Sato a Fantastic Talent, Says Pollock

Japan's Takuma Sato is a fantastic talent likely to secure a Formula One drive sooner or later, BAR boss Craig Pollock said on Monday.

Sato, under contract to British American Racing (BAR) as a test driver, has just won the British Formula Three Championship. BAR have already confirmed Canadian Jacques Villeneuve, the 1997 World Champion, and Frenchman Olivier Panis for 2002 but are interested in the Japanese for the future.

However Pollock did not rule out Sato, who has two more years on his contract with BAR, seeking a drive elsewhere before 2003.

"We have to see, probably a quarter of the way through next season, how both of our drivers are performing and (then) start making a decision in that area if Sato wants to go in with us the year after," he said at the opening of Honda's second British car factory.

"There is a possibility obviously that Sato will try and get in next year with either Jordan or another team and then that is to discuss with the management of Sato. I do believe he has got fantastic talent and certainly testing with us in the last couple of weeks his feedback has been excellent, he seems to be maturing very fast.

"He was just about automatically up to speed the minute he sat in the car and I think he has the potential to be a Formula One driver."

Pollock would not discuss details of Sato's contract, and whether he had let-out clauses if offered a drive by another team but said he would not mind him racing on loan.

"If he were to go to another team, even if it was Jordan, I would probably be pretty happy because he's going to do his year's learning in another team," he said.

Sato was quoted as saying last week that it was "looking good for a race seat in F1 in 2002. There have been some developments but there's nothing confirmed just yet," he told Motorsport News.