🇯🇵 Ryo Hirakawa

Ryo Hirakawa is an established professional driver competing in international endurance racing and domestic Japanese championships. He races for Toyota Gazoo Racing in the FIA World Endurance Championship, a multiclass series where he pilots a Toyota Hypercar in the top category. He also competes in Super GT, a domestic Japanese multiclass endurance championship where he drives a Lexus GT500 for Lexus Team Keeper TOM'S, and Super Formula, a domestic single-seater series. He holds an FIA Platinum grading, the highest professional licence in endurance and sportscar racing.[1]

Hirakawa has won two Super GT championships with Lexus Team Keeper TOM'S, in 2017 and 2019, across 57 starts in the series where he took seven wins and 21 podiums. In Super Formula he has contested 39 starts since 2019, taking four wins and 12 podiums. His record in the WEC spans a decade; he has taken seven wins and 16 podiums across 37 starts since 2016, and in 2023 secured the championship title alongside co-drivers Sébastien Buemi and Brendon Hartley. He currently leads the 2026 WEC season with one win and two podiums from six rounds raced so far.[2]

His regular opponents in Super GT are established professionals of equivalent standing. Against Kazuya Oshima, a 2019 Super GT champion, and Yuji Kunimoto, both Platinum-graded drivers with over 130 starts each in the series, Hirakawa typically finishes ahead. He has also beaten stronger drivers from outside his home series; he finished ahead of Alex Palou, a four-time IndyCar champion, four times across their meetings, and twice outfinished Liam Lawson, a Formula 1 driver and elite professional.