Sakon Yamamoto to Race at Hockenheim
Once again, without any obvious explanation, The Hispania Racing Team (HRT) is playing musical chairs with its drivers. The team announced Friday that they would be replacing driver Karun Chandhok with test driver Sakon Yamamoto for this weekend’s German Grand Prix at Hockenheim. Yamamoto replaced Bruno Senna at Silverstone two weeks ago.
“After Sakon Yamamoto gave a very positive performance in Silverstone, the team has decided to give the Japanese driver another opportunity to drive the car alongside Bruno Senna,” stated HRT. “Karun Chandhok is still part of the HRT family and is likely to be in the car at some later races this season.”
Yamamoto substituted in for Senna after the Brazilian rookie was dropped unexpectedly from the race on the Thursday before the race weekend at British Grand Prix. There were two different opinions circulating as to why this switch was made, firstly that sponsors were falling short and then that Yamamoto was given the driver’s seat as a birthday present from the team, as his birthday fell over the weekend.
Yamamoto has 15 Grand Prix starts and has made previous Formula One race appearances with Spyker, now Force India, as well as Super Aguri. Yamamoto drove for these teams after making his 2001 single-seater career debut in Japanese Formula Three. He finished fourth overall in his first season, grabbing the attention of Formula One teams.
Yamamoto then headed to over to German and Europe Formula Three in 2002. He had a difficult first season with the GM Motorsport team and switched to Team Kolles. The team was run by Colin Kolles, who would also run Spyker, and eventually HRT. Switching teams didn’t do much to help Yamamoto’s luck; he moved to Formula Three Euroseries in 2003, and headed back to Japan in 2004 after failing to handover any successes.
Once back home, Yamamoto reconnected with whatever it was that had him winning in the first place. In his first season back with Japanese Formula Three, he finished seventh overall and won the final round at Motegi. Yamamoto stumbled again in 2005 on the Formula Nippon campaign with no victories, but he was keeping his sights set on Formula One. After making his test debut at Silverstone with Jordan, Yamamoto was accepted onto the team as their third driver for the Japanese Grand Prix.
Yamamoto had a good year in 2006. He started off competing for both Formula Nippon and Japan’s Super GT series. Half way through, he received a Formula One call up from Super Aguri. Though the team wouldn’t last long, he became their third driver from the British Grand Prix in June, and impressed enough to be given a race seat in July for the German rounds. He has been driving Formula One since.
His debut race lasted no more than two laps after a broken driveshaft forced him to retire from the next three races. In Shanghai, Yamamoto scored 16th place, earning the right to match at the final round in Brazil. Yamamoto stayed with Super Aguri as a tester until 2007. He missed one race drive, but competed in the GP2 and signed with Spyker later that year.
Under Kolles guidance, Yamamoto starred in seven Grand Prix races with Spyker. His best season finish was 12th place at a home event in Suzuka. In 2008, Yamamoto had a busy year, becoming a test driver for Renault and competing at the GP2 and GP2 Asian Series. He then moved to the ADAC GT Masters series based in Germany, before eventually signing as a test driver in April with current team HRT.
“I have a lot of good memories of the circuit at Hockenheim,” Yamamoto revealed during the press release. “I like the track layout with the passing-point at the end of the long straight and also the Stadium sector, which is very challenging. There is always a nice atmosphere with the spectators in the grandstands, and I always look forward to going back to Hockenheim.”
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