Red Sun Rising
March 12th 2007 08:35
Super Aguri was born a runt of the F1 litter. An ex-racer’s pipedream that many thought was impossible to pull off. But Super Aguri endured, and in the space of one year transformed from backmarkers into top 10 challengers.
Just try to wipe the smile off of Aguri Suzuki’s face. Seriously, if you see the founder of Super Aguri, the latest F1 team to have been created from scrap, just try and remove that broad, toothy grin that perpetually adorns his face.
He smiles because he is happy. He is happy because his baby, his project - literally his dream come true - is still alive and kicking, despite the odds.
Apparently one night somewhere in 2005, Suzuki dreamt about competing in F1 with his very own, all-Japanese team. When he awoke, he dedicated himself into turning that dream into reality. What Suzuki confronted was beyond a challenge; it was impossibility. In the space of around six months, he had to somehow assemble himself a formula one car, rally together a regiment of engineers, mechanics and drivers, find an engine or two and present the package to the FIA for entry.
A proud man is Aguri Suzuki
During this time, Suzuki also approached the steeply experienced Daniel Audetto to be the managing director of the team. Audetto worked with Suzuki in the early ‘90’s as general manager of Lamborghini Engineering, the engine suppliers for Larousse, who Suzuki raced for. Audetto’s decorated career in motorsport ranges from rally, powerboats,.engine development, PR and sponsorship and is punctuated with spells in F1. After stints at Ferrari, Lamborghini, Ligier, Arrows and Renault, the wily Italian was the obvious choice for the job, and Suzuki approached his old friend with an ambitious mission statement.
Daniel Audetto
However, while Audetto was on the recruitment drive, it was brought to Suzuki’s attention that the original intention of using modified BAR-Honda 007’s breached intellectual property laws. This left the team car-less, with less than four months before Friday practice at Bahrain. Time and resource constraints meant that Super Aguri couldn’t design their own car for the coming season, but Suzuki was so stubbornly determined to race in ’06 that he turned to Paul Stoddart, who had just sold Minardi and was walking away from the F1 game.
The hallowed Concorde Agreement that governs F1 requires teams to compete with cars “not desgined by, not manufactured by or not owned by another team”. So Suzuki, with help from Audetto, purchased a number of old Arrows A23 cars from Stoddart, including the intellectual property rights and also the original plans for the chassis. Now with a base, engines and a legal (enough) cars, Super Aguri was ready to step into the big scary world of Formula One.
Sato shakes down the modified A23
Aguri Suzuki’s racing career in Formula One was in every sense, a roller coaster. Not long after being crowned 1988 Japanese F3000 champion, Suzuki was drafted into the struggling Larousse-Lola F1 team to replace the ill Yannick Dalmas at Suzuka. At 28, Aguri wasn’t the youngest of rookies, but remained composed and managed to nurse his car to the finish line.
The next year, Suzuki partnered Bernd Shreinder for the 1989 in Yamaha-powered Zakspeed cars. On paper prospects looked good for Suzuki, but in practice, the car was simply too slow and unreliable. The hapless Suzuki pulled off every driver’s worst nightmare and failed to pre-qualify at each of the 16 grand prix meetings.
But, Suzuki shook off the disappointment of 1989, and returned to Larousse for the next season. Nineteen-ninety was to be the pinnacle of Suzuki’s 88-race career that spanned eight seasons. Although the year was riddled with retirements, he still managed three points finishes, including a brilliant third at his home race at Suzuka where he also managed to set the second fastest lap. For the next four years, Suzuki regularly finished in the top ten for Footwork and Ligier, and managed another couple of points finishes, but retired in 1995 after hurting his neck from crashing heavily at Suzuka. Suzuki became the first Asian driver to stand upon the podium, and it also made him the most successful Japanese driver in F1.
That mantle now rests with his number one driver Takuma Sato.
Super Aguri’s conception was a rather clandestine operation. During the off-season between 2005 and 2006, there was a strange rumour floating about the paddock that an 11th team, funded by Honda was set to grid up for the 2006 season. Details soon emerged that it was indeed Aguri Suzuki, with backing from Honda, who had submitted an entry to the FIA in November 2005. After reportedly failing to produce the $48 million entry bond, the FIA’s official entry list was released, with the mysterious 11th team nowhere to be seen.
But as he did in his racing career, Suzuki grittily persevered. He reapplied for entry in 2006, but needed the unanimous blessing of the existing ten teams in order to compete. Nine of the ten teams happily obliged, seeing the newcomers as no threat. Midland however, was the only dissenter to the Japanese team’s entry, concerned that it would negatively affect their TV revenue. Eventually, perhaps fearing backlash from a gang of Japanese mechanics, or perhaps realising that this Honda B-team project was not as threatening as first thought, Midland relented, and on the 26th January 2006, Super Aguri was officially born.
The SA105 in action
There they were, on a warm, hazy Bahrain Friday morning in March. At the furthest end of the pitlane in a previously unused garage, sat two Super Aguri SA105s, painted in brilliant white with red trim, devoid of sponsorship logos, bar the Honda emblem on the engine cover. Despite numerous aero tweaks from Aguri’s experienced technical head, Mark Preston, the 2002 Arrows incarnation was strikingly apparent. Designed over four years ago by McLaren-man, Mike Coughlan, the A23 pioneered the twin-keel technology and was quite a nimble and impressive car. But as Takuma Sato and Yuji Ide trundled about in the Friday practice traffic, the Super Aguris looked rather Neanderthal compared to the sleek, zero- keeled, coke-bottled machines that slipped past them.
It didn’t bother Aguri Suzuki, however. He had never witnessed a more impressive sight than the Sakhir 2006 starting grid; with the two Super Aguri miracle babies tacked on at the back, growling their own tune amidst the intimidating roar of competitors engines. It was an eventful, but educational race for Super Aguri. Sato had a great start, outdragging Tiago Monteiro’s Midland into 17th place after the first lap, but he simply lacked the pace to maintain the spot. Ide received a drive-through penalty after the mechanics remained on the grid for too long, fuel rigs refused to co-operate, nor did radio communications, and embarrassingly both cars entered the pits on the same lap for their fuel stops. But Sato kept his nose clean and eventually hauled his SA105 across the finish line, albeit four laps down. It was, above all else, a successful first day at school for the new kids on the F1 block.
The next few races were all about finishing. As the team awaited their updated car, the SA106 to be ready to debut in Germany, Sato continued to impress, qualifying ever closer to the cars in front, but Ide struggled for pace, and lost his super licence after clattering into the back of Christjian Albers, launching the Midland driver into a terrifying barrel roll on the first lap at Imola. French replacement, Franck Montagny fared better, but lost his drive to Japanese tester, Sakon Yamamoto when the new car was finally introduced.
Montagny leads Sato
The SA106 was a deeply refined development of the SA105, and showed immediate promise. Sato was able to outqualify Midlands and Toro Rossos, and Yamamoto performed relatively well in his rookie races. Super Aguri persistently continued to improve, and in an emotional Japanese Grand Prix, Suzuki saw both his cars finish in front of a wildly enthusiastic home crowd. Super Aguri supporters flooded the Suzuka circuit, showing their partisan support for the young team, more so than the two giant Japanese entrants, Toyota, and big brother Honda. Sato finished a credible 15th, after fighting other cars all race. It was one of Suzuki’s proudest moments, but was soon to be bettered two weeks later at Brazil.
Sato was impressive in '06
In the space of a year, Super Aguri matured from fumbling, ill-equipped newbies, to storming top-ten finishers – capable of threatening the points-scorers. To do so after that mad scramble to get onto the 2006 grid; that frenzied effort of piecing together an F1 team from scratch, in the narrowest of time frames, was a truly admirable feat.
Sato on his way to 10th at Brazil
Now, with a season of lessons learnt and fun had, Super Aguri are roaring into 2007 with high expectations. The passion still burns bright, but so too now, does the desire to succeed. While the issue of Honda’s support and chassis sharing currently dominates headlines involving the Super Aguri camp, the team remain focused and motivated in their quest to race, despite the controversy that now surrounds them.
Racing is what Aguri Suzuki came into F1 to do, as a driver, and now as a team boss. Racing is what drives him, what motivates him and what pleases him. Racing is why he’s such a happy man, and Super Aguri is why he has that fatherly-pride smile permanently etched upon his face.
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