|
 |
| Base: |
Leafield, UK |
|
| Drivers: |
T Sato |
|
A Davidson |
|
| Test Drivers: |
J Rossiter |
|
|
| Chassis: |
SA08 |
| Engine: |
Honda |
| Tyres: |
Bridgestone Potenza |
| First Season: |
2006 |
| World Championships: |
0 |
| Highest race finish: |
6 |
| Pole Positions: |
0 |
| Fastest Laps: |
0 |
|
History
A cloud of uncertainty hangs over Super Aguri going into 2008.
The Honda ‘B team' is in desperate need of a financial boost, having been badly hurt by a defaulting sponsor last season.
It has been linked with a string of new partners and has had to focus on ensuring its survival rather than preparing for the season-opener.
While Takuma Sato's Honda links make his seat secure, team-mate Anthony Davidson must wait anxiously to see he has to step aside for a driver favoured by investors, or if Super Aguri has to reluctantly take a pay driver in his place.
There are also question marks over the team's chassis plans, for with customer cars now out of favour, Super Aguri may soon be deprived of its Honda-based technology.
It is a shame that Aguri Suzuki's crew have had to endure such a difficult winter after their breakthrough 2007 season.
The team was never going to achieve much with an outdated and hastily-modified Arrows design in its debut year, but it showed its true capability when handed Honda's 2006 car for last season.
Sato and Davidson qualified 10th and 11th in Melbourne – delighting their surprised team.
A first point followed in Spain, and then a fighting sixth place in Montreal.
But the season would tail off after a non-paying sponsor forced Super Aguri to curtail its development programme, and left question marks over its long-term future.
F1 track record
Just three teams have successfully created an F1 operation from scratch in the past ten years – and only Super Aguri managed to do it within a four-month timescale.
Simply getting on the grid for the 2006 season opener was a minor miracle.
It was not until November 2005 that Honda decided to put its weight behind a new Japanese squad so that its native son Sato had somewhere to go after being dropped from the works team.
The manufacturer chose former racer Aguri Suzuki to spearhead the operation.
Suzuki himself was the first Japanese driver to finish on a grand prix podium.
He had run various teams under the Super Aguri banner in his homeland and America since retiring from driving in 1995.
By 2005 he was considering an F1 project – which was perfect timing for Honda as it pondered how to avoid a Japanese backlash over its treatment of Sato.
But when the deal was announced Suzuki's team was little more than an idea, and the new season was fast approaching.
Super Aguri bought the 2002 Arrows equipment now owned by Minardi's Paul Stoddart, and moved into the team's former premises at Leafield in Warwickshire.
Arrows' final car had shown a great deal of promise considering the team's shrivelling budget – but that was four years earlier, an age in F1 technology terms.
Sure enough, the team lagged behind the field at first, but it kept developing the hybrid machine and made steady progress, taking a stunning 10th place with Sato at Interlagos before scaling new heights with the Honda-based 2007 car.
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