Takuma Sato
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| Missing image Sato_usgp_2004.jpg Takuma Sato celebrates his first F1 podium at the 2004 USGP |
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.
Takuma_Sato_smiling.jpg
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.
Takuma_Sato.jpg
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 |
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