Renault sign Yamamoto as test driver

[Giuseppe F1]

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/64970

Renault sign Yamamoto as test driver

By Pablo Elizalde Monday, February 4th 2008, 09:47 GMT

The Renault F1 team have signed Japanese Sakon Yamamoto as their test driver for the 2008 season, it was announced on Monday.

The 25-year-old, who has 14 Grand Prix starts to his name with the Super Aguri and Spyker teams, will conduct test development work for Renault, and will also play an important role in the F1 Roadshow programme.

"We are delighted to welcome Sakon to the team for 2008," said team boss Flavio Briatore. "We plan a particularly aggressive development programme for the coming year, and his F1 experience will be useful to us in this context.

"Furthermore, the ING Renault F1 Team is one of the most active in promoting Formula One around the world thanks to our unique Roadshow programme, and Sakon will boost our visibility in important markets. He will be an important asset for the team."

Yamamoto: "I am very excited to join the ING Renault F1 Team for the 2008 season. It is a great honour for me to be associated with a team that has won world championships.

"I will learn a fantastic amount, and I look forward to contributing in every way the team asks of me."

[SGWilko]

Strewth.

Well, I guess if the car is a dog this year no surprises as to who gets the blame........

Is this the same Sakon that did so badly in the Super Aguri......?

[cosmicpanda]

It was Ide that caused the incident at Imola. Yamamoto hardly distinguished himself, though.

The 25-year-old, who has 14 Grand Prix starts to his name with the Super Aguri and Spyker teams, will conduct test development work for Renault, and will also play an important role in the F1 Roadshow programme.

"We are delighted to welcome Sakon to the team for 2008," said team boss Flavio Briatore. "We plan a particularly aggressive development programme for the coming year, and his F1 experience will be useful to us in this context.

"Furthermore, the ING Renault F1 Team is one of the most active in promoting Formula One around the world thanks to our unique Roadshow programme, and Sakon will boost our visibility in important markets. He will be an important asset for the team."

In other words, he'll do the shake-down tests of the new chassis's and then do a lot of the demo work in last years car.

[SGWilko]

It was Ide that caused the incident at Imola. Yamamoto hardly distinguished himself, though.

Ah yes. Well, fair play to Sakon then, good for him.

Romain Grosjean is the main test driver.

[woody2goody]

Sakon didn't do too badly in the Super Aguri.

Brazil 2006 - he got the 7th fastest lap.

To say he had no experience of the car before he raced it he did well. Same with '07 at Spyker.

[Giuseppe F1]

In other words, he'll do the shake-down tests of the new chassis's and then do a lot of the demo work in last years car.

Well, it looks like new sponsor SANHO HUMAN SERVICE is the common link here for looking at the pic below of Sakon last year at Spyker, seems they were sponsoring him then too so am sure this is it.





Also, if SANHO HUMAN SERVICE wanted maximum publicity around this, and hence maximum publicity of their brand, why wasnt Sakon announced/presented with all the other Renault drivers/testers at the official launch recently where all the media was present?? Well... either this driver element of the deal came about very recently (which I doubt) or more likely, the deal involves relatively little money owing to the very small and ambiguos on-car branding (almost hidden away!), that any monies was likely offset with the Sakon part of the bargain as it were.

If you see the pic below, indeed Renault had their two testers (Grosjean/DiGrassi) on hand, as well as Ben Hanley from their RDD program (running GP2 this year as is Grosjean) - the fact Sakon wasnt even at the launch indeed makes me think that Tamburello's thought is very plausible.



Purely commercial and the fact they mentioned the Renault Roadshow so many times in the press release, well id imagine this willl form the bulk of Sakon's work in 2008 and that the bulk of development work in an era where testing is becoming ever more limited, will go to Alonso (and that magic 0.6secs!) and Piquet as he aims to acclimatise himself more to his new role.

[Nikki Katz]

Yeah, this is obviously sponsor related. Ok, aside from Alonso he's the only driver in the team to have actually started a race yet, but he's not performed too well at Super Aguri or particularly Spyker. It's not like di Grassi has a regular seat anywhere in 2008, I'm sure he could be a full time tester, with Grosjean being lined up for a possible seat whenever necessary.
I wonder how much time he'll actually spend in the car...

[Garry Walker]

It is embarrasing for a team like Renault to hire someone for money only.