Toyota F1

[Acilec]

Hey, did anyone watch the F1 race last weekend? Toyota made their debut and scored a point in their first race. Quite an achievement! Mika Salo was the driver who scored. Go Toyota!! Now make us some F1 parts for our cars!!

[Bling]

They only scored a point b/c everyone else wrecked their car.

[oldster]

I didn't see it all but did catch a section where the announcers were giving kudos to Toyota for finishing the race while Honda did not. I surmised from the comments that the Hondas did not go out as a result of wrecks, could be wrong.

[Bobbeh]

Originally posted by Bling
They only scored a point b/c everyone else wrecked their car.

Finishing the race is half the way to getting anywhere! Plus Salo almost didnt make it around that first corner, he had to pit and repair which set him a lap behind everyone. Who knows he may have got a lot more points like Jaguar if he didnt have to pit.

I think they are still well off the pace, but its a great start imho.

[Angelo]

Salo actually did very very well. I'm glad Toyota got a point, it means a lot for them. More will come, you'll see.

Angelo

[Bobbeh]

Also.. didnt they have the fastest top speed around that course? I think they had in qualifying, which means they have a powerful + reliable (hopefully) engine behind them.

[pj808]

they were sixth during practice friday..of course it rained saturday qualifying which put them behind. presently, toyota is producing as much, if not more, hp as bmw. i think the team will do better than their goals for the year. the honda machines that were not involved in the first lap chaos did develop problems and were later retired. the best part of the race was the battle betwixt schummacher and montoya.
pj

[t2000gts]

there was a crazy accident in the first lap, Ralf Schumacher in a Williams-BMW hit Rubens Barichello in a Ferrari from behind, and got catapulted into the air and flew off the track and barichello spun out. nearly half the grid was wiped out before the first turn, including a toyota.

the remaining toyota, driven by Mika Salo from finland, got a little damage and got a chance to run into the pits while the safety car was still out, but then had to start from the back of the grid along with fellow finn, Kimi Raikonnen in the McLaren-Mercedes.

in the next portion of the race, a bunch of cars were forced to retire early due to technical problems, including all the remaining hondas, and david coulthard in the other McLaren-Mercedes.

there was a great fight at the front of the field between Juan Pablo Montoya in the remaining Williams-BMW and Michael Schumacher in the other Ferrari, until Schumacher eventually got the best of Montoya who couldn't do much as Schumi just drove off and won the race handily, this while in last year's car (F2001) because the new car has not been fully tested yet.

Salo was now in 7th place ahead of Pedro De La Rosa in a Jaguar-Cosworth. the other Jaguar driven by Eddie Irvine was in 4th place behind Schumacher, Montoya, and Raikonnen. inbetween Irvine and Salo were the two Minardis, driven by rookie Australian (crowd favorite) Mark Webber, and Malaysian Alex Yoong.

Keep in mind Salo and the other toyota driven by McNish qualified ahead of both jaguars and minardis, so had Salo not had to pit right after the accident, he could very well have finished 4th!

Instead, Salo got 6th from Yoong, and then made a furious charge for 5th place in the closing laps where he was making up as many as 4 seconds a lap on Mark Webber. He finally caught him on the last lap and was all over him, but had a harmless spin as he tried to alter his line going into a turn trying to overtake Webber. he promptly regained control and peeled back onto the track and finished in 6th earning Panasonic-Toyota Racing their first ever championship point in Formula 1, in their first ever race, in their brand new engine/chassis constructed from scratch!

Despite this, the Toyota TF102's engine, the RVX-02, is supposed to be making some really nice horsepower. Salo set trap speed record on the straight in sector two the previous day in qualifying (~193mph).

Toyota is also the only other team besides Ferrari that is making both their chassis and their engine. The only other japanese manufacturer in F1, Honda, supplies engines for Jordan and BAR which saw two cars get knocked out in the accident, and the the remaining two in technical problems (including Takuma Sato, new japanese driver in F1 driving a Jordan-Honda) soon after.

Next race is Grand Prix of Malaysia on the weekend of the 17th.

[The Wok]

I love this time of year (opening weekends of F1 and CART). GP of Monterrey this Sunday!

[Acilec]

I think Mika deserved it. They appear to have a good car. Yeah, he probably got a point because of the crash that eliminated everyone but he still charged and was able to compete. That's racing and I think Toyota did a good job. But as far as drivers go, Montoya is the man!! I thoroughly enjoyed the fight between him and Schumacher. He lost only because of the Michelins tyres as they don't warm up as quick as the Bridgestones that Ferrari had. Sad thing is that Michael was using his 2001 car!! It's a pleasure watching him drive that car though. Kudos for Kimi for taking third. That kid's got it alright. Poor DC though. And yes, all Honda engined cars that survived the crash all ha mechanical problems. However, Honda only provides the engines and does not tune them!

Man, I love F1!!! Bring on Malaysia where the Michelin tyres will love that heat!

Fin

[B-GTS]

Originally posted by The Wok
I love this time of year (opening weekends of F1 and CART). GP of Monterrey this Sunday!
Ya, it's great! and don't forget the World Rally in Corsica starts tonight on thru Saturday. Too bad Toyota didn't keep their rally cars in. I suppose it must be a wee bit expensive to run both F1 and Rally!

[Acilec]

Yep, WRC tonight at 11 on speedvision! I love WRC. My money is on Gronholm first, Burns Second. Colin McRea needs to step up his game a bit.

[Acilec]

Remember, the Celica won two world championships back in the days!

[t2000gts]

man, the celica sure has a crazy lineage. it used to be RWD once, no? then it used to be a supra...then it had all wheel drive and a turbo, now it's a lightweight FWD coupe with a VVTL-i engine...i wonder what's next. :D

[Acilec]

A 350 horspower supercharged RWD with traction control and an in-line 6? :)

Fin