| ■Nationality Japanese | ■Date of Birth 28 January 1977 | ■Place of Birth Tokyo |
| ■Height 1.64 m | Weight 59kg | ■Hobbies Cycling and food |
1996
The journey from two-wheel pedal-powered racing to the pinnacle of motorsport competition laid bare: little more than a decade 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 is reality, as he is established as one of the Formula 1 elite.
In 1996, he 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.
▲TAKUMA 1997 SRS-F
1997
1997年は大学を休学してSRS-Fとカートに専念する。スクール生のなかにはカートの全日本チャンピオンなど、遅咲きの琢磨とは比べ物にならないほど経験豊富な選手もいたが、琢磨は入学した直後からそうしたスクール生はもちろんのこと、時には講師陣さえ置き去りにするような速さを披露、ここで文句なしのトップでスカラシップを獲得し、翌年の全日本F3選手権へのデビューを決める。あわせて、中谷明彦が主宰するドライビングアカデミー「中谷塾」も受講、こちらも主席で卒業した。
▲TAKUMA 1997 Kart
▲TAKUMA 1997 SRS-F
1998
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 and won the Macau Grand Prix support race for AF2000 cars with the Meritus Team.
▲TAKUMA 1999_F-Opel_Donington
▲TAKUMA 1999_F-Opel_Monza
2000
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.
