Tohru Sakata

Tohru Sakata is a Japanese racing driver who currently races for Toyota in Formula One.

Career
He began racing in Formula Ford, finishing 2nd in 1995. He kept racing in single-seaters in 1996, but found himself at crossroads during the 1997 season, where he decided to take up endurance racing for the year (mainly within the Super GT Championship, where he finished 9th). He came back to single-seaters in 1998, racing in the British Formula Three series, in which he finished 3rd. He then attempted to enter International Formula 3000 in 1999 with the Astromega Racing team, but he only managed 6th. He decided to race in his country's premier class of formula racing, which was Formmula Nippon. He became the 2000 Formula Nippon champion, and was touted to drive for the Toyota Formula One team afterwards. Toyota was due to commence operations in 2002, but began earlier in 2001, meaning that he would start his career earlier than everyone thought he and Toyota would. He raced alongside Bavo Vandermosten for several seasons, before teaming up with Lael Damasceno in 2004. He then raced with compatriot Ryou Gouto in the 2005 and 2006 Formula One seasons - yet again with Toyota. Tohru had a really successful 2005 season, achieving the most fastest laps of anyone throughout the season and finishing 7th overall. He got his first win in the 2006 Turkish sprint race; despite getting only a few points less than the previous season, he came up in only 13th at season's end. He continued with Ryou and Toyota in the 2007 Formula One season, and it looked set to be another good season. However, his fortunes massively contrasted to that of the previous seasons, retiring in over half of the races, and only scoring points in Monegasque feature race.