da Matta looking foward to the Monaco challenge

Cristiano da Matta
By Huw Alban (20/05/03)
May 20 2003

In his two weekly summary of events on the official Toyota web site, Cristiano da Matta has been describing his Austrian weekend with specific attention to the event surrounding the aborted start procedures. That's behind him now as he looks forward to Monte Carlo.

Toyota were all at sea at Austria, struggling with car setup. It all started to come together on Saturday during the final qualifying session, and during the race both drivers looked steady in their TF103s.

"As for the TF103, it handled okay during the race," Cristiano explains. "It had more grip than at any other time in the weekend, making it more predictable to drive. That progress was highlighted by my fastest race lap, which was 0.4 seconds faster than I managed during Saturday afternoon qualifying. Given all the problems I had, I was pleased to finish 10th and to score my fifth finish in six races.

"From Austria, the Panasonic Toyota Racing team moves to Paul Ricard for a big pre-Monaco test. I am driving for only one day, which gives me a chance to relax ahead of the race, which I am really excited about. I have never raced at Monaco, but the other drivers tell me that it is just fantastic to drive around. There are lots of challenging corners and I hope that my street track experience in ChampCar will help me get to grips with it quickly.

"As to how we will get on in Monaco, I have no idea. I just hope the car performs more like it did in Spain, rather than how it was in Austria !"

'nuff said ?