INDYCAR 2016 Driver Review: Takuma Sato

Just when you thought that the Verizon IndyCar Series had run out of ways to surprise, 2016 came along. The championship was won by a guy who looked all at sea 12 months earlier, his closest rival didn't even participate in the first race, and the winner of the 100th Running of the Indianapolis 500 was a recent F1 refugee who apparently figured out how to make a car work without fuel.

Twenty-four drivers made at least three starts during the 2016 season, and each one is a story. Join RACER each day as we retrace their journeys.

TAKUMA SATO

NO. 14 AJ FOYT ENTERPRISES HONDA

2016 Best result: 5th (Long Beach, Toronto)
2016 Championship position: 17th (320 points)

By virtue of his vast experience, Sato was the benchmark for Foyt's team this year. Was two top-fives and 17th in the points a reflection of the team, or the driver?

PRUETT: Both. Honda didn't make life easy for any of its teams (outside of the big ovals), but with all of that personal experience in F1 and IndyCar, and four years of tenure with the Foyt team, Takuma was barely able to finish ahead of Honda-powered Dale Coyne Racing rookie Conor Daly. Eight points is all that stood between a kid in his first season – while driving for the smallest team in the paddock – from overtaking Sato in the championship.

We know the Foyt team had a season to forget, so pinning all of the blame on Sato would be completely unfair, but, and this is where the real criticism is deserved, at some point in a driver's career, they should become a team leader, help to improve its fortunes when times are tough, and provide some beneficial guidance from the cockpit.

At 39, when the Foyt team, his young teammate, and Honda needed a team leader, that guy failed to show up. In fact, he went backwards from an encouraging 14th-place championship performance in 2015 to 17th in 2016.

MILLER: Probably a little of both, but Sato shoulders some blame for not having better results. He started third and crashed on the first lap at Pocono, and spun out on the last lap at Watkins Glen while running fifth. But having rookie engineers on both sides probably made the learning curve steeper.

Sato had a reasonably consistent season in 2016: his DNF count of three was the second-lowest of his IndyCar career, and his five top-10s matched his tally from 2014 and 2015. Is that about what we should have expected?

PRUETT: The reduced crashing rate was surely welcome, and hopefully it's a sign of what's to come at Andretti Autosport. The funny thing about Sato is there's never been a reason to question his talent, pace, or potential to earn quality results. If there was a way to inject the metronomic consistency of Helio Castroneves into Takuma's body, the guy would finish fifth or sixth in the championship every year.

Instead, he's generated: Three top fives in 2011, two in 2012, two in 2013, two in 2014, one in 2015, and two in 2016 – all while finishing no better than 13th in the championship, in seven tries, for three teams. Maybe I'm wrong about that metronomic consistency.

MILLER: What we've come to expect from Taku is some good, bad and ugly. He's usually quick at several places and turns in a couple sharp drives mixed in with a few crashes. Inconsistency has plagued him, but other than 2013 it's been a pattern for Sato and Foyt Racing.

What were his greatest strengths this year?

PRUETT: As a driver, fewer crashes, fewer tangles that ruined the day for other drivers. As a person, his ongoing charitable and fundraising efforts to help those in need in Japan.

MILLER: He raced well at Long Beach and Toronto and qualified good at Texas and Pocono.

Can he recapture his early-2013 form, when he and Foyt combined to win at Long Beach and then finish second in Brazil a couple of weeks later?

PRUETT: Anything is possible. The change of scenery from Foyt to Andretti can't hurt; Andretti's program is better than what he had with Foyt, and he's about to be reunited with the excellent Garrett Mothersead as his race engineer. RHR and Rossi aren't going to lose any sleep over Sato's arrival – Munoz was a much bigger threat – but I could foresee Takuma having a mini-revival in 2017.

MILLER: Maybe at Andretti, having some experienced teammates could get him going again. But the depth of talent keeps getting better and Sato keeps getting older (40 in January), so it's a long shot.

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