Marino Sato
Sato in 2022
Nationality	Japanese
Born	(1999-05-12)12 May 1999 (age 26) Yokohama,Kanagawa, Japan[1]
FIA World Endurance Championship career
Debut season	2024
Current team	United Autosports
Racing licence	FIA Silver(until 2023) FIA Gold(2024–)
Car number	95
Starts	16 (16 entries)
Wins	1
Podiums	2
Poles	2
Fastest laps	0
Best finish	11th in2025
Previous series
2019-22 2019 2017-18 2015-16	FIA Formula 2 Championship 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 aJapaneseracing driver who currently competes forUnited Autosports in theFIA World Endurance Championship and in theEuropean Le Mans Series. He is the2019 Euroformula Open champion.

He is not related to former Formula One driverTakuma Sato.

In 2015, Marino Sato competed in the 2015 Italian F4 Championship forEuronova 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 atImola, he only finished 18th in the driver's championship.^{[citation needed]}

Sato progressed to the2017 FIA Formula 3 European Championship to drive forMotopark. 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 the2018 season. His performance improved compared to 2017, and he finished 16th in the championship.

He moved to theEuroformula 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 theFIA Formula 2 Championship, replacingArjun Maini atCampos Racing from the round atSpa-Francorchamps onwards. However, after the fatal accident ofAnthoine Hubert,^[5] the Japanese racer would not officially make his F2 debut until theMonza feature face, finishing twelfth overall. He improved to eleventh in the sprint, before having a point-less pair of races inSochi. 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 forTrident.^[6]

In 2020 he signed forTrident Racing to partnerRoy Nissany in theFIA Formula 2 Championship.^[7] Sato only managed to score one point atMugello, and eventually finished 22nd in the standings, four points and three positions behind Nissany.

Despite this, the Japanese driver was kept on byTrident for the2021 season.^[8] In the second race of thefirst round he equalled his best everF2 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 in2022, this time joiningVirtuosi Racing alongsideJack Doohan.^[9] A point-less opening weekend inBahrain was followed up by his first points finish of the year, as Sato ended up eighth in the sprint race atJeddah, 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 inMonaco with a tenth place finish, and managed to finish eighth in the subsequent feature race inBaku, 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 inZandvoort, 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 byAmaury Cordeel at Virtuosi for the2023 season.

Sato drove in the end of season Young Driver Test in Abu Dhabi forScuderia AlphaTauri, alongside fellow countrymanYuki 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 intosportscar racing, driving forUnited Autosports in theLMP2 category of theEuropean Le Mans Series alongsidePhilip Hanson andOliver Jarvis.^[14] With the help of those two experienced LMP2 racers, Sato managed to take victory thrice, taking his first prototype win atAragón and sweeping the races atPortimão, which led to the team finishing second in the standings.^[15][16][17]

Following his performances in theEuropean Le Mans Series, Sato was announced to be remaining with United Autosports to make his international sportscar racing debut in the2024 FIA World Endurance Championship, driving in the newly established LMGT3 class in aMcLaren 720S GT3 Evo.^[18]

Sato was also originally announced to be competing in theIMSA SportsCar Championship in theLMP2 class for 2024, racing alongside formerFormula One driverPaul di Resta, but he later withdrew from the IMSA programme after an upgrade in hisFIA 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 theELMS, partneringBen Hanley andFilip Ugran.^[20]

Sato was retained byUnited Autosports to drive in theLMGT3 class of the2025 FIA World Endurance Championship.^[21]

(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position) (Races initalics indicate fastest lap)

(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position) (Races initalics 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 inbold indicate pole position) (Races initalics indicate points for the fastest lap of top ten finishers)

(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position) (Races initalics 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 inbold indicate pole position; results initalics indicate fastest lap)

(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position) (Races initalics 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
2025	United Autosports	Sean Gelael Darren Leung	McLaren 720S GT3 Evo	LMGT3	80	DNF	DNF

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

• 1999 births
• Living people
• Racing drivers from Yokohama
• Japanese racing drivers
• FIA Formula 3 European Championship drivers
• FIA Formula 2 Championship drivers
• Euronova Racing drivers
• Motopark Academy drivers
• Campos Racing drivers
• Trident Racing drivers
• Virtuosi Racing drivers
• Karting World Championship drivers
• Italian F4 Championship drivers
• Euroformula Open Championship drivers
• European Le Mans Series drivers
• United Autosports drivers
• Racing drivers from Tokyo
• FIA World Endurance Championship drivers
• 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers
• Porsche Carrera Cup Japan drivers

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• Use dmy dates from October 2024
• Articles containing Japanese-language text
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• Articles with unsourced statements from October 2024
• Articles with Japanese-language sources (ja)