SPARKY: Melbourne Report
Going Down and Under

After a fairly frustrating start to the season, I don’t really need to remind you that Toyota were on their back foot as they headed to Australia. But, after a few days of testing, and a couple of days to regroup and rethink, for the first time this season Toyota seemed stronger than ever before, in fact Australia was a true test of temperatures and tyres, which saw Toyota come out (almost) on top. Friday might had demonstrated very little in terms of improvement, and Saturdays damp practice session failed to highlight any change either, but it was the knockout qualifying session that really got me excited about Toyota, as the two TF106’s made it through into the final round having set a number of competitive times. To make it even sweeter, it seemed that Ferrari were now struggling for grip in cool conditions whilst Williams were surprisingly off the pace. It was all smiles for Toyota, and for myself in fact, as Toyota looked to be on the up.

Sunday’s race was nothing more than a thriller, I mean we had everything; spins, crashes, safety cars and even Michael Schumacher being overtaken by last years Red Bull, although fitted with a limited V10. Now, normally when I say “wow, that was a great race”, it normally involves Toyota doing really well but then making errors and silly decisions which force us to fall back. On this occasion Ralf Schumacher mastered the restarts perfectly, okay so he had a drive through which Ralf has admitted to being his own silly error but to end the race third, not even I was expecting that! Lady luck was on our side as well, we gained a huge amount of time by the safety coming out every so often and after our drive through it was a god send, but Toyota executed an excellent strategy, and Ralf Schumacher drove a hard-fought raced, and deservedly Martin Brundle’s Driver Of The Day. Whilst teams like Honda and Ferrari struggled with their tyres, making their cars slower than milk floats in a straight line, Toyota excelled with theirs, getting the heat in when it counted and making the most of other people’s misfortunes. The work at Bridgestone and their new specification tyre worked a treat, proving that when everything works together, Toyota can build a quick and reliable racing car.

But, in recently days, or should that be hours, the dark clouds have returned putting the team down and under. With the shocking news that Mike Gascoyne has been “suspended” by what I see is a disagreement between him and the team, where do Toyota go from here, and more importantly, is this good or bad news? In the short-term it’s bad, where does the TF106 go? What about next years TF107? At the moment Toyota state this is apart of a major management reshuffle but I believe its much more, someone doesn’t agree with what’s happening and has done the walkies. Toyota say Mike wasn’t going to be sticking around much anyway, and to be fair Mike has never built a car which has gone on to win a world championship. But will this mean Toyota will now break its tends, instead of the “evolution” the team bang on about, maybe we’ll have some brand spanking new cars, some more risks being made on the drawing board. To keep hopes alive look at Renault when Mike left, but then, look at Jordan when Mike left. Ferrari are built on stability, you don’t win five world championships in a row for nothing, in fact the people that started winning those titles are basically the same people trying to win it back this season. How will this affect Toyota? Their a big company who want to win, but their results lack continuity, and the same could be said for their team personnel. The joy from the mechanics on the pit wall in Australia now seems to be replaced with tension and head kicking.