Japanese F3000

[marcus]

seems Toranasuke Takagi has learnt alot in his 2 year stint in F1..having returned to japan to race in F3000 this year he has managed to take 3 out of a possible 4 victories. His main rival so far seems to be German driver Michael Krumm who has had 3 second places so far. third in the series is japanese driver Tsugio Matsuda who won the race that Takagi didnt and has taken a third place as well. Ralph Firman finally got his first points of the year with a 6th place in the last round but seems to be struggling to take that extra step.

So tora obviously has learnt alot in F1 and taken it back home with him but do you think he will return to F1 and go alot better than he did the first time or will he stay in Japan now and drive F3000 and then possibly in the Japanese GT series?

[RIKB]

I suspect that he will be back in F1 before long! The Japanese are desperate for a succesful Japanese driver.

Japan has a huge input in F1 with Sponsorship, invesment and of course Honda and soon Toyota, and they will push (pay?) for a Japanese driver, and Takagi does seem like their best bet right now, lets face it, he was certainly fast, he just had trouble keeping it on the track.

A little more maturity, gained in a lesser fomula and who knows?

The only other real Japanese contender I can see on the Horizon is Takuma Sato currently racing in British F3 and showing quite well.

[Dan Friel]

I think Takuma Sato may be the best japanese driver we've ever seen - he can actually keep up with the other guys in F3, and actually win... I don't think any other driver has got close to that. I'd be interested to see him test a F1 car - maybe a Toyota deal for 2002???

[fatbloke]

And he seems like a nice guy too

[RIKB]

Thoroughly bloody nice bloke!

[fatbloke]

Nice, but d... nah, don't go there