Takuma Sato concedes he’s a changed man, and not just because he won the 101st Indianapolis 500 presented by PennGrade Motor Oil in 2017.
The 41-year-old Japanese driver rationalizes his racing experience — from 91 Formula 1 starts to eight years in the Verizon IndyCar Series — makes him a better Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing teammate this season for Graham Rahal.
That’s important for Rahal, but also Sato, who wants to be a serious series championship contender like his teammate has been the past three years.
“It’s just the whole package,” Sato said. “As a driver, I want to be consistent, I want to be patient and precise. You still need to be super fast. You have to be fast, but then as the season goes, you need to be strong. Obviously, I want to improve myself as much as I can.
“I think the (Indy) 500 is super, super special. It is one of the most important things. But equally important is to be a championship contender. The championship is the true strength in speed, the king.”
When RLL announced the offseason hiring of Sato, who drove for the team in 2012, co-owner Bobby Rahal was effusive in his praise of adding a familiar face who is technically proficient and focused.
“As a driver, you want to be always improving, moving forward,” Sato said. “From an athlete’s point of view, your physicals, mentals and your skills should be better than where I was in 2012, I hope. The team has made a significant step forward, too. I can see a very strong engineering side and there’s quality people on the team.”
Graham Rahal, who has been outspoken about his expectation to contend for a series championship this season, has finished fourth, fifth and sixth in the points the last three years. The 29-year-old American got off to a positive start with a runner-up finish in the season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.
Although Sato’s life changed overnight with his Indianapolis victory for Andretti Autosport, 2017 also represents his best points finish: eighth. He qualified fifth for the season opener and finished 12th. He’s working with engineer Eddie Jones, who was with Graham Rahal the past three seasons.
“I love the technical side,” Sato said. “Eddie’s engineering approach is putting a lot of weight on the driver’s feeling, which is very important. All the engineers are very clever. They can read the numbers, they can read all of the stuff, but what they can’t read is the driver feeling.
“Eddie listens to the driver and that’s part of the reason for the success the last three seasons at Rahal. Now that I’m working with him, I can see it even better. I feel what the car is doing and I can provide some of the information that might have been missing to help the entire team.”
Sato admires his teammate, too.
“Graham has always been a talented kid,” he said. “We saw him win St. Pete when he was 19 years old. Obviously, everybody knew. There’s no doubt in his speed ever. You can see his maturity and being a really consistent driver these last three seasons especially. He’s a very strong championship contender. He has speed, he has good consistency, he has good race craft.”
Sato has enjoyed the notoriety from his memorable May triumph and smiles when his Indianapolis 500 winner’s ring gets noticed.
“Nice, isn’t it?” he said. “It’s just a better life. Everything is better. It gets very busy, happy busy, though. You lose a lot of your personal time, but that’s OK. You get a lot of support from fans and sponsors. It was a dream. You look at (Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s) Gate 2 and see that huge picture (of him swigging the milk in victory lane). It’s an incredible experience.”
But now he wants to prove he has what it takes to be a series champion.
“Short ovals, superspeedways, street course, road course, there’s so many varieties,” Sato said. “You have to always be on top of your game. That’s what I’m trying to do.”
The Verizon IndyCar Series returns to action with the Desert Diamond West Valley Casino Phoenix Grand Prix on April 6-7 at ISM Raceway. Qualifying airs live on NBCSN at 5 p.m. ET Friday, April 6. The race airs live at 9 p.m. Saturday, April 7 on NBCSN and the Advance Auto Parts INDYCAR Radio Network.