Andretti Autosport Confirms Takuma Sato Replacing Carlos Munoz
Takuma Sato was officially named as Andretti Autosport’s fourth driver on Friday after a month of speculation that the veteran would replace Carlos Munoz.
Andretti Autosport began December confirming what Verizon IndyCar Series fans have expected since November: that they have signed former A.J. Foyt Enterprises driver Takuma Sato to replace Carlos Munoz.
Sato, who parted ways with Foyt as the team cleaned house, takes over the No. 26 Andretti Honda from Munoz, who was announced as having joined Foyt with Conor Daly last month.
In the press release announcing his hiring Sato called himself “extremely excited” to be joining his fourth IndyCar organization. The 39-year-old has also driven for KV Racing (from 2010-2011) and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (in 2012).
“With Honda an integral part of Andretti Autosport, it seemed like a great fit,” he said. “The team has proven year after year that they are ultracompetitive on all types of circuits. Particularly the speed that [the] team has shown in recent years at the Indy 500 were just incredible.
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“I am also very impressed on how aggressively they have addressed their needs for 2017, and am really looking forward to working with my new environment and can’t wait to get started.”
The addressing that Sato is referring to likely is how Andretti Autosport has made some high profile engineering hires in the offseason, bringing Chip Ganassi Racing veteran Eric Bretzman over to improve their program and hiring Josef Newgarden’s former engineer Jeremy Milless to work with Alexander Rossi.
Now the question is, will the new driver be able to also make Andretti’s team better?
Team owner Michael Andretti obviously thinks so and believes that the change of scenery is what will make the difference for Sato.
“I think joining the team will be a new and positive opportunity for Takuma,” he said in Friday’s release. “He’s not yet had the chance to be part of a larger team where the drivers collaborate. Our four drivers and team of engineers working together has bred success for us in the past and has helped many drivers develop on track.
“Takuma has strong racing experience and we are looking forward to providing a team atmosphere where he can continue to grow, develop and be successful.”
Both the team and fans will be expecting improvement from Sato after he was one of the worst performing IndyCar regulars in the 2016 season. Some have questioned this choice considering that Foyt was so disappointed in its team performance that it showed the door to both Sato and Jack Hawksworth, who is now out of the league and racing in IMSA.
But in leaving Hawksworth was also critical of the Foyt organization, so it will be interesting to see if Andretti’s theory has merit and Sato is able to improve his results as part of a different roster.
It’s not too harsh to say that 2017 will be a make or break year for both Sato and Andretti. The Honda veteran hasn’t performed well recently and now that he’ll have Big Three resources he needs to get better, and with Andretti’s struggles in 2016 they need a rebound campaign to keep themselves in the game with Ganassi and Team Penske. Will this match-up improve the fortunes of both parties?
What do you think of Takuma Sato joining Andretti Autosport in 2017?
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