Belgium: Sato speaks to the press

By PHil Huff (26/08/2004)
August 26 2004

Lucky Strike BAR Honda's Takuma Sato sat in on the Thursday Drivers Press Conference today, sharing the stage with Rubens Barrichello and Kimi Raikkonen. Here's what he had to say.

Takuma, your feelings about the circuit; I think you've been a winner here?

Yes, I think I'm the same as Rubens. I was here in my Formula Opel time in junior formula and of course in Formula Three in 2000 and 2001. I think junior formulae drivers are always dreaming of going into Formula One here at Spa. It's always very exciting at this circuit.

Are you hoping it's going to be wet here?

I don't care what the weather will be. Look at today, no one knows what it's going to do, the weather conditions are so unpredictable but we hope our strategy or the package we have for this weekend give us a little chance to mix up the grid and perhaps even the race.

Looking ahead, what are your possibilities for next year?

I'm very happy where I am. I'm obviously very happy with the team and I'm expecting to be racing next year with BAR Honda because originally I had a three year contract, including one year testing and two year's racing of which this year is the first year. So we should be able to develop together and next year as well.

When's that going to be announced? Do we expect an announcement, or do we take it as read?

I personally don't know what is the deadline or which date it will be, but I'm sure this is no longer an issue. At the moment we are concentrating on weekend by weekend, for every Grand Prix, not thinking deeply about next year. But we need some stability for the longer development so you just carry on what you're doing and extending it to next year.

What's the atmosphere within the team like, particularly with the "Jenson Button situation"? Is it pretty much the same as it was before?

I think it's a lot more settled now. Two weeks ago it was just shocking everybody, but we are really professional people, I believe and especially at the Grand Prix circuits, the mechanics, engineers and designers, drivers. The atmosphere itself hasn't changed since nothing has happened so we do continue and we are very focused on single races every time.