Major changes at Toyota F1


Ricardo Zonta

By Toyota F1 Media
August 10 2004

The Toyota F1 team has been involved in several major changes in team personnel, including Ricardo Zonta taking over the full time driving duties from Da Matta. The FRiday driver will now be Ryan Briscoe. Also several senior staff members have left the team as it reorganises its structure.

 
Major changes at Toyota F1
 
In a major shake-up the Toyota F1 team announced several changes in the team, not the least of these been Cristiano da Matta would be wrepleaced by Ricardo Zonta from Hungarian Grand Prix.

Da MattaPanasonic Toyota Racing announced that its third driver Ricardo Zonta will be promoted to the role of race driver with effect from the upcoming Grand Prix of Hungary. Zonta will replace Cristiano da Matta and race alongside Olivier Panis.

The team's test driver Ryan Briscoe will in turn assume Zonta's role during the race weekend, running the third car during Friday's free practice sessions. Cristiano da Matta will continue to be employed as a Toyota driver for the remainder of the year and could consequently still be called upon to partake in any driving or marketing-related activities for the Panasonic Toyota Racing team.

Team Principal of Panasonic Toyota Racing, Tsutomu Tomita said: "We revised our original plans after we reviewed the results of the last three Grands Prix. Ricardo Zonta consistently performed very well, as indeed he also did in the first half of the 2004 season. We believe it is fair to offer Ricardo the chance to show his potential in full race conditions, before we enter into the final step of our driver evaluation for the 2005 season. We decided to retain Olivier Panis as a race driver for the rest of this season, based on the fact that he is the driver who has secured the team's best race result of the year so far (5th in Indianapolis) and has collected the higher number of championship points (5). Cristiano da Matta will remain a Panasonic Toyota Racing driver until the end of 2004 and could still be called upon to undertake activities accordingly."

In addition to these changes with the team drivers, changes have also taken place in regard to team personnel with both Norbert Kreyer and Team Manager Ange Pasquali leaving the team.

Toyota Motorsport has made some personnel changes to its organisation aimed at further improving the efficiency within the Chassis Design group and at simplifying the lines of internal communication, both on the track and within the company.

Ange PasqualiThe "Research and Vehicle Dynamics" and "R&D Testbench Chassis Engineering" areas will be merged into one group, headed by Loic David (previously Senior Manager Research & Vehicle Dynamics) as Senior Manager R&D. Loic David will now report directly to Chief Designer Gustav Brunner.

General Manager F1 Operation, Richard Cregan will take over operational team management functions, as well as the Toyota Drivers Academy (Toyota's young driver programme) and will also assume the position of Team Manager at races.

Chief Race Engineer, Dieter Gass will head the race and test organisation, reporting directly to Technical Director Chassis, Mike Gascoyne.

In line with the redistribution of responsibility and the objective of streamlining and simplifying the reporting and decision process within the organisation, both Norbert Kreyer and Ange Pasquali will leave Toyota Motorsport.

Tsutomu Tomita, Chairman of Toyota Motorsport and Team Principal of Panasonic Toyota Racing said: "We have discussed this decision with all personnel involved in the changes. We acknowledge that the action we have taken may be seen as severe, particularly in view of the significant contribution made by both Ange Pasquali and Norbert Kreyer, not only to the current Formula 1 programme, but also to the World Rally and the Le Mans projects. However, the duplication of function and responsibility created by this previously complex organisation and the need to establish a simpler and more effective organisational structure, which is acutely focused on achieving our ambitious goals, has led us to make and implement this difficult decision."
 
 

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