Only six years ago, Takuma Sato was a teenaged bicycle racer in Japan, dreaming that his two-wheeled chain-driven mount was a powerful racing car. Now that dream has become reality, as he stands on the verge of a glittering Formula 1 career.
In 1996, Sato scraped together what money he had to buy a kart and, the following year, to enter Honda's Suzuka Racing School scholarship. He won the prize, a fully paid drive in the 1998 All-Japan Formula 3 Championship, but passed it up in order to pursue his desire of reaching Formula One. To do that he had to go to Europe.
Arriving in mid '98, he contested a handful of Formula Vauxhall Junior races, mainly with the small Diamond Racing team, then at the end of the year graduated with Diamond to Formula Opel. In '99, his first full year of car racing, he took sixth place in the hotly contested EFDA Formula Opel Euroseries, and also competed in the last few rounds of the British F3 Championship in Class B.
Sato joined Carlin Motorsport for 2000 to compete in the F3 'A' class, winning a total of five races and taking third place in the British championship. By now he had been noticed by Grand Prix teams, and in December got his first F1 tests with Jordan and British American Racing. BAR signed him as a test driver for 2001, and he also became contracted to Honda for the first time.
Remaining in F3 for 2001, Sato started the season as clear favourite for the British championship, with good reason. He dominated the championship and broke the record for the number of wins in the British F3 Championship with 12 out of 13 possible victories, as well as first place in the Marlboro Masters of F3 at Zandvoort and the International race supporting the British Grand Prix. He also impressed with his test outings for BAR, which took place mainly at Silverstone and Mugello. Sato ended his Formula 3 career on a high when he won the Macau Grand Prix in November 2001, taking victory in both the preliminary qualifying event and the main race and providing further evidence of the outstanding talent which has earned him a seat in Formula One with Jordan Grand Prix in 2002.
On the announcement in October 2001 of his signing to Jordan, Sato commented, "I am very excited about joining Jordan and am very much looking forward to starting my F1 racing career. This is a fantastic opportunity and I feel a great sense of satisfaction as this is the goal I set out to achieve by deciding to race for a second year in Formula 3 and combine this with Formula One testing."
