Pre-2003 programme complete for Toyota

Next stop Melbourne
By Site Staff (03/03/03)
March 3 2003

Toyota completed their pre-2003 test programme with two tests running in tandem in two different locations. Jerez saw 2 days of running time from Olivier Panis in the new TF103, with the last day given over to Cristiano da Matta.

Day 1 (26th Feb) was badly affected by rain, but the team were still able to complete 25 laps and gain some wet weather setup data. "There is unfortunately not a lot to tell about today as we obviously could not run as much as we hoped," Olivier said at the end of the ay. "The weather was very bad, but we took the chance to carry out some further work on car set-up in the wet conditions. We can just hope that the weather will improve for my final day of pre-season testing in the TF103 tomorrow."

The weather improved on day two (Feb 27th) and Olivier Panis made the most of the drying track setting the fastest time of the day (ahead of Ferrari !). Despite the achievement Olivier has his eyes open and is holding the elation back until the real pace of the Toyota car is revealed in Melbourne.

"This was a much more rewarding day for myself and the team, as we finally managed some good running in dry conditions," a much happier Olivier said to Toyota-F1.com . "The car has again proved to be quick and I certainly felt that today. We now have a good basis but we still have a way to go and have to keep our feet on the ground. I want to say thanks to everyone in the team for the very hard work done during pre-season testing. Because of their great effort, I have gained a lot of experience in the new car and I feel upbeat ahead of the first race in Melbourne next week."

Cristiano da Matta spent the last day at Jerez putting in more valuable experience mileage ahead of the first race of 2003. Despite being a rookie on the F1 grid, da Matta feels the team has given him every opportunity to be ready for Melbourne.

"We had a good session today and we managed to work extensively on different areas of the car," da Matta was quoted as saying. "I was happy to be back in the TF103 for my last day of testing this week, and it was good to get a feeling for it again. I completed over 2000kms with the new car since early January and I feel really positive about it. The team gave me the chance to experience several different tracks, I learnt as much as possible from everything, but I think you never feel completely ready anyway. Now I am really looking forward to the race one week away and to get into it for real!"

The Toyota test team will be back at Jerez on the 12th of March, participating in yet another three day session.