Super Aguri F1 Team
| Season: | 2006 | | | | Address: | SUPER AGURI F1 Limited (U.K. Factory)
Emma Bearpark
Press Officer and Driver Liaison
Leafield Technical Centre,
Langley, Witney, Oxfordshire, OX29 9EF, UK
Phone: +44 (0)1993 87 1600
Facsimile: +44 (0)1993 87 1702 | | | | Country: | Great-Britain | | | | Constructor: | Super Aguri | | |
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What can be said about Super Aguri's 2006 season? No points, four drivers, a four year old car?
The Honda-backed team, seemingly created just to keep
BAR-reject
Takuma Sato in the sport, probably had every right to be ridiculed pre-season. The Japanese squad had apparently not learnt from others mistakes; having only announced their presence in December many thought they would go the way of Lola Mastercard.
Toyota had a whole year preparing for their debut season, and they seemed to be doing well enough.
Having purchased a few
Arrows A22's from the 2002 season, Super Aguri were seen to be sitting ducks. In Bahrain the cars were four seconds off the pace. It didn't improve much in Malaysia or Australia. It didn't help that the team were insistent on running an all-Japanese squad. Second driver
Yuji Ide was clearly not good enough.
It all reached a head in Imola, where Ide sent Midland's
Christijan Albers into a spectacular roll on the first lap. This prompted the Dutchman to lambast the Aguri drivers for being over aggressive at the starts. He had a point.
And Aguri knew it. The team dumped Ide and at the same time their all-Japanese dream, at least for now. The talented but ignored Frenchman
Franck Montagny was brought in to partner Sato. He got plenty closer to Taku than Ide ever did. The team was getting more competitive too, but still it was the worst car on the grid.
The team introduced it's own car, the SA06, at Hockenheim, and at the same time brought in
Sakon Yamamoto to replace Montagny. Yamamoto's early F1 career was disappointing, failing to complete a lap in either of his first two races. But there was gradual improvements, both in his own performances and the teams'.
Come the final race in Brazil, both Yamamoto and Sato set laps in the top ten fastest lap times over the course of the race. They still hadn't scored a point, but it was a good debut season. The team's ridicule was no longer there, Sato had gone part of the way to recovering his reputation, and Yamamoto had achieved hero status amongst F1DB members.
Statistics
| Statistic | # | Percentage | First | Last |
| Number of Grand Prix | 36 | 100% |  2006 |  2006 |
| Number of starts | 36 | 100.00% | 2006 | 2006 |
| Number of finishes | 18 | 50.00% | 2006 | 2006 |
| Number of retirements | 18 | 50.00% | 2006 |  2006 |
