With his switch to Dale Coyne Racing, Takuma Sato will be driving for his fifth different IndyCar team in 2022. Ahead of that change, the veteran racer is placing more emphasis on being prepared for the season than he is thinking about specific expectations.
Sato joined IndyCar in 2010 after a seven-year run in Formula 1, and across his 13 years in the series he has driven for quite a few different teams.
His latest stint was with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, which saw the popular Japanese driver win his second Indy 500 during his four years with the team. From this year, Sato will add yet another team to his resume.
A popular question when drivers switch teams is if they expect to have an immediate uptick in performance. In a preseason media session, Sato related that he is excited about the new partnership, but is trying not to put too many expectations upon himself.
“Those things, we don’t do the expectation too much because [they are] just pointless for me,” said Sato. “We want to focus.
“We need to get know each other first before put 100% commitment. On track, everything has to be perfect to win the race. Before that we need lots of listening, tons of things to get it done before the season.
“We have one single day physical testing allowed. Incredibly challenging. I’m very positive, very excited. You can tell that I’m very, very excited. Hopefully we will be showing the speed immediately to compete one of the toughest in the field at the moment in INDYCAR.
“Expectation shouldn’t be too high, but I certainly feel it’s very, very positive to get out of top content as soon as we could.”
2021 was the first season since 2016 that Sato has not won at least one race throughout the year, so he will be hoping to regain some of his form quickly despite not expecting a large turnaround in the early part of the season.
