TAKUMA SATO

is a Japanese Formula One automobile racing driver.

Contents

Junior Years

Promotion to Formula One

Jordan

BAR

BAR to Super Aguri

2006

2007

Complete Formula One results

See also

External links

Junior Years

Unusually, Takuma (Taku) has very little racing experience in his native country. Although he began his karting career in Japan in 1996, Sato moved to England in 1998 to pursue a career in European racing. Through 1998 and 1999 he raced in Junior Formula races throughout the continent, moving to the British Formula 3 championship at the end of 1999. In 2000 and 2001 he pursued full seasons in British Formula 3, finishing third in 2000 and winning the championship in 2001, winning 16 races in the two years, plus international races at Spa-Francorchamps, Zandvoort, and Macau.

Promotion to Formula One

Jordan

In Taku graduated to Formula One, aided by backing from Honda to secure a ride with Jordan. In Formula One, Sato was not only outqualified completely by his teammate, Giancarlo Fisichella, but also showed to be very erratic and prone to crashes, his low point being a tremendous crash at Austria which destroyed both his car and that of Nick Heidfeld, though it should be said that it was Nick Heidfeld who caused the crash. Sato suffered a minor concussion, and was unable to leave the car for several minutes because of his legs being stuck, but recovered soon. The season ended well however, Sato managing to finish in the points at the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka Circuit, his home race.

BAR

In , Sato moved to British American Racing (BAR) as a test driver, but drove the final race of the season at Suzuka in place of Jacques Villeneuve and managed to finish sixth. In 2004 Sato drove full-time for BAR and regularly challenged for the top five positions, achieving the second-ever podium finish for a Japanese driver (after Aguri Suzuki at the 1990 Japanese Grand Prix) by finishing third at the United States Grand Prix. He also achieved a commendable second place in qualifying for the European Grand Prix, behind only Michael Schumacher. His overall points tally suffered due to a series of mechanical problems, particularly with his Honda engine. The lack of engine failures experienced by his team mate, Jenson Button led to suggestions that Sato's driving style was a significant factor in causing the engine failures. Rumours in the paddock suggested that BAR were testing experimental parts on Sato's car; but these seem to have been unfounded. Nevertheless Sato finished the 2004 season a respectable eighth (with 34 points), though there was a big difference from his teammate with 85 points, helping BAR to an impressive second place in the constructors' championship.

He was retained by BAR-Honda for the 2005 season but the 2005 car was not as close to the front of the pack as the previous year's design, and Sato then suffered further setbacks, first with an illness that caused him to miss the Malaysian Grand Prix, then with the entire team being disqualified from the San Marino Grand Prix as well as banned from the two subsequent GPs for alleged cheating (more information at article). In result, he was able to record only one point and was completely defeated by his teammate Button, who scored 37 points. Button even finished higher than Sato in every race of the year. Sato was also branded "wild" by both Michael Schumacher and Toyota chief Tsotumo Tsomita due to Sato's takeouts of Schumacher and Toyota driver Jarno Trulli in Canada and Belgium respectively. Due to Sato's poor results the team and therefore Honda, the second largest shareholder of the team at that time, had a decision to make regarding Sato's place in the team for the following year.
With BAR's announcement of Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello as their drivers for 2006, Sato's F1 career appeared doomed. However, hope remained with the fledgling Super Aguri F1 team.

BAR to Super Aguri

2006

After the 2005 season, Sato's reputation took a battering. Honda wanted to include him in the Honda team as the third driver (test driver), but he refused the offer and grabbed hold of a lifeline with the Super Aguri team. His expectations were very low and Sato had the chance to rebuild his career and gain more experience. Early 2006 races saw Taku comfortably outpace rookie teammate Yuji Ide, continuing the trend with Ide's successors; Franck Montagny and Sakon Yamamoto. Critics have also noted that there have been fewer signs of the erratic driving, which has previously blighted his driving. Although his erratic drives were few and far between, there was still the occasional ragged race such as his tangle with Tiago Monteiro at the USGP, and the Chinese GP where Sato held up Heidfeld leading to his disqualification. Sato went on with an impressive run to tenth at the 2006 Brazilian Grand Prix, ahead of his team-mate Yamamoto, Robert Doornbos' Red Bull, both Scuderia Toro Rossos and both MF1s.

2007

Sato remained at Super Aguri and was joined by his new team mate Anthony Davidson who also was joined in the British F3 era.
Sato started the season strongly, qualifying in tenth place for the championship-opening Australian Grand Prix. This represented the team's best-ever result in qualifying. He finished eighth in the Spanish Grand Prix, to record Super Aguri’s first ever world championship point.
His greatest moment came in the Canadian Grand Prix when Sato overtook the McLaren-Mercedes of world champion Fernando Alonso on lap 67 (this was meet with cheers around the track), just after overtaking Ralf Schumacher and having overtaken Ferrari's Kimi Räikkönen earlier in the race. He finished sixth after having a race that had seen him move from the middle of the grid; to the back of the pack and to a high of fifth before a pit-stop error caused him to move back to eleventh; where moved up 5 places in the last 15 laps. Sato was voted "Driver of the Day" on the ITV website over Lewis Hamilton's first win.

Complete Formula One results

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

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	WDC	Points
2002	DHL Jordan Honda	Jordan EJ12	Honda RA002E 3.0 V10	AUS Ret	MAL 9	BRA 9	SMR Ret	ESP Ret	AUT Ret	MON Ret	CAN 10	EUR 16	GBR Ret	FRA Ret	GER 8	HUN 10	BEL 11	ITA 12	USA 11	JPN 5			15th	2
2003	Lucky Strike BAR Honda	BAR 005	Honda RA003E 3.0 V10	AUS	MAL	BRA	SMR	ESP	AUT	MON	CAN	EUR	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN	ITA	USA	JPN 6				18th	3
2004	Lucky Strike BAR Honda	BAR 006	Honda RA004E 3.0 V10	AUS 9	MAL 15	BHR 5	SMR 16	ESP 5	MON Ret	EUR Ret	CAN Ret	USA 3	FRA Ret	GBR 11	GER 8	HUN 6	BEL Ret	ITA 4	CHN 6	JPN 4	BRA 6		8th	34
2005	Lucky Strike BAR Honda	BAR 007	Honda RA005E 3.0 V10	AUS 14	MAL	BHR Ret	SMR DSQ	ESP EX	MON EX	EUR 12	CAN Ret	USA DNS	FRA 11	GBR 16	GER 12	HUN 8	TUR 9	ITA 16	BEL Ret	BRA 10	JPN DSQ	CHN Ret	23rd	1
2006	Super Aguri F1 Team	Super Aguri SA05	Honda RA806E 2.4 V8	BHR 18	MAL 14	AUS 12	SMR Ret	EUR Ret	ESP 17	MON Ret	GBR 17	CAN 15	USA Ret	FRA Ret									23rd	0
		Super Aguri SA06	Honda RA806E 2.4 V8												GER Ret	HUN 13	TUR NC	ITA 16	CHN DSQ	JPN 15	BRA 10
2007	Super Aguri F1	Super Aguri SA07	Honda RA807E 2.4 V8	AUS 12	MAL 13	BHR Ret	ESP 8	MON 17	CAN 6	USA Ret	FRA 16	GBR 14	EUR Ret	HUN 15	TUR 18	ITA 16	BEL	JPN	CHN	BRA			15th ★	4 ★

★ Season in progress

See also

★ List of Japanese people

★ Andrew Gilbert-Scott - his manager since his Junior Formula career in Europe

External links

★ Takuma Sato's official website

★ Takuma Sato's profile and statistics

★ Takuma Sato career statistics

★ Takuma Sato F1 statistics