Richards Believes Sato will Get a Podium this Year

Japan's Takuma Sato will follow BAR teammate Jenson Button on to the Formula One podium before the season is out, according to team head David Richards.

"I feel sorry for Taku because he is also trying very hard and it's not coming to him," Richards said after Button had taken his third successive podium with a career-best second place in Sunday's San Marino Grand Prix.

Sato had been in eighth place before his engine failed six laps from the end.

"Luck changes and the luck will change for Taku. He has the speed, he has the intelligence, he has the whole approach to it," said Richards. "You're going to see Taku on the podium before the end of the year, that I promise you."

Sato, in his first full season with BAR after one year at Jordan in 2002, has scored four points this season compared to Button's 23.

Richards said after last month's Malaysian Grand Prix that he wanted to help the driver "raise his game". "I told him the way I play golf is the way he drives a car," he said at the time. "I take the club and really lash the ball and think I can hit it further than anyone else.

"In this business you have to let the car do the work. But I think we can work on that together and find ways of improving. We've got a very clear strategy towards it."