Rank: 21 Points: -354
Takuma Sato will be a rookie in the IZOD IndyCar series for 2010, competing for KV Racing Technology under the Lotus sponsorship.
The journey from two-wheel pedal-powered racing to the pinnacle of motorsport competition laid bare: little more than a decade ago, Takuma Sato was a teenaged bicycle racer in Japan, dreaming that his two-wheeled chain-driven mount was a powerful racing car. Now that dream is reality, as he is established as one of the Formula 1 elite.
In 1996, he scraped together what money he had to buy a kart and, the following year, to enter Honda's Suzuka Racing School scholarship. He won the prize, a fully paid drive in the 1998 All-Japan Formula 3 Championship, but passed it up in order to pursue his desire of reaching Formula One. To do that he had to go to Europe. In his early road to F1, he raced in the Formula Vauxhall Junior Series, Formula Opel, and British F3 Series. December of 2000 brought his first F1 test with BAR and Jordan, as a result, BAR signed him as a test driver. He signed with Jordan for the 2002 season, partnered with Giancarlo Fisichella, and scored his first F1 points at Suzuka, finishing fifth. He was back at BAR testing in 2003, and landed a race seat with the team in 2004. That year, Sato scored 34 world championship points in total to secure eighth place in the drivers' championship and help BAR finish as runners-up to Ferrari in the constructors' title race - in what proved to be a best ever season for both driver and team. During the course of the year, Taku scored points at half of the 18 races, including a maiden podium in the United States GP at Indianapolis, and also secured his first front row start at the Nurburgring for the European Grand Prix. Sato remained with BAR in 2005, and the team struggled compared to the previous year.
For 2006 there was a move to the ambitious new, Honda-powered, Super Aguri team. Set up by Aguri Suzuki (who before Sato was the only Japanese driver to score a Grand Prix podium finish) and run by former Ferrari team manager Daniel Audetto, the team moved into the base of the old TWR Arrows concern in Oxfordshire. It had no staff, no drivers and no cars. Yet within a couple of months, Sato was leading the team's attack in the opening race of the season. Sato’s best performance of the year came with a tenth place finish in Brazil. The following year, 2007, Sato and the team managed a 17th place finish in the final championship standings.
The 2008 season started with Super Aguri in dire financial problems owing to a default on payments from sponsors during the previous year. With virtually no testing during the winter, and with the SA08 car far from optimized because of that, it was always going to be a struggle. After four races, during which Taku’s best result was 13th in Spain, the team was forced to withdraw from F1, leaving him and team-mate Anthony Davidson without a drive.
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