Breaking news
IndyCar
Sato upbeat about Foyt’s prospects for remainder of 2016
Takuma Sato says the fifth place he scored in Toronto was a positive but he has more reasons to expect improvements over the remainder of 2016.
David Malsher-Lopez
Edited: Jul 21, 2016, 4:33 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
The AJ Foyt Racing driver, now in his seventh season of IndyCar racing, described his third top-six finish of the season as “an amazing result after a difficult qualifying session” but is focused now on stepping up the team’s pace on natural road courses.
Sato told Motorsport.com: “Those four laps under yellow [the final full-course caution at Toronto] helped a lot, because without that, I would have had to reduce even more my speed, so I would have made it to the end but maybe lost a couple positions.
“But we made a good call, a good gamble. It was a really good race, a lot of fun, and very important result because we had a tough season.”
The AJ Foyt Racing-Honda cars have notably fluctuated in pace over the course of race weekends, with promising practice sessions for both Sato and teammate Jack Hawksworth often being followed by a fall down the order come qualifying. Partly this can be explained by Chevrolet “turning up” its engines for the crucial session, but Sato says there are issues beyond that.
“Our difficulties are because the series is so competitive,” he said. “The big teams come to tracks and have a setup approximate to where they need to be. We have lack of testing so we sometimes have a lack of fundamental understanding.
“We have great engineers so we bring the car out of the box very competitive, but then the track changes and we sometimes lose speed [relative to the competition], because we don’t know how the changes affect the car.
“The aero package has changed 2015 to 2016 so every time we go to a track it’s kind of new-ish and we have to go through everything again.
“OK, we have two cars but some of the teams we fight with have four cars and so they learn the package at the track quicker than we can. And they have windtunnel time, too. So keeping up with them is difficult. They start a weekend already one or two steps ahead of us. And if you have half a second from top five to last five, little differences make a big difference, and that’s very difficult. Competition is very high.”
Road course progress
Nonetheless, Sato expressed optimism for the three road courses on the remainder of the 2016 schedule, at Mid-Ohio next week, and then Watkins Glen and Sonoma in September.
“Yes, we should be good,” he said. “We’ve made steps since Barber. Historically, you think we will struggle at Mid-Ohio but we had a very positive weekend at Elkhart Lake, and it had been a long time since we performed really well at a road course.
“We are often good at street courses," added the 2013 Long Beach winner, "but struggle at road courses because the tire construction and grip distribution is very different and we’re working so hard to make it work and before this year, it failed.
“But this year we brought a quite new philosophy, and it succeeds.
“I love road courses, especially Mid-Ohio. Makes me think of tracks I raced on in England like Brands Hatch, Oulton Park! When I first came to IndyCar in 2010 with KV Racing, we qualified well at Mid-Ohio, but since then it’s been a struggle.
“Hopefully we’ll do really well. The test at Mid-Ohio [tomorrow] gives us an opportunity to see what’s what.”
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Harvey and Claman De Melo to test for SPM at Mid-Ohio
Next article Coyne signs “very impressive” Enerson to race deal
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
David Malsher-Lopez
Alex Zanardi: The man whose name is a synonym for “hero”
IndyCar
IndyCar
Alex Zanardi: The man whose name is a synonym for “hero”
Remembering Michele Alboreto: F1 ace, Le Mans winner and a good man
Formula 1
Formula 1
Remembering Michele Alboreto: F1 ace, Le Mans winner and a good man
IMSA Laguna Seca: Ganassi Cadillac holds off Porsche for victory
IMSA
IMSA
Laguna Seca
IMSA Laguna Seca: Ganassi Cadillac holds off Porsche for victory
More from
Takuma Sato
Ed Carpenter explains why he was so angry with Takuma Sato
IndyCar
IndyCar
110th Running of the Indianapolis 500
Ed Carpenter explains why he was so angry with Takuma Sato
Takuma Sato set for Indy 500 return with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
IndyCar
IndyCar
110th Running of the Indianapolis 500
Takuma Sato set for Indy 500 return with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
Honda shares sneak peek of Takuma Sato preparing for Williams FW11 Tokyo Auto Salon run
Formula 1
Formula 1
Barcelona-Catalunya Pre-Season Testing
Honda shares sneak peek of Takuma Sato preparing for Williams FW11 Tokyo Auto Salon run
More from
A.J. Foyt Enterprises
Barnes: Why IndyCar’s updated licensing system fails its own integrity test
IndyCar
IndyCar 14 h
Barnes: Why IndyCar’s updated licensing system fails its own integrity test
Josh Pierson earns IndyCar license approval following IMS road course evaluation test
IndyCar
IndyCar 21 h
Josh Pierson earns IndyCar license approval following IMS road course evaluation test
Inside AJ Foyt Racing’s transition: Hauger’s arrival, Ferrucci’s future, and the Pierson waiting game
Feature
IndyCar
Feature
IndyCar
Inside AJ Foyt Racing’s transition: Hauger’s arrival, Ferrucci’s future, and the Pierson waiting game
Latest news
Franco Morbidelli on securing most coveted WSBK ride: 'Clearly Ducati has some trust in me'
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Japanese GP
35 min
Franco Morbidelli on securing most coveted WSBK ride: 'Clearly Ducati has some trust in me'
"Not allowed, not made possible": Was BMW denied its title chance?
DTM
DTM DTM
Hockenheim
1 h
"Not allowed, not made possible": Was BMW denied its title chance?
Max Verstappen: FAQ on his GTWC Europe debut
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1 1 h
Max Verstappen: FAQ on his GTWC Europe debut
Pedro Acosta: "I'm going to Ducati to learn from Marc Marquez, not to beat him on same bike"
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Indonesian GP
2 h
Pedro Acosta: "I'm going to Ducati to learn from Marc Marquez, not to beat him on same bike"
Feature
Discover prime content
Inside AJ Foyt Racing’s transition: Hauger’s arrival, Ferrucci’s future, and the Pierson waiting game
Feature
IndyCar
Feature
IndyCar
By Joey Barnes
Inside AJ Foyt Racing’s transition: Hauger’s arrival, Ferrucci’s future, and the Pierson waiting game
You Ask The Questions: David Malukas
IndyCar
By Joey Barnes
You Ask The Questions: David Malukas
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe