Jordan’s Takuma Sato, who survived a horror smash at the Austrian Grand Prix, has crashed again. But this time, it was a priceless Lotus 49B GP car that bit the dust.
Jordan’s Takuma Sato, who survived a horror smash at the Austrian Grand Prix, has crashed again. But this time, the Japanese driver crashed a priceless Lotus 49B during qualifying for the Historic Grand Prix (a race for classic F1 cars) in Monte Carlo.
The Lotus 49B was launched in 1968, and was driven to the world title that year by the late Graham Hill, father of 1996 world champion, Damon. It was still competitive two years later when the car it was used by double world champion Emerson Fittipaldi as he made his F1 debut in the 1970 British Grand Prix.
The Japanese driver lost control of the car at the Swimming Pool section of the track on Saturday, and although the damage was relatively light, a lack of spare parts for the 30-year-old car meant he was not able to take part in the race.
"It was very, very slippery where it occurred," Sato was quoted as saying by . "I was really enjoying it and the power was OK, but there was just so much oil and I was perhaps carrying too much speed into the corner.
"Unfortunately [Classic Team Lotus] don’t have any spare parts here. It’s such a shame but whenever I race I drive hard and want to do well. The only way to learn a circuit is to drive to the maximum.
Sato’s objective for the weekend was to learn the circuit ahead of Sunday’s Grand Prix – an event in which he will have little or no margin for error. Jordan will have just three cars at the race after Sato’s chassis was destroyed in his Austrian GP incident.
F1 teams normally take four cars to the race – two for each driver – due to the high incidence of accidents on the tight street circuit.
However, a lack of spares means the Jordan drivers will have to be extra careful in practice and qualifying this year.
"Qualifying is everything at Monaco, and we can only take three cars, since Takuma’s car was damaged beyond repair in Austria," said Gary Anderson, Jordan’s director of race and test engineering. "The pressure is to conserve what we have, so the drivers need to respect the barriers and stay clean and tidy with their driving."
Meanwhile, Minardi driver Alex Yoong just missed out on winning the 3rd Historic Grand Prix of Monaco on Sunday when gearbox problems in his Lotus 72/R6 forced him to settle for second place after leading the event for nine of the scheduled ten laps. The race was won by Martin Stretton in a 1977 Tyrell P34 with Yoong five seconds adrift, and Christopher Perkins third in a 1974 Surtees TS16.
