Toyota eyes back on testing

Panasonic Toyota Racing Team has completed a succesful first test of the new TF105B at Silverstone. The team is hoping to take the TF105B to the next Grand Prix at Interlagos, but may opt to wait for their home event at Suzuka. The B car is another step in the evolutive approach introduced at Toyota by Mike Gascoyne.

Toyota Racing had 3 drivers in action this week at Silverstone with Olivier Panis running three days in the new TF105B chassis while Ricardo Zonta completed a tyre evaluation on Tuesday for the team with Ralf Schumacher running both the standard TF105 chassis and the new 'B-spec' car over two days.

Olivier Panis Q: Olivier, you spent the week running the TF105B. How did it go?
"We had a really positive week of work on the B car. It was a big step forward compared to the last test, when we had some technical problems. This time things worked much better so it is a big step in the right direction."

Q: So how does the TF105B feel?
"It felt really good everywhere. It was good in both low and high speed corners, it seemed to have less understeer than the TF105 and it had more front grip in general. Unfortunately the weather was too bad to do much work on the last morning so I just did some wet launches. But I'm sure this test will be useful for our work for next year."

Ralf Schumacher Q: Ralf, what was your test programme?
"We spent Wednesday working mainly on tyres for Suzuka. We also did some work on brakes, steering and weight distribution and everything went well. For Thursday we had lined up a back-to-back test of the TF105 and the TF105B but the wet weather didn't allow us to reap the full benefits."

Q: How much of a blow was the rain on Thursday?
"We were hoping to have a direct comparison but the weather took a turn for the worse and the wet conditions made it impossible to get a realistic idea of the relative performance. But it was good to have a run in the B car which is a useful part of our development programme for 2006."
Ricardo Zonta Q: What did you work on at this test?
"I was only at Silverstone on Tuesday, and I spent the day testing tyres in preparation for the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka. This track is similar to that one so this was quite an important test for that race. I enjoy running at Silverstone and we did some useful work so it was a good day."

Q: Did everything go smoothly?
"We didn't get as much done in the morning as we would have liked because there were red lights, so we had to wait for the afternoon to get the tyre comparisons done. We had a couple of stoppages with a glitch with a fuel connector but we got through our programme fine."
Technical Director Chassis, Mike Gascoyne Q: How would you sum up the test?
"We had a very successful test with the TF105B, which features a different front suspension from the TF105. We had a problem with the power steering at the previous test, but here at Silverstone we were able to eradicate it. That meant we were able to get on and evaluate the car properly. We initially planned to test the car for only one day but we lengthened that to the entire test, and the results were very positive."