Super Aguri
 |
|
| Full name | Super Aguri F1 Team |
|---|---|
| Base | Leafield Technical Centre, Oxfordshire, UK |
| Founder(s) | Aguri Suzuki |
| Noted staff |
Mark Preston Daniele Audetto |
| Noted drivers |
 Takuma Sato Anthony Davidson Franck Montagny Sakon Yamamoto Yuji Ide
|
| Formula One World Championship career | |
| First entry | 2006 Bahrain Grand Prix |
| Races entered | 39 |
| Engines | Honda |
| Constructors' Championships |
0 (Best result; 9th, 2007) |
| Drivers' Championships |
0 (Best result; 17th, Sato, 2007) |
| Race victories | 0 |
| Points | 4 |
| Pole positions | 0 |
| Fastest laps | 0 |
| Final entry | 2008 Spanish Grand Prix |
Super Aguri F1 was a Formula One team that competed from 2006 to 2008. The team, founded by former F1 driver Aguri Suzuki, was based in Tokyo, Japan but operated from the former Arrows factory at the Leafield Technical Centre, Oxfordshire. The cars were referred to as Super Aguri Hondas, with the team functioning to some degree as an unofficial Honda 'B'-team. In Japan, public pressure persuaded Honda to help its former driver Takuma Sato to continue to compete in Formula One. This was influential in the creation of Super Aguri's F1 project and the engine supply from Super Aguri's parent company Honda. After participating in the championship for 2 years and 4 months, the team withdrew from F1 after 4 races in the 2008 season due to financial difficulties. Throughout the team's time in the sport, it scored 4 points. All of these were scored by Sato, and all were in the 2007 season.
Talks to start the team began in February 2005, but it was not until September that plans started to take shape. The team registered its intention to enter the Formula One World Championship to the FIA, Formula One's governing body, on 1 November (ahead of the governing body's 15 November deadline). However, the FIA's official press release of the entry list for 2006 confirmed that it had not approved Super Aguri's entry: this was reported to be due to the team's failure to produce the required $48 million entry bond on time. The team re-applied for entry in 2006, and continued to prepare cars for the upcoming season. Having missed the initial registration, the team needed to convince the existing ten teams to unanimously agree to its entry. It appeared that the Midland team was blocking on the grounds of potentially reduced TV revenue, but it was eventually granted the necessary unanimous agreement and the team's entry was confirmed by the FIA on 26 January 2006.
In 2006, the cars were powered by Honda engines (RA806E 2.4 V8), and used Bridgestone tyres. The chassis, SA05, was based on the 2002 Arrows A23, bought from ex-Minardi principal Paul Stoddart who purchased them when the Arrows team went into receivership. The team had announced plans to produce a new in-house chassis later on in the 2006 season, possibly for the European races, but this never came into fruition. Instead, the team updated their older chassis to become the SA06 – a change which was visible from the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim, onwards.
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