Spain: Making progress, but patience is required

By Nick Sparkes
May 11 2006

Back to back Grand Prix weekends are never easy for drivers, mechanics and team personnel, as the majority do not have time to return to friends or loved ones during the 3-day break between weekends. The same could be said for Toyota’s scoreboard, which has also had an uneasy time in recent races.

Since Ralf Schumacher’s podium in Australia, the team have failed to score a single point, which hasn’t been helped by reliability issues, and two ninth place finishes. Ralf Schumacher who is Toyota’s only point scorer as they head into Spain, has asked fans and the media to give themselves time before expecting a major success. “We are certainly on the right track, a little patience is needed but when the time comes, we will pick up some points and defend our last year's championship position." Hopefully those points will come at Barcelona, which Ralf knows very well from the many Grand Prix’s and test sessions. "We have been doing quite well during testing in Barcelona. We are in the upper middle field, better in the race than in qualifying – at least in my case – and so I'm quite happy about that. We showed that we could have a strong race performance at the Nürburgring, it was just unfortunate for the whole team that we had an engine failure. I am confident however that after analyzing the data we will find the right solution for the coming races.” But like everything, a test session never caters for a race weekend, which means the team will probably still have to run a number of laps before qualifying. “Although I have tested there many times, the Circuit de Catalunya is always a bit tricky due to the wind, which makes it hard to find the right aerodynamic set-up. Tyre choice is also another difficult matter, but I am sure we will be able to fall back on our testing data here from the last tests.”

This is yet another track which has given Jarno Trulli success in the past, including a podium last year. Unlike last year, Jarno is yet to finish in the top eight, and looking at his past achievements, his time should come this weekend. “I have had some good races here including the two podiums I have achieved the last two years and I am definitely looking to repeat this again this year." Like Ralf, Jarno knows the track well from the 6,000 cumulated kilometers the team has run at the Barcelona circuit this year, giving Jarno a lot to think about before he enters turn one. "The Circuit de Catalunya is a track I know very well, just like most of the other drivers in the field. Because the track is quite demanding with four high-speed corners and few chances for overtaking, we will have to concentrate on having good aerodynamic performance. There is a long main straight but it is a fast corner coming onto it and it is quite difficult to stay close to the car in front. The overtaking situation is a little bit better since they have changed the layout of Turn 10. It all means that a lot of the lap is spent in corners and so the car's balance has to be absolutely right.” But, as the team found out last weekend, you can never trust your package until the chequared flag and this weekend will test their reliability to the full. “Reliability and tyre wear are also two factors that are always important, especially because all the teams that go there know their set-ups already.”