Formula 1 blog - Linksheaven » Linksheaven 2006 F1 Preview: Toyota

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Linksheaven 2006 F1 Preview: Toyota

March 6th, 2006

1st annual linksheaven.com

formula
1 preview - 2006

Panasonic Toyota Racing

Team

Panasonic Toyota Racing

Nationality

Japan

Engine

Toyota V-8

Tires

Bridgestone

Team Principal

Richard Cregan

Team Website

http://www.toyota-f1.com/

Sponsors

Panasonic, Denso, EMC²

2005 Results

Driver’s	6th
Constructors	4th

Drivers

Driver

Ralf Schumacher

Nationality

Germany

2005 Results

6th

Website

www.rschumacher.com

Driver

Jarno Trulli

Nationality

Italy

2005 Results

7th

Website

www.jarnotrulli.com

third

Driver

Riccardo Zonta

Nationality

Brazil

2005 Results

Toyota Test
Driver

Website

None

test

Driver

Olivier Panis

Nationality

France

2005 Results

Toyota Test
Driver

Website

www.olivier-panis.com

2006 Outlook

If Formula One were simply a matter of spending the most money, Toyota would easily have been able to sit on a beach and enjoy several world championships by now. We all know that it most certainly isn’t all about the money, and Toyota has proven over the past several years that money can’t buy you the best technical package in F1. Rumored to have spent over a billion US dollars to set up the team in Germany and have their year of testing and buildup into F1. They are also reported to be spending nearly two thirds that total each year since. Toyota has reached the point where it is now put up, or shut up and go home. Without a single win to show for nearly 7 years of work, and entering their 5th as a factory effort, Mike Gascoyne and his technical guru’s are fully expected to come up with a car that can win this year. 
That effort will be known as the TF106 - at least for now it will. Toyota were one of the first teams out to test, and knowing the pressure is on, already have a B specification chassis running. They will also have a C spec out for testing before the season is too old, and, they did not dispel the idea of a D spec before the end of the year. In today’s F1 this is fairly unusual and it shows that Toyota are very serious. On the cynical side it also shows they have not quite gotten it right yet with this year’s model if they feel there is that much room for improvement. Despite that, the TF106 has been if not a star of testing, at least a strong honorable mention. It’s become quite reliable, they have faith in the aero package, it seems to work well enough and have at least reasonable balance so the car is really going quite well. It falls into the category of how much do you want to read into testing? If you go by results it’s just solid but the team like their chances. It’s another chassis that seems to suite both race pilot’s pretty well, something the TF105 did not do (The ‘A’ spec favored Trulli and a near ‘B’ spec later in the year favoring Ralf Schumacher). So in many regards it’s looking good. 
Toyota is yet another company that has some wealth of experience in IRL and Champ car V8 formulas, but with success not to the level of say Honda or Cosworth. Regardless it seems to have aided them with a smoother than some move to the 2.4 Liter V8 formula, and the RVX-06 engine seems to be running quite well, at least in terms of reliability and reasonable power. No one is really talking the engine up to a large degree, and most people put it in the 4th to 5th strongest bracket, but at this point in the preseason, one cannot put much stock in placements. The main point is that the drivers say it’s smooth, it’s not suffering terribly from the vibration issues that have plagued the field at one point of their efforts or another, and it’s close enough in power and reliable so far. 
Driving talent wise Toyota may be the dullest team on the grid. Maybe it’s a good thing for them that there’s consistency. They have the same 2 incredibly reliable drivers. A mountain of money. A car that is on the up, but not quite there yet. Apart from all that the fact remains that the inter-battle between Trulli and Ralf is intriguing. Last season everyone said that Trulli monstered Ralf. They said that Ralf was on 6 times the money that Jarno was on. And that’s probably true, but if you look at the numbers you’ll see that Ralf Schumacher actually BEAT Trulli in the championship by 2pts, and in race finishes they were level at 9 each. Where Trulli really did kill Ralf was in qualifying, where he beat him 16-3, but what’s the point in that if you don’t translate it into results? ‘There’s no point’ is the answer. And anyway, Trulli’s average qualy position was 5.5 to Ralf’s 8. Not a huge margin, but consistent nonetheless. The thing that makes it more interesting in is that Ralf’s form started to come good at the tail end of the season. Much of what people were saying about them was already decided by midseason. People decided Trulli was far better, and never bothered to check at the end. By season’s end Ralf had out finished Trulli in the last 4 races, and came in 6th to Jarno’s 5th in the 5th last race. 2 of his 3 qualy victories over Trulli came in the last 2 races of the season when he got pole position in Japan and a 9th in China to Jarno’s 12th. So going into this season I think it’s way too simple to suggest that based on everyone’s preconceptions, Jarno will continue where he left off. He might have gone some way to disproving the theory that he’s a qualifier and not a racer, but he still has a lot to prove
Toyota could surprise a lot of people once this year gets rolling, and don’t forget, they are still adjusting to the switch to Bridgestones.

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Linksheaven 2006 F1 Preview: Toyota

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