Takuma Sato

Sato at an autograph session at the 2005 United States Grand Prix
Nationality Japanese
Formula One World Championship career
Active years	2002–2008
Teams	Jordan, BAR, Super Aguri
Races	93 (90 starts)
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	1
Career points	44
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First race	2002 Australian Grand Prix
Last race	2008 Spanish Grand Prix

Takuma Sato (佐藤 琢磨, Satō Takuma^?, born January 28, 1977 in Tokyo) is a Japanese Formula One automobile racing driver and the most successful Japanese F1 driver in history.

Junior Years

Sato is unusual among Japanese drivers in having relatively little motor racing experience in his native country. He initially competed in bicycle racing, where he won several national junior-championships.

He began his karting career in Japan in 1996, at the late age of 19, and later entered the Suzuka circuit Racing School (SRS), a racing school managed by Honda. In 1998, Sato stepped up into the All-Japan Formula Three Championship and drove for the Mugen-Dome project, but he broke his contract with the team in mid-season and moved to England 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 Three Championship at the end of 1999. In 2000 and 2001 he pursued full seasons in British Formula Three, finishing third in 2000 and winning the championship in 2001, and taking 16 wins over the two years. He also competed in international races at Spa-Francorchamps, Zandvoort, and Macau.

Promotion to Formula One

Jordan

In 2002 Sato graduated to Formula One with the Honda-powered Jordan team, and was paired with Giancarlo Fisichella. His low point was a tremendous crash at Austria, caused when Nick Heidfeld lost control of his Sauber under braking and hit the side of Sato's car, punching a hole in the side of the cockpit.¹ Sato suffered a minor concussion, and was unable to leave the car for several minutes because of his legs being stuck, but soon recovered. At the final race of the season, his home race, the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka Circuit, Sato scored his first points. He finished the 2002 season with 2 points, 5 points behind his teammate Fisichella. He managed to outqualify his more experienced teammate 4 times.

BAR

Takuma Sato celebrates his first and so far, only F1 podium at the 2004 USGP

In 2003, Sato moved to British American Racing (BAR), another Honda powered team, as a test driver, but drove the final race of the season at Suzuka in place of Jacques Villeneuve, finishing 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 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. Rumours in the paddock suggested that BAR were testing experimental parts on Sato's car; but these seem also to have been unfounded.^{citation needed} Nevertheless Sato finished the 2004 season eighth in the drivers' championship (with 34 points). Sato and his team mate Jenson Button took BAR to second place in the constructors' championship.

Sato (right) side-by-side with Jarno Trulli at the 2005 Canadian GP

Sato 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. Sato missed the Malaysian Grand Prix with illness, and the entire team and both drivers were disqualified from the San Marino Grand Prix and banned from the two subsequent races for using cars which were underweight when all fuel was removed. The Court did not find that this was deliberate.² (see British American Racing article).

Super Aguri

Sato at the 2006 United States Grand Prix.

Honda completed its takeover of BAR at the end of 2005, creating a works Honda team. Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello were announced as the race drivers for 2006, although Sato was offered the role of third driver. Instead he chose to drive for the new Super Aguri team, set up by Japanese former F1 driver Aguri Suzuki using Honda engines and updates of four-year-old Arrows chassis. Expectations were therefore very low. Early 2006 races saw Sato comfortably outpace rookie teammate Yuji Ide, continuing the trend with Ide's successors; Franck Montagny and Sakon Yamamoto. Sato went on to finish tenth at the 2006 Brazilian Grand Prix, ahead of his team-mate Yamamoto, Robert Doornbos' Red Bull, both Scuderia Toro Rossos and both MF1s.

Sato at the 2007 British Grand Prix.

Sato at the 2008 Malaysian Grand Prix.

Sato remained at Super Aguri for the 2007 season and was joined by Anthony Davidson who had previously been his team mate at Carlin Motorsport in British F3. Sato started the season strongly, setting the team's best ever qualifying result of tenth place for the championship-opening Australian Grand Prix. He finished eighth in the Spanish Grand Prix, to record Super Aguri's first ever world championship point.

At the Canadian Grand Prix, Sato finished sixth after having a race that had seen him move from the middle of the grid to a high of fifth, passing Ferrari's Kimi Räikkönen before a pit-stop error dropped him back to eleventh. He moved up five places in the last 15 laps, passing Toyota's Ralf Schumacher and then on lap 67 the McLaren-Mercedes of world champion Fernando Alonso (this was met with cheers around the track).³ Sato was voted "Driver of the Day" on the British ITV website, ahead of Briton Lewis Hamilton, who had won his first race. This was Sato's last points finish of the season. He finished 17th in the Drivers' Championship standings with four points, his best result since 2004 when he drove for BAR.

Sato stayed with Super Aguri for 2008, but the team was in severe financial difficulty and withdrew from F1 with immediate effect in the week before the Turkish Grand Prix after the failure of several rescue packages.

Future

In late 2008, Sato took part in tests at Jerez with Scuderia Toro Rosso, to become a candidate to fill the seat vacated by Sebastian Vettel. He was competing against current Toro Rosso driver Sébastien Bourdais and Red Bull Racing test and reserve driver Sébastien Buemi for one of the two race seats.⁴ He first drove on September 18, more than four months since Super Aguri's withdrawal, and tested for the team again for two days in November, setting the fastest time on the 17th,⁵ 3 tenths ahead of Buemi, and proceeded by setting the second-fastest time on the 18th,⁶ just ahead of Bourdais, and two tenths ahead of Buemi.

Sébastien Bourdais eventually won the race seat and in March 2009 it was announced that Sato would not be the reserve driver for the Red Bull team. ⁷ He subsequently spent 2009 on the sidelines, but stated in October that he was talking to both active and incoming Formula One teams about a drive for 2010. He also visited the Indianapolis 500 in May 2009 and on February 6, 2010 it was reported that Sato signed a contract with KV Racing Technology to drive in the IZOD IndyCar Series for the 2010 season.

Personal life

Sato is married to Chiharu, and has two children: a son (born 2005) and a daughter (born 2008).⁸

Racing record

Career summary

Complete Formula One results

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

See also

• List of Japanese people
• Andrew Gilbert-Scott - his manager since his Junior Formula career in Europe

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Takuma Sato

• Takuma Sato's official website
• Takuma Sato career statistics
• Takuma Sato Racing Simulation Seat

References