Sakon Yamamoto has admitted that he was surprised to have got the 'call' from the Spyker
F1 team, which confirmed last week, that he will act as the replacement for Christijan Albers for the remainder of the 2007 season.
Yamamoto, who has been competing in the GP2 Series this season with BCN, after having done seven events at the end of last season with
Super Aguri, added that he is really ‘excited' to be back in a Formula 1 car.
“It was a surprise to get the call from Spyker, but at the same time I was, and still am, really glad to come back to
Formula 1,” he noted, ahead of his debut with the team this weekend in Hungary.
“Obviously I haven't had a normal testing programme this year, but I drove an F1 car in February, and I do not think this will be a problem. I am excited to be back in a race seat.”
Despite being new to the team though, Yamamoto isn't completely unfamiliar with the Silverstone-based outfit. Indeed he first appeared in Formula 1 at his home grand prix in Suzuka with Spyker's predecessors, Jordan, in 2005.
“I tested for the team (although it was a different name then!) back in 2005 and drove a Friday practice session in the Japanese Grand Prix,” he explained. “It's an advantage as I know some of the engineers and mechanics, so it's easy to get back into the team.”
As for his targets for the seven remaining events, he added that his priority is to try and help the team score its first points: “Of course I would like to be really quick, score points and finish as many races as possible. The target though has got to be to help Spyker score their first points,” he summed-up.
