BAR Drivers: Takuma Sato

By Phil Huff
June 16 2005

Starting out in 1997, Takuma won a Honda Suzuka Racing School Scholarship, winning a fully paid drive in the 1998 All-Japan Formula 3 championship. Bravely, Takuma did not pursue this route in favour of moving to England and racing in a British Formula.

That decision saw him making his debut in single seaters at Snetterton, driving a Formula Vauxhall. A switch to the European Formula Opel series through the year raised his profile further, but made any wins difficult.

A year later and Takuma starts the season in the Formula Opel Euroseries before moving to British Formula 3. A win in the Macau GP supporting Formula Asia 2000 race was yet another series to learn.

It wasn't until 2000 that Takuma actually stayed in one series for the whole season, and this time it was British Formula 3. Four race wins gave him third in the championship, but he also managed to sneak a win at the Spa Francorchamps round of the French F3 championship.

He stayed in British Formula 3 for 2001, and destroyed the entire field. An astonishing twelve race wins with Carlin Motorsport sealed the championship and gave him the time to win the Marlboro Masters at Zandvoort, the Macau Grand Prix and the F3 International Challenge. On his spare days, he was getting his first taste of F1, as a test driver for Lucky Strike BAR Honda. A pretty successful year, then.

2002 was the big break for Takuma as he landed a full time Grand Prix drive with Jordan Honda. The year didn't quite go according to plan, and he gained a reputation (unjustly) for crashing frequently. A best finish of 5th at the Japanese Grand Prix wasn't enough to secure a drive in 2003, so Takuma returned to testing with Lucky Strike BAR Honda.

The extra time out enabled Takuma to come to grips with F1 driving, and in that time he's grown up and grown faster. He returned to the front line with Lucky Strike BAR Honda at the 2003 Japanese Grand Prix, partnering the highly rated Jenson Button following the abrupt departure of Jacques Villeneuve.

Scoring points in that race was a great warm up to 2004, where he took over the second BAR seat full time. Despite a reputation as a crasher, Takuma succumbed to the gravel just once in the season, and consistently scored points. Combined with Jenson Button, the team took second in the constructors championship, behind only Ferrari, with Takuma getting his first podium finish on the way.

Keeping the seat for 2005, the target is to match Jenson all season long. Japan's first world champion? Time will tell.