There have been plenty of attempts by team principals in the past to break into Formula 1 that haven’t ended well.
Haas were the last team to successfully establish themselves in the sport, but in the ten years before their introduction several teams lost their place on the grid.
Speaking to the Formula 1 website, Aguri Suzuki – who raced 88 times in F1 – has spoken about his experiences on and off the track in the sport.
The fortunes of Andretti in the past few months have highlighted how difficult it is to enter a Formula 1 team.
Despite receiving approval from the FIA, Formula One Management announced in February that the American outfit wouldn’t be on the grid any time soon.
F1 weren’t always so against new teams joining the grid and there was one point at the end of the 1980s when 39 cars were competing to race every weekend.
That number has reduced significantly this century, but there have still been some iconic names among Formula 1 fans that have fallen by the wayside in that time.
Minardi are now Visa Cash App RB, Jordan have evolved into Aston Martin through several iterations and the likes of Renault and BMW have come and gone.
But Aguri Suzuki brought Super Aguri to Formula 1 in 2006 and they made it onto the grid just in the nick of time.
They were gone again just a few years later and Suzuki has admitted he’s not sure he’d be able to do it again.
Aguri Suzuki brought Super Aguri to Formula 1 alongside cult hero
Super Aguri’s creation can be linked back to a driver who went on to become a Formula 1 world champion: Jenson Button.
He was racing for BAR in 2005 before they were bought out by Honda and while he was retained by the new works team, they let his teammate Takuma Sato go.
After two seasons in F1, Sato was keen to continue and he teamed up with Suzuki to make that happen.
Super Aguri was born and with a Honda power unit, Suzuki and Sato worked tirelessly to make their dream a reality.
The one-time podium finisher was joined by Yuji Ide, Franck Montagny and Sakon Yamamoto during his first season.
While their preparations were far from ideal, they still managed to survive their first full season in the sport.
Suzuki explains his Formula 1 team principal dream
After becoming the first Japanese driver ever to finish on the podium driving for Larrousse in 1990 at his home Grand Prix in Suzuki, he turned his attention to management after he retired.
Speaking about his experience, Suzuki said: “My goal was to form an F1 team by the time I was 45.
“I went to great lengths to create an F1 team, but at that time, Takuma Sato came to help me, and I decided to fight alongside him.
“I think this is an F1 team that was built by Honda and many other companies and people who cooperated with us.
“But if I were asked to build a team like that one more time, I don’t think I would be able to do it again!”
Super Aguri failed to survive F1 but had some memorable moments
While Suzuki could only keep Super Agueri afloat in Formula 1 for 39 races, they did lift themselves off the bottom of the Constructors’ Championship on one occasion.
Their strongest pairing was Sato and Anthony Davidson and in 2007 they achieved their best results in F1.
Sato scored the team’s first-ever point in Barcelona that year, finishing eighth and beating the likes of Giancarlo Fisichella, Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button.
Two races later, he finished two positions higher and his sixth-place finish in Montreal was the high point in the team’s short history.
Sadly, Super Aguri folded four races into the 2008 season and unlike other teams who could no longer afford to run, they didn’t evolve into a new team despite their assets being bought for the unsuccessful attempt to revive the Brabham team.
The post ‘I don’t think’: 88-race team boss said wouldn’t be able to set up F1 team again that scored just 4 points appeared first on F1 Oversteer.