Super Aguri preview the Chinese GP

Huw Albam
By nGO
September 25 2006

Super Aguri head to an important back-to-back schedule of races starting with China. Having completed a successful weekend of testing the team hopes for a good end to the season, especially with Suzuka looming on the horizon.

China will be an extremely important Grand Prix for many reasons - The package Super Aguri go into the Chinese GP with, will for the most part be the package they take to their home GP. For this reason it is imperative they have a good reliable weekend, and carry this over to the Suzuka.  

Sato believes the team must gain good momentum during the Chinese GP, "Shanghai is a unique circuit which is challenging and quite difficult from a visibility point of view, especially turns 1 to 2 and onto turn 3, which is an interesting one. Before the back straight there is a high banking section which is quite exciting to go through and is important as you are going into the long straight which has heavy braking and a few overtaking opportunities. The fact that the race is only one week before Suzuka means that it is incredibly important for us to have a good race in China and for us to keep up the good momentum for the Japanese Grand Prix."

Yamamoto has been preparing for his first Chinese GP, "It will be my first visit to Shanghai and I am really looking forward to it. It will be nice for me to go back to an Asian race for the first time since joining Formula One as an Asian driver. I have been working hard on my preparations for the Chinese Grand Prix and I know the circuit pretty well now. We tested our Shanghai package at Silverstone last week and so I think that we have collected good data for the race and I hope that the SA06 will suit this exciting circuit."

Aguri looks forward to the Chinese GP, "I am very happy that we were able to take part in the test at Silverstone prior to the remaining three races of the season. The Chinese Grand Prix is going to be a very important race for us leading up to our first ever home race in Japan. I am looking forward to the race at the relatively new Shanghai circuit and I believe that with the final version of the SA06 we will be able to perform well there."