Toyota run at Barcelona

The Old New Boy
By Phil Giles
November 26 2002

After a seven week break, Toyota Panasonic again took to the track with the last test of 2003 at the Circuit de Catalunya in Spain. Both new boys, Olivier Panis and Cristiano da Matta were in attendance and making their debut for the team.

Olivier and Cristiano both completed 42 laps of the circuit. Olivier was in charge of the intermediate TF102B and Cristiano the TF102 race car.

Olivier's best time was 1m 19.854seconds, Cristiano's best lap was 1m.21.925.  Just over 2 seconds slower than Olivier.   Not a bad debut.  The revisions on the 02B seem to be working well.

Olivier commented: "For this first day I concentrated on just learning the car and working with the team. Throughout the day we worked on improving my seat fitting and generally setting the car up to suit me. Overall it was a good day, constructive and positive. I tried to push a bit more towards the end of the session and I have a good initial feeling for the car. We will now sit down to discuss ways to improve the car and to set tomorrow's programme. "

Cristiano: "We had a few little problems throughout the day, and I only managed to complete half the number of laps we had planned. However, this was my first real contact with the car, the team and this track. The afternoon was spent mainly doing in-and out laps but as the session progressed I was feeling more at home with the car. After the last CART race, testing the TF102 felt a bit different but it is only a matter of time before I settle in fully. "

The boys will both take to the Circuit de Catalunya again tomorrow for the second day of this week's test.