19/02/2007
NEWS STORY
In its first season, Super Aguri slowly, but surely, built up the sort of cult following previously reserved for Minardi. The little minnow fighting the manufacturer giants.
However, the novelty of that first year has now worn off, and team owner - former F1 driver Aguri Suzuki - wants his team to be taken more seriously, and that means fighting for points.
Having survived the first season, the pressure is now on the Japanese team to prove that it is serious about its F1 intentions, and according to Suzuki this is where the pressure really begins."
"There is a different pressure on us this year to show that we are actually racing," he told his team's official website. "We're a small team but we'll give it everything."
His team will unveil its 2007 contender, widely believed to be a 'clone' of Honda's 2006 car, in Tokyo, just days before the opening round of the 2007 Formula One World Championship. Ahead of the unveiling of the 'new' car, Super Aguri has been running an interim chassis, with Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson both in action in Barcelona last week.
However, in the same way that rival teams, most notably Williams and Spyker, are threatening a legal challenge to Toro Rosso, which is making use of a legal loophole to run a Red Bull chassis, Super Aguri faces similar action if its new car is based on the 2006 Honda.
That said according to paddock speculation, the Japanese team is better off using the 2006 Honda than the 2007 version.