Dubbed Japan's prodigal son, Tokyo-born Takuma Sato was responsible for Formula One's rebirth in Japan, attracting the unwavering support of millions of motorsport fans in his native country. However, even with significant backing from Honda throughout his career, he was unable to make any serious break in the sport, because of the quality of teams he raced for, and equally because of his erratic and aggressive driving style, with a tendency to get involved in more than his fair share of crashes.

After dominating the 2001 British F3 championship, winning the Macau Grand Prix and the Masters of F3, Sato deservedly stepped into F1 to race for the Honda-powered Jordan outfit in 2002. Although the first half of his debut season was plagued by retirements, both through reliability problems and crashes, he was able to finish six races inside the top ten, but had to wait until his home race in Japan at the end of the season to score his first points. After being unable to keep pace with team-mate Fisichella, Jordan dropped the youngster at the end of the season as they moved to Cosworth power, while Honda had to step into the breach and appoint him their new test driver at BAR.

After a year spent testing, Villeneuve's premature departure from BAR gave Sato the opportunity of racing at the final race of the season, the Japanese Grand Prix, and for the second year running finished inside the top 6. With the second-best car on the grid in 2004, Sato picked up his only podium to date in the 2004 United States Grand Prix, finishing third to the dominant Ferraris of the day. Once again though, he was unable to keep pace with his team-mate, Jenson Button, despite scoring points in half the season's races on average.

Things took a turn for the worst in 2004 when he was comprehensively trounced by Button. Once the 'secret fuel tank' saga had been swept under the carpet, Button ended the season with 10 points-scoring finishes in a row, as Sato struggled home with just a single point for his year's efforts, unsurprisingly costing him his seat at the team for the following season.

But the uproar caused in Japan as a result of Sato's sacking forced Honda to form a junior team run by former F1 star Aguri Suzuki, named Super Aguri, to house Sato in F1 and keep their customers in Japan happy. With a 2002 Arrows chassis as a base for their own SA05 and SA06 cars used in 2006, Sato was unable to challenge for points, only once finishing inside the top ten.

For 2007 however, Super Aguri used Honda's 2006 race-winning RA106 chassis as the base for their car, with Sato duly delivering to score the team's first points - eighth in Spain and a tremendous sixth in Canada. But his team's success was short-lived and just four races into the 2008 season, Super Aguri folded after running out of money. Despite his best efforts to secure a seat with Toro Rosso for 2009, Sato failed narrowly, but is still tipped to return to the grid in the near future.

Decade highs:
Points at his home race in Japan in 2002 and 2003.
One and only podium finish at the 2004 United States Grand Prix

Decade lows:
Getting a significant beating from Jenson Button at BAR in 2005
Losing his F1 seat when Super Aguri folded in 2008.

2010s?
With experience and age on his side, Sato could find himself back on the F1 grid in 2010. However, having failed to show race-winning pace in his eight-year career with Jordan/Honda/Super Aguri, his F1 days may be numbered. A career in sports cars could be on the horizon.