Takuma Sato

Takuma Sato (佐藤 琢磨, Satō Takuma, born 28 January 1977), nicknamed "Taku", is a Japanese professional

He competed in Formula One from 2002 to 2008 for the Honda-powered Jordan, BAR and Super Aguri teams, scoring 44 points overall, and a single podium which was at the 2004 United States Grand Prix. His 8th-place finish in the 2004 Formula One World Drivers' Championship was the best-ever result for a Japanese driver in the series until 2021.^[2]

Sato has become known among fans and media^[3][4] for his motto "no attack, no chance" with regards to his racing style.^[5]

Early career

Born in Tokyo,

With Honda's focus shifting solely to British American Racing for 2003, Sato joined the Brackley-based outfit as a test driver. For the final round in Japan, Sato replaced Jacques Villeneuve and scored the second points finish of his career with sixth place, after a battle with Michael Schumacher. He was signed to race full-time in 2004. During the 2004 season, Sato qualified four times in the top-three, including a front row start and an overall lap record at the European Grand Prix.^[7] Sato's aggressive driving style paid dividends at the United States Grand Prix, where, after the team did not pit under safety car conditions, Sato fought back with some daring overtaking moves to score his first podium finish and the first for a Japanese driver since Aguri Suzuki at the 1990 Japanese Grand Prix. Reliability issues caused him to retire six times, but he scored points in nine of the 11 races he completed to finish eighth in the championship with 34 points, the best-ever result for a Japanese driver in Formula One.^[2] His efforts helped BAR-Honda to finish second in the Constructors' Championship.

Sato was retained by BAR-Honda for the 2005 season, but the 2005 car was not as close to the front of the pack as the previous year's design. Sato missed the Malaysian Grand Prix with illness, and both drivers were disqualified from the San Marino Grand Prix and the entire team banned from the two subsequent races for using cars that were underweight when all fuel was removed. The Court did not find that this was deliberate. Sato's season never recovered from that point, and he ended the season with eighth-place at the Hungarian Grand Prix as his only points finish, despite qualifying seven times in the top ten.^[10] Sato was not re-signed for 2006, despite Honda taking full control of the team.

Super Aguri (2006–2008)

Sato joined the new Super Aguri F1 team for 2006, run by Japanese former driver Aguri Suzuki. The new outfit was in effect a Honda B-team but ran the first half of the season with a modified version of a 2002 Arrows A23 chassis. Nevertheless, Sato's reputation improved thanks to his professional attitude and competitive spirit. The team introduced a new car, the SA06 at the German Grand Prix and by the end of the season, Sato was outpacing the Midland cars. At the season finale in Brazil Sato finished tenth just two places short of a points finish and comfortably ahead of both Toro Rossos and the Spyker MF1s.

For 2007, Super Aguri ran a reworked version of the previous year's Honda RA106 chassis. Their performance improved drastically as Sato made it through to Q3 at the Australian Grand Prix. He then scored the first point for the team at the Spanish Grand Prix. At the Canadian Grand Prix, Sato finished sixth after having a race that had seen him move from the middle of the grid to a high of fifth, passing Ferrari's Kimi Räikkönen before a pit-stop error dropped him back to eleventh. He moved up five places in the last 15 laps, passing Toyota's Ralf Schumacher and then on lap 67 the McLaren-Mercedes of Fernando Alonso; the latter pass was met with cheers around the track and received him the "Overtake of the Year" award from F1 Racing magazine.^[11][12]

Financial problems began to affect the team in the off-season and the squad only just made it to the opening round of the 2008 season in Australia. The team used a modified Honda RA107 chassis, which was launched just before the first Friday Practice session that weekend. A transmission issue in Australia ended an opportunity to score points in a race of attrition, and 13th in Spain turned out to be Sato's best result of the season. Due to the financial struggles, Super Aguri withdrew from Formula One after the Spanish Grand Prix, leaving Sato without a drive after four races in 2008.

In late 2008, Sato took part in tests at Jerez with Scuderia Toro Rosso, to become a candidate to fill the seat vacated by Sebastian Vettel. He was competing against former Toro Rosso driver Sébastien Bourdais and Red Bull Racing test and reserve driver Sébastien Buemi for one of the two race seats.^[13] He first drove on 18 September, more than four months since Super Aguri's withdrawal, and tested for the team again for two days in November, setting the fastest time on the 17th,^[14] 3 tenths ahead of Buemi, and proceeded by setting the second-fastest time on the 18th.^[15] The race seat was eventually given to Bourdais, and in March 2009 it was announced that Sato would not be the reserve driver for the Red Bull team.^[16]

IndyCar career

KV Racing Technology (2010–2011)

Sato visited the

At the 2012 Indianapolis 500, driving for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, Sato chased Dario Franchitti to the finish making a move for the lead and the race win at the first turn of the last lap. While not successful, Sato was respected by Indianapolis 500 fans for "going for it" on the last lap.

A. J. Foyt Enterprises (2013–2016)

For 2013, Sato joined

Sato joined

On 23 August 2020, after qualifying on the outside of the front row for the 104th running of the Indianapolis 500, Sato won the race for a second time.^[21]

On 5 October 2021, it was announced that Sato would not return to the team for the 2022 IndyCar season. His spot in the team was taken over by Danish driver, Christian Lundgaard.

Dale Coyne Racing (2022)

On 9 December 2021, it was announced that Sato had signed with

Chip Ganassi Racing signed Sato to run in the oval rounds for the 2023 season, making it the first time the Japanese driver does not have a full-time IndyCar seat since 2010.^[23]

Other categories

Formula Nippon / Super Formula

On 14 June 2012,

In November 2013, Sato became a test and development driver for the FIA Formula E Championship.^[25] In September 2014, Sato joined his former Formula One team Amlin Aguri to race in the first-ever Formula E race, the 2014 Beijing ePrix, replacing the team's regular driver Antonio Félix da Costa as he could not participate due to other commitments.^[26] Sato scored two points after he set the fastest lap of the race with a time of 1:45.101, but had to retire from the race with mechanical issues. As it was Sato's only Formula E race, he became the only driver in the series' history with a 100% fastest lap record.^[27]

Personal life

Sato is married to Chiharu Sato, with whom he has two children.^[28] He lives in Carmel, Indiana with his manager, Steve Fusek, during the racing season, and spends the offseason in Japan.^[29] Sato was a national cycling champion in high school, and still uses cycling as part of his physical training for his racing career.^[12]

Racing record

Career summary

* Season still in progress.

Complete Formula One results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

^† Did not finish the race, but was classified as he had completed more than 90% of the race distance.

American open–wheel racing

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

IndyCar Series

¹ The

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

See also

• Andrew Gilbert-Scott – his manager since his Junior Formula career in Europe until 2009
• Steve Fusek has been his manager since 2012. Fusek is a long-time racing professional who has worked in IndyCar Racing since 1987. He was VP of Business Operations at PacWest Racing Group from 1995-2001 as well as the VP of Sales and Marketing at CART from 2001-2003.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Takuma Sato.

• Official website
• Takuma Sato career summary at DriverDB.com
• Takuma Sato driver statistics at Racing-Reference