Japanese rising star Kanato Le has agreed a three-event deal with Hillspeed to race in the GB3 Championship this year, starting at this weekend’s season opener on the Silverstone Grand Prix Circuit.
The 17-year-old from Tokyo will drive the team’s second car, lining up alongside the already announced Freddie Slater, and the Markham Vale team will confirm a third driver for the season-opening GB3 race meeting in due course.
As well as this weekend’s action at Silverstone GP Circuit, Le will compete at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium at the end of May for rounds seven, eight and nine, and will also race on the Brands Hatch Grand Prix Circuit in late August for rounds 16, 17 and 18.
The teenager’s agreement with Hillspeed fits around his existing commitments to race this year in the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine (FRECA). Le made his Hillspeed test debut last week at Brands Hatch, ending the day less than a second shy of the top four.
After a karting career which peaked with title victory in the IAME Euro Series X30 Junior Championship in 2021, as well as second place in that year’s IAME Winter Cup X30 Junior class, Le made the step-up into car racing the following year in the UK-based Ginetta Junior Championship – becoming a double race winner and ending the season as the second highest placed rookie.
Moving to single-seaters at the end of 2022, he raced in the F4 UAE Championship in 2023 as well as the F4 British Championship, winning twice in the latter and concluding the season seventh. Le then made his Formula Regional debut in the category’s Middle East Championship in 2024 and also made a one-off appearance in GB3 at Spa. His main campaign last year was in FRECA, where he was a podium finisher.
Kanato Le said: “I am pleased to confirm I’ll be racing in selected rounds of the GB3 Championship this season, beginning with the first race weekend of the year at Silverstone. Many thanks to Hillspeed and all those supporting me, I’m looking forward to getting started.”
Hillspeed Team Principal Richard Ollerenshaw said: “We’re delighted to be working with Kanato and his management team in GB3 this year, and very much looking forward to achieving some good results together during the three events we’ve agreed. He showed in British F4 a couple of years ago he’s a very capable young single-seater driver and, working alongside Freddie [Slater] with ourselves, I’m sure Kanato will make excellent progress. We have two test days ahead before the weekend’s races, so the key is to make sure Kanato is as comfortable as possible with the car so we can go into qualifying and the races in the best possible shape.”
22 April 2025
