Super Aguri far from happy after Friday in the desert

It was what has become a typical Friday for the Super Aguri Formula One Team at the Bahrain International Circuit, with a controlled testing programme dictating limited track time. Both Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson were struggling with the right balance.

Takuma Sato: “It was not an easy day. We struggled to get the balance right in the car as through the laps the balance was changing quite a lot and we did not have enough time to complete our evaluations or to develop the set-up. We are working with a tyre one-step softer than last year, so the comparison was interesting between the medium and soft tyres today, and both are working well. However, we need to work hard to get the car balance right for tomorrow.”

Anthony Davidson: “It was quite a tough day for everyone out there today with the cross winds. We managed to find a good race balance on the car, but we still need to work on finding a good balance for Qualifying tomorrow. I didn’t get a clean run at all on any of my new tyre runs due to traffic, but that’s not a worry at the moment.”

Graham Taylor, Sporting Director: “We had to take a very controlled approach to this weekend which minimised our running in Free Practice one. The weather is good today; there is not much wind around and so the track cleaned up quite quickly, it would seem. In Free Practice two we attempted some longer runs to get a handle on the tyres, which I think we achieved, but we are far from happy with the handling of the car and there is a lot of work to do overnight, though we expect to be a little closer tomorrow. The drivers are really challenged by the 2008 regulations here.”

TAKUMA SATO Car 18 (SA08A-06)
FP1 Position 22 No: of laps 6 Fastest Lap Time 1:36.536
FP2 Position 21 No: of laps 24 Fastest Lap Time 1:35.288

ANTHONY DAVIDSON Car 19 (SA08A-05)
FP1 Position 21 No: of laps 6 Fastest Lap Time 1:36.145
FP2 Position 22 No: of laps 25 Fastest Lap Time 1:35.712