Takuma Sato and Shoichi Tanaka Press Conference for Sepang F1 Race

The 2005 season for Formula-1 has since started 2 weeks ago and once again it is the Sepang leg of the season - Formula-1 festival time is here in Malaysia again. For this year, Honda again ran an 'F1 Party' to celebrate the race and held a press conference in that party. Like the previous year, I was most delighted to receive an invitation to attend the party and to cover the press conference.

The status of Takuma Sato as an official driver for BAR-Honda is most significant from Honda's point of view. Last year (2004) was the first year Honda Malaysia presented a press conference by Takuma Sato in their by-invitation-only 'Honda F1 Party'. They did the same again this year but in line with Honda's bigger ownership of the team (45%), this year (2005) was a joint press conference by Takuma Sato and Mr. Shoichi Tanaka, who is the president of Honda Racing Development Ltd as well as a management board member of BAR-Honda.

This year's press conference did not go smoothly from my point of view. First I forgot to bring my camera with me so I do not have any photos for this article. Then I was too busy chatting and actually missed the call for media to attend the press conference. Luckily someone highlighted to me and as I quickly rushed over to the press conference, I was very lucky to have only missed the introduction. Sato was in the midst of answering only the 1st question when I stepped into the press conference room.

For this year, I had prepared some questions I wanted to ask Sato. But I was also cautious not to monopolize the mic. Rather unfortunately there seems to be an unusually large amount of questions by the media during the press conference and rather boringly, a number of them were questions about the non-issue of BAR-Honda deciding to use new engines for the race. Nevertheless, one publication asked a question about the aerodynamics of the BAR007 which was one of the questions I wanted to ask and I was able to ask the 2 other most important questions on my list so eventually the press conference did turned out to be a success from my point of view.

Since I couldn't write fast enough to keep up with the speed at which Sato and Tanaka-san were answering, I could only scribble the key points of their answers. So as is my usual style, the questions and their relevant answers below are summaries of key points based on my notes and also partially from memory.

Related Question

This question was asked by the editor of another publication though it's on my list of questions I originally planned on asking. Basically he said that there are talks about a deficiency in the aerodynamics of the new BAR car and asked Sato to elaborate ?

Answer

Sato admitted that it is true that BAR is running with less downforce as compared to last year. However, he pointed out that all team struggles with lack of downforce this year. It is simply a byproduct of the new rules for this year. BAR hopes that the things they have for Malaysia, including the possibiltiy of using a new front wing will help them regain more of the downforce that they have lost and have found lacking at Melbourne.

Related Question

Which area of the BAR007 are good and which needs work ?

Answer

Sato responded that we can't really pinpoint specific areas as good or as needing work. The whole car needs to be looked at as a complete package and that includes tyres, etc. Last year BAR had a very good car and this year they feel they have made a big step forward. But in relation to Melbourne, the whole car is simply not fast enough. So it would seem that the step forward is not big enough, not to BAR's own standards and they want more improvements. Also teams like Renault for e.g. seemed to have also made very big steps forward and McLaren is now back to their 'proper' level. So work always continues to refine the car as a package and BAR hope to be more competitive as the season continues.

Related Question

Towards the end of last season (2004), ITV commentator Martin Brundle quoted Honda as saying that for this year (2005), you are targetting for engine power as high as 1,000 hp. With the new 1 engine per 2 weekend rule now, I would like to ask firstly whether Honda did have that 1,000hp target and if so, are you still targetting for it this year.

Answer

Tanaka was the person to answer this question. He forwarded the statement that he feels that Honda has actually been misquoted. Honda did mention such a figure but it was done as an example and is not an official avowed target by Honda. The thing is max power is just 1 factor and there are many other factors of an engine which contributes to performance so to look at one specific factor alone is a very narrow viewpoint. Other equally or more important areas includes durability, weight, center of gravity (Cg), etc. As an example, for 2005, people have now given durability the center stage due to the new 1 engine/2 weekends rule but again this is not seeing the whole picture. It is important to actually look at the engine as a package. For e.g. engine durability is not the only focus by Honda this year. Lowering the weight and Cg continues to be key objectives. Looking at the whole pictures puts them in focus - e.g. a lower weight and good Cg helps to put LESS WEAR on the tyres and this of course helps in durability of the TYRES since the tyres are now supposed to last the whole race. So Honda sees the engine as a package and not just max power alone. And of course Honda will continue to develop the engine as the season progresses.

Other questions focusses on when TS sees his first win which he responded as a 'I will try my best'. He already has 1 podium and he looks forward to more and when the time is right he is confident he can win his first race. There was another question about his reaction to the Melbourne qualifying and the fact that it is also expected to rain this coming saturday when qualifying-1 will run. He put it all down to just pure luck and there's nothing that can be done about it eventhough it had a particularly strong impact on the final outcome of the Melbourne race. There was also a question on his opinions of the new rules. Here, I felt Sato did give an impression that he doesn't think they are terribly good (eventhough he didn't exactly said it out) but points out that everyone has to work with them so he can't complaint too much. To my view, the answers are very nicely packaged 'politically correct' responses.

In relation to Tanaka-san, there was 1 question about when Honda will buy over BAR but as expected, Tanaka pointed out that Honda already owns 45% of the team and there are currently no plans to change that. It was virtually a 'no comment' answer put in a nice way. There was also a question about Honda's feeling to the so-called extension of the Concorde agreement which Tanaka-san's answer, to my opinion, showed a little bit of Honda's true feelings as there was a reference to 'Ferrari and the FIA went and decided on things amongst the 2 of them and after that only come to us' but again the answer pans out to a virtual 'no comment'.

The remainder of the press conference was as expected, dominated by multiple questions about the use of new engines and the so-called exploitation of a loophole. Tanaka-san answered all of them patiently, and Sato answered some as well, also patiently. These were the standard questions, e.g. someone said that if everyone followed Honda's lead, then every race there will only be 3 finishers (which Tanaka corrected him that it is 8 instead since the top 8 finishers gets points). One guy even asked about how often Honda intends to exploit this rule, seemingly not aware that the FIA has seen put forward another of their legendary 'clarifications to a sporting regulation' on it. The answers were all to the effect that 'it is allowed in the rules and we decided to do it'.

After the completion of the press conference, as with last year Sato spent some time doing P.R. work with the rest of the invitees to the party. Both Sato and Tanaka left early probably to attend to other events. Wednesday would be the last day for such duties as Thursday will see preparations for the race go ahead with full speed. TOVA wishes Sato, BAR and especially Honda all the best and hopes for a repeat of last year and a good result from this race.