"If the chatter in the garage was excited on Friday, there was an unbelievable amount on Saturday afternoon!  10^th and 11^th on the grid was unknown territory for SAF1 and there was much talk about the potential for our first championship points..."

Read the first of the race reports from our friend Gavin Noble - Super Aguri F1 Team Radio Communications Manager

ROUND 1 – AUSTRALIA

What a hectic couple of weeks!  After returning to the UK from the test in Bahrain, it was a massive effort to get all the equipment turned around and ready for freighting to Australia.  Even as a small team we still have around 24 tonnes of air freight, along with another 3 tonnes of equipment that was sent by sea ready for our arrival.

While we had been in Bahrain our new pit-wall timing stand had been delivered and required wiring.  This turned out to be a long and tedious job with power supplies, networking, intercom and TV cabling all needing to be installed.  Everyone worked hard throughout the week preparing everything including building 3 race cars and, eventually, everything was boxed up and crated on Thursday evening for despatching on its way to Australia.

So, on Saturday morning dressed in our new travel uniform the first of us met at Heathrow for our 22 hour flight to Melbourne.  We arrived to a cool and windy Melbourne late on Sunday evening.  At ten o’clock the next morning we were at the circuit to start the build of the garage ready for the arrival of the mechanics and engineers two days later.  All the preparations that had taken place over the winter paid off as the garage went together much quicker and easier than last year.

Despite all the work taking place in the factory before we left, there was still an awful lot of work to do to finish the race cars at the circuit.  Aerodynamic parts were still arriving as last minute wind-tunnel results were produced.  On top of this, the entire garage and three cars needed to be prepared for the car launch on Thursday.  This was a full time job to ensure that all the correct colours and sponsor logos were in the right place. The SA07 launch was a low-key affair with a photo shoot of the new car, Anthony and Taku with people from out new title sponsors.

Once the launch was complete it was back to work and the first pit-stop practice took place later that evening.  The good news is that our pit-stop times are still as good as last year and will only get better as the season progresses.  We had practiced pit-stops at the test in Barcelona, but it was good to be working together once again as a complete team.

Friday saw rain and, because of the new rules limiting the number of rain tyres, this meant a considerable delay to running the cars during the first session.  However, the second session was dry and after several test laps Anthony was let loose and put in an incredible 4^th fastest lap.  This was fantastic news and gave a great boost to the teams morale, and made for a lot of excited chat in the garage.

The Saturday morning practice session went pretty smoothly and allowed for the final car set up before the start of the qualifying session.  Expectations were high for qualifying, but no-one had predicted that for the first time a Super Aguri car would make Q3.  Although there was a good chance that both cars would make it through to Q2, which they did comfortably, Taku’s fantastic drive saw him up in the top ten and some frantic last minute planning was needed in order to make sure that fuel and tyres were ready for his last runs.  If the chatter in the garage was excited on Friday, there was an unbelievable amount on Saturday afternoon!  10^th and 11^th on the grid was unknown territory for SAF1 and there was much talk about the potential for our first championship points.  After the cars were finally set up and sent Parc Ferme we had our last pit-stop practice session where we rehearsed various scenarios such as a first lap pit-stop, nose changes, stalls and steering wheel changes. Walking through Albert Park showed what great atmosphere there is at the Melbourne GP and we were cheered and congratulated as we made our way back to the hotel.

Strange as it may seem, race day is probably the easiest day of the week for the race team.  All the preparations are complete and the cars are ready.  It is just a matter of working through the various system checks to ensure that everything is functioning correctly.  After a team briefing about strategy and pit-stops a light lunch follows before everyone changes into their overalls. 

Unfortunately, when the time came for Anthony to leave the garage, the clutch would not engage.  There was some hurried discussions and new software was quickly downloaded to the car.  This overcame the problem and he eventually made his way to the grid.  Taku was already in his grid slot and the countdown to the race start had started.  When the red lights went out Anthony had problems starting and struggled to get his car away.  This is a very dangerous situation as the cars starting behind try to drive around the slower vehicle – the potential for a serious accident is huge.  Fortunately, there were no incidents and he managed to get away although loosing several places.  The race progressed pretty much to plan with both Taku and Anthony putting in consistent lap times.  Our pitstops went to plan, but Taku was held up in his box as other cars came into the pit lane. This probably cost a race position and meant that he could not get ahead of Rubens in the Honda.

During the race Anthony had a incident it which his car was launched into the air.  The resultant crunch saw him with a severely bruised back and a damaged car.  Considering what had happened, Anthony did extremely well to keep the lap times that he did. After the race he was taken to hospital for a full check-up.  The good news is that he has not suffered any serious injury and was released from hospital the same day.

Taku drove a faultless race and saw him come home in 12^th position.  With Anthony in 16^th, this was a great result with a new car for such a young team.  Even more pleasing was the fact that we had beaten one of the Hondas and was only just behind the other! 

As soon as the race ends, the pack-up starts.  It was good to see so many SAF1 fans in the pit-lane and it was nice to have a chat with Mark and the gang.  Just one question for you guys – do you now need to change your seat allocations and try to get places nearer the middle of the grid, rather than towards the back?!  Thank you for all your support and, after such great start to the season, we now look forward to scoring our first points in the near future.