Taito Kato: 'We can win the Feature Races' after impressing in Madrid so far

ART Grand Prix's Taito Kato is thriving around the challenging Madring circuit, as the Japanese driver came from P12 on the Sprint Race grid to secure points.

Kato pulled off a brave overtake at Turn 5, rounding MP Motorsport's Tuukka Taponen for P10, before gaining another position once Enzo Delingy’s 10-second time penalty took effect.

Reflecting on his race, the Honda Formula Dream Project driver said he was happy with the overtake and added points to his 2026 tally.

"I think it was really great. Overall, really difficult to overtake here and I think you saw that in the race. There was no overtaking point, and really difficult to overtake the car in front, even with DRS.

"We had a good start and gained some points. I was able to overtake Pedro and then at that point, I was P11. Then, Lap 12 or 13 I was able to overtake Tuukka in front because he didn't have DRS.

"I had good top speed, I could go side-by-side into T5 and then brake later to move in front. But it was really tough to be honest. But happy to finally have gained the position."

Kato was one of the few overtakes in what was a tricky Sprint around the Madring. The ART driver said that the race was hugely important in terms of building data ahead of the first Feature Race on Saturday evening, and Sunday morning.

He added that he will need to work very hard with the team both during and after the race in order to extract the maximum performance in Sunday's event, as he targets a final round leap up to third in the Drivers' Championship.

"It's going to be the same situation in the two Feature Races I guess. I will just focus on the tyre saving and also managing the gap in front and behind.

"Good communication with the engineers. When you have to close or not because we need to get some data for the other Feature Race.

"So we need to get clean air. Because we start in P1 in the Feature Race, and P4 in the other Feature too. I think it's quite a different story as it was a Sprint Race. So we can gather as much data as we can.

"We had really good data from the Sprint Race. So I think we have really good car performance and good confidence for the two races.

"For sure we can get another win. We have a really good mindset from the Monza. Obviously, it was a mighty weekend in Monza. But still, I couldn't win the Feature Race. So I think this time the target is to win in the Feature."