By nGO
April 1 2006

Having gone through alot of trouble and uncertainty, Super Aguri finally reached Bahrain as competitors in f1. But how well (or bad) will Sato and Ide in the SA05 perform?

preface: Welcome, this section of the site offers an opinion based preview on up and coming grand prix and will be updated a few days before the grand prix weekend starts.

There is no doubt that Super Aguri's F1 efforts have been massively compressed and rushed in order to reach their target. Although there is relief to have finally got everything ready for the season opener, there must be a feeling of unpreparedness as their race car has not even covered 600 kilometres or completed any long stints. The car has been bugged with many mechanical problems preventing long running, however on the last day of Barcalona a healthy amount of laps was completed.

Question marks are raised firstly on the reliablity of the SA05, with so little testing done there must still be many gremlins in the car. The speed of the car is the last of their problems, under the hand of Sato the SA05 at the end of it's first ever test session with four year old aero, managed to lap within 5.8 seconds of the fastest car. This would be a pace extremely close to the gap minardi showed against the front runners. With an impressive looking car displayed at Silverstone, the aero package looks to be a dramatic improvement and will no doubt help to decrease the gap. This is all before the introduction of an all new SA06 car so in terms of speed, they are lagging behind by a long way but their biggest problem will be reliabilty.

What does this mean for Bahrain? Well I expect Super Aguri to be alot more active in the friday sessions trying to squeeze every last drop before they are thrown into qualifying. It is especially important for Ide to get some mileage as it would be the first time he will be performing in a grand prix environment. There is pressure and i am sure he is feeling it big time, if he, sato or super aguri mess up the press will rip them to unrecognisable shreds. The worse thing is that Ide is no where near ready for his first grand prix, only time will tell how much the lack of testing will hurt them.

Expectations are low, I don't think anyone except the "Super" faithful believe Super Aguri to be anything other then last. In fact, it would be a massive acheivement if one of the SA05 could complete close to a full grand prix distance relatively unscaved nevermind how far back. The first part of season 2006, I think Super Aguri are trying to just hang on and hold tight until their new car arrives.

It is not all doom and gloom - The Honda engine may not be the best, but powering the SA05 forward is still a powerful and reliable engine which may prove to be decisive should Super Aguri be in a position to catch any team. But the priority is just to hang on in there for as long as possible and acclimiatise to the unforgiving heat of F1.