Articoli

Teams 2002:

TOYOTA

Last team to get into F1, Toyota was the first to present its new car for the season. To all appearance, the team's work -based in Germany- it's been good considering it started from zero and achieved to have a firm, the wind gallery and to totally deal with the car realization. We'll soon see with what result.

During last year season we got used to see that red and white pachyderm which was the first team's car, and we all thought that they had a lot more to do. After months lost in trying to build a V12 engine ( loudly excluded by the technical rules ) and a car not worthy to be on the track, obviously the Japanese team realized changes needed to be made.

At the technical direction they made some cuts excluding the designer Andre' De Cortanze and taking on the Austrian Gustav Brunner.He's probably the best man with lots of experience in designing and been used to work hard (and well) even with a low budget. Now the available resources are enormous and he could freely satisfy his whims in the future; at present he'll concentrate on the productivity of the team engineers in order to keep all energy focused (years in Minardi have been useful) to have a concrete project.

The F1 car presented on the 17th of December is finally a truly F1, a better look that goes with the competition teams; aerodynamically is far better then the prototype car been used so far. The front is slim and high with an inferior central nerve for the suspension joints; all the cockpit area is well started with side protection rather smaller and remind a lot of last year Minardi. The sides look like Ferrari's and have, just in front of the back wheels, a special flow switch which include some air opening. The back part, with a high exhaust-pipe, is rather narrow in the gear section and even the bonnet looks well designed.
Brunner, with Rene' Hillrot's help did want to create a conventional F1 car without being too fancy in order to have a steady platform to grow, nevertheless will develop immediately at the beginning of the tests and naturally many parts will need re-touching accordingly to the first result on the circuit, the fins shown at the presentation, for instance , were provisional. The mechanical side is very traditional with aluminium gearbox to guarantee reliability and suspensions very similar to the Minardi 2001, while the engine could be the strongest team point as the result they achieved so far with the test were good (we're taking over 20.000 Km).

Technical schedule