Takuma Sato Not Hopeful of a Good Result for Malaysian GP This Weekend
Kuala Lumpur, 15 March 2006 – Takuma Sato, the lead driver for the Super Aguri Formula 1 team is not too optimistic of a good showing this weekend at the Malaysian leg of the Formula 1 Championship race at the Sepang International Circuit this weekend. Speaking to journalists at the Honda Racing Party hosted by Honda Malaysia, Sato said that the team is still adapting to the new regulations governing Formula 1, and after his disastrous showing in Bahrain last weekend, he said that his chances are not likely o improve greatly for this Malaysian round.
According to the new regulations, teams have to run new 2.4 litre V8 engines, and the team has yet to put together a package that is competitive. However, he promised his fans that he would do his very best, and work towards the time when the development of his team cars get up to speed.
The Bahrain GP was the team’s debut event, having been formed at the end of last year, under the wing of its founder Mr. Aguri Suzuki, the very first Japanese F1 driver to make it to the podium in 1990.
In a statement released by the Super Aguri Formula 1 Team, Mr. Aguri Suzuki said that while he knows that he has to produce good results, he realises that the competition in F1 is very tough. The way to F1 has not been easy, and he expects this initial year to be very challenging.
“I think this is a big challenge both for me and Japanese motor racing. While F1 was getting popular in Japan, the situation is very different from Japanese motor racing. This time I run a Japanese team with two drivers. I believe this challenge will be a bridge over F1 and Japanese motor racing, and I hope our project makes Japanese motor racing more active and exciting. I am also managing ARTA Project, the racing driver development programme, and our challenge is to lead an explicit goal for young drivers to F1. I want them to carry our dream to the future,” said Suzuki.
“Takuma Sato and Yuji Ide, both Japanese drivers, are behind the wheel in our initial year 2006. I want Takuma to make a big effort with his result and experiences in F1, and I am looking forward to how Yuji can do in F1 after success in Japan. They will attract Japanese big attention and I am looking forward to seeing their good drives. Super Aguri Formula 1 is a completely new team. Our first objective is to make the foundation of the team in F1 competition. Collecting know-how and building up reliability of the car during races in the Championship, we want to show off our performance against other teams to everybody when we come to the Japanese GP in fall this year.” he added.
The Super Aguri Formula 1 team is campaigning two SA05 F1 cars with Takuma Sato and Yuji Ide as the team drivers, and the car is powered by a naturally aspirated, V8 Honda RA806E engine that develops in excess of 700 bhp, and revs to more than 19,000 rpm.
