Youji Ueda

In Japanese, the full name is read Ueda Youji. This article uses Western naming order for all persons mentioned outside of quotes.

Youji Ueda (Japanese: 植田燿司; born June 20 2000), given name also romanized as Yōji or occasionally Yoji, is a Japanese racing driver who competed in Formula One for Kanemoto Motors, Honda, Ferrari, and Toyota.^{[1][2][3][4][5]} He currently drives in the GT500 class of the Autobacs Super GT Series, the Super Formula, the Japanese Grand Prix, and the World Championship Grand Prix.^[1][6][7] Ueda has a record eight World Drivers' Championship titles and holds the records for the most wins (106), pole positions (71), podium finishes (155), and number of total fastest laps (77), among others.^[1][6] Additionally, Ueda is known for being Hope's Peak University's 12th Ultimate Race Car Driver.^[1][8][9]

Early Life

Ueda was born in Nagano City of Nagano Prefecture to his parents, Akiko Ueda and Daisuke Ueda, a nurse and office worker respectively, as the youngest of three.^[1][10] Ueda had a fairly unremarkable childhood and eventually engaged in underground street racing in 2018 when he was 18.^[10] Not much is known about this period aside from a horrific pile-up accident on April 18th, 2018 that resulted in Ueda, among six others, being hospitalized.^[11]

Ueda was the first to suffer from the accident, reportedly being hit in a tailspin by a fellow competitor's vehicle at high speeds. The six fellow racers subsequently hit Ueda and the driver's cars, leading to a pile up that suspended the race entirely and put all competitors out of commission. Following hospitalization, five of the eight competitors from that race declared it to be the official end to their racing careers and retired from the practice.^[11] Ueda, however, used the publicity from the event to push himself into professional racing rather than retirement or continuing with underground tournaments in January 2019.^[10][11] Ueda has thanked his fans from the time for aiding in his career advancement and the offers that came with it.^[10]

Career and Accomplishments

Following his recovery, Ueda's professional career started in 2020, when he enrolled in Toyota's Driver Academy and began open wheel racing.^[11] His next step was Formula Renault, entering the Asian, German, Italian and Dutch championships and taking two race victories in the Italian championship. Ueda continued in the Formula Renault class, entering the Italian and European championships and with six wins in both championships, he won both titles.^[1][11][12]

In 2020, Ueda entered the Formula 3 Euro Series with ASM Formule 3 alongside Paul di Giusta, Jan van der Garde and Sebastien Bosch. He took first place three consecutive times in his debut season, coming first in the Drivers' Championship and first in the Rookie's Championship. Ueda also entered the Macau Grand Prix and the Masters of Formula 3, which are annual Formula Three events.^[1][12] Ueda started in 4th place and finished the race a place higher at 3rd, while at the Macau Grand Prix, he started the race in pole position but finished in 2nd place.^[1]

At the beginning of 2021, Ueda was named as one of the Toyota Formula One team's test drivers.^[1][12] He stayed in the Euro Series for the upcoming season and had an impressive start, taking two podiums in the first four rounds. He achieved his first race victory in Formula 3 at Magny-Cours in the tenth round, a support race for the Formula One French Grand Prix. Ueda finished first in the Drivers' Championship.^[1]

Following a successful GP2 Asia Series campaign in early 2021, Ueda won his first GP2 Series race in only the second race of the season. After a strong start from pole in the sprint race at the Circuit de Catalunya, Ueda took the checkered flag in first place.^[1]

On May 3rd, it was confirmed that Ueda would replace the departing Frank Montague as the Toyota F1 team's second driver. Ueda made his Formula One debut at the 2022 Brazilian Grand Prix, following a complication to teammate Kyle Gloucester's injury that was initially not detected.^[1][12][13]

He qualified 7th in a chaotic session that lasted for half a year and was red-flagged twice due to accidents caused by torrential rain.^[1][12] Early in the race, while running in sixth place, he held off for several laps as a challenge by James Button, who needed to finish well to clinch the World Championship. He finished the race in tenth place, and was later promoted to ninth when Heikki Kovalainen was penalized.^[1] Button jokingly described Ueda as "absolutely crazy, very aggressive".^[14]

He also competed in the 2022 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, as Gloucester's injury had not healed sufficiently.^[1][12] Ueda qualified 7th and finished 3rd, scoring his first World Championship points, in the inaugural day-night race in Abu Dhabi.^[1] Following his qualification, Ueda took the checkered flag in first place at the World Championship Grand Prix, being the first Japanese racer ever to do so.^{[1][12][15][16][17]}

Social Media Presence

Ueda has a strong social media presence, well known online for his loyal fanbase and frequent posting. Ueda's name was once reported to be #1 in Trending on Twitter Japan for an entire 96 hours following his World Championship victory, and his name has repeatedly shown up in the top ten for Japan.^[18]

Acceptance to Hope's Peak University

Ueda's impressive career and win of the World Championship Grand Prix resulted in an invitation being extended by Hope's Peak University to attend as the Ultimate Race Car Driver in 2019.^[19] Ueda accepted the invitation shortly after it was extended, and is now in his fourth year at Hope's Peak University as of October 1st, 2023.^[1][9]

Guy Masson

In July 2021, Ueda met his fellow Ultimate, Guy Masson, at a bar. In a livestream with his followers, Ueda confessed that he was drunk when they met, but that there was "an immediate attraction to [him]".^[20][21] Shortly thereafter, in September 2021, the two officially announced that they were dating.^[21][22] Followers of Ueda were shocked at the announcement, and while opinions towards Masson shifted to being positive over time, initially most of the material surrounding him revolved around who he even was.

Regardless, in November 2021, Ueda decided to take their relationship to the next level with a public proposal at Abazu Kadowaki before a live audience.^[21][23] Masson accepted the proposal and the two were wed the next year in March 2022 in Paris, France.^[21][24][25] During the time of their marriage, Masson's name and reputation became more widespread as he would occasionally appear in Ueda's social media content, and the couple name, "Youguy" even reached the top 10 trending tags on Twitter for Japan and France after a few events.^[18][21][26]

However, in August 2022, the couple announced that they would be getting divorced.^[21][27] Masson did not officially or physically appear in any of Ueda's content following the announcement, though Ueda did reference his ex-husband and the divorce occasionally in conversations with his followers, Tweets, and livestreams. In February 2023, the divorce was officiated by Luna Rozario Maria-Luisa de Leon in Paris, France.^[21][28]

References

Name:	Youji Ueda
Ultimate:	Race Car Driver
Age:	23
Birthday:	June 20, 2000
Pronouns:	He/Him
Class Number:	125
Nationality:	Japanese
Height:	183 cm, 6'0"
Weight:	73 kg, 160 lbs