OCTOBER 6, 2003

BAR to confirm Sato on Tuesday

British American racing is expected to announce the signing of Takuma Sato for 2004 in Tokyo on Tuesday. The young Japanese driver will be returning to racing after a year spent testing for BAR. He did a season of F1 in 2002 with Jordan Grand Prix. It remains to be seen whether Villeneuve will now not bother with the final race of the year - Sato's home race - or whether BAR will field Takuma in front of his home crowd this weekend. Sato finished fifth in Japan last year.

The news underlines that Honda is increasingly keen to play a bigger role in the activities of BAR but it is likely that the team has extracted an increase in sponsorship from the Japanese car company.