Takuma Sato
Takuma Sato is a Japanese professional racing driver. Sato has raced full-time in the IndyCar Series since 2010 for the Honda-powered KV, Rahal, Foyt, Andretti, and again starting from 2018, the Rahal teams. Sato won the 2017 Indianapolis 500, becoming the first Asian driver to win the Indy 500. He also became the first Japanese driver to win an IndyCar race when he won the 2013 Grand Prix of Long Beach. He competed in Formula One from 2002 to 2008 for the Honda-powered Jordan, BAR and Super Aguri teams, scoring a single podium at the 2004 United States Grand Prix. His 8th-place finish in the 2004 Formula One World Drivers' Championship is the best-ever result for a Japanese driver in the series.
Racing career
Formula One
Jordan (2002)
In Sato graduated to Formula One with the Honda-powered Jordan team, and was paired with Giancarlo Fisichella. His low point was a tremendous crash in Austria, caused when Nick Heidfeld lost control of his Sauber under braking and hit the side of Sato's car, punching a hole in the side of the cockpit. Throughout he showed flashes of speed but also wild driving, nevertheless the team's faith in Sato was repaid by a fine drive to fifth at his home Grand Prix in Suzuka.BAR (2003–2005)
With Honda's focus shifting solely to British American Racing for Sato joined the Brackley-based outfit as a test driver. For the final round in Japan Sato replaced Jacques Villeneuve and scored the second points finish of his career with sixth, despite a collision with Michael Schumacher. He was signed to race full-time in 2004. His season was blighted by numerous engine failures, suffering no less than six. In spite of this Sato's aggressive driving style paid dividends at the, after the team did not pit under safety car conditions Sato fought back with some daring overtaking moves to score his first podium finish, the first for a Japanese driver since Aguri Suzuki at the 1990 Japanese Grand Prix. He finished eighth in the championship with 34 points, the best-ever result for a Japanese driver in Formula One. His efforts helped the team to finish second in the Constructors' Championship.Sato was retained by BAR-Honda for the 2005 season, but the 2005 car was not as close to the front of the pack as the previous year's design. Sato missed the with illness, and both drivers were disqualified from the and the entire team banned from the two subsequent races for using cars which were underweight when all fuel was removed. The Court did not find that this was deliberate. Sato's season never recovered from that point, after a crash-strewn season which included being disqualified from the for an overly-ambitious move on Jarno Trulli, Sato was not re-signed for 2006, despite Honda taking full control of the team.
Super Aguri (2006–2008)
Sato joined the new Super Aguri F1 team for, run by former Japanese driver Aguri Suzuki. The new outfit was in effect a Honda B-team but ran the first half of the season with a modified version of a 2002 Arrows A23 chassis. Nevertheless, Sato's reputation improved thanks to his professional attitude and competitive spirit. The team introduced a new car, the SA06 at the and by the end of the season Sato was outpacing the Midland cars. At the season finale in Brazil Sato finished tenth just two places short of a points finish and comfortably ahead of both Toro Rossos and the Spyker MF1s.in 2007. He scored the team's only points.
For 2007, Super Aguri ran a reworked version of the previous year's Honda RA106 chassis. Their performance improved drastically as Sato made it through to Q3 at the. He then scored the first point for the team at the. At the, Sato finished sixth after having a race that had seen him move from the middle of the grid to a high of fifth, passing Ferrari's Kimi Räikkönen before a pit-stop error dropped him back to eleventh. He moved up five places in the last 15 laps, passing Toyota's Ralf Schumacher and then on lap 67 the McLaren-Mercedes of world champion Fernando Alonso; the latter pass was met with cheers around the track.
Financial problems began to affect the team in the off-season winter break and the Japanese squad only just made it to the opening round of the season in Australia. The team used a modified Honda RA107 chassis, which was launched just before the first Friday Practice session that weekend. The car was just as uncompetitive as the Honda had been in 2007 and the team withdrew from Formula One after the.
In late 2008, Sato took part in tests at Jerez with Scuderia Toro Rosso, to become a candidate to fill the seat vacated by Sebastian Vettel. He was competing against former Toro Rosso driver Sébastien Bourdais and Red Bull Racing test and reserve driver Sébastien Buemi for one of the two race seats. He first drove on 18 September, more than four months since Super Aguri's withdrawal, and tested for the team again for two days in November, setting the fastest time on the 17th, 3 tenths ahead of Buemi, and proceeded by setting the second-fastest time on the 18th.
Bourdais eventually won the race seat and in March 2009 it was announced that Sato would not be the reserve driver for the Red Bull team.
IndyCar Series
KV Racing Technology (2010–2011)
Sato visited the Indianapolis 500 in May 2009. He signed with KV Racing Technology to drive in the 2010 IndyCar Series season finishing in 21st place. He signed for the same team for 2011 and improved his form, scoring three top 5 finishes and two pole positions during the season to finish 13th.Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (2012)
At the 2012 Indianapolis 500, driving for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, Sato chased Dario Franchitti to the finish making a move for the lead and the race win at the first turn of the last lap. While not successful, Sato was respected by Indianapolis 500 fans for "going for it" on the last lap.A. J. Foyt Enterprises (2013–2016)
For 2013, Sato joined A. J. Foyt's team, driving the No. 14 car vacated by Mike Conway. In the third race of the season at Long Beach, Sato scored his first IndyCar win, in his 52nd start in the series, making him the first Japanese driver to win an IndyCar race. He then started to struggle for consistency, scoring just six top 5 finishes, including two podiums and two pole positions, until he left the team at the end of 2016.Andretti Autosport (2017)
Sato joined Andretti Autosport for the 2017 season. He went on to become the first Japanese driver and first non Caucasian driver to win the Indianapolis 500. After the 500 win, he went on to win a pole at the Dual in Detroit on Belle Isle. He also ended up winning another pole at Pocono Raceway in August.Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (2018–2020)
On 26 August 2017, it was reported that in 2018, Sato would rejoin RLL driving the 16 car and being a teammate to Graham Rahal as Andretti Autosport considered a move back with Chevrolet in 2018. That move by Andretti subsequently did not happen. After numerous weeks of bad luck including crashing early in the Indianapolis 500 and wrecking early at Pocono and a failed pit strategy at Gateway, Sato played the strategy right and held off Ryan Hunter-Reay in the IndyCar return to Portland, winning his third career race and his first on a permanent road course, doing so from 20th starting position. Sato started off his 2019 season with a win in the third race at Barber Motorsports Park; he started the race from pole position and ran away to the finish. Sato won later in the season at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway. In the first race of the 2020 season at Texas Motor Speedway Sato crashed in qualifying and did not start the race.Formula Nippon/Super Formula
On 14 June 2012, Mugen Motorsports announced that Sato would race with Team Mugen in the last 2 rounds, as well as the JAF Grand Prix, at Sportsland SUGO, Suzuka Circuit and Fuji Speedway of the 2012 Formula Nippon season.Formula E
On 20 November 2013, Sato became a test driver for the FIA Formula E Championship. On 11 September 2014, Sato joined his former Formula One team Amlin Aguri to compete in Formula E, starting with the season-opening Beijing ePrix. In the race, Sato was not classified, finishing the race four laps down despite setting the fastest lap with a time of 1:45.101, becoming the only driver in the series' history with a 100% fastest lap record. He was replaced by Antonio Félix da Costa for the next round.Personal life
Sato has two children. Sato was a national cycling champion in high school, and still utilizes cycling as part of his physical training for his racing career.Motorsports career results
Career summary
Complete Formula One results
| Year | Entrant | Chassis | Engine | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | WDC | Points |
| 2002 | DHL Jordan Honda | Jordan EJ12 | Honda RA002E 3.0 V10 | AUS Ret | MAL 9 | BRA 9 | SMR Ret | ESP Ret | AUT Ret | MON Ret | CAN 10 | EUR 16 | GBR Ret | FRA Ret | GER 8 | HUN 10 | BEL 11 | ITA 12 | USA 11 | JPN 5 | 15th | 2 | ||
| 2003 | Lucky Strike BAR Honda | BAR 005 | Honda RA003E 3.0 V10 | AUS | MAL | BRA | SMR | ESP | AUT | MON | CAN | EUR | FRA | GBR | GER | HUN | ITA | USA | JPN 6 | 18th | 3 | |||
| 2004 | Lucky Strike BAR Honda | BAR 006 | Honda RA004E 3.0 V10 | AUS 9 | MAL 15† | BHR 5 | SMR 16† | ESP 5 | MON Ret | EUR Ret | CAN Ret | USA 3 | FRA Ret | GBR 11 | GER 8 | HUN 6 | BEL Ret | ITA 4 | CHN 6 | JPN 4 | BRA 6 | 8th | 34 | |
| 2005 | Lucky Strike BAR Honda | BAR 007 | Honda RA005E 3.0 V10 | AUS 14 | MAL PO | BHR Ret | SMR DSQ | ESP | MON | EUR 12 | CAN Ret | USA DNS | FRA 11 | GBR 16 | GER 12 | HUN 8 | TUR 9 | ITA 16 | BEL Ret | BRA 10 | JPN DSQ | CHN Ret | 23rd | 1 |
| 2006 | Super Aguri F1 Team | Super Aguri SA05 | Honda RA806E 2.4 V8 | BHR 18 | MAL 14 | AUS 12 | SMR Ret | EUR Ret | ESP 17 | MON Ret | GBR 17 | CAN 15† | USA Ret | FRA Ret | 23rd | 0 | ||||||||
| 2006 | Super Aguri F1 Team | Super Aguri SA06 | Honda RA806E 2.4 V8 | GER Ret | HUN 13 | TUR NC | ITA 16 | CHN DSQ | JPN 15 | BRA 10 | 23rd | 0 | ||||||||||||
| 2007 | Super Aguri F1 | Super Aguri SA07 | Honda RA807E 2.4 V8 | AUS 12 | MAL 13 | BHR Ret | ESP 8 | MON 17 | CAN 6 | USA Ret | FRA 16 | GBR 14 | EUR Ret | HUN 15 | TUR 18 | ITA 16 | BEL 15 | JPN 15† | CHN 14 | BRA 12 | 17th | 4 | ||
| 2008 | Super Aguri F1 | Super Aguri SA08 | Honda RA808E 2.4 V8 | AUS Ret | MAL 16 | BHR 17 | ESP 13 | TUR | MON | CAN | FRA | GBR | GER | HUN | EUR | BEL | ITA | SIN | CHN | JPN | BRA | 21st | 0 |
† Did not finish the race, but was classified as he had completed more than 90% of the race distance.
American open–wheel racing
IndyCar Series
1 The 2011 Las Vegas Indy 300 was abandoned after Dan Wheldon died from injuries sustained in a 15-car crash on lap 11.| Years | Teams | Races | Poles | Wins | Podiums | Top 5s | Top 10s | Indianapolis 500 Wins | Championships |
| 9 | 4 | 153 | 8 | 4 | 9 | 21 | 48 | 1 | 0 |
Indianapolis 500
Complete FIA World Endurance Championship results
Complete Formula Nippon/Super Formula results
Complete Formula E results
| Year | Team | Chassis | Powertrain | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | Pos | Points |
| 2014–15 | Amlin Aguri | Spark SRT01-e | SRT01-e | BEI Ret | PUT | PDE | BUE | MIA | LBH | MCO | BER | MSC | LON | LON | 24th | 2 |