Sato pleased after first test
Takuma Sato had nothing but praise for the Super Aguri F1 team after completing a three-day test at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya on Thursday, the first outing for Formula One's newest entrant and its first car.
Although the weather did not help the team get into its stride, with wind and rain interrupting the dry running, Taku managed to complete over 60 laps of the Spanish venue, sharing the SA05 chassis with rookie team-mate Yuji Ide. A best time of 1min 19.774secs arrived on day three, giving Taku encouragement as the team packed up and prepared for its second test, at Silverstone, next week.
Takuma Sato "I am very proud of everybody in the team who has made this test happen with such a tough schedule. Obviously, this test has been an important opportunity for us to run our systems programme before we go to Bahrain, and I am very pleased that we have successfully completed the three-day test and that we were able to evaluate the small amount of data that we have.
In terms of performance we need to work hard, but at least this has been an encouraging start and I am so pleased that everyone has done such a great job. We will work really hard when we shakedown our 2006 initial aero package next week at Silverstone."
Super Aguri's chief technical officer, Mark Preston, confirmed the feeling of satisfaction that had come with getting the first car on track before the start of the race season, and suggested that SAF1 would not be out-classed in Bahrain next month.
"The team has delivered more than anyone imagined possible before we came to Barcelona, and this makes us confident that our performance in Bahrain will be acceptable," he commented, "Taku has been pushing hard to increase the performance of the car, and the engine performed faultlessly, which is a good indicator of our reliability for the first race.
"The test fulfilled our requirements and we were able to solve a number of systems-related issues. By the third day, the car ran reliably all morning, allowing us to begin a programme of performance evaluations, including allowing us to run our Bridgestone tyres for Bahrain."
