🇯🇵 Rikuto Kobayashi

Rikuto Kobayashi is an established professional competing in Japanese national solo and endurance racing. Graded FIA Gold, the full-professional standard in sportscar and endurance competition, he races for TOM'S in Super Formula Lights and for TGR Team KeePer CERUMO in Super GT. His Super Formula Lights campaign in a single-seater championship runs against a mixed amateur, semi-professional and professional field; in Super GT he drives shared GT500 cars in that series' premier multiclass championship.[1]

Across three seasons from 2024 to 2026, Kobayashi has taken 27 podiums in 56 starts. His record in Super Formula Lights has been his strongest: 23 podiums and 4 wins in 34 starts for TOM'S, where he runs regularly ahead of Yuga Furutani, a professional with 69 Super Formula Lights starts. In Super GT, he has collected 4 podiums in 18 endurance starts and claimed 1 win. His entry into Super Formula proper in 2025 has brought 4 starts without a podium. The 2026 Super GT season is ongoing with 4 rounds raced so far; Kobayashi sits with 2 podiums from those races, including a second-place finish at Okayama.[2]

Kobayashi's regular opponents span a wide range of experience. He is closely matched against Seita Nonaka, an established professional and FIA Gold graded driver who has contested 13 Super Formula races, 31 Super GT rounds and 64 Super Formula Lights starts. Among stronger drivers he has beaten twice each are Tadasuke Makino, an elite professional and 2020 Super GT GT500 champion, and Tomoki Nojiri, twice Super Formula champion; these results remain exceptions in a career built on consistency in the junior formula rather than regular victories against the series' most prominent drivers.