Super Aguri resigned to wait for new car
Aguri Suzuki thinks that his team are just going to have to bide their time until their new car makes it debut after a disappointing double retirement at the European Grand Prix
Although Takuma Sato proved one of the stars of the opening lap as he moved up nine places at the first corner, his subsequent lack of pace saw him drop down the order before he retired with an hydraulic problem.
Teammate Franck Montagny had dropped out with a similar problem earlier on.
Team boss Suzuki, who hopes the new car is ready for the French Grand Prix, said: "This weekend has not been a successful one for Super Aguri F1 Team. Both cars retired with a mechanical problem so we will find out what was wrong and correct it for the next race.
"The performance of our car is lower than the others and we will struggle until we have the SA06, so we will have to keep working on the current car and continue to do our best."
Sato said he was disappointed to have not been able to finish the race after his 'exciting' opening lap performance.
"It was a great race for me up until the last moment when I had to retire due to a hydraulic problem," he explained. "It is a shame for the team who had worked so hard this weekend - I also really wanted to finish this race because we had been reliable for the first part of the season.
"The start was exciting for me as off the line was reasonably ok but I overtook quite a few cars at turn one, which was a good feeling. Unfortunately I then had a similar problem to the one I experienced on Saturday morning - the car's straight-line speed got increasingly slower over the first five laps and I lost a number of the places that I had made up.
"For the rest of the race the car was handling reasonably well so it is disappointing not to have crossed the finish line, but at least the next Grand Prix is only a few days away, so I am looking forward to getting back to work in Barcelona."
Montagny, making his F1 debut as stand-in for Yuji Ide, added: "It is disappointing not to have finished my first race with the team, but that is motor racing. The car's handling was not too bad and I was having quite a reasonable race up until I suffered with a hydraulic problem.
"I would like to thank Aguri Suzuki for giving me this opportunity. It has been a good weekend and I have enjoyed working with the team, so hopefully I will be back in an SAF1 Team racing seat again."
Aguri are awaiting clarification from the FIA about whether Ide will be allowed back in the car for next weekend's Spanish Grand Prix.
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