A New Beginning: Interview with Takuma Sato

When your car appears pegged to the back of the field, and there is sometimes two seconds per lap difference between you and the car in front - let alone the bigger gap to front of the grid - it would be all to easy to just accept your fate.

Resigned to your fate, aware that no matter what you did it wasn't going to improve your position, you could just fly around the world, enjoy the trappings that come with being a Formula One driver and, come Sunday night, shrug your shoulders and tell your mechanics that there was not much more you could have done. Better luck next time, and all that.

But Takuma Sato did not join Super Aguri for an easy time. From the day he first began discussions with Aguri Suzuki about this all-new project, he knew exactly what he was getting involved in.

Yes, it's been hard and there is no doubt as a racing driver he would prefer to be fighting up at the front of the field than down at the back. But not once during the five months in which Super Aguri F1 have been in existence, has Sato let his chin go down and be willing to simply accept things as they are.

In fact, he has done the complete opposite - and appears to be revelling at the chance of moulding a team around him, and in pulling off whatever giant-killing performance he can.

His efforts have not only become a thorn in the side of Midland duo Tiago Monteiro and Christijan Albers, but have left some higher profile runners rattled at times - most notably Rubens Barrichello in Australia. Sato has become the man to watch on the opening laps nowadays.

Those first lap efforts have kept team spirits high, his motivation intact and have given him a focus until Super Aguri's 2006 challenger finally comes on tap - hopefully at the French Grand Prix.

Sitting down with Sato, it becomes clear the extent to which he is revelling in his new environment. He has an ever-present grin; his enthusiasm for F1 remains as strong as the day he first stepped into a racing car; and those tough days of 2005, when luck deserted him and nothing he did turned out right, are now well forgotten.

"This is a very different and totally unique approach," says Sato, sitting down with a coffee at the Super Aguri motorhome. "It is a very different challenge from the last few years, but I am enjoying it. I am enjoying it a lot.

"If you are looking at it in terms of the performance point of view, then you must have some frustration, the whole team have. But considering the such short time period in which they set up the car, and to be here like this, it is absolutely mega really."

But there must surely be times when it is hard to put everything on the line simply to still end up at the back of the grid? Sato says not.

"At the moment, because it is just so brand new, you must learn so many new things and you have to experience so much. That is why we are still keeping very high motivation. Even knowing you are going to be at the back of the grid, no matter what you do.

"But still we have to prepare for the day when we are competitive. So we have to be prepared for everything. It is frustrating, because you can see there is such a huge gap between our closest rivals, but still you have to commit a lot in the race.

"Now is when we will have a really hard time, because once the honeymoon period is over, it really gets tough once we get sorted out with the new car. Whatever we do, then we are kind of stuck with - so we mustn't lose any motivation with that."

Aside from a few complaints from the Midland drivers, Super Aguri have generated a great deal of goodwill from the rest of the paddock. Part of that probably comes from the fact that the team have not made any outlandish predictions about their form, as some of their predecessors have done, while Sato thinks they have been helped by the fact the outfit was created in such a small period of time.

"Everyone knows how hard it is to set it up this way, and knowing that we only have 100 people at the factory and we did it in a few months, I think other people working in F1 were very, very impressed," he claims.

"We are a bunch of people who have got the passion and are desperate to do a good job in F1 in a very simple way. That even reflects itself in this motorhome.

"There is no big decoration. It is just as simple as possible and we only need what is necessary. I think that becomes a beautiful thing: the team, the cars, the motorhome, every area is reflecting that and I am very, very proud of that."

On track, the team have gone about steady improvement without making too much of a fanfare. From being two seconds off the pace of Midland at Bahrain, improvements to the SA05 have helped Sato get within one second by the Spanish Grand Prix. And the kind of problems that forced Sato to make six pitstops in Bahrain have been overcome.

"I was happy with Bahrain, because we needed to go there, get through scrutineering without any problems, go to the qualifying, and then finish the race. That was it for the weekend. That was our target.

"Then in Malaysia, I wasn't really expecting to race with the two Midland cars and even Toro Rosso, so then I was very, very happy. So that I think kept a very high motivation for the team and since then we were pushing, pushing, pushing. I think we are very, very happy concerning the performance for where we are."

Not everything has been as straightforward as the team hoped, however. Initial plans to have their new car up and running by the San Marino Grand Prix were put back due to the team's pre-season focus needing to be put into getting the 2002 Arrows A23 race ready.

Plans to use an updated version of the hybrid BAR007 used by Honda over the winter were scuppered, forcing the team to start work on creating their own car from scratch.

That meant not only more work for a team that have nowhere near the number of staff of all of their rivals, but has meant struggling on for longer with the SA05 - a car that is never going to pose much of a threat to other state-of-the-art 2006 cars.

"From the time I was racing the Jordan EJ12 (in 2002) you can see how technology has improved. The A23 was not designed for the Honda engine and the tyres have developed a lot in the last four years. We also lost downforce because of the 2006 regulations, so we knew it was going to be tough from the first race."

There has also been trouble for the team on the driver front. Yuji Ide's difficulties in making the switch from Formula Nippon to F1 reached a head prior to the European Grand Prix, when the FIA advised the team to replace him, before his super-licence was eventually taken away.

Sato is only too aware of the damage that the period will have caused to Ide's career - and believes the perception of his countryman's abilities does not provide the complete picture of his abilities.

"Obviously they were very, very difficult circumstances," explains Sato. "It was hard for him, and I am sorry for him in a lot of ways. It was difficult...it feels very tough. The situation from that point of view is not good for him and not good the team as well.

"Obviously, he has natural ability and on a couple of times we have seen him driving with no problem. He was very competitive, but the whole environment was too new.

"Although he had experience in French F3 in Europe, F1 was so different. In Formula Nippon, he was super competitive, but he did not have the chance to show that competitiveness here with only Grand Prix weekends, so it was a tough time."

Ide's failure proved to be Franck Montagny's gain, as the Frenchman seized his chance to make his F1 debut. Despite his feelings for Ide, Sato acknowledges that things are now better at the team because of the closeness of the two current drivers on the timesheets.

"He is totally opposite to Ide. I was surprised he wasn't racing before, because he should have been racing with his experience and his career.

"Franck, with his experience from his Renault time (as third driver), is so valuable for us. He could just jump in the car and drive it immediately, which is great for us. We talk the same language when talked about the car to develop it, and I am sure he is a huge help to build the team up.

"It is good to see. It is good to see the cars side by side, and we are pushing each other very well. We communicate very well, we can do different programmes and if one does better, then we can introduce that. It is a bit of competition in the team, and the engineers love it."

Sato has always been a man who has taken the positives out of any situation. Never a quitter, he maintained an upbeat outlook on his career, despite difficult times in his debut 2002 season and last year, when things just did not work out at BAR.

In some senses, though, it is vital that Sato makes the most out of his Super Aguri opportunity, because without it the likelihood was that his F1 career was finished. His reputation took a major battering last year, owing to incidents and the failure to score a single point until Hungary, and without Honda throwing him a lifeline at Super Aguri, he could well now be a former Grand Prix driver.

Sato knows there would have been little point in taking a test driver deal after BAR. "I've done it. I did it already in 2003 and so to me there was no need to go testing again."

And he knows that if he can shine at Super Aguri this season, then the paddock will sit up and take notice - even if he is fighting outside the top 10.

"It is always difficult, but you must say the people are looking and obviously I am talking generally here. The important people know exactly what the situation is, and of course in 2005 too many things happened, unlucky things, but we also learned a lot from there as well.

"It was a completely different set of circumstances from 2004. and in the last two years I experienced a lot. I really wanted to introduce that experience and in my view going racing again in 2006. This is my answer."

And what an answer he has given at times - especially those first few minutes at the start of the races.

In Bahrain, Sato was able to get right on the gearboxes of the two Toyotas, and ahead of Tiago Monteiro and Nick Heidfeld. In Malaysia, he jumped both Midlands, while in Australia he was up from 21st on the grid to 13th at the end of the first lap - ahead of Rubens Barrichello, David Coulthard and Giancarlo Fisichella.

After the frustration of Imola, when he only managed to get ahead of Christijan Albers, Sato surprised many when he ran 12th after the first few corners of the Nurburgring, before pulling off a similar effort off the line in Spain to overtake Monteiro on the grass - claiming he had found a 'reasonable grip level' on the green stuff.

Sato denies accusations that he is taking too many risks to gain places at the start and insists that he is always thinking about the entire race.

"You cannot just talk about one lap, because we are always thinking for the whole race and how we can finish in the best shape," he claims. "But off the grid and really the first lap is the biggest opportunity for me to show what we can do. So from that point of view, I do the maximum, of course.

"There is no trick to it and no plan. You have to cope with it naturally and pick what you can from each situation. From that point of view, I am quite relaxed actually. Of course, at the start you are really concentrating on that moment, but it is quite relaxed and I just enjoy the race. That is all there is to it."

And Sato is adamant that anyone who ends up behind him at the start, however his position is achieved, is going to have to fight him to find a way past - even though he is aware of the limitations of his machinery.

"If it is the same lap and I am fighting for the position, then there is no point to let them go, because this is racing," says Sato, who famously stayed ahead of Rubens Barrichello's works-Honda car until the first round of pitstops in Australia.

"I will do whatever I can do to hold them up, but of course there is a limit and there is no point blocking them in a nasty way, I wouldn't do that. I want to be in the fair position if I do my best, and that is it."

The starts have also served to quieten the critics who claim Sato is a 'wild-man' on the track. From the driver who left Michael Schumacher furious at last year's Belgian Grand Prix, when they crashed out after a safety car restart, Sato has stayed pretty much out of trouble despite getting right in the thick of things in the opening laps.

"Of course fundamentally I have not changed, that is my style," he says about his 'attacking' tag. "But of course in some points you have to think about it....you have to think that is the only car you have got. You have to be...umm... cautious is not the right word, but you don't want to take a risk in an unnecessary way, of course."

Looking towards the future, Sato knows that it is as important for the team as it is for him that the SA06 car is a big step forward over the chassis they are running at the moment. The team are well aware that the updated 2002 Arrows A23 chassis they are using is never going to allow them to challenge for decent positions, and that has perhaps eased some of the pressure off them over the start of the season.

But when the new car comes on board, the feeling that just being in F1 is a victory in itself will no longer apply. The pressure will be on to show improvement.

"Well, I hope it is a big step," admits Sato. "Because otherwise, we are stuck again and we don't want that. We are really desperate to have it, and we are expecting to have a big jump. Certainly we should be able to have a head-to-head battle with Midland and also Toro Rosso."

Sato thinks it is vital, however, that the team do not simply wait for the new car and expect it to deliver better results when it arrives. He thinks they need to improve the way they operate and their weekend organisation if they are to make the most of it.

"What we need to do is to be prepared ourselves," he explains. "It is not only about the car, but also the team. If we have a competitive car here now today then the question is, can we perform to what the car has got? The answer is probably not yet.

"So we have to build up to a whole new environment to ensure we are ready for when we get a competitive car, so we can perform. That is in a good way the building up, because we did not have much preparation time.

"It is a shame we had to do it during the season but even the mechanics, the boys, are learning step by step. So by the time we get a competitive car we should be able to match the speed of the rest of the paddock towards the end of the season.

"The important race of the season for us is Suzuka, and we want to do something more special, more competitive and maybe we can consider a points finish. It may be too early to think like that, but you have to be always ahead in the way you are thinking."

Just the mention of the word 'Suzuka' and Sato's eyes light up. Super Aguri have built up a pretty strong fan base back home in Japan - and their following could spring a few surprises for Honda and Toyota chiefs later on this year when the F1 circus rolls into Japan.

"Japan is very excited," claims Sato. "I have been pleasantly surprised that the fans understand the situation here more than we thought. They understand the high standards in F1, so they are still waiting and have great support."

So will Super Aguri be the main object of Japanese fan's adoration come Suzuka? "Well, I don't know," he says. "But certainly they will cheer with us a lot, and that is why we are even more desperate to have a competitive car.

"We don't just want to be learning, learning, learning, we are not people like that. We are very, very demanding. So now it is just a bit painful but we can get over it and each day we get stronger. In Suzuka, I cannot imagine what will be going on, but we would love to do a good race over there."

Sato is very much a man happy with his lot. As fiercely competitive as ever, Sato is far from finished in wanting to make a big splash in F1.

Deep down it may not be as much fun scrapping around at the back of the field compared to the fighting for podiums and pole positions that he enjoyed at BAR in 2004, but he is taking everything he can from the unique set of circumstances in which he has found himself this year.

When asked whether he is enjoying life as an F1 driver in 2006 more than before, he pauses for a second before replying.

"It is probably a bit unfair to compare it with the last few years. In 2002, it was a miracle year as a debut season, because you are so new in this business. In 2003, there was a lot of frustration as a third driver because I had to step back from being a race driver. And in 2004, I came back with a competitive situation.

"2005 was a very difficult year, and in 2006 it is something very different from the last three seasons of my race career in F1.

"You are finding new things all the time, which is great fun, and you are just dreaming and waiting for the day you are competitive again. And that is the....how you say, driving force.

"At the same time, I want to improve - as a much better driver, not to lose aggression but also to stay consistent. Be stronger, faster, more experienced, that sort of thing. I am always demanding to improve."

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