Season Debrief: John Howet
John Howet, Panasonic Toyota Racing President, reflects the past Formula One season. Toyota finished fourth in the Constructors' Championship, the best result for the team since they entered the top class in Motorsport. But according to the President, the team needs to win next season.
Interview with John Howet
Was fourth place in the Constructors Championship a satisfactory result?
"As a team we can all be extremely pleased with the results this season. With three or four races to go, I think that third place in the constructors' championship was within our grasp, but we should not treat fourth place as any less of an achievement. We ultimately finished 12 points behind but we had Indy, where Ferrari scored a maximum 18 points while we didn't race, and then there was Spa, where we outraced the car with good strategy. We just got a little bit too hungry to win in Belgium, but that hunger is also a very positive thing. We probably just changed onto dry tyres a little bit too soon and we paid the penalty. But we have no regrets. It has been a good season."
Where has the team made most progress?
"We have made gains in every area, in every respect. We are racing better, the car is better and we have brought new parts to the car all the way through the season. The engine has been strong and we were simultaneously developing a V8 at the same time, which has been a challenge for the engine department. I think every area of the whole organisation is improving all the time."
How would you rate the drivers' performance?
"I think we have got a strong team of drivers. Ralf and Jarno are both capable of winning and Jarno's performance in qualifying remains probably the best on the grid. So we have a contribution from two drivers that have proven race capability and pace, and then we have Ricardo Zonta and Olivier Panis doing a great job with the testing and development and giving very good feedback to the engineers."
What were your high and low points of the season?
"I think finishing fourth in the championship and scoring five podiums is a collective high. Coming into the season we would have been happy to achieve that. The low point is just the politics. We spend too much time trying to look at the future of Formula 1 instead of really focusing on running Panasonic Toyota Racing. That, to me, is the thing that needs to be fixed for next year."
How would you assess 'The Show' that F1 puts on? And how would you improve it?
"If you research it, F1 is still one of the strongest global sports. People are really passionate about it and it's the ultimate combination of man and machine. I think we tend to talk it down too much rather than looking at all the positives. All we need is one clear vision for the next four to five years. We could perhaps look at NASCAR in the USA and see how they have developed the size of their total audience and support for the sport by, I believe, having an organisation leading and developing the whole business in a unified, professional manner. That is, to some extent, what's really lacking at the moment – a clear future vision for the sport over the next five or ten years."
What is Toyota's target for next year? Is it enough to improve on fourth place or do you need to win races?
"We need to win next year. That's the whole reason to exist. There are some very significant changes next year with the V8 engines and how people interpret not only that but the chassis side, is going to be important. It's hard to predict and so it would be foolish to be over-confident, but we are a Formula 1 team and we have one sole objective -- to win. There can be no excuses and we just have to get on and work harder and harder to do that. That's why we brought the TF105B to the last two races!"
