The other red team in F1

[davewilson]

WITH MICHAEL Schumacher out of Ferrari, maybe we’ll switch teams this year. Perhaps we’ll be cheering for the other red-liveried team in F1, Panasonic Toyota Racing. Although to be more accurate Panasonic Toyota uses red and white livery.


Already Toyota Panasonic has unveiled its new TF107 challenger at the Expo XXI conference center in Cologne, Germany, the first team to do so.

We may be cheering for Toyota this season mainly because we’d like to go for the underdog for a change. Although the team does not quite see itself as the underdog.

Says Toyota in a press statement we got in the e-mail: "Toyota is the only one of the 11 F1 teams to go into the new season with the same engine, the same tire partner, and the same two race drivers. That unique degree of continuity will enable the team to hit the ground running and build on the experience gained over recent seasons. Toyota has ambitious goals in Formula 1 and is aiming for success in 2007."

Adds Panasonic Toyota Racing team principal Tsutomi Tomita: "Our fundamental challenge this year is to get the first victory.

"We announced that a year ago, but we failed to succeed in 2006. And therefore we want to repeat that challenge in 2007. I know all the other teams are working very hard, particularly the top three. We have five years experience in F1, but still we are young in comparison with the top teams, therefore we have to be modest about it. But we would like to challenge them.

"I’m very, very positive about this, and I personally think we should attack from round one. Therefore it’s very important to conduct some productive testing during the winter to fully understand the car and the tire."

"The most important target to aim for this season is the first victory for Toyota in Formula 1," he said. "We want to be on the top step of the podium. We have improved in all areas, aerodynamics, suspension and gear change."

The team admits that last year it did not meet its high expectations after its success in 2005 but it has great confidence that the TF107 will see Toyota competing at the front again.

"Our ambition has always been to win – that to me is why we are here and why we are racing," says Panasonic Toyota Racing president John Howett. "I think we built a fairly good platform in 2005, and last year we didn’t move forward sufficiently from that platform. I think in terms of speed we had the third quickest package on the grid.

"Looking at race pace and qualifying pace, we were closing the gap on Renault towards the end of the season, but Ferrari was still in front. Although the results didn’t show it, I think we are now capable of running with the top teams in terms of speed."

"We have addressed reliability this year," Howett adds. "And we have resolved issues like the launch system, which we fixed at the end of last season, and which cost us dearly. We’re improving the car, flat out, all the time. So I think we have the potential to win this year, and I’m disappointed that we didn’t deliver it in 2006."

While there is continuity in other areas, the TF107 is a completely new car, with virtually no parts carried over from the TF106 and TF106B that preceded it.

"It’s pretty extensively changed in terms of basic lay-out," says Howett. "When we went from the V10 to V8 the back of the engine effectively stayed in the same place, and the chassis and fuel tank filled the space where the front two cylinders of the V10 were. Now we’ve moved to engine forward, and yet worked really hard to still have a big tank. The gearbox is longer, and we will run a seamless shift for the first time.

"Aerodynamics is the big focus, and a lot of the chassis layout has been designed to give better aero opportunity. The whole monocoque concept has been modified in terms of height and how it sits. Before it was quite a low car, now it’s higher. We have improved the suspension, and we have some interesting developments in the pipeline that we hope will give us performance."

"We switched to Bridgestone tires one year ago," says Tomita. "In the beginning it we had some problems. I would compare it to the weather. In the winter testing and at the beginning of the season it was cloudy but in the middle of the year the clouds began to disappear and towards the end it was perfectly sunny!

"It was down and up through the year, but it was a very good learning year in 2006. So if I talk about 2007, and going to single tire supplier, we have learned a lot about tire treatment, particularly about temperature, suspension geometry and downforce."
The Stig