Takuma Sato

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Sato_usgp_2004.jpg
Takuma Sato celebrates his first F1 podium at the 2004 USGP

Template:F1 driver

Takuma Sato (佐藤 琢磨 Satō Takuma), born January 28, 1977, is a Japanese Formula One automobile racing driver.

Unusually, Takuma (Taku) has very little racing experience in his native country. Although he began his karting career in Japan, 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.

In 2002 Taku graduated to Formula One, aided by backing from Honda to secure a ride with Jordan. In Formula One, Sato proved to be fast but extremely erratic and prone to crashes, his low point being a tremendous crash at Monaco which destroyed both his car and that of Nick Heidfeld. The season ended well however, Sato managing to finish in the points at the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka, his home race.

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In 2003, 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 in 1990) 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), but nevertheless Sato finished the 2004 season a respectable eighth (with 34 points), helping BAR to an impressive second place in the constructors championship.

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Takuma_Sato.jpg
Sato at an autograph session at the 2005 United States Grand Prix

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 British American Racing article).


Complete Formula One results

(Note: grands prix in bold denote points scoring races.)

Yr Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Team
2002 Jord AUS MAL BRA SAN SPA AUT MON CAN EUR GBR FRA DEU HUN BEL ITA USA JPN     Jord
2003 BAR AUS MAL BRA SAN SPA AUT MON CAN EUR FRA GBR DEU HUN ITA USA JPN       BAR
2004 BAR AUS MAL BAH SAN SPA MON EUR CAN USA FRA GBR DEU HUN BEL ITA CHN JPN BRA   BAR
2005 BAR AUS MAL BAH SAN SPA MON EUR CAN USA FRA GBR DEU HUN TUR ITA BEL BRA JPN CHN BAR

External link

Takuma Sato's official website (http://www.takumasato.com/)


Constructors and drivers competing in the 2005 Formula One championship:
Ferrari BAR Renault Williams McLaren Sauber Red Bull Toyota Jordan Minardi
1 M Schumacher
2 Barrichello
3 Button
4 Sato
5 Alonso
6 Fisichella
7 Webber
8 Heidfeld
9 Räikkönen
10 Montoya
11 Villeneuve
12 Massa
14 Coulthard
15 Klien
16 Trulli
17 R Schumacher
18 Monteiro
19 Karthikeyan
20 Friesacher
21 Albers
de:Takuma Sato

et:Takuma Satō fi:Takuma Sato fr:Takuma Sato it:Takuma Sato ja:佐藤琢磨 nl:Takuma Sato pl:Takuma Sato sv:Takuma Sato zh:佐藤琢磨

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