Many children around the country, that’s not including Toyota employees, play the game of Frustration with their mates before becoming frustrated and throwing a tantrum. In the case of Toyota, their 2004 season was full of tantrums and frustration.

The start of the season was full of so much promise, at the launch their target was to finish every race and to score their first ever podium, but the only thing they did score was an own goal. The car was so slow the T.V camera’s kept on missing it on the qualifying lap and the only time you saw it during the race was when it was being lapped. Oh dear. It wasn’t until a lucky Monaco Grand Prix, where the cars that finished equalled the number of people watching it at home, were able to get some points on the leader board. But, bad times were to follow. In the Canadian Grand Prix points again were on the cards until both cars were disqualified from the race, another blow to a disastrous start to the season. But they hit back with Panis taking their highest finishing position of the season, a fifth place adding four more points to the tally.

As the team approached the half way point in the season, the amount of the points they had didn’t reflect a team with a $200 million budget. So the teams new Technical Director Mike Gascoyne tried to turn the team’s fortunes around with an upgraded car for the German Grand Prix. Oliver Panis did well in qualifying to break into the top ten, but still over a second off the pace. The race again ended empty handed for the Toyota team, and Da Matta who failed to finish the race was shown the back door. At this time Toyota announced two new drivers for the 2005 season; Ralf Schumacher taking the jump from Williams, with Monaco race winner Jarno Trulli soon to fill the second seat.

The remainder of the season turned into a marketing exercise with the teams tester and third driver Ricardo Zonta taking over from the sacked Da Matta. With Trulli jumping aboard for the remainder of the season after being fired from Renault for a lack of results, pushed Zonta back into a testing role after just missing out on some points when his engine turned to smoke during the Belgium Grand Prix. Zonta was soon back in the car though for his home and final race in Brazil, replacing Panis - who announced his retirement from racing a month or so back and had agreed to a deal as a development driver for Toyota during 2005. It could have been described as a mess of a driver line up, with this slowing down development it is no surprise that the final chapter of the 2004 season was full of many dull moments for Toyota.

Elsewhere Michael Schumacher and Ferrari did it again, with Britain’s Jenson Button and B.A.R Honda finishing ‘best of the rest’ behind Ferrari’s dominance. For Toyota, finishing ahead of Minardi and Jordan wasn’t very uplifting; in short a team on a similar budget to the champion’s Ferrari had gone into the winter with lots of homework to do. Lets hope that this game of Frustration is near its end.