Toyota's Jerez test round-up a productive week for the Japanese team

Tokyo December 13, 2003; Toyota had an extensive programme for the last week of testing before Christmas. Unfortunately, the weather was not always what the team had hoped for and Panis and Da Matta were not able to go through the entire programme.

However, Panis managed to do nearly 150 laps on the Jerez circuit while his teammate Cristiano da Matta lapped the Spanish track more than 100 times during the three days.

Ricardo Zonta replaced Oliver and Cristiano on Friday and added more than 100 laps to the total, bringing more useful information to the team, this time on an artificially wet track.

Da Matta was happy to be back behind the wheel. "We had a difficult first two days and we did not get much running done, however the final day was better and more productive, although we did not manage to complete our entire testing programme. We had some small and not too serious problems, but this is what testing is all about. I only drove the new TF103B car on a heavily wet track on Tuesday and on a damp track for most of Wednesday. I actually only had a dozen or so laps in fully dry track conditions, which is not really enough to say a lot about it but I had a good impression nevertheless. We got some constructive work done, especially regarding the control systems and tuning and we completed our tyre test. All in all, it was good to drive the car again after quite a long break," explained the Brazilian.

His teammate Olivier Panis was also delighted to be driving an F1 car after a long break. "This week's test at Jerez was my first test session since the Japanese Grand Prix and I was really happy to get back to work, especially because I feel in very good physical shape after a very comprehensive training programme during my holiday in Brittany. It has been a great pleasure to be back with the team again. My overall programme for the week was split into two with the first two days concentrating on tyre testing with the standard TF103 car. On Thursday, I switched to the interim TF103B car. We had very bad weather Tuesday and a few typical testing problems on the other days but we drew some positive results from work on the old car and have seen encouraging signs with the new car. An improvement in performance from a grip point of view will be an essential aspect to work on and I look forward to testing with the entire new TF104 chassis in mid-January to start the new season," said Olivier Panis.

An artificially wet track on Friday

Even if it was sunny on Friday, Ricardo Zonta drove on a wet Jerez circuit on Friday. "Ironically after a week of quite wet conditions, our programme for today revolved purely around an extensive wet weather Michelin tyre test on an artificially-wet track. It was a very promising day and with good reliability, we were able to achieve over one hundred laps. This was the final day of testing in 2003, so we are all going to enjoy a little break over Christmas and New Year before the TF104 car is launched in the middle of January and 2004 preparation really get underway." mentioned Ricardo Zonta.