SecPole14

None of you watch F1 except for Richie, and he alreadys knows this, but I'm just gonna post it anyway.

^^^^Just kidding. I know there are some closet F1 fan out there. Come out. It's ok.



And no, it's not THAT Schumacher but, rather, his little bro Ralf.

http://www.toyota-f1.com/public/2004...e/press01.html

While I'm excited about Ralf coming on board, it's just another step of what I perceive to be Toyota going down the wrong path. They need to build the team and car around a driver or drivers. Ferrari did just that, and look where they are.

Toyota's not gonna get anywhere switching drivers every 2 years. Ralf signed for 3, hopefully he will produce some results. His experience in F1 is encouraging, and gives me some hope. Poor Da Matta was expected to really perform, but he has not been able to deliver.

I think it's Toyota Japan's fault, they're blaming drivers, not the car. The current F1 car is a whole lot of engine with a truck-derived chassis that handles like crap and appears to be unmanagable from an engineering standpoint.

Toyota is debuting an updated (redesigned?) version of the car in the Hokemheim F1 race, so maybe things will start to look up. I hope they keep Panis around.

Looking to next season, I'm crossing my fingers that the combination of a new car and new driver will get the team better results. Maybe the updated car will help this season as well, we'll just have to wait and see. But we now know that either Da Matta or Panis (or both) are history.

The next F1 race is this weekend at Silverstone in beautiful England. The race will be broadcast live in the US on Sunday morning at 7:30am EST.

Good luck, team!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

VSsc400

iTrader: (1)

this is a big step... good luck team!

Faraaz23

thats awesome! Yea, toyota has the most powerful engine, if only they'd have the chassis to back it. The real question is... whats gonna happen to Williams BMW? We're getting Ralf, and I heard that McLaren is scooping up Montoya (yea benz!)... that leaves them with a whole lot of nothing. This next season should be interesting. How well do you think the F1 program has to do before the boys back in Japan will let us have our toy (the Lexus supercar)??? I certainly don't see us or anyone completely dethrowning Ferrari in the next couple years....

SecPole14

JPM (Montoya) is a huge *****. He s whiney little baby, and I really can't stand him. If I saw him on the street, I would punch him in his stupid mouth.

This is what the little b____ had to say about his teammate's (that would be Ralf) big shunt at Indy:

"No I haven't called him. I don't have his number. I have no plans to find out his number. I'll probably get someone to send him a message saying that I hope he gets well. What am I going to say if I call him, Did it hurt?

What am I going to say? It's a shame that the car is quick and I'm going to win races and you are not? I do feel sorry for him and do enjoy racing against him, but thats about it."

Granted that F1 is every man for himself, but JPM has probably got to be the worst driver (personality-wise) on the grid by a LONG shot. He thinks he's so damn good, and he clearly isn't. He's got a real bad attitude and also happens to be ridiculously cocky. And that's the worst combination possible. I hope that tool doesn't win another race. Ever.

siniquezu

Am I the only one who thought there was gonna be a Batman Forever toyota when I read the title?

Richie

Whoohoooo F1 RULEZZZZZZZ, LOL!!

I am with you on that they need to build the car around a driver and the NEED a new chassis.
The engine is powerfull enough, they just can't use it.

LB Lex

I agree, Toyota has to build their car around a good driver, just as Ferrari. Ralph seems like a mid-pack driver who most likely will never win a championship. And like you said, their current chasis is junk except for the engine. I watched qualifying this morning and the commentators stated that Toyota can outspend any F1 team 2-1. They made some calculations and Ferrari spent over $100,000 per mile to win the championship, that is some serious cash. Since Toyota have the cash, they need to invest it wisely and get some consistency in their team.

Anyways, it's good to see McLaren back in form with the new MP4/19B. Maybe we'll see Kimi win a race for the first time this season, he has been fast all weekend at Silverstone.

Overclocker

Hm, I think it's just you.

I'm glad to hear they're not getting any worse drivers. Now wend do we get a chassis that the drivers can use?

no2faber

hi,
i just started watching F1, and it's actually pretty interesting. i'm realizing it's more than just a few cars doing 50+ laps. there are so many factors--pit-stop strat, driver personality, the course, car performance. i saw the US race, and boy was there drama.
anyway, on the topic, as a F1 newb, i think it'd be great for toyota to get Ralf. hats off to michael for winning just about everything this yr, but i'd really like to see the competition catch up. and of course, being a lexus/toyota owner, i'd really like to see toyota at least get on the platform a bit more.
btw, pre-qualifying at england was really weird. i'm still trying to understand why they purposely tried to slow down. the commentator said they just wanted to finish the lap w/ out crashing or something but i didn't really get it.

LB Lex

There were reports that rain would come down during the 2nd qualifying, so the drivers wanted to avoid qualifying in the rain by running slow in the 1st qualifying. In the first qualifying, if you have the fastest time you go last in the 2nd qualifying (which is usually good because being last means that the track has a lot of rubber on it so you can get a better time). If you have a slow time in the 1st qualifying you go first in the 2nd qualifying (going first is generally bad because the track is dusty and doesn't have as much rubber on it). Since the teams were expecting rain, they wanted to run first in the 2nd qualifying to avoid a wet track, so to do this they had to have a slow lap time in the 1st qualifying, hence the slow laps and intentional spins by M. Schumacher and R. Barricello.

Hopefully it will be a great race tomorrow, only a few more hours to go!

Richie

He won!!

Did you guys see that one of the toyota's dropped out because the fire thingy went off?!

LB Lex

That was pretty lame for the fire extinguisher to go off in the middle of a race.

M. Schumacher is completely dominating the sport, 10 wins out of 11, wow! Again, it's good to see McLaren back in form, it was like night and day between the MP4/19 and the B version. Hopefully Toyota's B version will be a big step-up too.

Richie

Damn, what a dumbass I am, Kimi didn't win, he came in 2nd.
Must be the all the booze.

SecPole14

Toyota sucks hardcore. Thank God they have a new chassis coming. They really don't have a prayer in the world with the truck they're currently using. Things HAVE to start looking up for them. With their budget, size, and talent, they have no excuse not to be competitive. It's very irritating for the fans. When they started nearly 3 years ago, I thought for sure they would be in contention for a spot in the Constructors' Championship by now.

It amazing that a company like Toyota, with such a well-managed production car business, has such a poorly-managed and exceptionally under-performing world-stage race team.

Nice to see McLaren back in business.

And what about that Trulli crash??? Thank God he walked away...

Here's what Panis said:

"I did the best I could but ... it really was a typically bad end to a sorry weekend."

That's pretty much the life story of Toyota's racing program, and it makes me very sad. It's tough to be a TF1 fan...