Text - Panasonic Toyota Racing: Barcelona Test Round-Up

Dates: 23-26 November 2004
Location: Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain
Drivers: Jarno Trulli (23-25), Ralf Schumacher (24-25), Ricardo Zonta (26)
Track Length: 4.730km

Ralf Schumacher
Total laps: 158
Best Lap Time: 1m14.599s
Chassis: TF104/09B
"My reception from the whole Toyota team has been great, and it feels like I've already been here for a while. The people here have helped me and given me a lot of support so it's been easy to fit in, and I've been particularly impressed by the working method within the team. I spent my two days here learning about the team and getting myself used to the 2004-spec car, and I'm relatively happy with the way it went. I fitted into the car okay, the feeling was good and I put in a reasonable lap time on the first day. I'm pleasantly surprised because the package is a lot better than I expected. The car felt very well balanced and easy to handle. There is certainly some work to do, but I'm more than happy with what I've seen so far. We got through quite a lot of work and it was interesting to try a few things on the car. Thursday was another good day, and we were able to get started on tyre testing. We now move to Jerez next week to start properly testing the car in preparation !
for next season."

Jarno Trulli
Total laps: 231
Best Lap Time: 1m14.893s
Chassis: TF104/10B
"I spent the week working on a variety of small parts in preparation for 2005. We've also put a lot of mileage on the engine in preparation for the new regulations next year – that went well and I put in around 90 laps on two of the days. In addition, we've started preliminary work on the new tyres, which will have to last for the entire race distance next season. I've had a slight problem with my seat position, which puts a bit of stress on my neck, but it's something that I'll have to bear as it will only be solved when we start running in the new car. Apart from that we've had no particular problems except for the odd stoppage – but winter testing is meant to be like that. We'll be working on the same kind of programmes during the last two weeks of testing at Jerez before the Christmas break."

Ricardo Zonta
Total laps: 147
Best Lap Time: 1m14.975s
Chassis: TF104/10B
"I've just arrived here for the last couple of days of testing, working on tyres for next year. On Friday I put in some long runs to see how they perform over long distances. We have to be able to do more than 270km on one set of tyres, so that's what we've been looking to achieve today. I haven't noticed too much of a decrease on the performance of this year's tyres. From what I've seen, they look strong from the first lap, and they're just more consistent and very stable on the long runs. I am greatly impressed that we have been able to complete almost 150 laps in just one day and of course to set such a competitive lap time. Tomorrow I will be here with the other Michelin teams on a dampened track looking at the 2005 wet tyres."

For more information on this week's Barcelona test and for an in-depth Q+A with Technical Director Chassis Mike Gascoyne, please visit our designated media website, www.toyota-f1-media.com.