[bwill]

OK this being a road racing forum and F1 being the pinnacle of road racing this is not really OT. For Toyota who are absolute virgins in F1, the toughest motorsport to be competitive in came out and was 6th in Friday Practice ahead of McClaren's Kimi and DC! Mika Salo was 3rd in practice until right towards the end. That is phenomenal first effort. I know it is just practice but damn that is impressive when you think of Jaguar sucking for how many years now? Renualt sucking last year (and well behind Toyota in practice tonight) much less BAR with their big mouths. Could be a very interesting year. Toyota will not be a title challenger. No delusions. "My team" Williams BMW ok, well Juan Pablo Montoya is looking pretty good in fourth. Yeah M. Schumacher is first in practice in his 01 car. When Ferrari rolls out its clutchless car, it is going to be scary. No bell housing, engine connects to the tranny directly, engine and tranny now one piece instead of two and 110mm shorter. No clutch release bearings, etc. Damn tricky stuff.
Toyota was stupendous tonight for the first effort.
Barry H.

 

[Steve Theodore]

This is ABSOLUTELY awesome! However, it also means nothing since who knows what kind of fuel load they were running. Lets keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best tomorrow in qualifying!

 

[poorman]

i too am very impressed with toyota's performance. too bad it's just practice....and everybody sand bags for practice. tomorrow is when it's on the line...qualifying!!! expect much better performance from Mclaren, Jordan, and Sauber. If Toyota qualifies midpack or better....oooo...that would be very nice, very nice indeed!

poorman
avid F1 fan.....proud supra owner.

 

[jkbrauch]

Remember the good old days when turbocharging was allowed - 1.5 liter engine (for qualifying) with 1500 hp. Makes that 100 hp/litre benchmark sound silly.

Jeff

 

[Steve Theodore]

Absolutely! But those engines were pretty fragile due to all that stress. It wasn't that long ago when they used special rocket fuels, had specific qualifying tires, and had full slicks either. Some of the rule changes imposed by the FIA and FOCA are a bit disturbing. The cars just don't look as good now that they are narrower and on grooved tires.

Steve T.

Remember the good old days when turbocharging was allowed - 1.5 liter engine (for qualifying) with 1500 hp. Makes that 100 hp/litre benchmark sound silly.

Jeff

 

[BLK-SP64]

Steve, we've gotten to a point in F1 that Jet aircraft reached several years ago----Where human physical limits are the limits to racecar development. I won't be surprised to see drivers wearing G-suits in the future.

 

[bwill]

Yeah Steve,
While Friday practice is just that practice ( varying fuel loads, trim, tires, etc.), they generally try and get the car in qualifying trim late in the session although the weather made things iffy. Yeah qualifying today (tonight on TV) will see things tighten up. However, I believe it is very signficant that Toyota was not a backmarker, the engine didn't throw up its fluids, or shit didn't fall off. I think their understated confidence is right on. Let's hope for good things. My prediction for 2003 is Nick Heidfeld driving for Toyota. I will be watching qualifying on the boob tube tonight!

 

[HikariSpeed]

Salo finishes 6th in the race!! Although there was a huge pile up at the beginning leaving 13 cars running. The do have the fastest trap speeds which is a good sign that the engine is strong.

 

[Steve Theodore]

What an awesome accomplishment!

Incredible! It's so hard to earn your first points in F1...this is an incredible accomplishment, regardless of whether 8 cars finished or 24. That Toyota was able to build a car that held together for a full race distance and finished in the points on their very first attempt is mind blowing! I am a very proud Toyota owner right now!

 

[bwill]

Yes, we should all be very proud of Toyota's accomplishment in F1. People were critical of Toyota in that their devlopment car was so slow (test chassis). Toyota used it to test parts and reliability and ignored all that. They then put out the new chassis, the real one. No one knew what it would do. Well they know now. What a motor in that beast. Excellent start for 02. Hey they have travel money for 03 as a result of points. While the field was whittled down, they still earned their points. Was very proud of JPM with BMW Williams even though his tires went off. He has shown that he can pass Schuey once again. Did I detect M. Schuey actually having a little respect for JPM in the press conference. Hmmm. Michelin needs to up the game on the tires.
Barry H.

 

[Grant]

Yes, we should all be very proud of Toyota's accomplishment in F1. People were critical of Toyota in that their devlopment car was so slow (test chassis). Toyota used it to test parts and reliability and ignored all that. They then put out the new chassis, the real one. No one knew what it would do. Well they know now. What a motor in that beast. Excellent start for 02. Hey they have travel money for 03 as a result of points. While the field was whittled down, they still earned their points. Was very proud of JPM with BMW Williams even though his tires went off. He has shown that he can pass Schuey once again. Did I detect M. Schuey actually having a little respect for JPM in the press conference. Hmmm. Michelin needs to up the game on the tires.
Barry H.

But did you hear what JPM said about his battle with Schuey? Something like "I could only hold him back for so long... He passed me like I was parked." I think Schuey was being polite.

 

[bwill]

Yeah but if you watched M. Schuey in 01 he wouldn't even acknowledge JPM. Ralph (the whiny bitch) was even worse. M. Schuey had the race in the bag even with the 01 chassis. JPM said Schuey went around him like he was parked on the repass. The Williams/Michelin combo could not beat the Ferrari/Bridgestone combo.JPMs tires were on at first and then when the Bridgestones came up to temp, they blew away the michelins. Michelin still has the problem needing to be scrubbed for 10 laps or so before coming on. Bridgestones don't. Still JPM shows right out of the box he knows how to put a pass on Schuey and can. Hope the Williams package gets faster but then Ferrari is about to run that 02 clutchless car which is probably going to kick everybody's ass as hard as the year end 01 chassis did at Suzuka. I wouldn't be against Shcuey for the 02 driver's championship. Still pulling for JPM though.
Barry H.

 

[nils]

Barry,
I didnt know we had so much in common. I too am a big fan JPM and I was extremely happy to see Salo get 6th =)) Extremely well for a first time!!!

I like competition, so it isnt even fun watching Ferrari... they are too damn fast, but hey that is cool I guess.. it would just be so much more fun if someone could seriously challenge them.

lets hope =)

take care,
nils

 

[SupraGator]

Its going to be a fun season. I hope JP can give Schumi a run but in the end I want Ferrari winning. I hope Montoya replaces Barrichello next season.

 

[Monroe]

I have to agree with you. I am pumped about Toyota in F1. And yesterday made me even more excited. I am just hoping that they continue to improve. Not like Honda who appears to have stop trying. It will be hard for me to root against Schumi but I am gonna love it. It was strange looking at the post race interviews yesterday, they showed "Kiwi" the in the Mclaren suit and I am just so use to seeing Hakinen there. He and Michael had gotten to be very close friends. Schumi is no fool though. He knows how popular JPM is and he does not want to be to harsh to him. SO he will start to be more complimentary of him.

BTW- In my opinion Speedchannel did a good job with the coverage, and we even get a weekely show afterwards. SO they have not gone all bad.

 

[bwill]

Yeah Nils,
Glad to see there are other JPM fans on the forum. I saw your post Saturday night somewhere else where you were pumped on the JPM pass. I sounded like a football fan yeling when it happened. Not sure how much the asymetrical "symetrical" groove tread issue affected the race. Supposedly the now deemed illegal tire alleviates the scrub time the Michelins needed. Politics. When you have Ferrari (supposedly) pumping about 350million into the team budget, hey they want it bad. They waited long enough.When Schuey (if) leaves JPM may move to Ferrari. JPM has such aggression and control. damn. Still will be some good fights in 02 especially when the track temps warm up. Hope Toyota keeps the development going well. I predict Heidfeld to Toyota in 03 since he got dissed by McClaren.
Barry H.

 

[choritsu-shi]

FYI
Hey guys ...you may find this hard to believe but Toyotas efforts aren't as good as you would like them to be. First with Honda dropping out makes Toyota's competition less fierce. Also the competitive level that Toyota is currently displaying, can be acredited to Honda's former top five Formula1 Engineers who headed Honda's 5 time World Championship wins. Whatever persuaded the engineers to go to Toyota was considered a rather low and un-Japanese-like deal which has created a lot of bad energy between the 2 companies. Toyota (and everyone else) wanted to beat Honda but by dropping out Toyota will not be given the opportunity. Toyota made a public event out of this whole ordeal which was basically a slap in the face to Honda, which pissed them off! In Honda's eyes they are the champions until they can be beaten...

 

[SupraGator]

FYI
Hey guys ...you may find this hard to believe but Toyotas efforts aren't as good as you would like them to be. First with Honda dropping out makes Toyota's competition less fierce. Also the competitive level that Toyota is currently displaying, can be acredited to Honda's former top five Formula1 Engineers who headed Honda's 5 time World Championship wins. Whatever persuaded the engineers to go to Toyota was considered a rather low and un-Japanese-like deal which has created a lot of bad energy between the 2 companies. Toyota (and everyone else) wanted to beat Honda but by dropping out Toyota will not be given the opportunity. Toyota made a public event out of this whole ordeal which was basically a slap in the face to Honda, which pissed them off! In Honda's eyes they are the champions until they can be beaten...

I'm sure Toyota will start beating Honda head to head soon. Honda still hasn't been able to adapt to F1 today. Even Mugen was kicking Honda butt in 99 with Jordan. Honda is in over there heads focusing on two teams instead of just one and both are hurting. The days of Honda being a powerful house like in the late 80's, 90's with McLaren are over unless they focus on one team and they aren't even taking up the same project as Toyota since Toyota is building the entire car themselves.

 

[Monroe]

Did I miss something? When is the last time that Honda had an F1 champ? And while Honda may have considered it a slap in the face for Toyota to recruit their engineers, why did they not think it to be the same when they took the engineers from Ferrari and Mercedes to join their team? Lets face it, neither team is even close to competing with Ferrari, Mercedes, or BMW at this point. But the fact that Toyota is doing everything in house, has already scored a point, and secured travel money for next year is something to be a little excited about.

 

[SupraGator]

When is the last time that Honda had an F1 champ?

I believe the last time was in 91 w/ Senna in a McLaren.