The Formula Regional Middle East Championship got underway this weekend at the Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi, and it was the start of the 2025 season for reigning French F4 Champion and Honda Racing School graduate Taito Kato. 

A member of Honda's young driver development programme, the Honda Formula Dream Project (HFDP), Taito Kato graduated from the Honda Racing School in Suzuka in 2023 and took title honours in his first season in the French F4 Championship in 2024.

This year Kato embarks upon a joint Formula Regional Middle East Championship (FRMEC) and Formula Regional European Championship (FRECA) campaign, and got the former off to a solid start under the lights of Yas Marina.

In the first of the weekend’s three races, Kato showed maturity and strong tyre management to push to the end as others started to struggle. Slotting into tenth from the start, he had climbed to ninth by the halfway mark, then inherited eighth. Good tyre management meant he was particularly strong at the end, gaining two positions in the closing two laps to rise to sixth, before just losing the position to Ugochukwu on the final lap by 0.1s. After the race, Ugochukwu was given a five second penalty, promoting Kato to sixth position.

In race two it was a similar story, with Kato locked in a battle for the fringes of the top ten until the very end, setting his fastest lap on lap 12 of 14. He ultimately crossed the line 12^th, just 0.1s behind Carrasquedo.

The third race of Kato’s debut FRMEC weekend was his strongest so far, battling for fifth position until the line having started from 11^th position. Fighting with Brando Badoer and Ernesto Rivera, all three drivers took the chequered flag separated by a mere 0.21s.

Sixth, 12^th and seventh represented a solid FRMEC debut weekend for Kato. There’s no rest either as round two gets underway on 21-23 January at the same Yas Marina venue, so there are plenty of opportunities for Kato to build upon his round one momentum.

©Dutch Photo Agency