Yu Kuai (; born 28 January 2001 in

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

), also known as James Yu, is a Chinese racing driver who last raced for

Audi Sport {{Commons category, World Rally Championship teams Teams A team is a group of individuals (human or non-human) working together to achieve their goal. As defined by Professor Leigh Thompson (academic), Leigh Thompson of the Kellogg School of ...

Asia Team Absolute in

GT World Challenge Asia The GT World Challenge Asia (formerly Blancpain GT Series Asia and Blancpain GT World Challenge Asia) is a Grand tourer, GT series motor racing competition promoted by the Stéphane Ratel Organisation and organized by Team Asia One GT Management. ...

. He is the 2023 Sepang 12 Hours winner and is also an Audi Sport Asia Young Driver.

Early career

Born in

, Yu moved to Japan in 2011 to start his karting career, where he competed against

Yuki Tsunoda is a Japanese racing driver who competes in Formula One for Red Bull Racing. Born in Sagamihara and raised in Tokyo, Tsunoda began competitive kart racing aged nine. Supported by Honda since 2016 through the , Tsunoda graduated to junior formu ...

Marino Sato is a Japanese people, Japanese Motorsport, racing driver who currently competes for United Autosports in the FIA World Endurance Championship and in the European Le Mans Series. He is the 2019 Euroformula Open Championship, 2019 Euroformula Ope ...

and

Nirei Fukuzumi is a Japanese racing driver affiliated with Toyota Gazoo Racing who currently competes in Super GT for Rookie Racing, ROOKIE Racing and in Super Formula Championship, Super Formula for KC Motorgroup, KCMG. He won the GT300 class championship in S ...

. Stepping up to single-seaters in 2016, Yu competed in

Formula Masters China Formula Masters China, FMCS () (previously known as Formula Pilota China), was a single-seater racing series based in Asia. The series was created in 2011 after the success of the Formula Abarth championship that was created a year before. Eve ...

for two years, in which he scored four wins which all came in 2017, three of which at the second

Sepang Pekan Sepang is a small border town and also a mukim in Sepang District, Selangor Selangor ( ; ), also known by the Arabic language, Arabic honorific Darul Ehsan, or "Abode of Sincerity", is one of the 13 states of Malaysia. It is on t ...

round and the fourth win came at

Zhuhai Zhuhai; Yale romanization of Cantonese, Yale: ''Jyūhói''; Chinese postal romanization, also known as Chuhai is a prefecture-level city located on the west bank of the Pearl River (China), Pearl River estuary on the central coast of southern ...

on his way to finishing fourth in the standings. At the start of 2018, Yu joined Chase Owen Racing to compete in the

2018 F3 Asian Championship The 2018 F3 Asian Championship was a multi-event, Formula Three, Formula 3 Open-wheel car, open-wheel single seater Motorsport, motor racing championship held across Asia. The championship features a mix of professional and amateur drivers, compe ...

. Switching to Zen Motorsport for the rest of the season, Yu stayed with them as he returned to the series for two more seasons, where he scored a pole position at

in 2019–20 but never scored a podium in his three-year tenure in the series. Following the 2019–20 F3 Asian Championship, Yu was given the opportunity by Han Songting to compete in the Chinese GT Championship. In 2021, Yu joined Team StarChase to compete in

Porsche Carrera Cup Asia Porsche Carrera Cup (sometimes abbreviated PCC) is a number of One-Design, one-make racing by Porsche premier series competed with, initially Porsche 911 Carrera Cup, then later Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars. The cars are specifically built by Porsc ...

. Yu scored his first win at

Ningbo Ningbo is a sub-provincial city in northeastern Zhejiang province, People's Republic of China. It comprises six urban districts, two satellite county-level cities, and two rural counties, including several islands in Hangzhou Bay and the Eas ...

and took two more wins at Zhuzhou to finish third in the standings.

GT career

2023

Yu began 2023 by winning the Sepang 12 Hours with Absolute Racing, and remained with them for his first full season in

, alongside Andrew Haryanto. In his first year in the series, Yu achieved his maiden win in GT3 competition at Motegi, and also scored his second win in the final round at

in race one after starting from pole. Yu ended the season eighth overall and sixth in the pro-am standings.

2024

Yu returned to

and Absolute Racing for the 2024 season, pairing up with

Akash Nandy Akash Neil Nandy (born 10 January 1997 in Kuala Lumpur) is a racing driver from Malaysia. He last competed in the 2019 F3 Asian Championship Winter Series, and has competed in the GP3 Series The GP3 Series, or GP3 for short, was a single- ...

. Scoring two poles in his second season in GT World Challenge Asia, Yu achieved his third overall win in the series at the penultimate round of the season at

Okayama is the prefectural capital, capital Cities of Japan, city of Okayama Prefecture in the Chūgoku region of Japan. The Okayama metropolitan area, centered around the city, has the largest urban employment zone in the Chugoku region of western J ...

in race one. At season's end, Yu was eighth overall and third in the Silver standings. At the end of 2024, Yu made his debut at Macau, racing in the FIA GT World Cup for Uno Racing Team. Yu finished 20th in his maiden outing at the street circuit.

Personal life

Alongside his racing commitments, Yu studies at

Keio University , abbreviated as or , is a private university, private research university located in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. It was originally established as a school for Rangaku, Western studies in 1858 in Edo. It was granted university status in 1920, becomi ...

Racing record

Racing career summary

Complete Formula Masters China results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

Complete F3 Asian Championship results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Yu, Kuai 2001 births Living people Chinese racing drivers Sportspeople from Shanghai Porsche Carrera Cup Asia drivers Formula Masters China drivers F3 Asian Championship drivers