By Nick Sparkes
January 15 2006

Last year Toyota enjoyed the helpings of a third car during Friday’s Practice Sessions, but because the team were so successful in the process, they have lost it for this year as they finished in the top four. Therefore Toyota’s Ricardo Zonta will spend most of his Friday's on the pit wall. Over the last year Ricardo Zonta and Oliver Panis have driven the third Toyota, both putting in some impressive mileage as they aim to help the team choosing which tyre compound to use for the weekend. This will be even more important this year as Formula One return to tyre changes. The lose of the third car will undoubtedly put more pressure on Toyota’s two race drivers, Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli.

"Losing the Friday third driver means the race drivers will inevitably do more laps," said Toyota’s Mike Gascoyne, "which has an effect on engine mileage over the weekend. And we will end up doing more laps anyway, because in qualifying instead of doing one timed lap, we will have to go out and do a lot of running."

John Howett explained: "None of the top teams can run a third car, so as we mature and improve as a team, we have to up our game and race against top teams in the same circumstances. Without the third car, there will be new challenges and I am confident we will tackle them head-on and overcome them."