It was almost inevitable that our reserve driver would take up racing, as both his parents and his grandfather used to compete in their native Japan. Ayumu first got behind the wheel of a kart at the tender age of four and started racing competitively when he was 14, winning the 2014 Suzuka Karting Championship Yamaha-SS Class and the Suzuka Karting Championship x-30 class titles.

The step up to single-seaters came in 2017, competing in the Japanese Formula Four championship and the Asian Formula Renault Series. In 2019, he won the Suzuka Racing School’s Single Seater Series and these impressive early performances landed him a place in the Honda Junior Driver programme for 2020. He was sent overseas for the first time, proving to be streets ahead of his fellow competitors in that year’s French F4 Championship, taking the title with a whopping 81-point lead over the rest of the field. He had certainly got himself noticed and was snapped up to join the Red Bull Junior Team at the start of 2021.

Under Red Bull’s wing, Ayumu raced in the Asian and FIA Formula Three Championships in 2021, taking his maiden victory in the category at the Hungaroring. He took part in the end of season Formula Two test in Abu Dhabi for the French DAMS team, who signed him up for the 2022 F2 Championship.

In no time at all, Ayumu proved to be at ease in Formula One’s feeder series, taking two wins, in France and the UAE and, along with a further four podium placings, he ended the year 5th in the Championship. He finished one place higher in 2023, winning the Sprint Races in Jeddah and Monaco and the Feature Race in Melbourne.

In 2024 he raced in Japan’s highly competitive Super Formula, driving for Team Mugen. He ended the year in 5th place with three podium finishes and for 2025, he combines his VCARB reserve driver duties with his second Super Formula season, again with Team Mugen.