Takuma Sato has failed to make an impression so far in his rookie season, but the Jordan driver says he is determined to become World Champion, even if that means wrecking a few cars along the way. Atlas F1's Will Gray talked exclusively to the man regarded by his team boss as the next Senna

Takuma Sato has crashed his way into Formula One this season but he insists he will not change his aggressive driving style to ease the tug on the wallet of his Irish team boss Eddie Jordan because he believes that is the only way to become World Champion.

Sato won the British Formula Three Championship with a dominant performance last year and he then went on to beat Formula 3000 winner Justin Wilson to the Jordan drive at the end of the season. But so far he has not made the most of his chances and, to some, is seen as the current clown of the Grand Prix circus. He crashed heavily in only his second day of competitive action in Australia and consequently started from the back of the grid, from where he could do nothing to impress.

Since the confident Japanese star's difficult debut he has shown glimpses of the greatness that team boss Jordan has crowed about but he has often struggled to keep control as he continues to try to prove he is worth his place in Formula One. He has, however, one simple answer for anyone who accuses him of being too wild, too aggressive and too out of control. "I think it is a good step for the future," he said. "I have had so many dramas in the last few races but I push harder and harder all the time.

"Flat-out all the time - that's the way I race. Accidents aren't necessarily mistakes. It is just that things happen. If you tangle with other people it is sometimes your fault and sometimes someone else's. I don't know how many crashes I have had. I learn every time. It is not necessarily useful to crash all the time, but I have never done the same mistake twice and that is the thing. I think I have improved a lot."

One mistake he will never make again is the one he describes as a "very embarrassing" incident, which occurred in Malaysia when he collided with Jordan teammate Giancarlo Fisichella and ruined the team's race in the opening lap. It will go down as one of the classic mistakes in Grand Prix history, but Jordan did not see the funny side and Sato openly admits, in his calm softly-spoken voice, he hung his head in shame on his return to the garage.

"I felt very sorry," he said. "But the problem there was that it was my first Grand Prix start and I was very excited. In Melbourne the safety car came out immediately after the big accident so Malaysia, for me, was the first clean opening lap. I was so excited because I overtook so many people and from 15th to 10th was really good. I was a bit too optimistic. What Eddie has said to me was that obviously he was disappointed, but not in an angry way."

Relief, then, for Sato, that he did not incur the full wrath of the Irishman who has spotted and nurtured so much talent in the past that he can now claim to have 'taught' much of the Grand Prix grid in some way. Jordan believes that in Sato he has found one of the best nuggets of potential gold ever. He has called him 'the next Senna', which is quite an accolade. But Sato, like his boss, can talk the talk.

"Obviously I would say I am best," he said, when asked which of this year's four Formula One rookies are achieving the most. "All the drivers are obviously joining different teams, so they have different opportunities and it is really difficult to judge from outside.

"But I believe that I have the toughest choice because I have got such high expectations, and Giancarlo is a really, really quick driver and everybody knows that so I have the hardest time. I am happy because I can improve such a lot and if I can match pace with him that is fantastic. That is my aim for the future and Giancarlo is definitely helping me a lot."

Sato started ahead of Fisichella in the last race, at Imola, and although the Jordan cars were well down the grid he took encouragement that, in that qualifying session at least, he is already close to his goal of matching his super-quick teammate.

He is already enjoying that unique Jordan atmosphere, and admits that that 'joker' Jordan "makes me laugh all the time". But he will definitely need those laughs when the going gets tough this year. His early career draws slight parallels to Michael Schumacher, who also started his career at Jordan, albeit briefly, in 1991.

Although the German champion went to Benetton after just one race and was able to achieve good results in his first season of racing, he always had that tendency to have 'off-track excursions' fairly regularly. But that is part of the untamed raw talent that Jordan saw in Schumacher, and, so it seems, that he has now spotted in Sato. All the Japanese star needs to learn now is how to control that talent, and how to develop the other criteria that are required to be a Grand Prix star.

What Sato now needs to learn is how to work a Formula One weekend, how to work with his engineers, with sponsors, with the press - how to live in the Grand Prix circus. Some observers have cruelly given him the tag of a 'clown', but he needs to work out how to become a lion tamer.

"The thing I have learned most about so far is the Grand Prix weekend," he said. "The schedules, getting to the circuit on Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday, walking around the circuit and so on. I think I am getting used to now. We had such a hard set of races at the beginning, all far away, now we are back in Europe we have a nice motorhome and all that sort of things will help me a lot.

"I am thinking all the time how I can improve and I spend a massive amount of time with engineers. In a Formula Three car you are driving three or four hours with maybe 30 minutes of meetings, but Formula One is more like one hour driving and four hours of meetings."

Already, when he arrived at the team, he insisted that his main aim was to work the team around him and develop a relationship similar to that of Schumacher at Ferrari, where the team's focus is on one driver.

Sato's Carlin motorsport Formula Three team claimed that his greatest achievement in 2001 was the way he tamed his aggressive style to win the championship. That is yet to be seen in Formula One, but, if he can calm the lion within, then Jordan may have picked the man to become a new star in the circus.