Mike Gascoyne Q+A


By Toyota
October 22 2005

Do you think Toyota's strong early season performance surprised people? We launched very much a roll-out specification car, very similar to last year's, which was commented on a lot. That was deliberate because we knew we had a big new aero update for the Australian GP.




 We knew we had a lot of performance coming.
Pre-season testing was pleasing apart from one
difficult test at Barcelona, which had been
resurfaced. Given the fuel loads we had been
carrying, I felt that we were okay. I said that we
were aiming to be the second or third quickest car
by the end of the season and it was trumpeted as
an idiotic thing to say, but I was confident. The first
race had wet qualifying and we were on the front
row. Jarno had some tyre drop-off issues but his
first stint looked very competitive. Everyone treated
that as a flash in the pan but we thought it showed
the car's genuine pace. We were not surprised to do
it on merit in Malaysia and Bahrain, and get a pair
of second places.

How do you assess the way the year evolved?
We were three or four tenths behind Renault at the start of the season and
flattered by McLaren under-performing early on. We had aero updates at
every race at that stage of the season and development has been constant.
We have lightened the car step-by-step. In the middle of the season we
struggled with consistency at the rear end at a few races but with some
developments on the car we improved and over the last five or six races
were very consistent. I find this perception that we started well but didn't
develop as well as other teams unfair. I think we have consistently been the
third quickest car in a lot of races close to the end of the season. And we are
probably the same 0.3-0.4s behind Renault that we were at the start. I don't
see that we have dropped off.




Why do you think you were unable to maintain
the early momentum?
We definitely missed out on some results. Monaco
was going to be very strong but then Ralf had his qualifying accident, which affected Jarno, who
was next out. I think we would certainly have had a podium there. At Nürburgring, Jarno would have
been on the podium but we couldn't get the car
started in time, and in Canada he was in a
podium position when he had a brake failure.
In Hungary we were third and fourth and
were competitive again in the wet at Spa
but made an incorrect strategy call.
I am reasonably happy but I do rue the missed opportunities because they, combined with Indy,
mean we did not finish third in the championship,
which I would have been very happy with. But
overall you have to say we are the most improved
team, we have done a good job and we are in a
good position for next year given that we have
been able to introduce the B car even before the
end of the season.

What is the thinking behind the TF105B's front suspension?
The TF105B does have a different front suspension and in the wind tunnel
we saw quite a sizeable performance gain -- more than we expected.
Mechanically, it is quite difficult to implement and I didn't want to risk trying
to do it next January. If you have problems at that stage, it is too late to fix
it before the season, so we decided we would implement it on the TF105.
That involved some compromise but it was primarily meant as a test car.
When you do everything the second time, you do a much better job because
you discover all the problems first time. That was really the driving force to
do it, with the proviso that we could probably take it to the last few races.
There are some mechanical difficulties with this type of front suspension.
You get the aerodynamic gain but you may be trading off some mechanical
losses. We had a couple of problems at the first test but really it has proved to
be a positive step, probably more than we expected. With the test break
coming up it was sensible to race the car and learn from it.




Have you been happy with the drivers' performance?
Yes. Ralf is very critical of himself in terms of
qualifying performance but he's picked up a lot of
points. Jarno has been fantastic in qualifying and in
races where we've given him a consistent car. He
really rues those missed podiums opportunities in
Monaco, Nürburgring and Canada.



You have worked with both before. Was their level what you
expected?
They are both above what they were. Certainly Jarno is a better driver than
when I worked with him before, and Ralf too, has matured. They have still
both got the talent they had but they are more complete drivers.

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