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.