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Sato Takuma | |
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| Date of Birth | 28 January 1977 |
| Place of Birth | Tokyo |
Sato Takuma is 163 centimeters tall, and weighs 60 kilograms. He is a rookie in the Formula One World Championships. He is driving a Jordan Honda engine car. He was the first Japanese to win the England F3 Championship last year. Do you know who he is? He is Takuma Sato.
He became interested in F1 car racing because his father likes cars and his father's friend was working for Honda Car Technology. His father and his father's friend influenced Takuma. Takuma and his father often said, "Cars inspire men". He was impressed by Rotes Honda F1 car in the F1 Japan Grand Prix when he was 10 years old. After that he had respect for A. Senna. Takuma said "I want to be a racer or a lawyer" when he was asked "What do you want to be in the future?" upon graduating from elementary school and junior high school.
Although he wanted to drive a car, he was still too young. He bought a road bike when he graduated from junior high school. He trained on his road bike, and won his first road bike race. He took pleasure in winning the race. He won almost every road bike race after that. He won the inter-high-school athletic competition when he was in third grade of high school, opening the way to go to university.
He got his driver's license when he was 18 years old. He entered Waseda University, and he was a member of the road bike club. But he wanted to be an F1 car driver so he entered Suzuka Racing School. He was the top graduate from SRS and earned a position in the Japan F3 championships after only one race. He then went to the England F3 championships. Three years later he won the England F3 championship. After only 4 years he was achieving top results and then started driving an F1 car.
Takuma Sato is one of the most exciting Formula One car rookie drivers. I think he is smart and he has not made any mistakes so far. I hope he will continue winning races and become the first Japanese F1 champion. I think he can do it.
References: http://www.takumasato.org/satoprofile.asp
Reported by: Masahito Ochi (Hokkaido Tokai University)
Data verified by: Keiya Matsui
Date of Report: September 2002