DECEMBER 24, 2005

Super Aguri and Matsuura

Super Aguri F1 will run Takuma Sato in 2006. The news has not yet been confirmed but Sato is one of the reasons that the team exists and it would be amazing if he did not drive. The big question therefore is who will drive the second car and while there is the normal talk of Anthony Davidson and other BAR contracted drivers, it is much more likely given the funding that the team will run two Japanese drivers and that the second man will be Aguri Suzuki's longtime protege Kosuke Matsuura. Some say that he has not raced on road courses for a couple of years, which is true, but prior to that he did all his racing on road circuits and presumably has not forgotten how to do it.

Matsuura started racing at 14, after following his brother into racing. He moved to Formula Dream in 1999 and was a race winner and runner-up in his first year. He won the title in dominant fashion in 2000 and moved to German F3 in 2001. He was a winner in his first season and in 2002 finished second in the title. He moved up to Formula Renault V6 and was again a first year winner and finished third in the series and then headed to America where he was Indy Racing League rookie of the year in 2004.

Matsuura seems to be pretty well-qualified to be having a try in Formula 1.