The Team
If you buy an established F1 team, it is never easy in your debut season. But when you start the team from scratch, it’s like attempting to climb Mount Everest armed with only a coat. This is what Super Aguri found out in 2006.
The team is an all-Japanese outfit with a Japanese engine from Honda and two Japanese drivers in Takuma Sato and Yuji Ide. They faced a tough challenge in their debut season having so little preparation time.
With their entry only confirmed in January, and their driver line-up in mid-February, Super Aguri had to use a four-year old modified Arrows chassis for their first three F1 GP’s.
Struggling to match the pace of the rest of the grid, they were quickly aware of how far behind they were.
The situation didn't improve for the team and in fact they were forced to sack Yuji after an incident with Albers' at Imola. Replaced with Franck Montagny, the former Renault test driver with more pace and experience than his predecessor, but still wasn't able to do much due the inferior quality car.
Then Sakon Yamamoto replaced Franck at the German GP. This also coincided with the debut of the team’s new car, the SA06. Problems with the new car stalled progress yet again.
But the team finally got a handle on things at the Italian GP, which saw Takuma beat a Midland to the chequered flag and both cars make it to the finish line.
F1's newest team, though, had to wait until the final race to secure its best result and best performance from Takuma, finishing tenth and Sakon setting the seventh fastest race lap time.
It was a fine effort and wasn't quite as bad as some had thought it would be.
2007 will be the team's second season in F1 and SA07 is basically last years Honda which was quite a good car by the end of 2006 but running on Bridgestone rubber is proving a bit tricky to get it just right.
That said this team will be trying to take another step towards becoming a serious F1 team.
Takuma Sato
Takuma Sato had a dreadful season for a driver who has the talent to compete with the likes of Jenson.
Sadly Takuma let the pressure effect his race craft and BAR Honda decided to bring in Rubens Barrichello to replace him in 2006.
So Takuma joined the new Super Aguri Honda team in 2006, and facing low competition from several teammates, became team leader.
The small team made good progress and saw Takuma running ahead of more established rivals early in the races.
Takuma's best race of the season was in Brazil and he took tenth position ahead of six of his rivals. Takuma stays with the team in 2007 and will be hoping that he will have more competitive equipment at his disposal.
Anthony Davidson
Anthony Davidson was a proven test driver remained with the Honda team in 2006 taking part in Friday practice sessions only.
Anthony, with the blessing of Honda Team Principal Nick Fry, finally gets his break and will race for Super Aguri Honda, teaming up with former F3 teammate Takuma, in 2007.
The chance Anthony has waited so long, he has to face a formidable teammate who is already well integrated into the second year team