Toyota F1 French GP Review

TF104
By Toyota F1 Media
July 7 2004

The Toyota F1 team would have a disappointing French GP with Da Matta and Panis finishing in 14th and 15th. Panis would have problems at the start of the race that would see him last and his chances in the race over. Da Matta would complain of a loss of performance in his car that ruined his race.

	French GP Race Round-Up
	Sunday 4 July 2004 Olivier Panis (Car 17, Chassis TF104/03, T-car TF104/07) Session Classification: 15th, +2 laps (from race winner) Grid: 14th "I had a problem at the very start of the race when the clutch got stuck and the antistall was activated, which is why I lost all the places. That was very painful for me and I am sure also for the team. There was one main problem today, namely that we were not quick enough to fight with the cars in front of us. However disappointing today's results are for everyone at Toyota, we must immediately look ahead to Silverstone to keep concentrated, motivated and continue to do our best." Cristiano da Matta (Car 16, Chassis TF104/04 Session Classification: 14th, + 1 lap (from race winner) Grid: 11th "I think the hot weather was detrimental to us in today's race, particularly in the way our car was set up. The situation was the same for everyone, but it is apparent from the final results that we suffered a lot more. I cannot really pinpoint a specific reason, but the car was simply a lot slower compared to what we showed it could do on Friday and Saturday. The only thing that has been different today is the temperature, but we have to look deeply into the data to see what caused such a big drop off in performance." Tsutomu Tomita - Team Principal "A very disappointing race performance given our level of competitiveness in qualifying. Olivier's race was compromised at the start when the antistall came in unexpectedly, which dropped him to the back of the field and meant that he got caught up in traffic. Cristiano also got caught up in traffic in the first round of pit stops, which lost him a lot of time. But overall, the cars were not quick enough today. We have to investigate the reasons why our race pace was so far off the levels we achieved in practice and qualifying. On a positive note, we got two cars to the finish, so the reliability of the TF104 remains good and we look forward to the improvements of the car that are coming soon."

Driver	Classification	Chassis	Best Lap	Gap	Laps
Free Practice Session 1
Cristiano da Matta	10th	TF104/04	1m26.757s	+11.270s	5
Olivier Panis	11th	TF104/03	1m27.449s	+11.962s	4
Ricardo Zonta	13th	TF104/07	1m29.085s	+13.598s	18
Free Practice Session 2
Cristiano da Matta	1st	TF104/04	1m15.518s	Fastest	12
Olivier Panis	11th	TF104/03	1m17.303s	+1.785s	10
Ricardo Zonta	15th	TF104/07	1m17.735s	+2.217s	15
Free Practice Session 3
Olivier Panis	5th	TF104/03	1m15.478s	+0.534s	14
Cristiano da Matta	11th	TF104/04	1m16.384s	+1.440s	17
Free Practice Session 4
Olivier Panis	6th	TF104/03	1m14.883s	+0.370s	23
Cristiano da Matta	7th	TF104/04	1m14.885s	+0.372s	22
Qualifying 1
Cristiano da Matta	10th	TF104/04	1m14.245s	+0.868s	3
Olivier Panis	11th	TF104/03	1m14.540s	+1.163s	3
Qualifying 2
Cristiano da Matta	11th	TF104/04	1m14.553s	+0.855s	3
Olivier Panis	14th	TF104/03	1m15.130s	+1.432s	3
Race
Cristiano da Matta	14th	TF104/04		+1 lap	69
Olivier Panis	15th	TF104/03		+2 laps	68