Toyota wrap up another Barcelona test

More wet mileage
By Site Staff (20/02/03)
February 20 2003

For the last day of the Barcelona test, Toyota swapped their drivers so that the more experienced Olivier Panis took the interim car. It proved to be a bad move, as Crisitiano de Matta drew first blood on the new TF103, smashing it into a wall.

The wet weather from yesterday continued today, but it wasn't just the rain that interrupted the Brazilian's day. A technical issue with the TF103 caused the Brazilian to loose control of the car and aquaplane into a wall which effectively ended his day. Cristiano was understandably fustrated.

"We have had a lot of rain here in Barcelona and the track was extremely wet this morning, so the session was delayed for a long time," Cristiano explained. "We went out for an installation lap and I felt something wrong with the car. I was trying to get the TF103 under control but it wasn't possible with the wet track and I hit the wall. I am fine, just frustrated because I was really hoping to get some good running in today."

The remainder of the test programme was now on Olivier Panis's sholders, but because of the weather the team elelcted to contentrate on wet tyre testing, traction control and team pit stop training.

"It has been interesting to drive the TF102B again because it confirmed to me that the new car is a really big step forward in terms of performance," Olivier said. "It has not been ideal this week because of the weather, but we have found out some interesting things and it's been quite productive today. We had to stop the session slightly early because of a possible transmission problem, which has to be investigated."