Sato: Super Aguri to miss impending Barcelona test

With a three-week break before the Spanish Grand Prix, the teams have time to test and tinker with their cars. Takuma Sato, however, has revealed that Super Aguri will miss next week’s multi-team test at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya, as the Japanese team’s buy-out is yet to be completed.

In the build-up to the 2008 season, Super Aguri endured a winter of financial uncertainty, only making the Melbourne grid in March following a last-minute agreement with the Magma Group. The acquisition has not been finalised between the two parties and, until it is, development work will be restricted.

“The final agreement is not yet finished with the Magma Group, but hopefully it will happen very soon, and then we can press the button to start development,” explained Sato on his official site. “So the next time I will drive will be in Friday practice for the Spanish Grand Prix.”

Despite their recent difficulties, Super Aguri enjoyed a relatively strong race at the Bahrain International Circuit last weekend. Sato and team mate Anthony Davidson eventually ended the Sakhir event in 17th and 16th respectively, ahead of Red Bull’s David Coulthard and Force India’s Adrian Sutil.

“I tried to hold people off as much as I could, but the speed difference was so big there was no point defending too aggressively because that would lose me even more time in the race,” added the Japanese driver. “But the most important thing was to finish the race - that was our objective and we succeeded, so it was a good weekend.”

While they will be absent from next week’s test at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya, Super Aguri will be in action at the track a week later for the Spanish Grand Prix, which will take place from 25-27 April.

9.4.2008   ▪ Formula One    ▪ Sato, Super Aguri, testing    ▪ www.formula1.com