Marino Sato

Marino Sato (佐藤 万璃音 in Japanese; born 12 May 1999 in Tokyo, Kantō, Japan) is a Japanese racing driver, who competed for Trident in the 2020 FIA Formula 2 Championship. Sato would move to F2 during the 2019 season while leading the Euroformula Open Championship, completing the 2019 campaign with Campos Racing although he failed to score.

Despite failing to score in his 2019 cameo, Sato secured a move to Trident for the 2020 season, partnering Roy Nissany for his first full F2 campaign. It would, however, prove to be a difficult sophomore season for the Japanese racer, with Sato only claiming a single point across the condensed season.

Background
Sato began karting in 2011, spending four seasons racing across Japan before graduating to his maiden single-seater series in 2015, joining the Italian F4 Championship. The Japanese racer would score a single podium and tenth place in his maiden F4 campaign, earning him a second season in the Series. However, in-spite of claiming his first win Sato would only score 42 points and eighteenth in the Championship, although he still secured a seat in the FIA Formula 3 European Championship in 2017.

F3 Foundations
Sato's maiden F3 campaign saw him finish nineteenth in the Championship with a single point, having run as the third car Motopark for the full season. He also made an unsuccessful debut in the Macau Grand Prix, but secured a seat in European F3 for 2018. The Japanese racer duly improved to sixteenth in the Championship with 31.5 points, although he would once again retire from the Macau Grand Prix at the end of the season.

For 2019 Sato would remain in the F3 format with a move to the Euroformula Open Championship, and would quickly emerge a title contender. Indeed, a strong season saw Sato claim the crown with nine wins and 309 points, earning him the attention of the F2 paddock mid-season.

Formula Two History
Sato would get the chance to join the 2019 FIA Formula 2 Championship midway through the season, replacing Arjun Maini at the 2019 Spa Feature Race after the Indian racer was busy racing in the ELMS. However, after the fatal accident of Anthoine Hubert, the Japanese racer would not officially make his F2 debut until the 2019 Monza Feature Race, finishing twelfth overall. He duly improved to eleventh in the Sprint, before having a pointless pair of races in Sochi.

Two more pointless races followed at the end of the season, although Sato would briefly challenge for points in the season finale in Yas Marina. He hence finished his partial campaign in 21st place with 0 points, but secured a seat in the 2019 Yas Marina Test.

Trident Targets: 2020
Sato would move into the F2 Championship full time for the 2020 season, partnering Roy Nissany at the Trident squad ahead of the season opener in Bahrain. However, as a result of the 2020 Covid-19 Pandemic, Sato would have to wait until July to make his F2 debut for Trident, which saw him retire after just two laps in the 2020 Red Bull Ring Feature Race with a mechanical failure. The corresponding Sprint saw Sato gamble on making a mid-race stop for fresh tyres, although that was not enough for him to threaten the points.

A week later Sato would again fail to threaten the points in the Spielberg round, this time finishing the Feature in sixteenth before retiring with a mechanical failure in the Sprint. It was a similar story in the Hungaroring meeting too, with Sato getting taken out at the start by teammate Nissany as the Israeli jinked to avoid Nikita Mazepin as the field hit the brakes for turn one. The Japanese racer would have a better time of things at the Silverstone meeting, with Sato getting his best finish of the campaign to that point with twelfth in the Sprint Race.

Another pair of pointless weekends for Sato at the Anniversary and Barcelona rounds, with Sato again failing to threaten the points throughout. There would be some improvement for Sato at the 2020 Spa Sprint Race, with the Japanese racer fighting for minor points before being taken out by Jehan Daruvala in the middle of a train behind Dan Ticktum. However, Sato would return to the back of the field at the Monza meeting, failing to threaten the points once again.

However, a week later Sato would finally manage to claim his maiden F2 point, storming up the field in the 2020 Mugello Sprint Race after stopping for soft tyres to claim eighth. That, however, would be the best of Sato's season, with the Japanese racer remaining little more than a footnote outside of the points at the final three rounds. As a result, Sato would end the campaign in 22nd in the Championship with a solitary point three behind teammate Nissany.

Post Formula Two Career
At the end of the 2020 season Sato was given his first chance to drive a Formula One car, as Scuderia Alpha Tauri placed him in one of their cars for the 2020 Yas Marina Test which was designed to give young drivers a taste of an F1 car.

Full Formula Two Record
Shown below are a series of tables outlining 's career in Formula Two in statistical form.

Formula Two Entries
The list below includes all of the teams and cars, as well as overall finishing positions for during their F2 career:

Career Results
Below is a table showing 's full Formula Two record.


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