seventh in Sweden. He then showed promising pace in both Estonia and Sardegna, but crashed out on both occasions. He also crashed on the first stage of Rally Monza, but later returned and won the Power Stage, effectively taking his first WRC stage win. Katsuta finished the season in 13th, with 13 points to his name.

2021: First full season in WRC Katsuta stepped up to a full-time campaign with Toyota in 2021. He finished 6th on the first three events in Monte Carlo, Arctic and Croatia and then fourth in both Portugal and Sardegna. The highlight of his season was the Safari Rally, where he avoided all the drama and finished second overall, only behind teammate Sébastien Ogier, leading a WRC rally for the first time on stages 14 and 15 following Thierry Neuville’s retirement. He retired early in Estonia after his co-driver Barritt suffered a back injury on stage 4. Keaton Williams replaced Barritt from Ypres onwards, but withdrew from Acropolis for family reasons, with Oliver Solberg’s co-driver Aaron Johnston becoming Katsuta’s new full-time co-driver from Finland on. Katsuta crashed in Belgium, Finland and Catalunya, but returned to the points with seventh in the season finale in Monza. He placed seventh overall with 78 points.

Racing record Circuit racing career summary SeasonSeriesTeamRacesWinsPolesF/LapsPodiumsPointsPosition 2010 Formula Challenge Japan Luck11000188th 2011 Formula Challenge Japan LUCK FTRS135059781st 2012 Japanese Formula 3 Championship Petronas Team TOM'S15000039th 2013 Japanese Formula 3 Championship Petronas Team TOM'S1421210802nd 2014 Japanese Formula 3 Championship Petronas Team TOM'S1521310804th

WRC victories  #  Event Season Co-driver Car 1 74th Safari Rally 2026 Aaron Johnston Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 2 50th Croatia Rally 2026 Aaron Johnston Toyota GR Yaris Rally1

Complete World Rally Championship Results Year Entrant Car 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Points Tommi Mäkinen Racing Ford Fiesta R5 MON SWE MEX ARG POR ITA POL FIN27 GER CHNC FRA ESP GBR AUS NC 0 Tommi Mäkinen Racing Ford Fiesta R5 MON SWE22 MEX FRA ARG POR36 ITA14 POL FINRet GER ESP51 GBR AUS NC 0 Tommi Mäkinen Racing Ford Fiesta R5 MON SWE11 MEX FRA35 ARG POR26 ITARet FINRet GER TUR GBR ESP24 AUS NC 0 Tommi Mäkinen Racing Ford Fiesta R5 MON13 SWERet MEX FRA14 ARG16 CHL14 POR21 ITARet 25th 1 Ford Fiesta R5 Mk. II FINRet TUR GBR14 AUS Toyota Yaris WRC GER10 ESP39 Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota Yaris WRC MON7 SWE9 MEX ESTRet TUR ITARet MNZ20 13th 13 Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota Yaris WRC MON ARC CRO POR ITA KEN ESTRet BELRet GREWD FIN ESP MNZ 7th 78 Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT NG Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 MON SWE CRO POR ITA KEN3 EST FIN BEL GRE NZLRet ESP JPN3 5th 122 Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 MON6 SWERet MEX23 CRO6 POR33 ITA40 KEN4 EST7 FIN3 GRE6 CHL EUR JPN 7th 101 Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 MON SWE KEN CRO POR ITA POL LAT FIN GRE CHL EUR JPN 6th 116 Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 MON SWE KEN ESP POR ITA GRE EST FIN PAR CHL EUR JPN SAU 6th 122 Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 MON SWE KEN CRO ESP POR JPN GRE EST FIN PAR CHL ITA 6th 175 Season still in progress.

Complete World Rally Championship-2 Results Year Entrant Car 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Points 2016 Tommi Mäkinen Racing Ford Fiesta R5 MON SWE MEX ARG POR ITA POL FIN12 GER CHNC FRA ESP GBR AUS NC 0 2017 Tommi Mäkinen Racing Ford Fiesta R5 MON SWE9 MEX FRA ARG POR14 ITA3 POL FINRet GER ESP14 GBR AUS 21st 17 2018 Tommi Mäkinen Racing Ford Fiesta R5 MON SWE1 MEX FRA8 ARG POR13 ITARet FINRet GER TUR GBR ESP12 AUS 14th 29 2019 Tommi Mäkinen Racing Ford Fiesta R5 MON SWERet MEX FRA4 ARG5 CHL1 POR13 ITARet 8th 47 Ford Fiesta R5 Mk. II FINRet GER TUR GBR ESP AUS

References

External links

Takamoto Katsuta's Twitter page Katsuta's Facebook page