Marino Sato

Marino Sato
Sato in 2022
Nationality	Japanese
Born	(1999-05-12) 12 May 1999 (age 25) Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan[1]
FIA Formula 2 Championship career
Debut season	2019
Racing licence	FIA Gold
Car number	4
Former teams	Campos Racing, Trident, Virtuosi Racing
Starts	81 (82 entries)
Wins	0
Podiums	0
Poles	0
Fastest laps	0
Best finish	21st in 2019, 2021
Previous series
2019 2017-18 2015-16	Euroformula Open Championship FIA Formula 3 European Championship Italian F4 Championship
Championship titles
2019	Euroformula Open Championship

Marino Sato (佐藤万璃音, Satō Marino, born 12 May 1999) is a Japanese racing driver who is currently set to compete for United Autosports in the FIA World Endurance Championship. He most recently competed for United in the European Le Mans Series, and is best known for winning the 2019 Euroformula Open Championship before competing in the FIA Formula 2 Championship from 2019 to 2022.

He is not related to former Formula One driver Takuma Sato.

In 2015, Marino Sato competed in the 2015 Italian F4 Championship for Euronova Racing/Vincenzo Sospiri Racing.^[2] He finished on the podium once and came 10th in the final standings. Sato would remain with the team for the 2016 Italian F4 Championship. However, even when he won a race at Imola, he only finished 18th in the driver's championship.^{[citation needed]}

Sato progressed to the 2017 FIA Formula 3 European Championship to drive for Motopark. He scored one point during the season and finished 19th in the standings.^[3]

Despite having been the second-lowest driver in the standings to compete at every event, he was retained for the 2018 season. His performance improved compared to 2017, and he finished 16th in the championship.

He moved to the Euroformula Open Championship in 2019. He dominated the championship, winning it with nine victories and helped Motopark to win the team championship.^[4]

In the Summer of 2019, Sato progressed to the FIA Formula 2 Championship, replacing Arjun Maini at Campos Racing from the round at Spa-Francorchamps onwards. However, after the fatal accident of Anthoine Hubert,^[5] the Japanese racer would not officially make his F2 debut until the Monza feature face, finishing twelfth overall. He improved to eleventh in the sprint, before having a point-less pair of races in Sochi. Sato would briefly challenge for points in the season finale in Yas Marina, albeit it was not enough to earn him a points finish. Despite this, he took part in the post-season test on the week after the final race, driving for Trident.^[6]

In 2020 he signed for Trident Racing to partner Roy Nissany in the FIA Formula 2 Championship.^[7] Sato only managed to score one point at Mugello, and eventually finished 22nd in the standings, four points and three positions behind Nissany.

Despite this, the Japanese driver was kept on by Trident for the 2021 season.^[8] In the second race of the first round he equalled his best ever F2 result, finishing eighth and scoring one point. However, this would end up being the only points finish for Sato, as he ended up 21st overall.

Sato remained in the series in 2022, this time joining Virtuosi Racing alongside Jack Doohan.^[9] A point-less opening weekend in Bahrain was followed up by his first points finish of the year, as Sato ended up eighth in the sprint race at Jeddah, after which he praised the team for the strong pace.^[10] After a pair of rounds that failed to yield any points, the Japanese driver managed to score a point in Monaco with a tenth place finish, and managed to finish eighth in the subsequent feature race in Baku, having managed to steer clear of trouble in a race of attrition.^[11] The following rounds brought with them a heap of bad luck, with Sato experiencing multiple mechanical issues, as well as having a wheel falling off after a pit stop in Zandvoort, a race in which he had fought for points. Having failed to score points in the second half of the season, the Japanese driver finished 22nd in the drivers' standings.

Sato was replaced by Amaury Cordeel at Virtuosi for the 2023 season.

Sato drove in the end of season Young Driver Test in Abu Dhabi for Scuderia AlphaTauri, alongside fellow countryman Yuki Tsunoda (who would soon become an AlphaTauri race driver).^[12] He ended the session with the 13th fastest time (1:38.495), reflecting on that day as one that "made [him] visualise more what [his] dream is".^[13]

For the 2023 season, Sato transitioned into sportscar racing, driving for United Autosports in the LMP2 category of the European Le Mans Series alongside Philip Hanson and Oliver Jarvis.^[14] With the help of those two experienced LMP2 racers, Sato managed to take victory thrice, taking his first prototype win at Aragón and sweeping the races at Portimão, which led to the team finishing second in the standings.^[15][16][17]

Following his performances in the European Le Mans Series, Sato was announced to be remaining with United Autosports to make his international sportscar racing debut in the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship, driving in the newly established LMGT3 class in a McLaren 720S GT3 Evo.^[18]

Sato was also originally announced to be competing in the IMSA SportsCar Championship in the LMP2 class for 2024, racing alongside former Formula One driver Paul di Resta, but he later withdrew from the IMSA programme after an upgrade in his FIA driver categorisation from silver to gold, leaving him to "focus fully on the WEC challenge ahead."^[18][19] In December 2023, United would announce that Sato had signed on for a sophomore season in the ELMS, partnering Ben Hanley and Filip Ugran.^[20]

Sato was retained by United Autosports to drive in the LMGT3 class of the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship.^[21]

(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.

Year	Team	Car	Qualifying	Quali Race	Main race
2017	Motopark	Dallara F317	15th	14th	DNF
2018	Motopark	Dallara F317	7th	11th	DNF

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate points for the fastest lap of top ten finishers)

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate points for the fastest lap of top ten finishers)

^† Driver did not finish the race, but was classified as they completed more than 90% of the race distance.
* Season still in progress.

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

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

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
2024	United Autosports	Hiroshi Hamaguchi Nico Pino	McLaren 720S GT3 Evo	LMGT3	212	DNF	DNF

• Official website (in Japanese)
• Marino Sato career summary at DriverDB.com