Was Ralf Toyota's Problem?

[cosworth151]

On Speed Channel's coverage of Friday practice from Turkey, David Hobbs and Co. were talking about the improvement at Toyota this year. They were saying that Toyota listened only to Ralf for the last three years. They mentioned that Trulli told them that Glock has talked with him more about the cars so far this season than Ralf did in the entire previous three seasons.

I would agree. Now that Ralf is gone, Jarno can finally get a car set up to his liking. The result speak for themselves.

What do you all think?

[Dare]

Makes sense to me Cos.I liked where they said
Ralf convinced Toy.that he would do for them
what Michael did for Ferrari,hence the 20 million
a year payday

[CrazyHorse]

JT is the fastest driver out there over a single lap or a few laps, but over race distance he never seems to put everything together.

i remember italy a few years ago,JT was on the podium half dead and carted off to hospital once the ceremony was over

[raindancer]

He has been putting it together this season and sometimes he has had to drive quite hard to keep his place. Ralf was the problem according to me. He just had the pedigree but very little skill and talent and his performance in the Formula Nippon was nothing much to write about.
Ralf liked money and also does not have the engineering brain Michael had.

[John S]

I have always thought of Ralf as a solid number 2 but not a team leader, a lot like Coulthard in my opinion.

I never understood why Toy persisted with Ralf and Trulli for so long they could have changed either one for some one else just to see, maybe their reluctance to admit they got it wrong stems from the parent company culture.

[Steven Roy]

I think getting rid of Mike Gascoyne was Toyota's problem.  If they had let him loose and he had given them a really good car the results would have followed.

I had high hopes for Ralf when he arrived in F1.  He actually won a championship in Japan whereas Irvine and a few others came back with big reputations but achieved nothing there.  I think Ralf may be another in the Jan Magnussen category.  No application, no commitment etc