Kotaro Shimbara (新原 光太郎, Shinbara Kōtarō, born 12 April 2004) is a Japanese racing driver who currently races in the F4 Japanese Championship.

[1] Shimbara made his racing debut in 2021 race in F4 Japan with TOM'S backed RSS team from the third round onwards.

[2] He made his full season debut in Japanese F4 with Zap Speed in 2022.

He finished twentieth [3][4][5][6]in the standings with one podium.

For 2025, he will stay in the series, moving to HFDP with B-Max Racing Team after winning the Honda Racing School scholarship with Rintaro Sato.