Toyota F1 2003 Monaco GP Flashback

By Toyota F1 Media
May 18 2004

  
Monaco 2003 Flashback
 
Cristiano da Matta put in an impressive performance on his Monaco debut, qualifying 10th and finishing just outside of the points in 9th position, behind only the top four teams of 2003.

Da Matta in 2003Traditional Thursday practice was a difficult start to the weekend for Panasonic Toyota Racing. Olivier Panis, who won the Monaco GP in 1996, set the 13th fastest time (1m17.811s) after 21 laps of the 3.340km track. On his first run in an F1 car around the Principality, Cristiano da Matta was 20th (1m19.956s) but concentrated mainly on learning the track over his 29 laps.

The opening qualifying session of the 61st Monaco Grand Prix was held on Thursday afternoon. Panis and Da Matta qualified right down the field in 18th and 19th positions after troublesome single flying laps.  Saturday morning free practice saw some slight improvements to the TF103s, but an overall lack of grip hindered progress. Da Matta was 15th (1m17.686s) after 38 laps, whilst Panis was 17th (1m18.101s) after 25 tours.
Second qualifying resulted in a significant improvement in performance. Monaco rookie Cristiano da Matta put in an excellent, clean lap to claim a top ten result in 10th - his best qualifying result of the season so far.

Olivier Panis, on the other hand, opted for a different one-stop, heavy fuel load strategy to his team-mate and qualified in 17th place.

Race day did not bring the team any points, although Cristiano da Matta came close, crossing the finish line in 9th place after a generally trouble-free 78-lap race. Team-mate Olivier Panis had a torrid time and did well to bring his TF103 home in 13th, four laps down, to claim only his second finish of the season. A lack of overall track grip was at the root of a problematic weekend for the Panasonic Toyota Racing team and a two-car finish - the team's first since Imola - was little consolation.

Last year's Monaco GP marked the turning point in the team's fortunes for 2003, and prompted numerous improvements to be made in time for the following race.

What the drivers said:
Cristiano da Matta: "We had a good strategy today and I had a clean race with a lot of clear track. I was out there pretty much on my own for the 78 laps with no traffic, which meant I didn't lose too much time. Finishing ninth behind the top four teams is a reasonable result and I think this was all we had in the car today. I didn't have any specific mechanical problems; just oversteer for most of the race and some lack of grip. Overall, things only started to come together for me from a driving point of view yesterday, and I think the team has done a good job. We need to work on our performance, but we are testing a lot and I am sure it's all going to come together soon."

Olivier Panis: "The result today was extremely disappointing for me and for the whole team. We couldn't find a cure to the grip level problem we have been suffering from all weekend, so we decided to run a different strategy, stopping just once in the race, but the car was really difficult to drive. There must have been something wrong, but we don't know what. We really need to improve a lot of things in order to get better."
 
 

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