The rising son sets on Japan

The confirmation of Sebastien Bourdais staying at Toro Rosso extinguished Takuma Sato's lingering hopes of returning to Formula One, certainly for this year, maybe forever.

On one level it's just another hard luck story among many, the history of F1 being littered with those who were never able to quite convince folk that they had all of what it took. But, on another level, it could have much wider implications.

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