Gearbox problems for Glock and Trulli

Panasonic Toyota Racing was back in action for day two of its double-header Bahrain test today with race drivers Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock taking the wheel of the TF108. A warm and sunny morning made for perfect testing conditions and both drivers were kept busy working on programmes of mechanical set-up changes.

Some development items were also evaluated and other systems checks were carried out, however both cars suffered gearbox issues in the afternoon, costing some time as repairs were carried out. Jarno will continue his programme on day three tomorrow, alongside third driver Kamui Kobayashi.

Timo Glock - Chassis TF108-02
Best Lap Time: 1min 32.889s
Position: 3rd
Total laps: 71
“It hasn’t been the easiest day but we have done some good work. The potential in the new car is clear and we now understand more about how different set-up changes affect its performance. We are continuing to work hard to develop the car and today we have looked at mechanical set-up again, getting more useful information. Unfortunately we lost a little time in the afternoon but we still completed quite a few laps and did the work we had planned.”

Jarno Trulli- Chassis TF108-03
Best Lap Time: 1min 33.379s
Position: 4th
Total laps: 60
“It was a difficult day because we had a problem on the car so unfortunately I spent some time in the garage while this was fixed but that is part of testing. Obviously it wasn’t ideal but we have more days here where we will work to better understand the balance and behaviour of the car. At the moment we are still in the first stages of our preparation - we have updates and more performance to come.”

Pascal Vasselon, Senior General Manager Chassis: “Our focus today was again on developing the baseline set-up by trying different mechanical solutions but unfortunately we lost a bit of time on both cars due to gearbox issues. This was a shame but we have been testing various parts, including the new gearbox, and we will learn from these issues to improve our package before the season starts. We lost some time but we didn’t really lose any mileage as such because the reliability of the TF108 so far has been very good and we would have needed to control the mileage anyway. We carried out some productive work today and I feel we are improving constantly as we learn more about the TF108’s characteristics.”