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Far and away Japan’s most successful Formula One driver, Takuma Sato is in fact one of only two Japanese racers to have graced a Grand Prix podium. His pure speed has left many a rival in awe, even if they weren’t always as impressed by his race craft, which over the years has featured its fair share of do-or-die passing manoeuvres. Indeed, it is Sato’s exciting style - combined with his amiable paddock persona - that has won him a legion of loyal fans not just in his F1-obsessed homeland, but all around the world.
Born in Tokyo in 1977, Sato’s racing career began on two wheels. As a teenager he was a keen cyclist, but he soon craved something more powerful and in 1996 scraped together the money to buy a kart. With it he entered - and won - Honda’s Suzuka Racing School Scholarship. Bizarrely, he turned down the prize - a paid-up drive in the Japanese Formula Three series - and instead headed to Europe, convinced that was where he had to be if he was to have a chance to make it to Formula One level.
In mid 1998 he made his single-seater debut at the UK’s Snetterton circuit, the first of several Formula Vauxhall Junior outings with Diamond Racing, before graduating to Formula Opel with the same team. His first full season in 1999 brought him sixth place in the highly-competitive EFDA Formula Opel Euroseries. He also got his first taste of the British Formula Three championship and won the AF2000 support race at the Macau Grand Prix. The reward for his year’s work was a full-time British F3 seat for 2000 with Carlin Motorsport.
Four wins took him to third place in the championship and he was also victorious in the Spa round of the French F3 series. It was enough to catch the eye of more than one Formula One team boss and in December he tested for both Jordan and BAR. The latter signed him up as official tester for 2001, marking the beginning of Sato’s long contractual relationship with Honda, then engine suppliers to BAR.
In addition to F1 testing he continued to race, dominating F3, both nationally and internationally. He swept to the British title, with a record 12 wins from 13 races, took victory in the Marlboro Masters at Zandvoort and the international support race at the British Grand Prix. To cap it all, he cleared up in November’s Macau Grand Prix, by which time he had already been signed to a Formula One race drive with Jordan for 2002.
Sato endured a difficult debut season, but one which ended in style when he scored his maiden points with fifth place at the final round, which fittingly was his home race at Suzuka. It wasn’t enough to keep him his seat, though, and he moved to BAR and a third driver role for 2003. He did get one race outing - again in Japan - substituting for Jacques Villeneuve, scoring again with a strong sixth place. He kept the seat for the following season and his timing could not have been better - after a difficult gestation period, BAR finally hit their stride in 2004 and Sato took full advantage, accumulating 34 points, scoring his first podium at the US Grand Prix and securing his first front-row grid slot. He finished a career-best eighth in the standings, as BAR took the runners-up slot behind champions Ferrari.
Unfortunately, BAR were unable to maintain their momentum and fell off the pace in 2005. Sato scored just a single point, at the Hungarian Grand Prix, and was disqualified from his home race for causing a collision. With Rubens Barrichello signed to partner Jenson Button for 2006, it looked like it could be Sato’s last Formula One season. But then came Super Aguri.
The new Honda-powered team, set up by former racer Aguri Suzuki (coincidentally the only other Japanese driver to score a Formula One podium) was Sato’s lifeline - some sceptics even suggested that was its sole purpose. He grabbed it with characteristic enthusiasm. With a seriously outdated car, the team were woefully off the pace to begin with, but when a revised machine arrived later in the year, Sato made the most of it, finishing a triumphant tenth at the final round in Brazil.
For 2007, Sato had an all-new car at his disposal and was joined by his former team mate Anthony Davidson. They fought tooth and nail back in their F3 days, and Davidson’s presence proved to be just what Sato needed to spur him on to bigger and better things with Super Aguri. He secured a top-ten grid slot at the season opener in Australia and then scored the team's maiden point in Spain, adding another three in Canada. If the team's rapid rise continues in '08, another Sato podium is perhaps not totally out of the question.
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