Toyota to challenge the title in 2005 ?

Looking strong
By Site Staff
January 15 2003

There is a definate confidence emanating from the Toyota team at the moment on the lead up to the first race of the 2003 season. Chief designer Gustav Brunner is now on record as saying that Toyota could challenge Ferrari by 2005 - he should know, he used to work for the Italian team !

The Austrian, who is widely respected up and down the F1 grid, has been speaking exclusively to ITF-F1.com and has identified Toyota's main weakness as being in the technical areas. The team are taking the sport of F1 very seriously and have a huge budget at their disposal, but despite this Brunner believes that it will take time for Toyota to gain enough experience to reach the top level.

"At the moment, Ferrari is still bigger and clearly better in terms of performance. We are not quite there yet, not quite at their level.

"We are only just entering our second season, so we still need to grow a bit in the technical areas, but we are a good medium-sized team and we are doing a good job. I think it will take about two more years before we reach the level of the top teams.

"I don't see Ferrari being beaten in 2003. They will not have it all their way. The competition will be a bit closer than in 2002, but Ferrari in my opinion will have the edge."

The team are in Barcelona this week for three days, starting an intensive development programme in the hands of Olivier Panis. Early results from the tests are encouraging...