Takuma “Taku” Sato (Japanese: 佐藤 琢磨, Hepburn: Satō Takuma, born 28 January 1977) Wiki
Bio by Stephen Latham
He moved with Honda to join BAR in 2003 as a reserve driver and at the final round in Japan, replaced Jacques Villeneuve and scored the second points finish of his career, with sixth place. He was signed to race full-time in 2004 alongside Jenson Button and the 006 proved to be very competitive, with Button scoring six podiums from the first eight races, including a first podium in Malaysia as well as his first pole position in Imola. Takuma qualified four times in the top-three, including a front row start and an overall lap record at the European GP and was ninth in Australia, fifteenth at Malaysia, fifth in Bahrain and Spain and sixteenth at San Marino. He was eleventh in Great Britain, eighth in Germany, sixth in Hungary and China, fourth in Italy and Japan then sixth in Brazil. In China, British American Tobacco wanted to promote its 555 branding and thus all team members, including all three drivers, wore special blue-yellow overalls and clothing throughout the weekend. Test driver Anthony Davidson drove a blue-yellow 555-coloured car in Friday’s practice though Button and Takuma drove all weekend with the traditional red and white Lucky Strike-coloured car. His aggressive driving style paid dividends at the US GP, where, after the team did not pit under safety car conditions, he fought back with some daring overtaking moves to take his first podium finish, becoming the first Japanese driver to score a podium since 1990 and Button took four further podiums in the latter stages of the season. Reliability issues caused six retirements but he scored points in nine of the eleven races he completed to finish eighth in the championship. With the team scoring eleven podiums and a pole position, they finished second to Ferrari in the Constructors Championship.
Continuing with the team again the following year alongside Button, they had a poor start to the season and were involved in controversy over the minimum weight of their cars. He missed the Malaysian GP due to having flu and both drivers were disqualified from San Marino while the team was banned from the two subsequent races for using cars that were underweight when all fuel was removed. During checks after the race it was found that Button’s car had been under the 600 kg minimum weight requirement when drained of fuel. The race stewards cleared him, as they believed data provided by BAR-Honda was sufficient to prove that they had been operating inside the rules, but the FIA appealed and sent them to court. They were found guilty, but though it was said the FIA’s preferred penalty was having the team disqualified from the championship, they were given a two-race ban, starting from the next round in Spain. Takuma, who had finished fifth, was disqualified despite his car not being found to be underweight. The team were also banned from Monaco, and, unable to compete there, Button commentated on the race for ITV F1. The team failed to score a point until France though Button scored points in all of the last 10 races, including two podium finishes. Besides their two banned races, the team also did not start the US GP as they had to withdraw due to the tyre issues that affected all the Michelin runners. Three teams were using Bridgestone, while the rest were using Michelin, but the banked final corner at Indianapolis created unique stresses on the tyres. During Friday practice, Ralf Schumacher suffered a huge crash at this corner, having suffered a catastrophic left-rear tyre failure, slamming hard into the outside wall as a result and the team also found extensive cuts to Ricardo Zonta’s tyres after practice. Various proposals were offered as solutions for the race, including flying new tyres in and creating a chicane, but twenty cars set off as normal for a formation lap before forming the starting grid. At the banked Turn 13, the entrance to the pit lane and the turn that was the centre of the controversy, all the Michelin runners, including BAR, returned to their pit box areas, leaving just six cars from the three Bridgestone teams, Ferrari, Jordan and Minardi, to start the race. Takuma’s results through the season included fourteenth in Australia, twelfth in the European GP at Nurburgring, eleventh in France, sixteenth in Great Britain and Italy plus twelfth in Germany. He ended the season with eighth-place in Hungary as his only points finish, despite qualifying seven times in the top ten, but was disqualified in Japan after a lap 10 collision with Jarno Trulli which caused the Italian to retire from the race.
Switching to Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing in 2012, he was eighth and seventh at Long Beach and Fontana and was on the podium twice, finishing third at São Paulo and second at Edmonton. He almost won that year’s Indy 500, where he chased Dario Franchitti to the finish, but in trying to pass him at the beginning of the final lap, he spun and crashed into the wall. After being checked over, he left the infield medical centre wearing a hat that read: “No Attack, No Chance.” He contested the last three rounds of the Formula Nippon season with Team Mugen that year. He also raced with them in the opening round of the renamed 2013 Super Formula season, and later in the year returned to the team to compete in the last three races of the season; he scored his first points with an eighth-place finish in the season finale.
Takuma then spent four seasons with A.J. Foyt’s team and was eighth and fourteenth at St.Petersburg and Alabama before recording his first victory, at Long Beach. Dario Franchitti and Ryan Hunter-Reay started first and second while Will Power and Takuma started in third and fourth. Franchitti dominated the first twenty eight laps before falling behind Power. Power led until lap 30, then pitted, which gave the lead to Takuma and he did not relinquish the lead for the rest of the race to take his first victory, becoming the first Japanese driver to win an IndyCar Series race. He followed this with a second place podium result in the next round at São Paulo, and later was thirteenth at Indianapolis, eleventh in Texas and seventh in Milwaukee. His second year saw seventh at St.Petersburg, ninth in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis, fifth at Toronto, and fourth and sixth at Sonoma and Fontana while in his two final seasons he was second at Detroit and sixth at Pocono then sixth and fifth at St.Petersburg and Toronto. During this time, he had a one-off entry in Formula E at the 2014 Beijing ePrix with Amlin Aguri, after Antonio Felix da Costa was forced to miss the start of the season due to his DTM commitments. Unfortunately he had to retire with mechanical issues but took two points for recording the fastest lap of the race.
He left Andretti at the end of the year and joined Rahal Letterman Lanigan for four seasons and was eighth in Alabama, fifth and fourth at Detroit and Road America and third at Iowa. There were numerous instances of bad luck, including crashing early in the Indianapolis 500, wrecking early at Pocono and a failed pit strategy at Gateway, but he played the strategy wisely and held off Ryan Hunter-Reay at Portland, winning his first on a permanent road course, after starting twentieth. He started 2019 with a win in the third race at Alabama, from pole, was third at Indianapolis and Detroit and late in the season won at Madison, Illinois. In his third season he took second at Madison but also his second victory at Indianapolis. Takuma qualified on the outside of the front row and though Dixon dominated the race, leading 111 of the 200 laps, he was equally fast and although he led just twenty seven laps, was in contention the entire race and shadowed Dixon. He took the lead on lap 185, with Dixon in pursuit over the closing laps, but after his Rahal Letterman Lanigan teammate Spencer Pigot severely damaged the pit road attenuator in a crash on Lap 196, the final five laps were run under caution. Team boss Bobby Rahal stated “Takuma got through the traffic pretty good and had just enough of a gap, that’s all it took. For Takuma, a two-time winner of the Indy 500. That’s pretty cool.” In final season with the team he was sixth at St.Petersburg and Illinois plus fourth in Detroit.
In December 2021, it was announced that he had signed with Dale Coyne Racing for 2022, replacing Romain Grosjean, and results included seventh in the GMR Grand Prix at Indianapolis and fifth at Illinois. Following this Chip Ganassi Racing signing him to run in the oval rounds for the 2023 season, with his best results seventh at Indianapolis and ninth in Iowa,. On the fourth of December 2023, after a delay of three years, Takuma got a chance to show off his 2020 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Indianapolis 500 winning car to his fans as his second 500 victory took place in front of empty Indianapolis grandstands due to health-and-safety precautions at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Takuma took the car for a drive on the road course at Twin Ring Motegi during the Honda Racing Thanks Day and the event brought Honda-powered drivers and riders from racing series around the world in a celebration for fans that included demonstration laps, question and answer presentations, autograph sessions and more. He stated on X, “Beautiful, the 2020 winning car. During the pandemic, there were no spectators, so to actually show this in front of the fans like this in Motegi, I’m very proud of that and really appreciate Honda and everybody that makes things happen. It’s a fantastic car.” Other Honda drivers/riders at the event included Max Verstappen, Daniel Ricciardo, Sergio Perez and Yuki Tsunoda plus multiple MotoGP World Champion Marc Marquez.
In a return to Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing in 2024 he contested the Indianapolis 500, finishing fourteenth, but this was his only IndyCar race that year. During that year, Takuma was inducted into the Long Beach Motorsports Walk of Fame and his eldest son, Rintaro, made his racing debut in the F4 Japanese Championship. He rejoined Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing in 2025 to contest the Indy 500 but on Day 2 of the Open Test he suffered a big crash into the wall, which resulted in significant damage to the car. Fortunately he was uninjured and after being checked was released following the incident.
