Supporting a Young Talent’s Challenge in the World’s Premiere Endurance Race Category

To realize a sustainable motorsports industry, the WEC Challenge Program aims to develop and produce drivers who can compete in the future FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC).

Ritomo Miyata, who competed in the 2023 All-Japan Super Formula Championship (SF) and the Super GT500 class, winning both championships and becoming the youngest-ever double champion at 24, will continue participating in the program this year.

Miyata will be a reserve driver for the TGR WEC team starting in the 2024 season and will also compete in the Formula 2 and European Le Mans Series.

The "WEC Challenge Program Special Training" for young entry-level drivers will continue in 2024. This program aims to have young drivers experience the world's most prestigious races, broaden their horizons by gaining experience overseas, and produce world-class competitors.

Ritomo Miyata

First of all, I want to express my sincere gratitude to Morizo and everyone at TGR for giving me the opportunity to drive in FIA-F2 and ELMS. I have been selected as a training driver for the WEC Challenge Program starting in 2023, which has given me more opportunities to travel to Europe with the team and participate in Hypercar simulator tests with TGR-E. Everyone has been very supportive of my desire to be active worldwide. In that sense, I want to live up to everyone's expectations, and it makes me feel once again that I want to continue to work with a sense of gratitude. I am also very honored to have been chosen as a reserve driver for the TGR-WEC team. I’m thrilled that such an opportunity has come my way. I would like to thank Morizo, President Sato, and everyone at TGR for giving me this opportunity, as well as everyone on the European team. I want to prepare well so that I can contribute to the team whenever and however I am asked to race.

Kazuki Nakajima (Vice Chairman, TOYOTA GAZOO Racing Europe)

As the WEC Challenge Program has been selecting training drivers since last year and planning Miyata's activities for 2024, I am happy that these opportunities for F2 and ELMS were made possible, and I would like to thank all those involved. In particular, his participation in F2 was made possible by Morizo's encouragement and support of Hirakawa's opportunity to become a McLaren reserve driver along with Miyata’s own achievements in 2023. This is a great opportunity for Miyata to gain experience in both formula and endurance racing and will open up many possibilities beyond that, depending on how hard he works. I am very happy for what the program will do in 2024, and it makes me brace myself up. We must make this program open up various opportunities.

We believe the driver’s development though these challenges will not only support young drivers, but also produce them with various experiences, sensitivity, and skills which will lead to our goal of “making ever-better motorsports-bred cars” and “realizing a sustainable motorsports industry”. We also want to create a system that allows experienced drivers to give feedback to younger drivers, just as José will be driving in WEC GT3. I would also like to make this program a collaboration among various bases to create an environment where not only Japanese drivers but also many other drivers can challenge themselves.