Japan’s Kanato Le To Make GB3 Return With Hillspeed This Weekend At Silverstone GP
Kanato Le, one of Japan’s rising stars in single-seater racing, has agreed a three-event deal with Hillspeed to race in the GB3 Championship partnered by the BRDC this year – starting at Silverstone Grand Prix Circuit this weekend for the eagerly awaited season curtain-raiser.
The 17-year-old, from Tokyo, will drive Hillspeed’s second GB3 Championship car during rounds one, two and three of the new season on Saturday, 26th April, and Sunday, 27th April, following two days of pre-event testing at the Northamptonshire track.
Le will team-up with the already announced Freddie Slater, and the Markham Vale team will also officially confirm a third driver for the season-opening GB3 race meeting in due course. Hillspeed is, of course, looking to make a strong start to the new era of GB3 with the game-changing MSV GB3-025 car.
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 at 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:
“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.”
Richard Ollerenshaw – Hillspeed Team Principal:
“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.”
The first qualifying session of the new GB3 season is set to begin at 10.40 on Saturday with the opening race of 2025 provisionally scheduled to begin at 15.07 later that day. On Sunday, rounds two and three are timetabled to commence at 09.57 and 15.45. Watch all of the racing live at www.gb-3.net
