SPARKY: Imola Report
Frustratingly Good

The first camera shot of ITV’s qualifying broadcast was of the Pit lane, a scene which reminded me of that dark day in 1994 when the BBC cut to a similar shot whilst Formula One was losing one of its greatest talents. I’ll admit that every time we race at Imola, I shudder at anything that resembles that day of May 1994, and how Formula One paid a huge cost for someone who had given his life to race. I guess the roll that Midlands Christijan Albers suffered on the opening lap of the Grand Prix shows how Formula One safety has moved on, the Dutchman walked away, clearly frustrated at his early retirement, but he walked away, had a few interviews and is now probably preparing for the next race.

During Friday and Saturday Practice Toyota were once again demonstrating that they were a team on the up, they looked really strong on a circuit, which normally leaves them nervously navigating the kerbs. Qualifying again highlighted Toyota’s potential, as for the second time in a row, both cars made it through into the final session, with both cars lining up within the first 5 rows. Jarno Trulli might be bitching about Michael Schumacher’s blocking tactic near the end of the session which didn’t allow Jarno to improve his time, but this has to be expected in a session where you have a number of cars out on a lap, it happened in the old one hour, twelve lap system, and it was only time until it happens again.

The race on the other hand was a different story. Starting near the front on probably the wrong strategy Ralf suffered with slower cars ahead of him, not allowing the German to explore his Toyota to the max. Jarno on the other hand didn’t get any time at all, with the Italian retiring before they had even done 10 laps. Every since the introduction of the B spec last year Jarno has failed to finish in the points, and at times failed to finish the race. I do not question his desire to succeed or his desire to race but regular failures do come with questions, similar to Damon Hill’s regular failures at the start of 1999, which later forced him to retire from the sport. I’m not saying that Jarno is about to retire, but he needs a good result, he needs to end this silly accidents and Toyota need to end these rare failures if they want to get onto the podium, and hopefully win some races.

Ralf Schumacher 3 stopper clearly didn’t work, forcing him to slide down the leader board, out of the top eight. Okay, so it was disappointing we didn’t get ay points, but Ralf was the fifth fastest car on the track, and he wasn’t lap and finished 45 seconds behind race winner Michael Schumacher, that would had put us into the points in Bahrain! That shows how much we’ve moved forward, and how fast our car can be. I feel we haven’t seen the best of the TF106, I still believe there is a bit more speed which wasn’t been unveiled because when we’re about to impress, a slower car is ahead or we are on the wrong piece of track at the wrong time. What’s even more positive is Toyota are bringing out there B spec next month, which I’m guessing will take away a few more tenths from our lap time. This all sounds very good, but like Jarno Trulli we need to bring it all together, Toyota showed at Imola it has a good package, not a great one like Ferrari or Renault, but a package good enough for a high dosage of points after each race. Imola might had left many Toyota fans frustrated, but we go away with a better idea on how to maximum the potential of our car.