Breaking the ice

During the winter of 2004, Toyota had to pick themselves up after another disappointing season, where the results were as uplifting as a James Blunt album, the Panasonic Toyota Racing team drafted in new blood in terms of Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli to coincide with a Mike Gascoyne designed TF105. We didn’t have to wait long for our new car as Toyota launched their 2005 contender in the early weeks of January, thus giving the team enough time to fully develop the new car in time for an upgrade just before the first race of the year in Australia. Things were on the up, as Toyota were showing all the signs of a team hunting for its first race win, sadly as the season developed, this became extremely unlikely.

Steps forward

For the Toyota team; 1 fastest lap, 2 pole positions, 5 podiums and 23 points finishes in a season spanning 19 races was one heck of an improvement over the teams pervious seasons. Jarno Trulli lead the way with a front row slot in Australia and Malaysia and finished second in Malaysia and Bahrain to end the first three races of the season just behind Fernando Alonso and Renault in both championships, a dream start to a changing team. This was then followed on with a strong third and fourth place finishing in Spain for Jarno and Ralf and another three double points finishing’s in France, Hungary and Italy, with Malaysia and Bahrain hosting two Toyota’s in the points as well. Jarno Trulli took the teams first pole position in America, whilst Ralf Schumacher scored his first podium for the team in Hungary and finished the season off with another in China, he too taking pole position for the teams home race in Japan.

Throughout the season Jarno Trulli posted several stellar qualifying laps to put his Toyota in the top ten, those include his single laps in Malaysia and Hungary, with Ralf Schumacher putting in several exciting drives through the field to finish in the points most noticeably his drive in Germany. Toyota had shown the paddock that with the right people, in the right places, they could become a dominant force in their first competitive Formula One season.

Biggest High: Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher battling for third place in Spain, on a day when both Toyota’s ran competitively together at the front.

Biggest High: Jarno Trulli going out early in qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix, yet set the third fastest time on a dusty track.

Still on a learning curve

Even though the team became one of the most improved competitors in the pit lane during the 2005 season, it wasn’t without their mistakes. Abusing their tyres during the Australian Grand Prix cost Jarno Trulli any chance of fighting for points after his front row grid slot, a disastrous opening lap in Europe lead to Jarno Trulli getting a drive through penalty and Ralf Schumacher pitting for a new nose cone. Putting dry tyres onto both cars on a wet track during the Belgium Grand Prix cost Jarno Trulli and most noticeably Ralf Schumacher any chance of fighting for their first win, this was again highlighted with the wrong stratergy during the Japanese Grand Prix when Ralf Schumacher who lead from the start ended up on a three stop strategy when everyone else was on a two. These errors saw the team throw away buckets full of free points, subsequently allowing Ferrari through in the constructors championship and forcing Jarno Trulli down the drivers championship. It was true that when it came to winning, the Toyota team handled the situation badly, thus, only ever getting as high as the left hand side of the podium. During the season it was clear that Toyota were going to win races, but it was also clear that they were going to make mistakes, and for a team as professionally drilled and funded as Toyota, these mistakes would not be accepted by their fans nor their own drivers.

Biggest Low: The opening lap in Europe; Toyota mechanics’ surround Jarno Trulli’s car when the parade lap begins handing the Italian driver a drive through. Ralf Schumacher gets involved in someone else’s incident forcing the German driver into the pits for a new nose.

Biggest Low: Pitting for dries when it should had been wet tyres in Belgium. Ralf Schumacher had been on the tail of race leader Juan Pablo Montoya before his pit stop, Montoya would be forced out of the race by Pizzonia a couple of laps from the end.

The future's bright, the future’s Toyota?

For 2006, Toyota is making moves to cover their long-term future. The biggest change is tyres, as Toyota have moved from Michelin to Bridgestone. Bridgestone had one of their worst seasons in 2005, gaining only one win against the eighteen of Michelin. But Michelin are entering their final season in 2006, as we move to a single tyre manufacture in 2007 (Bridgestone). Therefore with Toyota getting in early, we can gain their trust and knowledge before the herd of teams coming running from the hills at the start of 2007. Plus we are moving back to tyre changes in 2006, a format which Bridgestone designed tyres for. The rest of the team remains largely unchanged apart from the shock departure of chief designer Gustav. Therefore if the team made steps forward in 2005, we should be able to say the same for 2006, as pointed out the team still has area’s to improve upon. Also with our large budget and huge facilities Toyota should have no trouble producing fast, reliable, race winning cars because we already have our 2006 car out on track, racking up the miles whilst all the others are running hybrid 2005 machines.

Toyota is more prepared than any other team for the 2006 season and with our V8 engine and TF106 package, all they have to do now is deliver not once, not twice, but for the whole of the 2006 season.