Takuma Sato

Takuma Sato (佐藤 琢磨, Satō Takuma, born 28 January 1977) is a Japanese racing driver who won the 2008 Formula One Championship with the Auraline-Lotus team. He is regarded as the best Japanese driver ever by many people. He is the only Japanese and Asian driver to win the Formula One Championship.

Early life and junior career
Sato was born in Tokyo, in a working family with no tradition in motorsport. Due to the difficulties he faced to enter the motorsport world, he competed in many national cycling competitions, where he won some junior championships. At the late age of 19 he started his motorsport career, first with bikes and later with karting.

He gave up his studies to focus on racing, and travelled to England to achieve his goals. He competed in Junior Formula between 1998 and 1999, and entered British F3 at the end of 1999. The next two years in F3, he finished 3rd in 2000, and won the championship in 2001.

Early career (2001-2004)
Sato first drove an F1 car in 2001, when he was BAR testing driver. After the expirience he gained, he debuted in 2002 with the Jordan team. His first year was characterized for being a fast driver, but also for making lots of mistakes. In 2003 we came back to BAR as a testing driver, and raced the Japanese Grand Prix replacing Jacques Villeneuve. In 2004 he had a consistent year, with his podium at the US Grand Prix as the highlight of the seaason. At the end of the year, he announced he would leave BAR to join Minardi.

Ragunathan Minardi (2005)
Sato joined Minardi in 2005 alongside the other new face David Coulthard. The car wasn't capable of many things, so his races at the Belgian Grand Prix (where he crashed while running P5) and the Italian Grand Prix (where he finished 5th) are his most remarkable performances of the season. He finished 17th in the standings with 16th points, with teammate Coulthard finishing one position above.

Auraline-Lotus (2006-Present)
With the withdrawal of Minardi at the end of 2005, Sato ended in the Auraline programme as a testing driver for 2006. In that same year he also competed the last two races in replacement of Heinz-Harald Frentzen, picking up 12 points with 2 great performances. Those 12 points got him to 15th in the championship, with teammate Mika Hakkinen 13th, but completing the whole season.

In 2007 he became a title contender after a huge improvement from Auraline-Lotus. He got his first podium in the 2nd race of the season, with a 3rd place at the Portuguese Grand Prix. At the Italian Grand Prix he got his first win, the 2nd for the team. He would only get that win and 4 poles, that helped him to finish 3rd in the standings with 183 points, losing the title in the final race, behind Heidfeld and the champion Vettel.

In 2008 he won the Formula One Championship after a dominant season from the Auraline team. They got 7 out of 15 wins, with Sato taking 3 and teammate Robert Kubica taking 4. His wins at Beijing, Monaco and the title decider in Rio were enough to win the championship with 203 points, in front of Hulkenberg and teammate Kubica.

With the regulation changes in 2009, the Auraline team fell off the grid, becoming just points scorers. The highlights of the seasons were 2 great races at Monaco, where he claimed a podium; and a strategy masterclass in Phoenix to claim his last win to date. He finished 9th in the standings with 78 points, just in front of his experienced teammate Rubens Barrichello.