Sato: Revved up over Rahal deal

We're going to start this story by looking back 11 years - just to give you a little illustration of the warm regard in which Takuma Sato is held by some of the movers and shakers of the motorsport industry.

When he won the British Formula 3 Championship in 2001, completing a unique hat-trick by adding victories in the prestige F3 classics at Zandvoort and Macau, Sato's successes set Carlin Motorsport on the road to becoming the all-round powerhouse of junior single-seaters that it remains to this day.

Now, when you walk into Carlin's brand-spanking-new eat-your-dinner-off-the-shiny-floor facility, you see Sebastian Vettel's old Formula Renault 3.5 racer on the wall, hanging over Felipe Nasr's 2011 British F3 title winner.

But walk upstairs to the inner sanctum of Trevor Carlin's office, and there's Sato's feted Dallara F301 occupying pride of place.

On Carlin's desk are three helmets, and the closest to his chair is Sato's. On it, Taku has signed the visor and added the slogan 'NO ATTACK! NO CHANCE!'

Carlin touches it, like a proud dad ruffling the hair of an apple-of-his-eye son, and sighs: "My favourite."

Sato could have won on the Sao Paulo street circuit last year with KV... © LAT

Sato's combative, attacking style went on to make him a cult hero to legions of Formula 1 fans, while the critics focused on his accidents.

There's little doubt that when he was with Jordan and Super Aguri - small, close-knit, happy-family teams with an underdog mentality - he was at his best.

And it's arguable that at BAR - which, don't forget, was a team set up as an advertising vehicle - he didn't get the love he needed from Team Corporate to get the best out of him.

So when he packed his bag for the States and the IndyCar Series with KV Racing Technology for 2010, it seemed a match made in heaven.

Freed from the sport-is-business cynicism of F1, this heart-on-sleeve, fan-friendly racer would surely go down a storm with the Americans.

He did, while remaining just as much of a hero to the Japanese (in a way in which, for instance, Kazuki Nakajima could never).

But his results perhaps paint more of a picture of an enigma. Two years later, as he switches from KV to Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing for a critical season in the new-generation Dallara, he does so as someone who really needs to turn his speed into top results.

Once again, the story here goes back 11 years, for it was in 2001 that RLLR principal Bobby Rahal was the head of Jaguar Racing, whose F3 line-up of Andre Lotterer and James Courtney were among those Sato trounced.

"We often saw Bobby's helicopter flying in," Sato says. "I didn't speak to him then, but it was very important that I was beating James and Andre - Bobby knew who I was from that time.

"When we started talking about 2012, Bobby said he had always been keen on me - and that was a big surprise."

It's easy to ascribe Sato's settling at RLLR as being in large part due to the team's engine supply from Honda - with which he has been inextricably linked since he won the manufacturer's Suzuka Racing School scholarship in 1998.

...and took his maiden IndyCar pole position at Iowa - an oval! © LAT

But it wasn't a given that he wanted to leave Jimmy Vasser's KV squad.

"Mid-season last year, Jimmy told me the team was going to use Chevy instead of Judd [thereby losing its Lotus tie-up] engines. Which was fine, of course - we wanted to be competitive and we really wanted to find the best package available.

"Up until the autumn it all looked fine, so we tried to reach an agreement. Then a couple of sponsor issues meant it wasn't such a simple situation.

"Then Bobby called me directly - he asked me what I was doing and I said, 'Nothing sorted, doors open'. So then we communicated quite a lot.

"Okay, they had stopped racing in IndyCar full-time for a few years, but they have a great history and he explained his plan. I was quite excited of course, and since then step by step it came together.

"Fortunately I was in a perfect position for him. And of course he has a great history with Honda, so it was a very natural marriage and I was immediately comfortable. I went to his shop - his factory - and was very impressed."

Rahal's rebuilding of his IndyCar operation is almost a ground-up process. Crucially he hired Tom Anderson, a man with experience of just that thing at Chip Ganassi Racing and Fernandez Racing, to run it.

"Everyone knows Tom and his record is impressive," enthuses Sato. "He's kind of the perfect guy for this and he's done it quite a few times, starting a team from scratch."

Sato doesn't yet have a team-mate confirmed, but has high hopes for some of the names Rahal is talking to - "A couple of talented drivers from GP2 and also a couple of current IndyCar drivers," he explains.

A quick team-mate is clearly a big help, as Sato is well aware, having run alongside Tony Kanaan in his second year at KV.

Sato first caught Rahal's eye when he beat the Jaguar juniors in British F3... © LAT

"It definitely created a step forward because I learned so much from his enormous experience," he says. "You're so restricted on test and track-running time that you really need to make the most of it.

"For example, that green number five KV car was the only IndyCar I've known, so I could make judgements on what was better or worse on set-up. But what I knew, we are talking about a very small circle [of knowledge].

"When Tony arrived, he had a huge circle - so big I could not possibly think that far! For example, if I said, 'This is better, definitely good', Tony would say, 'No, no, no - this car is actually worse and the other driver's car is better.'

"And I would say, 'Really? Wow!' He just completely blew my mind and gave me completely new ideas. You can only reach so far on your own before you think you're at the limit.

"Tony would suggest new ways to make the car fast and that was probably the biggest benefit. Of course, with driving as well... if I was matching his speed on the ovals I knew I was doing good."

Talking of ovals, Sato surprised from the beginning of his IndyCar career.

You expect F1 refugees to be quick on the road and street tracks, but it is on the one-mile Iowa Speedway that he has unexpectedly shone: in contention at the front for most of the race in 2010; taking his maiden IndyCar pole in 2011 (followed up by another on more-natural Sato territory at Edmonton).

"I didn't expect to get up to speed so quickly on ovals! One thing is the team preparation was so good and they gave me a competitive car. But then on ovals the fastest guy isn't necessarily the winner.

"My first-ever oval race was Kansas. After the start I was going backwards, because I didn't know how to handle it.

"Then I picked up speed and got confident gradually, overtaking all the time, and I was battling with Helio Castroneves - side by side with a Penske car! I just couldn't believe it.

"Okay I didn't finish, but the race was definitely on. But then every time you get to a good point there is always something hanging there to catch you out... you have to respect ovals so much.

...and fought against Rahal driver Bertrand Baguette at Indy last year © LAT

"You just can't push too hard otherwise it's end of story. Like in Iowa: I got pole position, I was leading the race, then comfortably top three, top four, and it just slipped away because the situation was so complicated and you lose control so easily over the bumps.

"That sort of thing you just need to experience. I'm still learning on ovals and don't feel 100 per cent confident and comfortable yet, but I'm getting there."

Sato is also 'getting there' in an overall IndyCar context. He might have finished 13th in the points in 2011, with his team-mate Kanaan fifth, but he shaded the Brazilian 9-8 in qualifying.

Clearly there's little wrong with the speed, it's just a question of putting it together over an entire weekend - something Dario Franchitti, for example, is such a master of.

"It has been two rollercoaster seasons of promise and frustration," asserts Sato. "Oval racing is so... deep, and you have to understand the full story.

"Also, the way IndyCar works with caution periods, no tyre warmers, big cars, big engines... it's just different.

"One thing is for sure: Jimmy [Vasser] is such a racer, but he's also really patient all the time. He always believed in me and that was fantastic - I had a team fully behind me and he did everything he could [just like the Super Aguri days; just like the Carlin era].

"Sometimes I made a mistake or sometimes the team did - it was just one or the other. It's so difficult and there are so many little things. Because IndyCar has a spec chassis it's so competitive, but the good teams are a tiny bit ahead.

"It's the only international category where the times are measured in ten thousandths of a second - it's so close.

"Everyone has got a chance to win, which is fantastic from a driver's point of view, but to actually win is incredibly difficult.

Sato credits Kanaan with raising his game last year © LAT

"We were so close, but when one little thing is missing you can't make it to a big result. But KV was definitely the best team for me to start a new career in IndyCar."

The biggest 'one that got away', says Sato, was last year's Sao Paulo street race, where KV goofed on strategy just when its little Japanese driver looked in great shape for a win.

"We were 99 per cent sure we should have won! We were leading most of the race, controlling it most of the time. It was wet - my first-ever experience of having wet tyres in IndyCar! And it was on a slippery street course...

"But I was really enjoying the race. Everything was perfect, then we just made a mistake on pitstop strategy. My result just slipped away."

Now Sato has to put such events out of his mind as he focuses on notching up some top results in 2012.

He got a sneak-preview taste of the new Dallara DW12 in December, when he tried out the Ganassi-run Honda test mule at Sebring, and is looking forward to getting his own one to race.

"We mustn't forget that the Dallara IndyCar used for the last nine years was a good car, but it was originally designed 100 per cent for ovals," he says, "with no thought to turning right or braking. Then Dallara needed to make a conversion package for road and street courses.

"The car definitely had a unique character, especially coming from Formula 1 - you felt the weight, a lot! The way they produced downforce was different, so you needed time to get used to it.

"From that point of view the new car is much more like a modern car. It's still big, because on ovals you need to be protected well, but it's much more like a road course car.

"At Sebring for example I was able to more-naturally adapt compared to the old car, particularly now we've started using carbon brakes, which we used to only use on the ovals - we had steel brakes for road and street courses.

"The feel of the brakes and the car generally is that it's much faster. The engine's different - now it's turbocharged and I've never raced with a turbo car.

"The test in the Ganassi car was all about Honda engine mapping and it was definitely interesting - there was a lag compared to the naturally-aspirated engine but the torque was quite flat, with good driveability.

Ironically Barrichello could again take the seat vacated by Sato © LAT

"I was quite impressed. Probably very different from a 1980s Formula 1 turbo! It's a natural feeling and I'm excited to have this kind of engine. It's small but has good punch."

The comments about carbon brakes raise an interesting prospect, as Sato was noted for his ability with carbon brakes in F1. Could that be a crucial weapon in his armoury to propel himself to the front?

Back in 2004, after Sato's incidents with Rubens Barrichello in the race at the Nurburgring and with Felipe Massa in practice at Indianapolis, our own Mark Hughes wrote in AUTOSPORT magazine: 'Both incidents were derived from Sato having a different frame of reference to what is considered normal...

'As the last of the late brakers, Sato is very relaxed with moves that would feel marginal to others. He has a great feel for how much pedal pressure he can maintain without locking his front wheels, something very tricky with F1 downforce levels because the initial pedal force can be huge but quickly needs to be modulated as the downforce bleeds off the car by a square of the speed reduction.

'In neither of Sato's tangles was he locking the brakes, nor was he running wide of the apex; he was simply braking very, very late but still fully in control.'

Ironically, Barrichello looks likely to join KV - the second time the veteran Brazilian has stepped into Sato's old shoes. Taku laughs at this, but he's already looking ahead.

"I'm basically very proud, motivated and excited to be chosen by Bobby to join his big project," he says.

"This team has huge potential. We are not Ganassi, Penske, Andretti or KV, but Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing has got a great record of winning."

Sato's got work to do, and so has the team, but don't bet against a signed crash helmet taking pride of place on Bobby Rahal's desk in the years to come.