By nGO
July 13 2006

Unlike Canada and Indy, the French circuit Magny-Cours demands more downforce and it will be a tough retirement race for the SA05. Montagny will be taking part as race driver alongside Sato this one last time, while Super Aguri's small but determined workforce push hard to get the SA06 ready on time for Germany.

This weekend the team will be looking forward to a good send off for the SA05 and Montagny, by having a strong race where the cars finish, something which has not been achieved while racing in Canada and Indy. The French track has a mixture of fast and slow corners which means the SA05 should be adopting a higher downforce setting then at their previous race in America.

Sato believes a "challenging" weekend awaits, "The French Grand Prix will be the last race where we compete with the current car, the SA05. We shall be using our standard aero package so it will be a challenging weekend for us. But even though we were on a low-medium aero package for the North American races we must keep the momentum going in terms of the speed and competitiveness that we achieved there and hope that we have a good race."

Home GP for a happy Montagny, who will be looking for a change of fortune during the race, "I am very happy to be going to Magny-Cours as other F1 drivers really like this circuit. It has a fast chicane and slow corners, so it has a good balanced mix. Our new car was originally scheduled to be launched here but now it will be the final race for the SA05 and so we shall do our best and try to make a good race until we have the SA06 in Germany.”

Yamamoto familiar with Magny-cours and hoping for a good weekend, "I am very happy to be going back to Magny-Cours and to be part of the celebrations of 100 years of Grand Prix racing. The last three Fridays at race weekends with the SAF1 Team have taught me a great deal, but I also hope that I have been able to give important and valuable information back to the team. I know the circuit at Magny-Cours from my F3 driving days and so I am looking forward to driving there again. The team is improving everyday and maintains its good motivation, so I see no reason why we should not have a good weekend in France.”

Aguri expecting to struggle, " Takuma qualified well and gave us our best starting position at the last Grand Prix, but we had to retire from the race and the result was very unlucky for the team. Our goal remains the same, to have both cars finish the race and hopefully improve on their finishing position. The team is still very highly motivated and we are looking forward to finally introducing our new car. Until we do we will continue to struggle, but we will learn a great deal, as we have at every race, from our participation with the SA05 in the French Grand Prix."