JUNE 2, 2006

Super Aguri and Sakon Yamamoto

There are rumours that driver Sakon Yamamoto will be the third driver for Super Aguri F1 starting at Silverstone next week. There have even been suggestions that Yamamoto could replace Franck Montagny at the French GP in July, although this is unlikely to go down well with Montagny, who is currently France's only F1 driver.

Yamamoto is understood to have been to Leafield for a seating fitting.

The 23-year-old started racing at the age of 12 at the Suzuka kart school and won the Japanese Formula A title in 1998 and 1999. He switched to cars in 2001, jumping straight into Formula 3 and ended up fourth in the series in his first year and then headed to Europe where he raced for two seasons In 2004 he went back to Japan and has been racing in the Super GT series ever since although he made his first F1 appearance at the end of 2005 with the Jordan team, doing a solid job at Suzuka.

Yamamoto will need to work as a test driver to convince the FIA that he warrants being granted a F1 superlicence.