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2002

It was a dramatic first year in the world's premier motorsport category. Partnered with the highly rated Italian Giancarlo Fisichella, it was a season of ups and downs; but it was a season which ended with Takuma Sato scoring his first F1 points in a sensational race at Suzuka where he came home in fifth place.

▲2002_F1 Suzuka

▲2002_F1 Suzuka

2003

In 2003, as the BAR team's third driver, he was central to the development of the Honda-powered BAR Honda 005 and 006 race cars. At the final race of the year he substituted at short notice for regular race driver Jacques Villeneuve at Suzuka and scored three points with a fantastic drive to 6th place.

▲2003　F1　Australian GP

▲2003　F1　Australian GP

2004

Having secured the full race seat for 2004, Takuma entered his second full year of F1 racing with a much improved team and car. Early testing suggested that the BAR Honda 006 would be a strong performer - and so it was.

▲2004　F1

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.

▲2004_F1_Indianapolis

2005

Taku remained with BAR in 2005 and despite a difficult season, in which the whole team struggled in comparison to the previous year, he never gave up.

▲F1　Hungarian GP

After the disappointment of losing his fifth place finish at the San Marino GP, when the team was excluded due to an alleged technical irregularity, which also saw them have to sit out the next two grand’s prix, Taku persevered to take a point at the Hungarian GP. He also managed to qualify in the top ten on seven occasions, including a fifth place at his home event and at the Italian GP.

2006

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.

There was little Taku could do but help the team grow, and also to humble some of the bigger teams with some sterling performances in the early laps of the races - notably in Australia. At the end of the year, Super Aguri's best ever performance meant Sato finished 10th in Brazil. Amazingly, his SA06B chassis was a modified version of a 2002-model Arrows A22, which had been commandeered from its place on display outside the duty-free shop at Melbourne Airport at the start of the year!

▲F1　Brazilian GP

2007

There's no such thing as an overnight sensation in F1 any more, certainly as far as team performances are concerned, but hopes were high that the new Super Aguri SA07 would perform in 2007.

▲2007_F1_Australia

Even so, no-one expected Taku, who was reunited with former Formula 3 and BAR-Honda team-mate Anthony Davidson, to make it through to Q3, the final top-10 qualifying shoot-out, at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix. Not even the team, which suddenly had to think of a strategy for the session! The display marked Super Aguri and Sato out as a force to be reckoned with for the new season, and they have not disappointed.

Firmly up among the midfield runners, Taku gave Honda its first point of the year as an engine supplier with an eighth place in the Spanish Grand Prix.

He then put in a startling display in the Canadian Grand Prix to take a superb sixth place, a race which included passing moves on Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso. The breathtaking move on the latter in the closing stages of the race earned him the ‘Overtake of the Year’ award from F1 Racing magazine and he finished the year 17th in the drivers’ championship.

▲2007_F1_Canada

2008

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 optimised because of that, it was always going to be a struggle.

▲2013　Jerez test

Nevertheless Taku battled well, and would have scored points in the opening race in Australia had it not been for a retirement. 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.