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Yamamoto Struggling with F1 Demands

Sakon Yamamoto has said that he is going to need to up his strength before he drives the third Jordan at the Japanese Grand Prix, following a difficult debut test at Silverstone this week

The Japanese driver has spent the last two days getting up to speed with Formula One machinery, but has told Autosport-Atlas that he has had some struggles in terms of the physical demands of driving the cars.

He was six seconds off the pace on his first day, and two seconds slower than Anthony Davidson, who tried the Jordan out on Tuesday, before ending his running early today after rain hit the test. 

It was the final time he will get to drive the car before he runs for Jordan on the Friday at Suzuka.

"I am finding it difficult in the high speed corners at the moment, because I cannot put my foot down" said Yamamoto.  "Although at the moment I am apparently as quick as Anthony in the slow corners, which is good.

"I am not used to putting my foot down with so much downforce working for me, and the acceleration of the car is so much higher than I thought. It is much more than the lateral force and I feel I need to train the muscles in the front and the back of my neck.

"At the moment, even opening my mouth hurts from all the acceleration and braking. I really have to build up my G-force resistance."

Yamamoto is flying back to Japan tomorrow, in readiness for next weekend's round of the Japanese Super GT Series.

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