Toyota, what an embarassment.

[ATF]

They did well in quali but you just can't get your hopes up about this team. OK so they may well score a podium or two throughout the year but they've been planning this F1 campaign since at least 1999 (or maybe even before?)!

They pulled out of the WRC to put all of their resources into the F1 project. They even took that extra year in 2001 before so that they would be ready in 2002. I'd love to see what their aim back then was for their fifth season of F1 - cos i sure as hell bet it wasn't to finish 6th in the constructors!


EDIT: This is the only quote I can find (from Salo in 2001):

"To start from a clean sheet of paper, to build our own complete Toyota F1 car and to get the results, the wins and the championship success will take some years."

Well, this is their sixth season. Ralf for champion anyone...

[jens]

"To start from a clean sheet of paper, to build our own complete Toyota F1 car and to get the results, the wins and the championship success will take some years."

Maybe building up a team from zero was a mistake? Other teams like RBR, Honda, Renault, BMW - all of them have bought someone, who has already some experience and team personnel at some experience level. We can't forget that which teams are successful in F1: Ferrari and McLaren have tens of years of experience, Renault (former Benetton) over 20 years and Sauber (BMW) from 1993 (and also BMW has been an engine supplier in the 80s). Compared them Toyota looks like a real rookie.

But Toyota's argument for building up a team from zero was that in that case no-one can say that "their success is the favour of the predecessor, but they have achieved all that on their own merit." They had the courage to risk, but maybe they overrated themselves?

I remember Tomita's words from 2003 after some troubled races in early season: "After promising 2002 we hoped to score some podiums this season, but probably we underrated Formula One..."

But there is at least one positive aspect about Toyota - they haven't given up and they are still trying. And maybe that's their goal - not to leave F1 before they have achieved something (well, at least got back to the level of 2005) not to get the conclusive image of a loser (like Jaguar).

[ioan]

Low fuel load? In Q1 and Q2 everyone runs with low fuel load, so they got into Top10 purely on their own merit!

And in fact - in Q2 Toyotas lost by about 1,3 secs to the first one. In the last session, where cars ran with race fuel load, Toyotas lost 2+ seconds to the winner, which indicates that Toyota is actually quite heavy.

Absolutely right there, they were on low fuel as everyone out there at that moment.