The 32nd F1 Beyond The Grid podcast of 2019 has Takuma Sato talk about his early days, move to Europe, career so far, Macau GP and more.
Sato starts off Beyond The Grid podcast talking about his 10 years since F1 and also completing a decade in IndyCar, where he moved to after his stint in F1. He also discussed about his return to Suzuka for the Japanese GP.
The Japanese then talked about the importance of Suzuka circuit and goes back in time to recall about his time when he joined Suzuka Racing School. He actually started off with riding bicycle than taking up any motor racing activities.
Sato was a National champion in bicycle racing. He wanted race cars after his first experience of watching it but also had ambitions to race in Tour de France and Olympic Games. But with the move to racing, he included riding as part of his fitness regime.
They then discussed the 1987 Japanese GP, where he shares his experience of seeing F1 cars and the sheer volume of people that had come to watch the race and how it eventually inspired him to join the sport.
Even though Japanese racer Satoru Nakajima was competing that year, it was always Ayrton Senna for Sato. He also talked about his experience driving the MP44 McLaren driven by Senna in 1988 at the Goodwood Festival of speed.
The topic returned to his move to racing and also Europe as he was never satisfied with being a bicycle racer even though he had an excellent facility at the university. Despite the age restriction with scholarship from Suzuka Racing School, he got in the programme.
After few races in Japan, he then decided to move to England. He found a way to use his Japanese F3 scholarship to compete in Formula Vauxhall, which led him to British F3, where he wanted to win in a dominating way, while talking about settling in England.
They then discussed the 2001 season where Sato dominated by winning 12 races. He won the title with the then unknown Carlin team. He talks about how he felt that Carlin had the potential to win after his winter testing with the team.
Then he spoke to Honda about joining Carlin and also talks about how he could not join Stewart GP due to lack of place. The topic shifted to Macau GP, which was one of the races on his mind to win at all cost, especially with Senna’s win.
He revealed that before he could run at Macau GP, he had a contract signed with Jordan for his F1 debut. He shed light on how he convinced Eddie Jordan to compete in Macau, who didn’t want him to. Sato threatened to leave Jordan if not given the permission.
Then they talked about why he chose Jordan to make his F1 debut. The 2002 Austrian crash was a hot topic as he explained the situation before the collision and then jokes about how he felt that a meteor hit him based on the impact of the accident.
He talked about the pain and the paralysing feeling that he felt after that incident. He explained the incident in detail and how a rail had punched a hole through the monocoque and how his legs were then sandwiched between the scrapped monocoque.
They then shifted to discuss about his first race at Suzuka, where he scored his F1 career’s first point. When asked about the best car he drove in F1, it was the 2004 BAR-Honda based on the competitiveness of the vehicle.
But the best handling car according to him was the Toro Rosso he tested in 2008. This was the same year when Super Aguri’s run in F1 came to and end as Sato thought he would get a seat with Toro Rosso and or Red Bull. He then talks about his first podium at Indianapolis.
Before the end of the podcast, he talks about the difficulties faced by Super Aguri and the bond they had in the period. They talked about racing against Ralf Schumacher, Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso in F1 and also about Naoki Yamamoto.
Here’s the last podcast featuring Ralf Schumacher
The report was written by Venkatesh P Koushik and edited by Darshan Chokhani