Monaco: Not To Be

SPARKY: Monte Carlo Report
Not to Be

Whenever we reach this stage in the calendar, you know your in for an exciting weekend. Whereas with Spain and Hungary where their circuits have become as exciting as a brick wall, Monaco offers action and excitement with the possibility of a few surprises. I’m guessing surprises weren’t the agenda for the Panasonic Toyota Racing team, who had failed to score a single point since their (surprise) podium back in Australia well over a month ago. Since then reliability, pace and speed have robbed the team of important points and set up a very unhappy end to the TF106. At Monaco, the TF106B was making its debut and without plunging into detail over the changes, the team were expecting to be a few tenths closer to leaders. In the end, it was just the same old story.

With qualifying expected to be chaotic, imagining 22 cars hugging the first 15 minutes was enough to spend the teams into panic mode, with a number of drivers screaming to the media about how dangerous it would be to have 22 cars on a race track, forgetting that they do this sort of thing during a Sunday afternoon. As much as the first two practice sessions had action and excitement, with Anthony Davidson crashing his Honda in the second session, the times would count for nothing as the street circuit is known to speed up by the lap, so anything respectable would be set in Saturdays morning session, but more importantly during the low fuel qualifying.

Toyota looked in deep trouble before qualifying, with both Ralf and Jarno struggling to get ahead of Midland F1 and at times Super Aguri. Thankfully drastic changes for qualifying allowed Jarno to qualify in the top ten with Ralf just missing the final session. With a number of drivers being hit with penalty’s for blocking or simply cheating, both Toyota’s would start strongly in the top ten, on a circuit which is difficult to overtake and where driver skill can be more important than the car itself. Toyota were making the most of not having the fastest car, indeed to quote Ralf Schumacher, “the sixth fastest car”.

It was that case of William Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’ again with the upgraded car; To be or not the be. Well, as with everything Toyota 2006, it was not to be. With the team profiting from the reliability problems of Williams and McLaren Jarno Trulli was running a fine third place, with only the top five on the lead lap after a safety car period, it looked certain that Jarno was going to bag his first points of the season, on a circuit he took poll at and won with Renault just a few years ago. But, it was the same old story, a slowing Panasonic Toyota, a silver helmet jumping out of the car and waved yellow flags. No damage, not even a hint he was pushing too hard, just bad luck. Jarno retired with 5 laps to go, dashing the dream third place the team were looking for, and more importantly, Jarno’s first points of the season. Ralf took eighth place and a single point, but even he was reflecting on an afternoon which should had been better after being held up by traffic in the early stages.

When the word reliability is spoken about, Toyota isn’t a name that comes up in the negatives, last year it was one of the most reliable teams, scoring points in every race except Australia and America. This year Toyota has only had three points finishes out of seven races, with two of them being in eighth place. This time last year, after seven races Toyota had only had two retirements, both down to driver errors. This year we’ve had five failures to finish, with only two of them driver inflicted. That’s three retirements due to issues with the car, out of all the races last year, only two were down to the car (Canada and Germany), twelve months later we’ve beaten that figure and we’re not even half way through the championship. I guess when you look at those stats its understandable Jarno retired, but then, why has the transition from 2005 to 2006 gone so badly?

The TF106B has a lot to put right, in away the TF106 has cleared its desk leaving more than just a bit of a mess, and has left Toyota now equal with Red Bull in the constructors championship. Reliability is at the top of their problems, as well as getting their car to the front of the grid. Its easy to say we need to sort out our problems, but getting to the solution takes days and months to get it to perfection. At that stage everyone has moved onto the next step, development never sleeps, so to say Toyota have a lot of work to do is an understatement, but is by far the fact here.