Takuma Sato

Birthdate: January 28th 1977   Country: Japan   Gender: M

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History: 1997 -  Karting Champion - Honda Suzuka Racing School Scholarship, winning a fully paid drive in the 1998 All-Japan Formula 3 Championship. 1998 -  Car racing debut at Snetterton in the Formula Vauxhall Junior championship, graduating to Formula Opel at the end of the year, both with Diamond Racing. 1999 -  EFDA Formula Opel Euroseries – competed in selected rounds, winning the opening race of the season at Donington. Finished 6th place in the championship. Moved to British F3 Championship in Class B mid-season with Diamond Racing. 2000 -  British F3 – Carlin Motorsport. Victory at 4 championship races and won the Spa round of the French F3 championship. Finished 3rd in the championship. 2001 -  British F3 Champion – Carlin Motorsport. 12 race wins, as well as victories in the Marlboro Masters of F3 at Zandvoort and the International F3 race supporting the British Grand Prix. F1 Test Driver for British American Racing. 2002 -  F1 debut with Jordan Grand Prix. 2003 -  Formula 1: Lucky Strike BAR Honda, 3 points 2004 -  Formula 1: Lucky Strike BAR Honda, 34 points (1 podium finish)

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The ‘Kamikaze Kid’ of Formula One is none other than the small Japanese Takuma Sato. With his exuberant overtaking manouvres and forceful driving antics we are either praising him, or shaking our heads with laughter ‘Sato, Sato, Sato’.

Starting his Formula One career with the less than shabby Jordan EJ12 he experienced a hard season, not only battling the Jordan, but Sato was up against a highly experienced Formula One driver in Giancarlo Fisichella who blew him away all season long. However Sato shone at the right moment, out-qualifying Fisichella at his home Grand Prix and then scoring his first ever World Championship points, much to the delight of Honda who supplied Jordan with engines that year, and the home crowd. Sato was a hero that day.

However, it was too little too late as Sato took a back seat in Formula One for 2003. But when news reached that Sato would be filling in for Jacques Villeneuve at BAR in the final Grand Prix of the year, Japan, Suzuka, we really wondered how he would perform. Yet, Sato improved on his result of 2002 in the Jordan. He out-qualified season driver Jenson Button, then outraced him to finish 5th in the race and on the same lap as the leaders, unlike Button.

Sato was then elevated to a full time driver in 2004 at BAR. However with 7 retirements, 6 of those coming from engine failures he was unable to match his team-mate Button who finished 3rd in the World Championship that year. But, we were not without excitement from the exuberant Sato. Who banged wheels with Michael Schumacher at of all tracks Monaco, an engine failure or his causing a Fisichella roll-over in the same race. He also ended his own hopes of his first ever podium after a rather ‘childish’ attempt on Rubens Barrichello late in the race at the European Grand Prix. He was also tagged a ‘ragged’ driver by his own team-mate.

But to the delight of most Formula One fans, especially the Japanese, he finally secured his first ever podium at the United States Grand Prix that year. Not only was this Sato’s first podium finish, but it was a first for a Japanese driver, in a Japanese make, in a Japanese engine. All we needed was it to be in Japan. Which mind you, almost came as Sato once again kept his perfect record of scoring points when he finished fourth.

Sato’s current season has been overwhelmed by BAR controversy. First at Melbourne when they withdrew their cars late in the race to eliminate them from having to keep their engines at Malaysia (not that it did any good). For Sato he was not present at Malaysia due to the flu. Coming back at Bahrain, Sato was able to pace his team-mate Button early in the race and held position till the first pit-stop, unfortunately his brakes were unable to stop his car and he was forced to retire.

Then came Imola. For Sato he once again took the background of discussion as BAR cheated their way to good results. After finishing fifth (team-mate Button took third), the fueltank was found to be illegal, leaving the FIA with no choice but too implement a two race ban. From their return at the European Grand Prix, Sato has been unable to show us was he is really capable of, but he is still showing us he is the same driver with those exuberant overtaking manoeuvres which were evident at France.

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Statistics

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Statistic	#	Percentage	First	Last
Number of Grand Prix	91	100%	2002	2008
Number of starts	91	100.00%	2002	2008
Number of finishes	61	67.03%	2002	2008
Number of finishes on podium	1	1.10%	2004	2004
Number of finishes in points	14	15.38%	2002	2007
Number of retirements	30	32.97%	2002	2008

Seasons:	7 (2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008)
Leading:	1 times during 2 laps in 1 Grand Prix with a total of 10.292 Km
Points:	44 (Average per start: 0.48)
	Points per season - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 2 3 34 1 0 4 0 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
Team:	DHL Jordan Honda (2002), Lucky Strike BAR Honda (2003), Lucky Strike BAR Honda (2004), Lucky Strike BAR Honda (2005), Super Aguri F1 Team (2006), Super Aguri F1 Team (2007), Super Aguri F1 Team (2008)
Chassis:	Jordan EJ12 (2002), BAR 005 (2003), BAR 006 (2004), BAR 007 (2005), SA05 (2006), Super Aguri SA07 (2007), Super Aguri SA08 (2008)
Engine:	Honda RA002E (2002), Honda RA003e (2003), Honda RA004e (2004), Honda RA005e (2005), Toyota RVX-06 (2006), Honda RA807E (2007), Honda RA808E (2008)