Yamamoto prepares for home debut 05 Oct 2005
Sakon Yamamoto should have plenty of home fans cheering him on when he makes his first official Formula One appearance at Suzuka this Friday, as the Jordan team’s third driver. Yamamoto had a successful preparatory test with the team at Silverstone last month and is now looking forward to making a real contribution in Japan.
“I know the circuit at Suzuka very well so this will be a little advantage,” he said. “I am glad I could have an initial feeling about the car previous to my Friday drive. I will try to give a lot of useful information to the team for the race. I cannot wait to drive in front of my home crowd."
Yamamoto’s main task will be to assist Jordan in determining their tyre and set-up choice for the EJ15B at Suzuka and the Formula Nippon and Super GT Series driver believes his recent experience at Silverstone will stand him in good stead.
"I had two successful days of testing,” he confirmed. “I was very impressed as it was the first time I have driven a Formula One car. Everybody was wondering if I could drive a Formula One car and I believe I have proved it.
“During the two days, we had mixed weather conditions so it was good for me to try the car with wet tyres as it may rain at Suzuka. I have spent a lot of time testing different types of Bridgestone tyres for the Japanese Grand Prix and I am pretty confident that we have found a good type.”
Jordan Managing Director, Colin Kolles, is equally certain that Yamamoto will play a valuable role in the team’s weekend: “I am sure he will do a great job to help the team gathering data to assist with our preparation for the Japanese Grand Prix.”
Yamamoto replaces Jordan’s regular third driver, Nicolas Kiesa, for Japan.
