F1: Toyota target 'significant improvement'

[Rory Phoulorie]

Saturday 16th February 2008

Pascal Vasselon has played down Toyota's chances of a maiden win this season despite believing that the TF108 is an improvement on last year's challenger.

Last season the Japanese outfit struggled to achieve any results worth mentioning, bagging just 13 points during the 17-race calendar. It was a huge disappointment for the team that reportedly has the biggest budget in F1.

This year, though, Toyota are hoping that the introduction of the TF108 will help the team begin to realise their potential. And already Vasselon reckons there are signs of improvement.

"We are happy with the progress we have made with the TF108," the team's senior manager chassis said.

"It has been very obvious from the first test that the TF108 is a different animal compared to the TF107, with much better stability and an all-around much better basis to work on.

"Our drivers feel a lot more confident in the car and they are able to push more. We have found that set-up work is much more straightforward and it is much easier to make progress in that area."

However, the progress won't necessarily translate into a shot at this year's World titles or even victories. Keeping expectations realistic, Vasselon says the best Toyota can hope for it to be 'best of the rest' this season.

"We should aim to achieve what BMW achieved in 2007, which was to be the best of the rest. It would not be realistic to talk of fighting for the title this year but we want significant improvement," he said.


Planet-F1

[Rory Phoulorie]

Trulli and Glock seem to not be sharing the opinion of Vasselon concerning the car's performance.

Toyota hoping to be the "best of the rest" after McLaren and Ferrari is a big statement concerning the position where they were last year.

Are the drivers hiding the real potential of the TF108?