Oh boy what did I felt old when someone told me these just days ago! I mean, it feels like it was five years ago when Aguri Suzuki announced it. I believe it was in late 2004 when the plans were unveiled to debut in 2006. Is it really twenty years ago when this all happened, well it seems so. The last team of its kind because Midland, or whatever its name was after April 2006, was far from a privateer.
Though, you know, it is the fact people call Super Aguri some old Formula One team. I still remember it well. While Minardi used parts of the Arrows A23 for their PS04A (yep the A not the B) Super Aguri would debut with basically the original Arrows cars from 2002 branding it the SA05. More incredible, the car managed to hold out on the track four years later! Takuma Sato did some amazing things with the car while Yuji Ide became an ultimate cult hero since. After the French Grand Prix, the team debuted their SA06 also replacing Franck Montagny with Sakon Yamamoto.
I dare to say that many fans cherished Super Aguri back then. Who doesn’t remember Takusan’s amazing race during the Spanish Grand Prix where he scored the team’s first point?
Only to finish sixth in Canada to score three more points for the team. Yet, as happened with many teams in their early days they were struggling financially. Something that would affect the team in 2008.
In 2008, we all can remember, the financial crisis struck worldwide having many teams reconsidering their future in the Formula One. For Super Aguri the garage doors closed permanently after the 2008 Spanish Grand Prix. I vaguely remember that attempts were made to keep the team in the Formula One. However, it was a lost case. As Honda and BMW were considering their exit. Honda became Brawn GP and won in 2009 both titles. While Peter Sauber bought his team back from BMW for 1 euro.
Since then info has appeared about Super Aguri’s unraced SA09, which seemed to be revolutionary. We will never know. Franz Hilmer bought the assets from the team who applied unsuccessfully to enter the Formula One in 2010. If he would have entered, it meant that Brabham was back on the grid together with Team Lotus!
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