Toyota back to testing

Fresh from the weekend's pre-season event at the Toyota manufacturing facility at Valenciennes in France, Panasonic Toyota Racing's race drivers Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli returned to track action today.

Jarno had a productive day of work around the Jerez circuit in Southern Spain as he continued to put the new TF106 through its paces. Ralf was less fortunate, missing out on most of the afternoon's running for an engine change. Both Ralf and Jarno are scheduled to spend a total of three days at the Spanish circuit collecting more data for setting up the TF106 with its Bridgestone tyres.

Jarno Trulli returned from the pre-season event to enjoy a successful test of Bridgestone tyres.
Jarno Trulli - Chassis TF106/02
Best lap time: 1m19.037s
Total laps: 68
Total distance: 300.8km
Jarno Trulli "This has been an enjoyable day of running here at Jerez. I spent the morning looking at different set-ups and we got through some useful work. Then in the afternoon we switched to a Bridgestone tyre test. We are still early in our relationship but with every day of running we make progress and today was no exception. The car was reliable and we completed our programme. It will be a steep learning curve over the next few weeks as we head towards the new season but we are in good shape."

Ralf Schumacher missed much of his scheduled running after lunch because of an engine problem.
Ralf Schumacher - Chassis TF106/01
Best lap time: 1m21.279s
Total laps: 24
Total distance: 106.2km
Ralf Schumacher "We have a packed programme of development work planned for the run-up to the new season as we bid to make improvements to our package. Today we were due to work on set-up and suspension but we ended up missing most of the day's running. First we had to wait for the circuit to dry out this morning, then we had an engine problem after lunch. The unit had already been in use at previous tests and had completed a lot of mileage. That is what testing is for and that is why we can benefit from having had the new V8 engine out so early. We will continue our work over the next two days."

Toyota had ups and downs during today's first day of running at Jerez but made good progress.
Gerd Pfeiffer, Test Team Manager "Today was a productive first day of testing here at Jerez for Jarno. He spent the morning doing set-up work before a tyre test in the afternoon and we made some useful progress. Ralf completed a weight distribution test in the morning but his engine change meant that he missed out when the track was at its best in the afternoon. Still, we should have plenty of opportunity to make up for the lost time over the next two days when both Jarno and Ralf are scheduled to continue running."